With a warm smile, a hearty laugh, and a matter-of-fact attitude, Mother Mary David Riquier, newly elected Superior General of the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady Mother of the Church (SCMC) in Baltic, said she has learned a key approach to navigating in her new position – delegating to others.
“I know I can’t do as much as I did some years back,” she said reflectively. “I have to delegate more than I used to, but it is working out very well. Our sisters are doing a wonderful job supporting me. One person cannot keep tabs on all the moving parts.”
Those moving parts consist of overseeing the care of all 43 members of her community while promoting the mission of the Sisters of Charity to serve others through the apostolates of education, caring for the sick, the aging and the poor wherever there is a need.
She is supported in her new position by a team of four councilors, Mother Mary Jude Lazarus, vicaress; Mother Marie Christina Van Beck, second councilor, Mother Marie Julie Seageart, third councilor and Mother Mary Katherine Gruber, fourth councilor. Together, they are tasked with making and implementing major decisions for the congregation.
A Willimantic native, Mother David assumed her new position last summer following the order’s Chapter of Affairs, a time the community takes every six years to reflect and discern ways to effectively carry out their mission and select new leadership.
“I was looking forward to stepping back into a more supportive role,” she said following six years as vicaress under the previous Superior General Mother Marie Julie. But, as Mother David has come to accept in her 58 years of religious life, God always has another plan.
“The love of God has always kept me here doing His work wherever He led me,” she said. “Wherever I was called, I have always tried to do God’s will and do it to the best of my ability. Sometimes we have to change things in life, but if it’s God’s will, it will turn out right.”
Mother David met the Sisters of Charity as a student at St. Joseph’s School in Baltic. She then went on to attend the community’s high school, the Academy of the Holy Family, also in Baltic. During her senior year, she couldn’t shake the persistent thought that God was calling her to religious life. She entered the fall after her graduation. “I had known the sisters most of my life and loved and admired them,” she said.
The regimen of religious life was strict and, at times, a challenge for her, but she stressed, smiling, “Everything fell into place. God gives you the grace to live this life.” During challenging times, especially when many of her friends left the community, it was the grace of God that kept her steady in her vocation. “He wouldn’t let me go. Our relationship was such that the love of God kept me here.”
Most of her religious life was spent in education teaching in Willimantic and at the Academy before becoming the ‘face’ of Sacred Heart School in Taftville, where she spent 27 years, 22 as principal. “I hated leaving Taftville,” she recalled. “If I had my druthers, I would have stayed. But God had another plan for me, and I came to the Motherhouse when I was named vicaress.”
Responding to God’s call to always go where He was leading her, Mother David has accepted her new responsibility with joy and enthusiasm. She works in consultation with the administration of the Academy and the Order’s Development Office, which was established to help the community be self-sustaining and plan wisely for their retirement needs. Today, however, it has become an integral part of the order’s mission of outreach and evangelization to its donors and benefactors.
She also oversees the general maintenance and upkeep of the Baltic Motherhouse, where 31 sisters reside. Of that number, 23 are actively involved in full or part-time ministry and three are semi-ambulatory. Two others reside in a skilled care facility and another nine sisters are actively involved in ministry residing at three branch houses.
“God has always provided for us at every step,” she said. “We pray, we think about, and we consider viable options for our community and God has always blessed our decisions,” she said.
By Mary-Jo McLaughlin