Louise O'Reilly

Sister Louise O’Reilly, SNDdeN was a student at Notre Dame High School, San Jose, when Sister Mary Reginald commented one day, “You have such a nice smile. Have you ever thought of being a Sister?” Sister Louise didn’t know what having a nice smile had to do with being a Sister, but she felt drawn to the Sisters and their charism, “God is good.” She says, “That belief was very strong in my own faith life.” 

For all Sisters, it isn’t why they entered religious life that is important, but why they have stayed. For Sister Louise, these reasons have clarified and deepened along the way. “It was getting to know the community more fully, the prayer life, the influences of Vatican II renewal years, learning more deeply the story of our foundresses and the opportunities to be stretched and challenged,” she explains.   

Vatican II changes were being implemented when Sister Louise was young in the community. The richness of the Council documents and its challenges resonated with her. She says, “The Council also put religious life in a state of ongoing change that has sometimes been very unsettling. Many Sisters left. We lost convents and had to forge new ways of living in community. But community, prayer and reflection became ever more important in my life.” 

Over the years, Sister Louise has given her heart and gifts to many ministries. She taught in Notre Dame elementary schools in California and Hawaii and was principal of Mission Dolores in San Francisco. One of her favorite memories is of a three-grade religion class in Watsonville, California, when she was teaching about Jesus. “One little girl raised her hand and asked so sincerely, ‘Do you know him?’ Now there’s a question!” she exclaims.  

Sister Louise later served as formation director for the California Province and started the development program for Moreland Notre Dame School in Watsonville. She enjoyed working at the Mission Office for the Archdiocese of San Francisco and as pastoral associate at St. John the Evangelist Parish in San Francisco.  

“I loved parish ministry and especially faith formation with adults and helping them to be effective liturgical ministers,” she says. After serving 10 years in leadership for the Sisters in California, she then served as the director of Mission Integration for Notre Dame schools in California and with the East-West Province. Sharing the Sisters’ legacy story and the Hallmarks of a Notre Dame Learning Community were particularly meaningful to her at that time. 

Sister Louise’s religious life has been rich and filled with unexpected blessings. She names especially the trust and confidence the community placed in her for ministry and leadership, and the opportunities to experience the diversity and internationality of Notre Dame de Namur. She once said, “I am grateful for our Notre Dame community, the Sisters I’ve lived with, the many people I’ve worked among and learned from and my family and their own examples of fidelity and living life well.” 

Updated in 2025