Helen McNulty Godfrey

I'd like to welcome you with greetings of peace and joy as you enter our Web Page!! As you relate to us more I am interested in learning more about you, your joys, cares and the happenings in your life.

An important thing about me, is that I am a native of New Jersey! South Jersey; Camden to be specific. I grew up there and was heading toward Marquette University in Milwaukee where I intended to study journalism, when a medical difficulty with my eyes ebbed the flow of study and used the funds I had saved.

I went to Plan "B", and happily moved up to my beloved New York City when I was 20. I arrived at Port Authority Bus Terminal on 8th Avenue, with my suitcase, typewriter, and coat over my arm. It was October, and I felt ready for autumn in N. Y. and whatever adventures awaited me. I confidently checked my baggage in a locker, walked over to 5th Avenue and uptown to St. Patrick's Cathedral where I made the purchase of a Diocesan newspaper to check apartments listed, found what I wanted immediately and stopped at an employment agency to let them know I was in town.

By the next day I had a job downtown in the Wall Street section as an assistant to an underwriter. The commute uptown to Riverside Drive each day was a delight. Usually on the subway, but when I had more time I liked to try the various bus routes and discover more of the city.

Later on I was a bookkeeper at Columbia University and also found that milieu interesting. I did volunteer work with a group of two year olds at the New York Foundling Hospital and taught CCD to a group of high school sophomores in Spanish Harlem.

I frequented St. Francis of Assisi Church on 31st Street and had many memorable experiences there. I felt more and more drawn to a whole life of prayer, but not yet! Instead I went to All Souls Hospital School of Nursing in Morristown, NJ which also dovetailed at that point with Seton Hall in Newark. Still, the longing for a life of prayer kept gently, and sometimes not so gently, tugging at my innermost being.

Then there was a "moment" in St. Francis Church, which I will always remember, when I said my yes to the call I was hearing.

I entered the Poor Clares in New Jersey in 1966, at 28, and came down to Greenville in 1972. I had all the exciting, joyful, painful, searching period of implementing Vatican II in our Clare life, and I continue to experience profound connection with this contemporary period of our history. Over the years I have done a wide variety of jobs at the monastery. Presently I am caring for our Altar Bread Department. I also journey with others in spiritual direction and enjoy writing, as well as participating in all of the ordinary work that is part of our life. I served for 15 years on the board of WRISC (Women Religious in South Carolina) including three terms as president; I continue to experience a sense of unity with all the sisters serving so generously in our Diocese in many and varied ways.

A life of prayer lived in simplicity and community with all this involves remains my deepest call and greatest work. In addition to writing, I enjoy reading and studying. I am especially interested in justice and peace issues, current events, integration of psychological and spiritual dimensions of life, holistic spirituality, travel (inner and sometimes otherwise!), visiting new places and learning new things. I have been something of a political junkie since I was ten! I inherited that from my father!

All of this is part of my life of prayer, which I experience as all inclusive and embracing of God and all humanity. I look forward to the days to come!