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Seeds were being planted early for Luella’s vocation in life. The small rural community was rich in faith. Catholics were in the minority and children worked hard for their knowledge of God and for the understanding of their Catholic faith. Luella learned through correspondence courses, Saturday afternoon catechism classes and two-week summer vacation school sessions with the Benedictine Sisters. In the early 1950’s, Father McGurk, the pastor, brought the Sisters of St. Joseph from Wichita to Woodward to teach religion and do social work there and in the surrounded missions.
So, when Luella reached the decision to enter Religious Life, she found her way to Wichita, where things changed for her. The first was her name and she very appropriately received her
“The stone that the builders rejected as has become the cornerstone.” A guiding principle for Sister Martina White has taken her through life with the knowledge that she can walk through adversity with the knowledge that God has plans for her that are only for her good. Little Luella Mae, the oldest of five children, was born into the world in 1936 at 11:55 p.m. She lived the first years of her life on her Grandfather White’s farm near Woodward, Oklahoma, were she attended a one room school with 15 other students.
1947 was a significant year in Luella’s life. Agnes: In April, Woodward was hit by a devastating tornado, which swept through the entire length of the town, leaving a mile wide path of rubble. In August, the White farm was sold and her family moved into a partially remodeled duplex located in the hardest hit portion of the town. Perhaps this was where Luella saw much rebuilding, stones being rejected and later becoming part of the buildings that would bring life back to the city.
mother’s confirmation name, Martina. Her mother was always the most significant person in her life. Sister Martina finished her novitiate in 1957 and for the next 11 years her place of ministry was changed each year. Sister Martina was to spread her influence upon grade school children throughout Kansas and into Oregon, until she found what was perhaps her true calling, serving in the business offices at St. Mary of the Plains College and the health systems of the Sisters of St. Joseph, where she remains to this day.
50 Years
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