Today my story is about Sister Michaela Marques. Born in Hong Kong, she along with her parents and five sisters immigrated to Canada and arrived in Toronto in 1959. Sister Michaela was educated by the Sisters of Notre Dame and later trained as a teacher.
After seeing an advertisement in the Catholic Register about teaching in the then missionary Diocese of Prince George, she was attracted to the idea.
The missionary organization was called The Frontier Apostolate; it was started by Bishop Fergus O'Grady, O.M.I with the purpose of inspiring young people to volunteer their time and talents to serve his extensive diocese.
People came from all walks of life, teachers, nurses, carpenters, builders and bus drivers. Sister Michaela taught Business Studies and Physical Education in what was then Prince George College, later known as O'Grady Catholic high school. She had only intended to stay for two years, but found the teaching so rewarding she stayed on for another seven years. Sister Michaela came to Prince George in 1971 and has been here ever since.
Sister Michaela said, "Bishop O'Grady also founded a community of women - The Domano Sisters of Mary Immaculate in 1979. I joined the Community in 1981 and became fully professed in 1988.
"When Immaculate Conception school was built in 1981 I taught there for nine years. After taking a year off for health reasons, I worked at St. Catherine's Community Home in College Heights for the next sixteen years. The community home started out as a home for children, eventually the licensing was changed to adult status so those in the home could continue to live at St. Catherine's."
Sister Michaela explains, "In 2004 Sister June and I went to Fort St. James for two years to assist in parish work in the First Nations Community.
I helped out with the school sports activities as well as hospital and family visitations.
"When I returned to Prince George in 2006 I worked with We Care Health Services which is now known as Northern Home Care. I now work Monday to Friday during mealtime at the Gateway Care Complex; however my main focus is the Immaculate Conception Parish where I work with parishioners and once each month I help prepare soup and sandwiches for the St. Vincent de Paul Society. I do home visits and I assist the Pastor with church duties."
Sister Michaela has been involved with her parish for the past forty years.
Her volunteer work has been extensive and included coaching girl's soccer when it first started in the city, coaching an all star team for the City and refereeing volleyball and basketball in her early years for the Knights of Columbus.
She still does the refereeing for their basketball tournaments. She also helped with the Provincial Pee Wee Baseball Championship games at Citizen Field and the Canada Winter Games, just to name a few.
Sister Michaela is committed to her community. She meets with a core group of anywhere from six to 20 people on a daily basis at the A&W at their College Heights location. She said, "We meet every day right after the 9 a.m. morning Mass. We have an equal amount of both men and women that attend and our conversation covers everything from cooking, sharing recipes, health food tips, religion and, yes, politics. Everyone has a reasonable and sometimes comic opinion.
"It is a great time of fellowship and the community spirit is the key to it all. We all look out for one another and it is a great opportunity to check in so that others know we are doing OK. The staff at the A&W is so good to us; they make us feel welcome and they are very friendly."
Sister Michaela concluded by saying, "For me, I am a people person; my life has always been around people, children, my work and my church. I have always been able to do the things I love doing. I have considered my work a privilege and I have been rewarded in so many ways. I am thankful for every single day and God willing I hope to be able to continue on for many years to come."
According to Wikipedia: there are 19 parishes and 19 missions within the 345,000 square kilometers of land located in the northern half of British Columbia that make up the huge Roman Catholic Diocese of Prince George.
Bishop O'Grady had the Domano Chapel built in the early '60's.
Domano was a word coined by Bishop O'Grady from Domine Mano Nobiscum which means "O Lord. Remain with us."
This became Bishop O'Grady's motto. The community grew with the influx of the Frontier Apostles; the volunteers who came at the request of Bishop O'Grady served as teachers in the schools, nurses, carpenters, bus drivers and many more.
The construction of the Church of the Immaculate Conception was a vision that the late Bishop Fergus O'Grady, O.M.I. had for this expanding area of the city.
Bishop O'Grady chose the site and in 1976 building commenced on the church and hall sections of their proposed building plan.
When the Church was completed Bishop O'Grady named the parish The Church of the Immaculate Conception and consecrated it on June 26, 1977.
