Spring 2007, Volume 50, Number 1

Where in the World is...Sister James Marie Gross
by Beth Kress, PBVM

After a 52-year teaching career that included elementary, high school and college, Sister James Marie Gross continues to keep education close to her heart and in her daily agenda as she lives out the Presentation charism and mission. Add to that a host of hobbies and projects and she seems to have the recipe for an interesting and fulfilling lifestyle for her energetic personality.

“My life is as full in ‘retirement’ as at any time before — probably with more variety and more things directly related to the charism of our foundress, Nano Nagle,” remarks Sister James Marie. “Being able to use my teaching skills in tutoring grade school students and those learning English at the Presentation Lantern Center, working for the poor, being able to do the liturgical ministries as lector and communion distributor and having more time for prayer and being with community are very satisfying to me.”

Since 1999, Sister has been a tutor for Clarke College and for organizations such as the Foster Grandparent Program and Presentation Lantern Center.

“As a child, I read before I went to school,” recalls Sister. With the example of her mother, who was a country school teacher, and her own “class” of children among her kindergarten mates, little Mary Gross was destined for teacher training and, eventually, the charge of many classrooms with many students.

Tutoring Clarke math students for two years was an easy transition for Sister James Marie after teaching math and math education full-time at Clarke College in Dubuque for 34 years. Since 2001, Sister has gone twice a week to a local Catholic grade school in Dubuque to tutor youngsters in math. She also added one hour a week of after school mentoring in reading for a student at another local Catholic grade school.

Sister’s most recent tutoring endeavor is serving once a week at the Presentation Lantern Center where she helps visitors to improve their English. “We work especially hard at pronunciation and the use of American idioms,” she comments.

It doesn’t stop with teaching, though. Even before she formally left the classroom, Sister James Marie was walking 20 to 30 minutes a day, swimming, raising roses, sewing, quilting, baking and designing and making baby quilts and her famous tote bags, which she now provides for the Mount Loretto gift shop. Over the years she has been known to put her hands to the traps as a drummer.

Since 1972, partnering with Sister Mary Edward Dolan, Sister has tended roses, tulips, crocuses and multiple annual flowers on the Mount Loretto grounds. In keeping with principles of good stewardship and the Earth Charter, she uses compost instead of commercial fertilizers for the roses.

As co-coordinator of mission materials with Sister Maria Goretti Dullard since 1996, Sister James Marie has sent tons of clothing and used items to missions and thrift stores across the United States. With a chuckle, she honors the work begun and passed on by the late Sister Presentation Dalhauser. “Before she retired from the Mission Room, Sister Presentation assured the succession saying, ‘I’m so glad that you and Maria are going to do this good work.’” Whether shipping clothing to Oglala, SD; Thoreau, NM; Okolona, MS; or Chicago, IL, Sisters James Marie and Maria Goretti partner with many others to clothe the naked and share the goods of the Earth with those who don’t have easy access.

Coming together with Presentation associates, Linda Dolphin, Mags Young, Sue Bennett, Ann Cooper, Judy Munshower, Billie Greenwood and Char McCoy, and Sisters Julia Wingert and Janice Hancock is a joy for Sister James Marie. For a third year, their Lantern Lights associate group will be working at the annual garage sale.

How does Sister manage all of her activities and projects? “Prayer, Eucharist with inspirational homilies, and living with the sisters are at the core,” says Sister. Water aerobics and swimming in the Mount Loretto pool, land exercises three mornings a week, walking daily, weekend baking for the residents at Mount Loretto, crossword puzzles, computer scrabble and solitaire, symphony concerts and a Wednesday night “Rap Rummy” card group are among the many interests that keep Sister James Marie mission-minded and full of life.

“Living in community has always been important to me and is what attracted me to religious life,” comments Sister. “Now in retirement, I can enjoy the company of the friends I’ve lived with over the years with long conversations at table, working on projects together, praying together, good card games or sharing at a party.”