Margaret Mary Gorman

Mankato Mortuary
1001 N. Riverfront Drive
Mankato, Minnesota 56001
507-388-2202

Our beloved Sister Margaret Mary (Mary Luke) Gorman, 88, died somewhat unexpectedly at 9:15 p.m. on Thursday, September 4, 2014, in Notre Dame Health Care, Good Counsel Hill, Mankato, Minnesota. Sister Margaret Mary had participated in community prayer through Wednesday, but was growing weaker and beginning to tell visitors that she felt she was dying.

The funeral Mass for Sister Margaret Mary, with Father Andrew Olsem as presider, will be at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, September 9, in Good Counsel Chapel, Mankato. Burial of her cremains in our cemetery will follow at a later date. The vigil service will be at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. We extend our sympathy to her brother Edward and his wife Rosemary, her brother-in-law James Furlette, her nieces Christine Boguchi and Catherine Peterson, her godchildren, her many cousins, friends, former colleagues and students, and her sisters in community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She was preceded in death by her parents, Harry and Mary (McGoff) Gorman, her brother John (in infancy) and her sister Elizabeth Furlette.

Sister Margaret Mary was born September 17, 1925, on a farm in Pleasant Prairie Township in Martin County, Minnesota. Two days later, her father and paternal grandparents took her to Our Lady of Mercy Church in Gukeen, Minnesota, for her baptism. Because her mother had a great devotion to the Sacred Heart, she chose the name Margaret Mary for her newborn daughter. The Gorman family felt great joy at Margaret Mary's birth because a year earlier, their firstborn child, John, died when he was one month old. Two more children were born, Edward in 1927 and Elizabeth in 1928. Margaret Mary's mother was hospitalized shortly after Elizabeth's birth, and her family went to live with her paternal grandparents. She wrote, "Here we were a large family with my grandparents, an aunt and three uncles, my father, and we three children. I missed my mother very much."

In 1930, Margaret Mary began first grade at Blue Earth Public School, which she attended for three years. Margaret Mary's mother died in June 1933. Because she and her brother and sister were so young when her mother became ill, they did not completely comprehend when an aunt explained that God had taken her to heaven. Margaret Mary remembered what happened on the way to the cemetery: "Gram turned to look at my father and me and said, "Margaret Mary will have to be her father's helper now.' This incident stayed in my memory and was the source of much conflict when I was discerning my call to religious life."

When Elizabeth was ready for first grade, the Gorman children transferred to a one-room school where one teacher taught all eight grades. Margaret Mary thrived there, and commented, "I graduated from that school five years later with a Palmer Penmanship certificate and the highest test scores in Faribault County in English, history and geography." Her father and grandmother saw the need for a Catholic education so in the fall of 1939, Margaret Mary became a freshman boarder at Good Counsel Academy in Mankato. It was here that she realized a call to religious life, and she entered the SSND candidature in August 1943.

Following one year of study, Margaret Mary taught third grade at SS. Peter & Paul School, Mankato. She was received into the novitiate in 1945 and given the name Sister Mary Luke (later returning to her baptismal name), and then professed first vows on July 21, 1946. Sister Mary Luke spent the next year as a student at Diocesan Teachers' College in St. Paul, and took additional courses at St. Catherine and the Mankato Campus of Mount Mary College. She then began a 34-year teaching ministry in Catholic elementary and secondary schools. Her first assignment was Holy Childhood, St. Paul, a new mission where the school building was not ready. Sister Mary Luke's class of twelve students met for a half day in the parish dining hall on the State Fair Grounds. She was also asked to be responsible for the music, even though she only had two years of lessons. She wrote, "On the morning that I was to give my first lesson, Mother Annunciata and Sister Alonza came to Holy Childhood to ask me if I would prefer to teach a class of 57 second graders at St. Agnes. Of course I did! It was such a relief!"

In Minnesota, other schools where Sister Margaret Mary served were St. Anne, Wabasso; St. Francis, Buffalo; St. Stanislaus, Winona; St. Michael, Morgan; St. Mary, Bellchester; St. Felix, Wabasha; St. Peter, Canby; and Good Counsel Academy, Mankato. She also taught at Notre Dame Academy and Guardian Angel, Colton, Washington; St. Mary, New England; St. Gertrude, Raleigh; and Trinity, Dickinson, all in North Dakota; and Don Bosco, Gilbertville, Iowa. She earned her BA in English in 1951 from the College of St. Catherine, and an MA in Guidance and Counseling from Loras College, Dubuque, in 1969. In 1976 she became certified to teach English as a Foreign Language from the English Language Institute of the University of Michigan.

While teaching at Good Counsel Academy, she focused on teaching English to girls from foreign countries and, after the Academy closed in 1980, continued this ministry at the Good Counsel Learning Center. Sister Margaret Mary described her further involvement in this special application of teaching English: "In 1987, my classmates and I were invited to participate in the Rome Renewal Program. That was a life-changing experience. In one of the presentations we attended, we were encouraged to do all we could to help immigrant and refugee women to learn English. Since in the providence of God, I was already helping foreign students in the study of English, this message found a place in my heart. On returning home, I contacted the Lincoln Community Center in Mankato and began helping international students to learn English. This experience enriched my life by enabling me eventually to assist students from over twenty different countries from five continents in their efforts to learn English. Most satisfying to me were the classes in which I tutored sisters from Japan, Poland and India." Since she wrote the above, she also worked with sisters from Germany and Brazil to help prepare them for service in our international SSND community. As her health declined, she cut back on the number of students, but still taught international students from Loyola High School, who met with her in Notre Dame Hall. She formally retired in 2013 with a special celebration hosted by the Learning Center staff but "un-retired" to teach one last student, Sister Adelaide Gambin, from Brazil.

Sister Margaret Mary maintained lasting relationships with former pupils. In her autobiography she mentioned a SS. Peter & Paul student from her candidature days with whom she still corresponded. A former student from St. Agnes, St. Paul, used the "Searching for a Sister" feature on the SSND webpage to locate Sister Margaret Mary. When Sister Margaret Mary contacted him, the two began exchanging e-mail messages and he surprised her with a lovely bouquet of flowers to show his appreciation.

Sister Margaret Mary loved words and the English language and often expressed herself in poetry. In a poem expressing her gratitude to God for the beauty of winter, she wrote in part,Marvelous! Sunrays refract, reflect, disperse. Wonderful! Pastel tints glisten, a light to the world.

She also prepared a short obituary for herself. In it she wrote, "Sister Margaret Mary loved her family, her students, and her Sisters in community. She enjoyed reading, writing, and the beauty of nature." Visits from faithful family members and friends attest to her love for family and friends.

The conclusion of Sister Margaret Mary's autobiography states: "I am grateful to God for my vocation to the religious life and for the support I have received from my family, community, friends and students. There have been disappointments and sorrows over the years, but graces and consolations have been more abundant. Now I wait in joyful expectation for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." May she now fully behold the joy that comes only from being in the presence of God!