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From the Interstate to the Inner Life
Editor’s note: Sr. Mary Annette Gailey, CSFN, made her final vows in May2007 at the Nazareth Academy High School Chapel in Philadelphia. With relatively few women professing final vows in religious communities in the U.S. each year, Sr. Mary Annette’s profession was certain to make news in the local Catholic press. But this event made headlines across Pennsylvania and in national specialty media. Sr. Mary Annette also was profiled by Philadelphia TV legend Edie Huggins. Here’s why Sr. Mary Annette’s journey to Nazareth generated that small flurry of media attention. Mary Annette Gailey trades Mack truck for the vowed life at Nazareth  Long-haul trucking “was a significant part of my discernment” regarding religious life, according to Sr. Mary Annette Gailey, CSFN, who professed her final vows in May in Philadelphia.
From the time she was 12, Sr. Mary Annette knew she wanted to drive big-rig trucks – specifically, Mack trucks. After all, her father worked in the engine plant for Mack, and she knew they were the best. “No one can beat their transmissions; that’s why you see them in all the construction trucks,” she notes. It was a circuitous road to her short trucking career and eventually, to the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. “We didn’t see sisters a lot growing up” in the Harrisburg (PA) diocese, Mary Annette notes. She traveled outside her parish to Corpus Christi parish school in Chambersburg, PA, where she was taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph, and then attended public high school. “There were no sisters in our parish…and when I really was beginning to discern religious life, I didn’t see the Sisters of St. Joseph.” After college, she worked in after-school and day-care programs. “I liked being able to do constructive, fun activities that taught the children something without the pressure of a classroom.” But she couldn’t pay off her college loans on that salary, so she moved into retail food management, customer service and computer work, including a stint as an assistant manager for a convenience store. “Two things were going on during that time – one I was aware of; the other I came to understand later: “I always was moving into something better [better salary, more responsibility]… “And I was always getting to a place of eagerness. I wanted to learn something new, different – to see if this was the ‘it’ that was my life’s passion. “Now when I look back at it, I was searching for something that really felt like my life’s call; I just didn’t know it.” Mary Annette had several epiphanies along the way. One of them came late at night, when she was sitting in the back office of the convenience store, counting cash, “and I realized, this just isn’t doing it for me. As much as I loved customer service and the people, it just wasn’t enough.” And she realized “I wanted to follow my dream to drive a truck.”  So she took a voluntary demotion to the role of customer service representative and enrolled in trucking school. “I knew that if it didn’t work out, I could always get a job, support myself working in computers.” But it did work out. Soon she had her license and was on the road – driving Macks, of course. Most importantly, “there was only one person out there on the road with me – and that was the Holy Spirit.”
Within six months, she knew she would be doing something else. “On one haul, I heard a voice, ‘When you’re finished with this and park this rig, I have places to take you…’” She attended her first discernment weekend while still driving the truck, and began spending occasional weekends in Danville, PA, with the Sisters of Cyril and Methodius. Eventually, she spent a week with the “Opt for the City” program for women discerning a vocation. The Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth hosted that particular week in Philadelphia. “It was a wonderful experience of prayer, community and ministry all in one week. I stayed at their convent…and when I left, I felt like I was leaving home.” The Sisters of Cyril and Methodius encouraged her to visit the Philadelphia sisters again, and Mary Annette had found her “it.” “I was attracted to their charism, their devotion to the Holy Family. I had that growing up – our pastor at home had a great devotion to the Holy Family. I was attracted to their ministry to families” and the opportunity to serve families through a variety of ministries. Mary Annette became a live-in affiliate of the Sisters of the Holy Family in 1997-’98; she entered the community on Oct. 2, 1998, and took her first temporary vows in May 2002. Final vows are an extension of these past years; “it means I say ‘yes’ to Jesus every day for the rest of my life.” This fall, Sr. Mary Annette continues her work at Nazareth Academy High School, serving as the part-time chaplain and working in the front office. What do her students think about her story and all the media interest?
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