Patricia Kennedy was born 80 years ago, June 19, 1924 in Syracuse, New York. Daniel and Alice McDonald Kennedy were the proud parents of four children of whom Pat was the eldest.

Before entering our congregation, Pat graduated from Syracuse University with a BA degree and traveled to Rochester, Minnesota to Saint Mary Hospital, which is a division of the Mayo Clinic, for her Dietetic Internship.

She then worked as a clinical dietitian at the Buffalo Veteran Administration Hospital and later at Halloran VA Hospital in Staten Island.

Sister entered the Dominican Sisters of Newburgh on September 8, 1953 and made final profession in August 1958. In 1960 she graduated with an MA in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

During the years, she taught at Pope Pius XII High School as well as being their food service director; entered the Career Options Program in Calvary Hospital; was a clinical dietitian at Morningside Hospital; Administrator of the Infirmary, later Administrator of the Mt. St. Mary Complex, and still later, food manager at the Mount. When she retired in 1997, she lived with the Emmaus Community and later moved to Residential Care in the Nazareth Community.

From 1971 to 1979 she served on the Dominican Sisters Leadership Team. This assignment has brought back many memories to me some of which I share with you today.

This Advent time is most appropriate for considering the life of someone who really lived in her watching, waiting, hoping, and coming home. The request to do a little sharing on Patricia Kennedy, whom we send back to God at this time, came to me because we shared membership on the Leadership Team in the 70s.

It was truly a team who not only talked the talk together but walked the walk together. From the beginning we decided to make it a Dominican Way. As Catherine of Siena put it, “All the way to heaven is heaven because Jesus said, ‘I am the Way.’” Each of us will admit that we determined to live by Praising, Blessing, Preaching. We strove to follow the Dominican Motto in all of our efforts.

Sister Pat, as you can see from all the positions she held provided the very practical side, evident always in our planning meetings at the Jersey Shore. Perhaps that is why such wonderful planning for our infirmary setup took place then.

Sister Pat was also a moving reminder of the stress we should place on the Dominican charism and mission work. Perhaps that was in her genes. You must know that one of the greatest faculty members of Mt. St. Mary Academy was her aunt, Sister Agnes Alma McDonald (a great ideal of my own high school years here).

The ministry of teaching was firmly embedded in her family. Recently, I found out that my sister-in-law was taught by a Pat Kennedy aunt in up-state New York.

Another great Dominican quality was her adaptability and support of needed change, which Pat fostered and urged on all of us. Most of us recall all the changes in living and community set-ups through the years of the seventies and the determined efforts to keep true to the Way of Dominic’s Family.

Sister Pat’s spirit throughout was truly that of the "Joyful Friar, Tolerant Master" a real participant and sharer, not an escaper or rejecter, and always she would know how to relax and share enjoyment and vacation.

Let us ask her to remain with us in spirit and help us in our watching, waiting and arriving with her.

Mary Francis McDonald, OP

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