Sister Benita DeMatteis

As a child I knew I wanted to do 2 things in my life: to be a teacher and to serve the church. The Altar and Rosary Society at our parish used to took me along to many visits of convents that they were making at the time. When they visited the Benedictine Sisters of Pittsburgh it was on August 15 and we joined in their sung feastday Vespers and I fell in love with it. Of all the places we visited I felt that even at the age of 13 I knew that this was the right place. I went home and discussed it with my parents and they agreed to let me join the aspirant class for high school. I had a lot of support from my home parish. There were 3 other girls in the aspirant class and with them I enjoyed learning to be away from home and independent. The sisters made me feel very welcome.

The best thing about our community is the family atmosphere. The community has given me an excellent education and offered me the opportunity to grow through my ministry as teacher, administrator, diocesan consultant and now the Prioress of the community. Everything I know and everything I have become I hope to give back to the community through this new challenging ministry.

I love the field of education! The students always gave back to me as much as I thought that I was giving them. I was hoping that they would take the selves that they were developing back to society and the church and make a great contribution.

I enjoy sitting with the different generations of sisters and learning about their cultural and world experiences. I like the simplicity of our life and the structure of daily prayer and ministering and mingling with one another. It’s wonderful to live with other people with the same goals as I have and together to bring those to the world through our ministry, prayer and reflection. Everyday I see a ray of sunshine from the sisters around me which gives me the strength and encouragement to live the new day.