Sr. Mary Louise Oddi
A Life of Bringing Healing and Truth

Sr. Mary Louise Oddi is one of three sisters celebrating their Golden Jubilee of profession. She was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1931, right in the thick of the depression. While still in high school, she entered the Daughters of St. Paul, studying and doing the work of the apostolate alongside the professed sisters at what was known as the Benzinger Estate, their first house in New York. Her first impressions of convent life were the poverty and simplicity she saw and lived. "The sisters didn't waste anything!" she recalled. Despite their own condition, the sisters always helped those in need, sending food and supplies to Daughters of St. Paul around the world more needy than themselves.

The sisters' poverty didn't dampen their spirits any. "I found Mother Paula very enthusiastic, full of faith and zeal." Through many changes, this enthusiasm has always remained alive in the community. Sr. Louise saw the motherhouse move from the Benzinger Estate to Derby, New York, and then, finally, to Boston. She also saw the great beginning of the missionary outreach in the United States.

Sr. Mary Louise made her profession in July 1, 1951. Immediately after her profession, she was sent to San Antonio, where she worked in the book center and evangelized door-to-door. Through fifty years of being with the Daughters of St. Paul, Sr. Louise has been stationed in nine different Book and Media Centers across the country.
She holds a fond memory, however, of evangelization in Youngstown, Ohio. "Taking the parish census in Youngstown," she recalls, "we found many people away from the Sacraments and the Church. After our visit, many returned to the Church. This is especially true in St. Dominic's Parish. The pastor could not believe it. Attendance at Mass had increased; confessions were doubling. He couldn't understand how it was possible that he had known these families for years, and not known the numbers of individuals who wanted reconciliation with God in the Church. It was through the sisters who had visited these people in their homes, that the Church was able to reach into the broken places in their families' history and bring them to the Church for healing."

Recently Sr. Mary Louise traveled to Fatima for a two week reunion with Paulines from around the world who are making their golden jubilee this year. It was both a reunion and a pilgrimage, and it brought her great joy to meet with the other sisters she knew.
"I am just amazed at all the new changes in the world and the progress in technology," said Sr. Mary Louise, reflecting on the apostolate. Her amazement is not surprising. She has seen the birth of television, the fall of the radio age, and the advent of digital communications. "The years went by so fast," she said. "I hardly realized it has been fifty years."

Sr. Louise has seen many changes over the past fify years, and is sure to see more as time goes on. That is because Daughters of St. Paul thrive on new advances in media. "[Our apostolate] reaches out to people of all walks of life to bring them the word of God through books, cassettes and now through the internet. Our congregation will always be made new because it will adapt the new means of communication as time goes on."
Written by Maria Kemper, 2001