Right at Home

seventy years on, sister rosaria shina
affirms her spiritual life as a perfect fit

Seventy years in religious life and a few trips around the world have landed Sister Rosaria Shina exactly where she’s supposed to be, content and ever deepening her relationship with God.

She knows she’s in the right place because it was the only place she ever wanted to be. Born Josephine Shina, she is among the several Sisters in our community who followed their siblings into religious life. She is the third Shina daughter to enter a religious community and the second to become a School Sister of St. Francis.

“From childhood on, there was no question in my mind that I was called to be a Sister,” Sister Rosaria said in a 1999 profile in the bulletin of St. Matthias Catholic Community in Somerset, N.J. “I’ve never looked back.”

When she entered our community in 1950, she followed her blood sister, Sister Amata Shina, by only three years. She had yet another sibling — Sophie, more than 15 years her senior — who was a Sacred Heart sister. Visits with Sophie were limited to only a few a year, but the younger Shina sisters still grew up around religious life. It just seemed natural to follow the same path.

When young Josephine Shina came from Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Northampton, Pa., to Mount Assisi Academy in Pittsburgh in 1947, she was one of 13 aspirants who slept in one big room and shared both the excitement and trepidation over being away from home and entering religious life.

“We were inspired. We had a goal,” Sister recalls. “I don’t think we fully understood what we were getting ourselves into. But that came later.”

She was just out of high school herself in 1951 when she made her first vows, received the name Sister Rosaria, and was missioned to teach first grade at St. Gabriel School in Pittsburgh. “I was totally unprepared, but I couldn’t wait!” she says.

Before making final vows in 1956, she was a seasoned first grade teacher, serving in the Pennsylvania towns of Ellsworth and Perryopolis in the 1950s, and in Boonton and Jersey City, N.J. in the 1960s.

“We learned by doing, and we had wonderful support in the example of the older sisters, particularly Sisters Louise Vrana and Maristella Kuss,” Sister says. “They taught me how to set up a classroom. And God was with us.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree in education from Mount Mercy College (now Carlow University) in 1967, Sister Rosaria quickly adjusted to teaching the secondary grades. In 1968, she began the first of two tenures at St. Francis Academy in Bethlehem, Pa., where history was her specialty as a teacher and in earning a master’s degree in education from Seton Hall University in 1971.

In 1987, Sister fell in love with another way to serve — retreat work. For 11 years, she was part of the retreat team at St. Francis Center for Renewal, interacting with a whole new audience.

“Retreat work was an opportunity to share faith and my own life experiences with other people, to listen, respond and help them along in their sufferings,” Sister says of the work she found most rewarding. “The people who came there came to find peace.”

The main pillar of our community charism — intimate union with God in the midst of apostolic service — has been a guiding undercurrent for Sister Rosaria. She was able to rediscover it through formation work, which included teaching eager and faith-filled younger Sisters in India about the charism.

“You instill it in them and re-instill in yourself,” she says. “We get busy about many things and we forget.”

Another opportunity to learn, grow and guide came when she was elected provincial minister of the Bethlehem Province in 1998, work that presented some of her most memorable challenges. Leading the province meant navigating the needs and aspirations of each individual Sister and making difficult decisions at times.

“I don’t think people recognize easily that I am as compassionate as I am. Maybe I hide it well,” she says. “I always tried to be compassionate, even when I had to say ‘no.’”

Four years as a general councilor and two terms as provincial minister took her around the world to visit our other provinces and missions, experiences Sister Rosaria will always hold dear. She was particularly inspired by the faith of our Sisters serving in Chile, who she believes understand more about our heritage and charism than any others in the world.

“God has been very good to me in this life,” she says. “I’ve been in every country and mission home where our Sisters are. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit so many places, and that’s a blessing,” Sister says. “I’ve seen things, I understand more. I’ve met people I would not otherwise have had an opportunity to encounter.”

Just beyond her 87th birthday, Sister Rosaria remains active with our lay associate program and by keeping tabs on Sister Amata, who lives just a floor below her at Monocacy Manor in Bethlehem. She also never stops learning. “I read,” she says. “And after that, I read some more.”

When she looks back across seven decades in service to God, she can still relate to her fresh-faced teenage self. “I’d tell her not to be concerned about what people say, and don’t take everything so seriously,” she says. “When others were having fun, I was worried they were going to get caught.”

Her education in life and the Lord continues today, deepening her relationship with God daily through the conversations she has with Him. It’s all part of becoming who she wants to be here, in the place she’s supposed to be.

“I’m not there yet,” she says with a smile. “I’m still growing.”