Ann Irene Howard

Back to Our Sisters

“I was raised to be a wife and mother, I discovered along the way that I was born to be a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur.”

When Sister Ann Howard, SNDdeN came into the family, her parents were married 10 years and were already raising two boys and a girl. Her birth caused an addition to be constructed on the house where they lived in the suburb of Trumbull, north of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Eighteen months later, her sister Patricia was born, and their house held eight members, including her Grandpa, who owned the house. Her Grandfather, the son of an immigrant farmer from Ireland, was the one who moved his family to Trumbull in 1938.

“As the fourth of five children, I think it is fair to say that I did not have to make many decisions until it came time to apply to college. Decision-making is, for me, a challenge to this day. With every ‘yes’, there are at least three ‘nos’. Now, I work with students towards practicing discernment in prayerful decision-making, in Ignatian spirituality.

Her neighborhood was a collective of mostly Catholic, mostly Italian and Irish families whose children attended the local Catholic school. As children, she and others formed a neighborhood playgroup (mostly unsupervised) and spent lots of time exploring the “valley” with its Housatonic River and long stretch of trail. The SSNDs and later the SHFN communities taught in the parish schools, and they played “school” and “Mass” as part of their after-school outdoor activities as they weathered the changes brought by Vatican II.

She recalls playing basketball and kickball, and the kids in her neighborhood accompanied each other through school until it came time for college, which sparked their venture into other worlds besides our intergenerational neighborhood. She joined the Girl Scouts, swim teams and an ecumenical youth group, taking a leadership role in the Nichols Youth Fellowship during senior year. She worked as a babysitter for a new family and later as a nurse assistant at the local St. Joseph’s Manor, run by the Carmelite Sisters of the Sick and Infirm. The older kids, early Baby Boomers, led the way, as nearly all embarked on college after high school.

Her brothers attended Fairfield Prep and then Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. The sisters attended the local public high school and state colleges. After graduating from the University of Connecticut in 1977, she asked to explore her religious life call with the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, who had a provincial house in nearby Fairfield. She had befriended the local community of SNDdeNs who lived on the beach in Milford, Conn., during her UConn days. “My parents agreed that I might try religious life, and ‘get it out of my system,’ however, the Sisters’ dedication to justice, to anti-apartheid efforts in South Africa, and to Jesus’ gospel way impressed me deeply and, to my friends’ surprise, I decided to stay another year, and another…and am happy for this decision to this day. My parents, Sue and Joseph, grew to love the SNDdeN and my part in this community, becoming avid supporters.”

As an SNDdeN, she taught elementary and adult students, studied theology and ministered in campus ministry, served as Notre Dame Mission Volunteer AmeriCorps site director, pastoral ministry in a parish and chaplaincy in a hospital.

She studied for an M.Div, graduating in 1990, so as to be ready for ordination, and, in 2007, taking CPE so as to become a Board Certified Chaplain. “Like many of my decisions in life, God’s own hand carried me further than I expected, because, for instance, I took CPE to learn ‘the art of listening’ better. What transpired, however, was gaining BCC status, which enabled me to sit with strangers in their homes or hospital rooms, and listen and then pray together, for the grace of a felt Presence during whatever the issues in hand were being presented, by family or work experiences, by health or spiritual yearnings.”

“Ministering as an SNDdeN, a disciple of St. Julie so dedicated to the education of women, especially the poor ones, has been a path of meaning and purpose that deepens as I grow older. And now, having moved to Washington, DC, from Connecticut for a place in a formation community, I have assumed duties as Director of Campus Ministry at Trinity Washington University, which has a beautiful story of reaching women who seek to be college-educated.

“I am grateful to all who have enabled me in this present position, and I trust God in my life to empower me each day to do good among God’s own cherished people.”

Her Highlights: “Being a friend, being a sister, being a Sister, becoming an auntie, and now Grandaunt, being a community member and holding the torch of God’s light to those I meet in daily ministry. Prayer is my privilege, as I remember so many each day, and also deepens my intimacy with Jesus in Scripture and my life as it becomes visible from the path I walk each day. Amen. Alleluia!”

“I was raised to be a wife and mother. I discovered along the way that I was born to be a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur.” Deo gratias!