“Living at Emilie Court,” reflects Sr. Liz Gress, “gives me time to contemplate that Jesus has been real in my life. I experience Him more by being able to listen more.”
After 75 years of ministry as a Sister of Providence, Sr. Liz is enjoying her time at Emilie Court – the enjoyment of her friendships with the other residents, the blessing of Mass three days a week and the predictable, easy rhythms to her life. She likes the routine.
Sr. Liz attended St. Joseph Academy in Sprague, Wash., before she entered the order in 1946. Of her various ministries, she says her favorite was living in the novitiate community for twenty years, companioning the new Sisters and getting to know them as they started their new life.
“I remember each and every novice and I still pray for them by name every day,” she says. Sister estimates there are a least twenty woman that lived at the Nally House Novitiate Community in Spokane during her years there.
In her current ministry, Sr. Liz exemplifies “prayer and presence” in so many ways.
Today, as she goes about the routine of life at Emilie Court, Sr. Liz walks around the facility praying for the residents as she passes each of their doors even as she looks forward to the card games the residents play in the afternoon.
Sr. Liz’s years of service include many years of teaching, mostly in Montana schools. She has served as principal of St. Peter and Paul School in Great Falls and spent six years as admissions counselor at the College of Great Falls (now the University of Providence.) And she has served on the St. Ignatius Province Leadership Team.
She has also had the distinction of being invited to teach at Maryville Academy which provides mental health, behavioral therapy and many other services for children who have experienced trauma.
“Providence makes all things possible,” says Sr. Liz, “and throughout my ministry I have been blessed with good superiors and good health.
“People whom I have gotten to know in the community have meant a lot to me,” she recalls. “The loving presence of Providence is always watching over us and has made all these things possible.”
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Read more about her career from her 70th Jubilee biography: Nine Sisters of Providence mark 25, 50, 60, 70, and 80 years of religious life – Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province