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 Sr.
Nancy McAward, OP
(Sr. John Baptist)
Golden Jubilarian
50 years (July 9, 1954)
“I have had many opportunities to both give and receive in religious
life,” offered Sr. Nancy McAward. “It has been a true blessing
to live and share with my Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs – some
of the most educated, caring, nurturing women in the world today.”
Celebrating her Golden Jubilee as a Dominican Sister, Sr. Nancy has had
diverse responsibilities in her 50 years of ministry. “During twenty
years of teaching and administration, I tried to take every opportunity
to speak publicly about God and to lead students and faculty to prayer,”
she says. In addition to earning a Masters in French from Laval University
in Quebec, Sr. Nancy received Master degrees from Manhattanville College
and Columbia University, combining her studies in theology and social
work as she explored more opportunities to preach and to counsel. Her
last 25 years in spiritual life ministry and counseling work have provided
a new venue for her fields and have nourished her soul.
“Ministering to people in psychological or spiritual need gives
me great peace,” confides Sr. Nancy. “It is a magnificent
privilege to accompany another person through their struggles with conflict.”
Since 1978, she has been with the collaborative Dominican preaching team
that first began as the Center for Evangelization at St. Vincent Ferrer
parish in Manhattan. “My experience in hundreds of parishes familiarized
me with people’s hunger for a personal relationship with God,”
she explains. Over the years, Sr. Nancy has strived to help people develop
such a relationship and its consequent works for justice through directed
and preached retreats, parish missions, individual counseling, and spiritual
direction.
A licensed Social Worker, Sr. Nancy has worked for Catholic Charities
in the Archdiocese of New York for the last five years. She previously
served for more than 20 years as a teacher and administrator in the diocese,
beginning with her very first assignment with the first graders of St.
Augustine in Ossining, then at St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan in the
mid 1950s, and as principal at Dominican Academy in Manhattan from 1971
to 1975.
Sr. Nancy came to St. Mary of the Springs as a young woman of 20 from
Flushing, New York. When she left St. Elizabeth’s College in Convent
Station after her sophomore year, she was thinking only of being a Sister,
not of the varied ministries she would explore. This spring, as she celebrates
50 years as a Dominican, she attests that “it has been a life-giving
experience – and fun!” and proclaims, “I am very, very
grateful!”
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