In Hopes of Hatching
I have confidence “that Christ who broke through death will, someday break through me.” This poem by S. Jean Paul Zagorski invites us to reflection. Poetry offers a way to express thoughts and feelings. She remembers writing her first poem in seventh grade.
During high school, she was asked by fellow students to create parodies. They picked out popular songs and she wrote new lyrics for them to perform. She soon gained a reputation among her peers as a writer. Her writing of poetry slowly took hold. It really took off when she was a novice.
S. Jean Paul taught second grade at St. Augustine School in Milwaukee for four years and educated primary grade students at a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed boys in Green Bay. She then went to Alaska to teach the Yu’pik Eskimo people. The sisters trained catechists, prepared children for the sacraments of Eucharist, reconciliation and confirmation, helped with parish administration and served as substitute teachers in the public schools when needed. It was here that she learned how to clean fish, the most important food in the Yu’pik diet.
She returned to Milwaukee to teach special needs children. After her mother's death, she went to the Marshall Islands to teach special education and to do teacher training. A bad ear infection caused significant hearing loss. Returning home to Milwaukee, she studied to become a massage therapist. In 2010 she responded to a call to join the SSND community in Laredo, Texas where she served in volunteer ministry and taught religion at Our Lady of Guadalupe School.
Family members, friends and School Sisters of Notre Dame urged her to “write a book.” A collection of 50 years of her poetry, titled “Songs for Sometime Saints” was published in December 2013.
“Songs for Sometime Saints” may be purchased at the Notre Dame of Elm Grove gift shop, 13105 Watertown Plank Road, Elm Grove, Wis. The gift shop is open daily from 1-4 p.m. The book may also be ordered by mail using the order form at: www.ssndcentralpacific.org/file/Poetry-Book.pdf.
How do images and words inform your life? What feelings are you inspired to express?
Photo Collage Caption: These photos show Sister Jean Paul during her years of SSND ministry
– at a student’s First Communion, cleaning salmon in Alaska,
teaching in the Marshall Islands and working as a massage therapist.