A Life on Mission: “Each Moment Mattered”
“To do good, to be good, to be a power for good.” This motto of the Missionary Servants of the Blessed Trinity has been at the heart of Sr. Barbara DeMoranville’s life since she was a young girl. Sr. Barbara remembers her first encounter with the MSBT community. Playing on the swings at the age of five, she looked up to see a tall woman dressed in all black with a “funny hat” knocking on the front door of her home. Her mother explained later that this woman was a Missionary Servant, and her community would be responsible for preparing a young Sr. Barbara for her sacraments and instructing her in the faith. Beyond these first lessons, the sisters working in her community instilled in her the importance of respecting and caring for others, especially the most vulnerable.
The Missionary Servants continued to play a role in Sr. Barbara’s life. In 1955, Sr. Barbara attended the three-week Summer School of Catholic Action at the MSBT Motherhouse in Philadelphia, PA. While she first felt the pangs of homesickness, she soon found herself caught up in the joy of learning and teaching the younger children. Sr. Barbara remembers this as a pivotal and powerful three weeks. This experience led her to consider that she might have a calling to the life of an MSBT.
Throughout the remainder of her high school years, as her friends were discussing prospective colleges, Sr. Barbara had an intense image in her mind of herself dressed in the all-black garb worn by the MSBT sisters. While she did not discuss this vision of religious life with her friends, in her senior year she felt “an ever-greater desire to be a Missionary Servant of the Most Blessed Trinity.” She wrote to the General Custodian, the MSBT general superior, that she was interested in entering the community; she soon received an invitation to join the sisters that August. With her chosen path in front of her, Sr. Barbara now had the task of telling her mother. Yet, her mother had always known that religious life was what Sr. Barbara wanted. She entered the community on August 5, 1958, after graduating from high school.
As she reflects on her life on mission, Sr. Barbara expresses deep contentment with her life as an MSBT sister. Her mission has taken her to Norwood, MA, where she taught religious education and worked on the census band for a local parish. She then moved on to Uniontown and Bethlehem, PA, continuing to work with children and families through Catholic Social Services. This is when she recalls first seeing the harsh realities of life among broken families; yet, alongside the hurting of children who entered the foster care system, she also witnessed the selfless love of parents eager to accept these young people into their homes. Sr. Barbara recognized it as her sacred privilege to work alongside people going through difficult and joyful moments. To Sr. Barbara, “each moment mattered” and was an opportunity to serve God and his people.
Following these first experiences on mission, Sr. Barbara attended Boston College to earn her Master’s degree in Social Work. Immediately following her degree work, she worked again with Catholic Social Services in Shamokin, PA. From there, she and two others went to establish a pro-life office in Charlotte, NC, serving women in crisis pregnancies and advocating for life. She went on to Montgomery, AL, where she would become the director of Catholic Social Services, and eventually on to Mobile, AL, as the director of Catholic Charities. In 1988, the community elected Sr. Barbara to serve on its General Council, working alongside its General Custodian and other leaders.
Her daily life still centers on God and his people, especially among her community. She is the current Local Custodian of the MSBT Motherhouse in Philadelphia, where she attends to the needs of her fellow sisters. As on mission, she begins her day with prayer. Her cane outside her office door is a telltale sign that Sr. Barbara is in and ready to listen.
For those looking to discern, Sr. Barbara encourages finding a smart, holy adult to share your journey with and to investigate communities by asking many questions. Above all, the most essential component of discernment is prayer. Sr. Barbara suggests praying to the Holy Spirit while being mindful of how God speaks and you respond throughout the day.