Continuing to Serve: S. Rosemarie Gerrety

By Katie Drinkuth, Communications summer intern

For the past eight years, S. Rosemarie Gerrety has volunteered in the Arts and Crafts Room at the Sisters of Charity Motherhouse.

“I pray and thank God for each day. You never know what He will present to you,” says Sister of Charity of Cincinnati Rosemarie Gerrety. After teaching grade school for more than 25 years at schools in Ohio and Colorado, and 19 years as pastoral minister at St. Brigid Catholic School (Xenia, Ohio), S. Rosemarie retired from active ministry at the age of 70.

Since, she says her volunteering is, “Just another way of doing the work that needs to be done. God puts you where you are supposed to be.” She began her volunteer ministries by tutoring students and working at The Women’s Connection (Cincinnati, Ohio).

Currently, S. Rosemarie volunteers in the Arts and Crafts Room at the Sisters of Charity Motherhouse, which she calls, “the busy bee place.” She volunteers alongside Associate Betty Rensing and S. Mary Germaine Maximovich, and has been there for eight years. Although she jokes that she is not a professional seamstress and can only sew straight lines, she sews many items like bags for walkers, stuffed animals, placemats, and baby blankets. S. Rosemarie also organizes the room and helps those who come in needing anything from a button to a bag, saying, “I like trying to lead people in the direction they want and I enjoy making things easier for them.”

S. Rosemarie most enjoys the interactions with everyone she encounters. She says it is important to her to accept each person she meets as equal, whether that be her fellow Sisters or lay people. She helps everyone she can, as best she can.

S. Rosemarie says she isn’t changing the world with her volunteer ministries, but believes, “Any little thing can be what God wants you to do.” Being retired allows her to help her Community and Sisters, in seemingly small ways, but it is where God leads her.