A lot of change has come to Hyattsville, Maryland since 1970, but parishioners and friends of St. Jerome Parish and alumni of the St. Jerome Child Center and St. Jerome Academy honored one constant on Sept. 14: Notre Dame de Namur Sister Geraldine McPhee.
Sister Geri, as she is known, is celebrating 60 years in religious life this year. Washington Auxiliary Bishop Juan Esposito served as the main celebrant at the Saturday afternoon Mass honoring her anniversary, joined by concelebrants Father Scott Hahn, the pastor of St. Jerome Parish; Trinitarian Father James Day, the president of DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville; and Msgr. Joseph Ranieri, a former St. Jerome’s pastor. About 300 people attended the Mass.
Sister Geri began serving at St. Jerome School in 1970 as a first-grade teacher. In 1985, she became the founding director of the St. Jerome Child Center, which serves children from six weeks old to pre-kindergarten. She led the center for 30 years and continues to help out there. While Sister Geri is retired as an educator, she is clearly not forgotten, as witnessed by the parish’s full parking lot during the anniversary Mass.
During his homily at the Mass, Msgr. Ranieri quoted Sister Geri on her longtime connection to that parish: “St. Jerome has become my heart and home for 54 years.”
The sanctuary and Mass featured many references to St. Julie Billiart, the 19th century foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Accompanied by adults, children from the St. Jerome Child Center and a couple of young relatives of Sister Geri brought up sunflowers during the offertory procession, which they placed in a vase on the altar, in front of a statue of St. Julie standing with a child. “Be like the sunflower that follows every movement of the sun, and keep your eyes always turned towards our good God,” St. Julie Billiart said.
During the Mass, Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Marlene Biasiello offered a blessing for the nearly a dozen religious sisters who stood in the pews, including Sister Geri and Sister of St. Joseph Patricia Ralph, a longtime teacher at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Academy in Washington. “Being blessed is to be a blessing to others,” she prayed, with musical accompaniment from the St. Jerome Liturgical Choir.
About 150 Notre Dame de Namur sisters have been missioned to St. Jerome since they first came to St. Jerome to teach Sunday school in 1914, according to Msgr. Ranieri. In 1943, St. Jerome School was opened, which create a further need for sisters who could teach and do ministry at the parish.
Msgr. Ranieri paid tribute to the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience that religious like Sister Geri make, which he said helps them more perfectly imitate Jesus Christ and serve their people.
The eight-member St. Jerome Liturgy Choir, featuring piano, bass and guitar, performed at the Mass. Hymns included “An Irish Blessing” and “Ah! Qu’il est bon le bon Dieu” (“Oh! How Good is the Good God”), which was known as St. Julie’s prayer.
As the Mass was concluding, Bishop Esposito thanked the sisters in the congregation for their witness and service at St. Jerome. He also greeted and blessed the women religious, as well as friends and family of Sister Geri, as he processed from the altar.
A reception followed the Mass in the Gold Room, located in the basement of St. Jerome Church, where friends and family members of Sister Geri gathered to honor her. Posters on the wall highlighted Sister Geri in words and text through the decades since she grew up in Philadelphia.
“She’s been there for me so many times,” said Mary Gray, a mother of four who sent all four of her children to the St. Jerome Child Center and later the parish school. Although she has moved out of the parish, she came back for the Mass honoring Sister Geri. When Gray went back to work after the birth of a child, she felt comfortable leaving her children in the care of the St. Jerome Child Center because of the care and attention of Sister Geri, she said, praising her as a “role model” and “a loving person.”
