Sister Mary Lee Farrell (Sister John Michael) Sixtieth Jubilee

Written on: April 22, 2021

Sister Mary Lee Farrell has blessed the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart and those we serve with her astonishing number of gifts. An educator with a Ph.D. in Higher Education, Sister Mary Lee has taught in elementary, secondary and college classrooms as well as in an inner city neighborhood art school.

As Director of Adult Learning at Villa Maria College in Buffalo, New York, Sister Mary Lee implemented and directed an innovative program that enabled working adults to earn a college degree by attending classes on weekends.

In addition to her work as an educator and her service as a member of the Grey Nun Leadership, Sister Mary Lee has been a musician, a singer and a grant writer along the many paths of her ministry life.  As an instructor and grant writer at the Neighborhood Art House in Erie, Pennsylvania, she taught inner city children the skills of writing, music and drawing on computers and gave trumpet lessons to young musicians. During her 22 years in Erie, Sister Mary Lee also served as a Research Assistant to Sister Joan Chittister for the contemporary spirituality communications platform Benetvision. Currently, Sister Mary Lee works in the Grey Nun Congregational Advancement Office and looks forward to a return to cantoring at area churches.

In many ways, I find it hard to believe that 60 years have passed. Time and grace have unfolded my life in ways and places and people I would never have foreseen. I have never been bored, but often surprised. I have never been more sure that I was in charge than just before a major crisis. I welcome Jubilee as a time to rejoice in all that has been and look forward with great enthusiasm to whatever surprises await in the next 60 years!

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This entry was posted in Our 2021 Jubilarians and tagged: Adult Learning, Benetvision, cantoring, college instructor, Congregational Advancement, elementary teacher, enthusiasm, grace, grant writer, high school teacher, inner-city art school, Joan Chittister, Jubilee, musician, Rejoice, Research Assistant, singer, surprised, trumpet, Villa Maria College Buffalo