Sister Louise Ann Delisi

What a blessing it was for me that my parents chose to live in St. Ann's Parish and to send me and my three siblings to St. Ann's School when we moved to Texas from Memphis, Tennessee in 1936!

The Sisters of Charity of the lncarnate Word staffed our school and I can still name each teacher from each grade 1.It was during these years when I experienced the kindness of the Sisters, and the wonderful feeling that they loved us and respected us, that I began to desire to be a Sister “just like them."

However, while I was in High School, my social life was such fun that I began to tell God, "Don't call me. Call my sister, she's the holy one!" Now, after sixty-seven years in Religious Life, l can truly say that l am deeply grateful that God did not listen to me and that He gave me the grace to respond to His loving call.

Religious Life in general is now very different from the experience of those of us who became "Brides of Christ" in August of 1947, but the call, the intimate relationship with our Beloved Jesus, sharing in Community, and the opportunity to serve and accomplish much more as a congregation than one could ever do as an individual, remains the essence of Religious Life. Jesus promised us that if we would leave home and family (and lead a counter-culture lifestyle), He would provide a hundredfold of homes, families and life everlasting! [Matthew 19:29]. Jesus also promised, "l am with you always, until the end of the world!" [Matthew 28-20]. Jesus has been faithful. He has also understood my need for redemption and forgiveness; and especially my need for His love which allows me to pray with the psalmist: “One thing l ask of the Lord, this l seek, to dwell in the House of the Lord all my days, that l may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord." [Psalm 27].

Sister Louise Ann Delisi entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the lncarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas in 1947 and made perpetual vows in 1955. For ten years Sister Louise served in ministry in elementary schools in San Antonio, Kerrville and San Angelo, Texas. For eighteen years Sister served as Business Manager at lncarnate Word College. She taught at lncarnate Word High School for four years, before moving to Austin, Texas to be near her elderly mother while she served as Adult Education Director in St. Louis Parish. Upon her return to San Antonio, Sister Louise worked for four years at St. Pius X School and five years at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa, before retiring to The Village at lncarnate Word.