by John Sorce
john.sorce@theleaven.org
TOPEKA — For Sister Mary Delight of the Holy Trinity, SSVM, the profession of her final vows were a homecoming of sorts.
Born Anna Hall, the Topeka native professed her final vows on Oct. 1 at her home parish of Mater Dei.
She is a member of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, which was founded in Argentina and sends missionaries across the world. This allows her to use her Spanish on a daily basis.
She grew up a member of Mater Dei and a student at the school, though it was still known as Holy Name at the time.
She graduated from Hayden High School in Topeka before studying Spanish and psychology at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, where she graduated in 2012. She then became a Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) missionary.
By age 17, she had already begun thinking about serving. And while she wasn’t sure what that was going to look like, there was a moment that stood out as God’s way of calling her.
“I was invited to a final profession of a Sister in Concordia, Kansas, with the Sisters of St. Joseph,” Sister Trinity said. “There was a moment where she was giving thanks to everyone for their presence there, and God has his ways of choosing a specific time to put new inspirations in our minds.
“That was the moment where I had the thought of, ‘What if that were me up there in her place?’ And it has always been in the back of my mind ever since.”
Sister Trinity completed her time with FOCUS in May 2014 and entered the convent a month later.
Homecoming
When it came time to take her final vows, it was a joyful moment for Sister Trinity.
“It was a moment that I have been waiting for,” she said. “It was full of anticipation and just confirmation that this is what God had been calling me to for so long and it was my opportunity to make that response.
“To be able to make it at my home parish was a very special experience and something that doesn’t always happen. But by God’s grace, I was able to be there surrounded with people from all stages of my life.
“It was a very joyful day.”
The Mass was celebrated by Father Andrew White of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, which is the male branch of Sister Trinity’s community.
Father Matthew Nagle, pastor of Mater Dei, called it a blessing to be a part of her experience even though he has only been at the church for a few months.
“It’s an inspiration to young women in the parish to see someone who went to school in the same building and attended Mass in the same pews choose this vocation and is very happy and fulfilled in doing so,” Father Nagle said.
“It’s also very appropriate and fitting to be able to host this Mass at her home parish where she made her solemn vows,” he continued, “because it’s the church where she was baptized and received her sacraments, and now made these perpetual vows.”
Back to Iceland
Sister Trinity will soon be heading back to Iceland, where she has been serving for the last five-and-a-half years. She noted serving in that country has come with its fair share of adjustments, such as immersing herself in a new culture and the Icelandic language (which she is still learning), but also adapting to months at a time with either constant daylight or darkness.
But her drive to serve God who has called her there for a reason is what keeps her going every day.
“I have grown a lot over the years as a missionary,” Sister Trinity said. “I know that God has called me to Iceland for a specific purpose and to this specific group of people. Icelandic is a language that is only spoken in one country by about 400,000 people. So when you think about it that way, God is very specific in the missions that he calls us to.”
“Remembering that in the difficult moments is what keeps my missionary zeal alive.”
