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Jesuit Journeys
Winter 2000
101 and still teaching
in a class by herself |
| Approaching his 50th birthday, Fr. Dick Burbach, SJ accepted his first assignment as a pastor 10 years after becoming a priest. While he expected to learn a lot from parishioners at the Church of St. Luke in St. Paul, Minnesota, he didn't expect so many lessons to come from someone more than twice his age. |
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By Fr. Dick Burbach, SJ
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 Monday's phone message read, "Myrtle Hunstiger - 100 years old. Very important!" My initial return calls failed - no answer. Having just a month earlier become pastor of the Church of St. Luke in St. Paul, Minnesota, I feared the worst.
Was there an urgency? Was she being rushed to the hospital? Was I failing at my job by being pastorally unavailable to someone in need?
Myrtle's Wednesday message reassured me she was OK and informed me this 100-year-old former parishioner was writing a book about St. Luke's. With curiosity piqued, I continued to call, still with no answer. That Friday Myrtle appeared in person at the parish office. She came to St. Luke's with a friend to pray at her favorite spot in the church - near the Third Station. She brought short stories and a children's book of prayers she had written, as well as a selection of her poems. Unfortunately, I was out.
As I eventually would discover, Myrtle Elizabeth Hunstiger - teacher, writer, poet, raconteur, and witness to history - is a jewel, a rich corner of which is embedded in the historical mosaic that is the Church of St. Luke
Parish history and tradition date back more than a century to 1888. Jesuits assumed pastoral responsibility here only five years ago, but the convent was converted to our novitiate 20 years ago. And though I had lived at the novitiate from 1992-96 while province vocation director, my ministry allowed but minimal interaction with the parish.
Myrtle was a St. Luke's parishioner for 28 years. Widowed in 1978, she and her husband had three kids, all of whom graduated from the parish grade school. Myrtle wasn't born Catholic. She converted at St. Luke's. Today her son Tom is a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Jerry has a family in the Twin Cities, and Anne is a mother of five in Maryland.
Myrtle's association with Jesuits is not limited to the parish. She now lives a few miles away at Holy Family Residence sponsored by Little Sisters of the Poor. Jesuit novices have worked regularly at "Little Sisters" since the early 1970s. Currently Elton Fernandes, nSJ and Kevin Dyer, nSJ do ministry at the residence. As her return visit to pray at the Third Station suggests, however, one never really "leaves" a parish like St. Luke's.
When I finally met Myrtle in person, I found myself face-to-face with 100 years of living history. Time flew as she shared stories - stories of growing up in Stillwater (where historical markers proclaim "Minnesota began"); of visiting her grandmother, a "true pioneer" whose ginger cookies were a favorite of local Native Americans; and of playing keyboard in a ragtime band. The very building where Myrtle taught for five years beginning in 1918 is now a refurbished monument to the one-room schoolhouse.
Blessed with insatiable curiosity, spunky good humor, and keen memory, Myrtle meets often with local historians, sharing stories as they mine gems from her rich past.
There are many, such as how her friendship with a teacher at the parish school inspired the idea behind a patent she owns. When the teacher, an elderly Sr. Mary Michael, CSJ, developed bed sores on her elbows and knees, Myrtle invented protective wrap-around cushions called "Petty Point Pals" that allowed the sores to heal. When Msgr. John Cullinan, a much-beloved former pastor, celebrated his 102nd birthday, Myrtle was there.
Verbally engaging, Myrtle is also adept at putting her thoughts on paper in prose and poety. She has given numerous copies of her book of prayer-poems for children, Thank you, God, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary-St. Luke's Grade School. But not all of her stories or poems are child-like or humorous. Her poem My Reviewing Stand and an essay that shares the title express her affection for the Third Station as a place where personal suffering can be placed in manageable perspective.
"From this station it seems as though I can pick up my cross right along with Jesus and go with Him the rest of the way," she writes in the essay. "Though I fall again, I will always know where to get the power that keeps me going."
As these lines reflect, Myrtle remains, above all, a teacher. Her lessons, however, no longer are delivered from the front of a classroom. They reveal themselves in a gesture or a simple statement uttered in conversation. When she told me about the Petty Point Pals, her words did more than describe her invention. They reminded me how unpredictable life can be, how surprising, how filled with unexpected gifts, how, if we remain open, inspiration can come anywhere, anytime.
Meeting Myrtle prompted in me a renewed love for life. I was stunned when she told me she had not begun writing seriously until she was 60. In her advancing years, this woman gives me hope for the future. By breaking stereotypes and shattering my presumptions, she reminds me never to take anyone, especially the elderly, for granted.
Whenever I leave Myrtle she never fails to thank me "for taking time out from your busy schedule." |
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| Elton Fernandes, nSJ (above left) and Kevin Dyer, nSJ (above right) listen as Fr. Dick Burbach, SJ reads aloud one of Myrtle Hunstiger's many poems. Fernandes and Dyer, first-year Jesuit novices, visit with Myrtle regularly in the course of their ministry work with the elderly. |
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In truth, I selfishly look forward to these visits because, in her own way, she pastors me. By gracious, gentle example Myrtle reminds me of what is important - living each moment gratefully, making people a priority, sharing whatever we have as gift for others, and finding God in all things and circumstances. I leave energized.
"At 100 she is still thinking of new ways to use her poetry," observes Chris Hartmann, who has faithfully helped transcribe, compile, and publish Myrtle's stories and poetry for years. "She is resilient in the face of change, convinced of the goodness in people. She always has something humorous to say… and always approaches relationships with a positive attitude. Myrtle renews my faith in the fortitude of the human spirit."
In 1976, a local newspaper printed one of Myrtle's poems and an article about her that described Myrtle as "77 years old and going full speed ahead… Her warmth and compassion are put into all her projects. Myrtle has so much energy she is planning on being around for the turn of the century. And although she'll be 101, I have a feeling she'll be there, going full speed ahead." That reporter was more prophetic than she could have imagined.
Jesuits have come recently to the Church of St. Luke and have discovered the treasure of a rich, 112-year history. A new pastor here, I met Myrtle Hunstiger and found a precious 100-year-old jewel whose life, like that of the church she loves, spans three centuries. Her message for the parish and pastor?
"Remember the Third Station, and full speed ahead." |
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| My Reviewing Stand |
Myrtle Hunstiger at her favorite place for reflection, the Third Station of the Cross. |
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By Myrtle Hunstiger
Third Station is the place I go each day
That I feel small and want to hide away.
It is there I know I have honor rare ~
My Lord will pass with proof that He does care!
Reviewing Stand is where a marcher tries
To do his utmost as he passes by
To satisfy the honored ones, so they
Will see the proof of honor there, this way.
So here, no matter how small I might feel,
My value of true worth, it is made real.
Now I can sit and watch in honored place
My Lord, Who falls here for the human race!
I think, "What value in my life could be
So great, that bearing cross by Him for me
Could be but only honor for each soul
Who looks upon that cross to reach his goal!
My pride in earthly things, this matters naught
If I forget this fall while love He sought!
Here somehow I can feel His outstretched hand
To prove His love in my Reviewing Stand.
Third Station of the Cross, here lift your own,
And prove that through this fall that He has shown
Your value. Hold your head up high and smile
And prove your worth, Just follow Him each mile! |
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Return to Winter 2000 issue
Next Article: Creighton U. on the cusp of a new era
Previous Article - Jesuit's activism in U.S. fosters
hope for changes in Indonesia
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