 S. Mary Ganly, age 93, a beloved sister of St. Joseph for 77 years, died at Chestnut Hill Hospital on February 19, 2008. Her funeral mass was offered at St. Joseph Villa on February 26, 2008.
Mary was born in Philadelphia, PA in 1914, the older of two daughters of William and Ann Malloy. She attended Our Lady of Mercy Grade School where she first met the Sisters of St. Joseph; she continued and deepened that relationship as a student at Hallahan High School. In 1931 at the age of 17 Mary entered the Sisters of St. Joseph and 12 years later her sister Therese joined her in the Congregation.
In her living history recorded in 2001, S. Mary spoke lovingly of her 43 years of ministry in education as a classroom teacher: “Those years were very happy and profitable ones. I can remember many happy experiences in school and have had the joy of seeing and hearing from many of my students throughout the years.” In describing her 20 years in parish ministry S. Mary said, “I could fill a book with the many blessed experiences I had!” She detailed a variety of learnings and experiences: running meetings, facilitating groups, participating in RCIA, conducting workshops for Eucharistic Ministers, visiting Hospice patients, and being a Eucharistic minister to the sick and homebound.
S. Mary valued the opportunities that came with changes in the Church after Vatican II. In working on parish staffs with both men and women she experienced how women were included in planning and decision making and encouraged to contribute ideas and make suggestions.
In 1998 S. Mary became a resident at St. Joseph Villa following her 12 years as a parish minister at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, Roseland, NJ. In tribute to her beloved memory there, a memorial Mass was offered for Mary at O. L. of the Blessed Sacrament Church on March 8, 2008.
At her funeral Mass at the Villa, S. Therese Ganly, S. Mary’s sister, offered a reflection that was a litany of thanks in Mary’s name to those whose lives had touched hers in her different missions throughout the years. S. Therese assured all, “You were in her heart in her final days as you have been throughout the years.”
S. Mary’s final gift was the donation of her body to science. The Sisters of St. Joseph give thanks for the self-emptying love that is the legacy of S. Mary Ganly’s life and death! We rejoice in the fullness of life she now enjoys
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