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Sisters Serving
Sisters Serving Sr. Regina Mary Jenkins, SS.CC. ’57
Celebrating her 60th anniversary, we reflect on Sr. Regina’s wonderful journey from entering the noviate of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts to volunteering with leprosy eradication in India, and eventually making her way back home.
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HER FAMILY HOME WAS ABOUT A BLOCK
away from the Academy, and she attended Ali‘iolani School that was across from Sacred Hearts Academy on Waialae Avenue. So it was not surprising that her parents enrolled Marvel Jenkins and her sisters Carolynne Jenkins ’54, Luella Jenkins ’60 and Clarissa Jenkins ’64 at the Academy when Marvel entered the 7th grade.
Marvel found the transition from a public school to a private all girls Catholic school a shocking but inspiring experience. She liked the beautiful singing of the classes at prayer and worship, as well as, other school events. At this time, there were many Sisters at the Academy who taught everything and were very patient with the students, even though they were considered quite strict.
Marvel enjoyed her experiences at the school and was involved not only in school work, but in sports and music. But, especially, she enjoyed serving in leadership roles—Class President, President of the Council of Catholic Schools that brought together the leaders from St. Louis, Maryknoll, St. Francis, and Star of the Sea. She was also President of the Oahu Youth Council bringing together
students from thirty-three public and other private schools. For Marvel, high school was a very social time with great interaction among students from the various high schools. She enjoyed life, her friends and school in general. When her senior teacher, Sr. Mary Rose, asked if she would like to be a Sister, Marvel quickly responded, “Oh no, I want to get married and have six children!”
After graduation, Marvel went to Holy Names College in California and during intercession of her freshman year, the vision of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts at the prie-dieu (kneelers) came to her mind at 1 o’clock in the morning. This image stayed with her, and she thought of all the great Catholic women of faith that had touched her life—her mother, the Sisters, teachers and students of Holy Names and of the Academy. Their way of living the faith impressed her. She felt that the Academy and the kindness of the Sisters were gifts, and she seriously prayed and realized that it was a call, and she had to answer it. She related her feelings to her parents and Sr. Mary Gertrude who were very supportive of Marvel entering religious life.
Marvel entered the novitiate of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts with Sarah Ann Wood, a school mate two years younger. Both made their first profession on August 22, 1961 making August 22, 2021 their 60th anniversary as Sisters!
Taking the religious name Regina Mary, Marvel found life in the convent strict, with her family allowed to visit for only one hour a month. However, she enjoyed her time spent before the Eucharist and her first assignment as a teacher at Sacred Hearts Academy. She was placed with the senior class and taught religion, mathematics, chemistry and worked with the Student Council. After some years of teaching, she was given a sabbatical year in Rome where she attended the Gregorian University in a two-year certificate program in spirituality.
• Sr. Regina Mary graduation photo from 1957; Sister in chapel in 1974; and Sister meeting the pope, Saint John Paul II in Rome.
more than we know ourselves!”
She thoroughly enjoyed the experience, not just studying at the Gregorian, a premier Catholic institute of learning, but living with a Sacred Hearts community and just walking through the streets of Rome, all full of historical and ecclesial riches.
Upon her return, Sister Regina Mary was assigned to Maria Regina Parish and School in Gardena, California which the Sisters had come to serve in 1958. She was assigned to the 6th grade with 98% of co-ed students from black families. She described her students as perpetually in motion and quite a challenge, but she thoroughly enjoyed them. She became principal of the school, and the school and parish thrived.
Years later, the Sisters were invited by the Brothers to join two Sacred Hearts Brothers, Fathers William Petrie and Michael Shanahan, who were working in India under the banner of Father Damien with Mother Teresa’s groups. Sisters Regina Mary and Rose Henry Reeves ‘60 volunteered for this mission which would take them to India to do leprosy eradication work and to develop communities of Sacred Hearts Sisters to serve the people of India.
After serving in India for 8 years, Sr. Regina Mary was recalled to Hawaii to serve as Provincial of the Sisters in 1995. She has been serving in the administration of the Sisters and on the Academy’s governing Board since that time.
Sr. Regina Mary’s message to the Academy: “Listen to what God wants of you. It is He who knows what we need more than we know ourselves! I have been blessed by the presence of the Sisters, and the love of the Eucharist, expressed in Adoration, is what they gave not only to me, but also to my parents and family. Thank you, Sisters!”
Sisters Serving Sister Helene Wood, SS.CC. ’59
Known as one of the “Centennial Sisters”, and also celebrating her 60th anniversary, Sr. Helene’s story is awe-inspiring through dedicated roles in education, and her travels around the world as General Councilor.
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A STUDENT OF THE ACADEMY since she was 5, Sarah Ann Wood considered the school her second home. Her two sisters, Elizabeth Wood ’54 and Alexis Wood Kane ’67, were also 13 year students. She remembers there being many Sisters at the school and only 3 or 4 lay teachers. She was especially impressed seeing the Sisters in the chapel replacing each other
at adoration every half hour and involving the students in the spirituality of the Congregation.
Besides her studies, Sarah Ann Wood had a special duty as a senior—she was the school’s official bell ringer. She rang the bell to begin and end the school day and at the beginning and end of classes and recesses. The bell was at the end of the second floor lanai of the administration building. One day after ringing the bell to end school, Mother Mary Gertrude, the Superior of the Sisters, said to her: “Sarah Ann, the Sisters tell me you would make
a very good Sister.” She responded, “No, thank you.” She already had her plans. She was going to be a pilot and had already been accepted by a university that had a program for pilots. Her love for planes came from her father who was a civil engineer at Hickam Air Force Base. But she kept thinking about Mother’s words, and she said to herself, “I can always try the religious life and if I don’t like it, I can always leave.” So she tried it and 60 years later celebrated her Diamond jubilee as a Sacred Hearts Sister in 2021!
Sr. Helene, as Sarah is now known, and
lives of others.”
Sr. Regina Mary entered the Congregation in 1959, the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the Sisters in the islands. They would, thus, be known as “the Centennial Sisters”. Sr. Helene attended Chaminade University and received her Bachelor’s degree in History; later she received her Master in Education degree from the University of Hawaii, all the while engaged in teaching at the Academy. She loved Hawaiian History and was instrumental in having it added to the school’s curriculum. She especially enjoyed teaching with Betty White and team teaching on the Vatican Council II which took place in the 60’s.
On the retirement of Sr. Mary Rose Gordan, Sr. Helene was named principal, witnessing, appreciating and encouraging the growing role of dedicated lay men and women as teachers and staff at the Academy.
In 1979, she was appointed Provincial of the Sisters and after 8 years in this position, she went to Santa Clara University and received a Masters in Pastoral Ministry.
While finishing her studies at Santa Clara, Sr. Helene was elected to be a General Councilor for the Congregation which meant she would travel the world visiting the communities and works of the Sisters. Her desire to be a pilot would be fulfilled in a more meaningful way: “Instead of being a pilot, I came to understand cultures of people and the works of the Sisters in education and caring for needs of people,” shares Sr. Helene. For today’s Academy student, she advises each of them to take advantage of the many opportunities they are offered and to work very hard to succeed. However, she shares “They need to realize that they succeed not by themselves nor for themselves, but with and for other people. They need to cherish teachers and classmates and realize that the school’s Mission is not just to develop leaders, but leaders who make a difference in the lives of others.”
