Road to Being a Bon Secours Associate
By Marge Mulcare
Marge Participating in group activity at 2015 retreat
Marge, in middle, making her Recommitment as an Associate
My journey began as a young girl with an inspiration, a call to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, whom I loved dearly from the beginning. I have always been a spiritual person, yet my spiritual journey has known many twists and bends: roads less traveled, and roads taken more than once driven by my spiritual belief that there “must be something more.” I was raised in a traditional Irish Catholic home, and attended St. Martin School in west Baltimore city from 1st through 12th grade. Each night we knelt to say our prayers in Gaelic, went to Mass and received Holy Communion daily. Though religion class was my favorite subject, I often left class and Mass with more questions than answers. What was it all about? Not until 7th grade did I begin to understand…that year we studied “Jesus the Man,” who rather than being an abstract God, who loved us, looked over us, but who was still a mystery, was presented to us also as a man, who experienced life in the same ways we do. I was inspired to follow His lead, to be more like Him, and to be present to others. Around this time, I was inspired to be a nun.
I had an early relationship with the Sisters of Bon Secours, as I worked at the hospital as a “Pinkie’s” during high-school. The Sisters were so gentle and loving and caring and it was evident how present they were to all who sought their help and healing. A few years later I married and raised my two sons, who were born at Bon Secours hospital, and I experienced firsthand the care and love and presence of the Sisters.
Eventually, I became a social worker, and had the chance to respond to and be present to others through my work. Too, my spiritual journey led me to various practices such as meditation, contemplation, and a continued search to solve the mysteries I had known since childhood. For me, this was much like being a nun. Still, there was “something more” I needed to find.
Reflecting on the influences of my life, Jesus, and His examples of how to live and love, my experience as a mother, my career as a social worker, and the desire to live in spiritual community, as well as the example and experience with the Sisters of Bon Secours, I was led to explore the role of an Associate.
Being an Associate brings together the wholeness of my search to belong to a spiritual community of like-minded people: others who also search and embrace a wholistic approach to learning about and serving our one God and those He sends to us to “be of good help.” We need fellow sojourners on our path, as the example of Jesus shows, and the community of Bon Secours has provided me with this. The connection with the Sisters and the Associates allows us the opportunity to “transform our inner selves, our relationship with God, and with others so that all we are called to serve encounter the gospel through our work, come to know God, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and are healed through our loving presence.”