Sister Mary was born in May 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was raised in Woodbury, New Jersey, where she attended St. Patrick’s School. She graduated from Gloucester Catholic High School, Gloucester City, where she excelled in basketball, field hockey, and softball. Sister Mary remained an avid supporter of the school her entire life. After graduation she worked for Saunder’s Publishing Company, Camden Trust, as well as a local law firm. She entered the novitiate of the Dominican Sisters of Newburgh, New York in September 1958, made her First Profession in July 1960, and Final Profession in August 1963.

Sister Mary taught at St. Brendan School in New Haven CT, St. Rose School in Haddon Heights NJ, Assumption School in Fairfield CT, and at Queen of Apostles School in Alexandria VA. Sister then changed to pastoral ministry, serving first at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Camden NJ, then at Incarnation Parish in Mantua NJ. From 1977 until she became too ill, Sister served in pastoral ministry at St. Mary Parish in Gloucester NJ. As a pastoral minister, Sister Mary worked with senior citizens, visited the sick and helped the poor. Two projects near to Sister Mary’s heart were the Msgr Edward B. Lucitt Needy Children Program and the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive. In 1980, she joined the the Board of the Senior Citizens United Community Services (SCUCS). This group was instrumental in providing the residents of Gloucester City use of the Sen Hans Bus, which provided much needed transportation to supermarkets and area shopping malls. The group also established local delivery of Meals on Wheels. She was also involved in Key Communicators meetings to help keep the community well informed as to what was happening in Gloucester City. In 1997, Sister Mary received the Lion’s Club award for “Senior Citizen of the Year” for her dedication to her work and the citizens of the area. She was also honored in 2002 by the Gloucester Catholic Alumni Association with the Dr. Frank and Catherine Kelly award, given annually to a friend of Gloucester Catholic High School who, through good work, brings honor and recognition to the school.

A Reflection by Msgr. Tom McIntyre:

I remember Sr. Mary Ryan coming to one of our Masses in Cape May in the midst of her sickness. Seeing her in the front pew with a dear friend of hers (Pat Ragen, GCHS classmate, fellow basketball teammate and parishioner of Our Lady Star of the Sea), I introduced Mary to the congregation and indicated that she was having a bout with cancer – and all the while Mary hushed me to death!

But that was Mary. I remember her approaching me when I was principal at Gloucester Catholic. Was there space for another religious in the local convent. I suggested she speak with the Sisters. Her plan was to approach Monsignor Ed Lucitt about a parish pastoral minister position to the sick and dying. He accepted and the rest is history on the fine job she did. Her days as a first grade teacher were over.

The many people in attendance at her funeral was a testament to the love and care she showed to the people of St. Mary’s Parish. She literally gave and did not count the cost. Mary was always happy in her ministry to God’s people in Gloucester.

Let me conclude with a prayer from Venerable Bede that fits our celebration of Resurrection. On the death of a friend, he wrote this prayer which I have personalized for Mary:

“We give her back to you, O Lord, who first gave her to us. Yet, as you did not lose her in the giving, so we do not lose her by her return. For what is yours is ours also, if we belong to you. Love is undying, and life is unending, and the boundary of this mortal life is but a horizon, and the horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight. Lift us up, strong Son of God, that we may see further. Cleanse our eyes that we may see more clearly. And while you prepare a place for us, prepare us also for that happy place, that we may be with you, and with Mary, and with those we love forever more. We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen