My talk to the Serra Club

SISTER MARY JUANITA VILLARREAL
(a.k.a. Teresa Cruz Villarreal)

Many Wonderful Memories

We all have a story to tell. This is who we are and sometimes it is who others say we are. Being child number six in a clan of eleven brothers and sisters has given me a unique perspective and a good vantage view.

I have many wonderful memories. I remember playing with dolls or playing with tiny dishes which Mom would buy for us. Of course, we would get one doll at Christmas for all the little girls and maybe one bike for all the boys. I am sure that was the reason that we often had fights with each other.

Mom taught us many things. She even had her own ideas for our evangelization. Every time we got a new doll she would have us “baptize” the doll. She would allow us to invite our little friends or neighbors and she would even buy
“pan dulce” and would make us some hot chocolate for after the baptism.

Mom was an amazing housewife. She would keep our house spotless and wash tubs full of clothes using an old washing machine…there was no water heater so she would heat water in a big tub balanced on top of burning wood. She would creatively make towers of tortillas and cover them with a dishtowel. I think she covered the tortillas to keep us kids from running by and stealing one hot-off-the-press!

I can also remember the pretty bad spankings Mom or Dad gave me when I needed them. I think she spanked me more because I was very stubborn and would not allow myself to cry. I bit my dress collar and braved the spankings and tried not to cry.

I was born number six. I arrived on July 23, 1944, the month of the Precious Blood of Jesus. Later on I joined a community of Sisters who have a devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus. Mom was 30 years old and Dad was 34. Six kids! Dad was a clerk at the local IGA store and Mom was a “home/family engineer”.

Mom could skillfully complete the morning feed, dress us for school, wash and hang clothes and make beds all before 10 a.m. What a “wonder” woman!

My Dad was quieter but his word … or one simple glance would move us to action. Dad was a butcher by trade. After work he would volunteer to drive the school bus for the football games, etc. To him our schooling was very important.

Mom was great at First Aid, too. One of her unique treatments was when we had air in our ear. She would use a page from the Sears catalog and make a funnel. She would put the funnel in our ear while she would light a match and start burning the opposite end of the funnel. No sooner had the paper caught on fire than the air would puff out with the speed of a jet propeller. Our earache was gone!



Dad and Mom made a great team. Mom and Dad planted the seed of knowledge in me and gave it the first impetus by being such active role models.

I went to first grade without my parents accompanying me. Brothers and sisters walked together taking the youngest one to enter school. How scary! Before you know it, I was helping with the “photo-copying”: a design was made with a purple pencil, then placing the paper upside down on a gummy surface one would moisten the copy with a wet sponge, pick it up and the stencil was made! Now, a clean piece of paper would go over that print, moisten it again and ONE copy was made. The finished copies would be allowed to dry first.

From the third grade classroom door I could see my aunt’s house. By grade five I knew it all! I knew how to spell “vacation”. I was finally in sixth grade and carrying my big books home under one arm like the big kids.

I don’t recall our migratory travels in detail other than to say that Oregon was a more appealing state than say: Illinois, North Dakota or Minnesota. The family lived in Montana, also.

Moving to Carrizo Springs during my eighth grade was both traumatic and challenging. I felt we had finally moved to the big city. Dad was able to sit us around the dining room table and explain to us the need to move and what sacrifices we would all have to make and endure. I enjoyed the ownership these talks gave me!

In his later years I remember Dad puttering around the yard in Carrizo early in the mornings. While in Carrizo he rested more or at least took it easier than during the harvest time in St. Paul, Oregon. Dad was usually up early. Mom was up early, too. He would hoe weeds, water plants, fix a broken hinge or put a coat of paint on the windowsill. Painting was not his strong point. He would get more paint on the window glass than on the sill. His last project was finishing the washer/dryer room in back of the house.

I had visited the Benedictines of Crookston, Minnesota and the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary from Marylhurst. Both of these Sisters had been my teachers in catechism class. But in 1960 I went to visit the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon in Beaverton with some classmates of mine. I went, I saw and I stayed! I entered the convent at age 18. My parents were hesitant to allow me to join but in the end they were very proud.

After a few years in the convent I organized my brothers and sisters and encouraged all of us to go back home to Texas to visit Mom and Dad together. Well, Dad wanted to get things all spruced up before all of us would arrive to visit them Christmas of 1974. But he suffered a massive heart attack and went to God on December 16, 1974. My world fell apart. My precious Dad was gone without waiting for us to get home.


Before I joined the convent I attended the youth group meetings and Fr. Schneider taught us a marriage class. I also joined the youth choir. I went out with about three different young men from my school. The entire dating ritual fascinated me. I was never overwhelmingly impressed, though. Much of the time I flirted or acted more fickle than necessary.
My last boyfriend continued writing letters and sending me pictures even after I entered the convent. He and I had made a friendship pact that we would always be there for each other. He joined the army and mailed me pictures and I promised to pray for him. But always, and I mean always, it was at church that I became most serious and quiet. The smells and the music were all filled with beautiful tradition and devotion for me—and it all appealed to me.

I graduated from Marylhurst College on August 1, 1967 with a Bachelor of Science in Education—a teaching degree.

In 1967 I lived in Tillamook for two years. In 1969 I was assigned to Stayton. In 1972 I reluctantly went to Hillsboro, but thankfully I quickly moved to St. Agatha’s in southeast Portland. In 1974 I was assigned to be principal of Holy Trinity School in Beaverton. I was so glad to be back home but so scared to be in charge of an entire school all by myself. In 1976 they assigned me to take the leadership of a bigger school. I went to St. John the Baptist School in Milwaukie. I was sent to Spokane, Washington. Oh, I loved Spokane. It was my favorite mission of all, I think.

In 1978 I again was appointed principal of a school in Portland—Holy Cross School in north Portland. I fell in love with the people—lots of African American children—and the area order of priests, the Holy Cross priests. I visited Costa Rica during that summer.

In 1987 I was asked to teach at La Salle High School in Milwaukie. I was superior of the house and lived with two retired Sisters who really came to keep me company while I taught the high school students. It was fun.

I was teaching in St. Mary, Star of the Sea in Astoria in 1993 when Archbishop Levada asked me to take the administration of a parish in Dayton, a quasi-parish that consisted of all Hispanic people. I had never had the administration of a parish all by myself nor worked exclusively with Hispanic people. Well, it was an entirely different kind of job. My Spanish was very rusty. I had to learn to speak and write it well in a very short time. The work was extremely taxing but very rewarding.

And as Sisters often do, I took classes during summer months and I finally graduated from Portland State University with a Master of Science degree and an administrator’s certificate on August 9, 1979. I studied at our nation’s capitol and visited many of the national sights. I have been to Mexico half a dozen times to study or on vacation. I lived in Costa Rica for almost a month. I visited the Holy Land and traveled all around Jerusalem in 1994. I had a year’s sabbatical in Europe. I lived in Spain for six months and in Santa Fe, New Mexico for another four months.

No amount of knowledge would give me even a portion of the knowledge that my Mom and Dad had. I would love to have the simplicity that was theirs. They had all the gifts of the Spirit: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, awe of the Lord and piety. My Dad was a man for all seasons and my Mom was a double for God, our Creator. From almost nothing she could create something. She could feed, clothe, house and educate eleven kids on one man’s salary! That is one awesome superwoman!

Dad truly was the mystic of the family. His prayer life was solid and his faith knew no fear. He was so disciplined. My Dad would maintain his trucks clean inside and out and his yard all in order. Dad liked music and dancing and storytelling. He shone when he had a joke to share. A five-minute story could take thirty minutes to tell. He captivated his audience. I remember Dad playing with us and making a little mouse out of his big white hankie to scare us into thinking that the mouse was going to get us. We would get close to him and then squeal away, as the mouse would jump out of his hand.

Retelling my story has awakened in me a yearning for our reunion in heaven. I miss my parents. May we look forward to our great reunion and not lose our focus on the important things in life. Staying focused on Jesus will assure us a ticket there. Let’s help each other.

Let me just share with you that religious life … as married life or single life… is not easy! It has its ups and downs. It is a mystery! I know the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE. I know how it ended for Jesus and I am following Him, so…

Here is the process of becoming a Sister of St. Mary of Oregon. A young woman (18-30 years of age) discerns her call … her “vocare”. She calls and visits different convents and reviews her gifts and talents. Once she feels attracted to one particular congregation or order she begins the process of discernment. We have a 14 step process. It takes months. The Sisters look at the candidate and the candidate looks at the Sisters in community.

Once the candidate has been accepted, as a postulant, she moves in to the convent. She can have no debts, no other prior commitments to complete, etc. This stage lasts six months to one year. On August 15th, feast of Our Lady’s Assumption, the postulant becomes a novice. She spends two years studying the Constitution and Statues of the congregation while also involving herself in the life of the Sisters. She is under the tutelage of her superior. She learns the art of prayer and meditation. At the end of this time she asks permission to take temporary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. If she is accepted she lives and works as a temporary professed Sister. At the end of this period she is ready to take final vows…she, in the presence of family, friends and Sisters, pronounces this promise:
In the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. I, Sister ________, in the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all saints, vow to Almighty God, through the hands of our Superior General, chastity, poverty and obedience forever, according to the Constitution of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Mary of Oregon. So help me, God, by the merits of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Amen.

In three short years I will be celebrating 50 years of that commitment. I have certainly been blessed by the love and friendship of hundreds of students, parents, my own religious Sisters and numerous opportunities for learning, traveling, playing, praying, sharing and much more. I really do not know how to value as I ought. God promised on the day of my commitment: “If you love me and keep your promises, I will reward you a hundred-fold in this life and also give you life everlasting with Me in heaven