A Travelling Nun tells Her Story: Sr Merrilyn Lee fdnsc
With thanks to OLSH Parish Bulletin, Randwick
The Church and Parish of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart has had an important place in the life of Sr Merrilyn Lee, even from the time before she was born. Billie Banks and Kevin Lee, her parents, met at the Randwick Catholic Tennis Club and were married in this Church on a wet Saturday in 1942, just after the bombing of Darwin. Merrilyn was baptised there by Fr John Lee msc, her grand uncle. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart must have had her eyes on Merrilyn even then!
Merrilyn went to St Mary’s Primary School at Maroubra Bay and attended Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College, Kensington, for her secondary schooling instead of the Brigidine College at Randwick. It was at Kensington that Merilyn was introduced to the Spirituality of the Heart which ignited the desire within her to spread the Love of the Heart of Jesus everywhere. Every First Friday in those days was very special and Merrilyn remembers well the hymns and processions associated with these devotions.
After leaving Kensington in 1962 Merrilyn knew she was being called to join the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, but she was not too convinced that this was what she wanted to do but was prepared to give it a try. It was also a struggle for her parents; she had an older brother Terry and a very young brother and sister, John and Helen whom she had to leave behind.
Merrilyn went to the Novitiate at Hartzer Park Bowral in 1965 where she met young women from five different cultures and nations – Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Philippines, Indigenous and Anglo Australian. It was through this diverse group of enthusiastic young women that Merrilyn felt the desire to go to the Missions. After teacher training at North Sydney she taught Kindergarten at St Therese Primary School Mascot for a year and following that spent 2 years at the OLSH Boys’ School Bowral.
On 1 January 1974 Merrilyn flew to the British Colony of the Gilbert and Ellis Islands – now known as 2 countries, the Republics of Kiribati and of Tuvalu.
For the next 20 years Merrilyn was in the Pacific, working in Catholic primary schools, facilitating teacher training, catechist formation and at the Pacific Regional Seminary in Fiji. This time was very enriching with extraordinary life experiences which deepened Merrilyn’s faith. The people of Kiribati have a deep love of Our Lady. It was through their devotion to Mary before any priests arrived in the islands that Merrilyn learned to appreciate more deeply the place of Mary in her own life.
In 1994 Merrilyn returned to Australia which necessitated having to learn what it meant to be an Australian in the 1990s. So much had changed, she had so much to learn.
It was at this time Merrilyn was able to complete a Bachelor of Theology degree where she was able to use credits from courses she had done in Rome in the 1980s. Merrilyn was then appointed to Hartzer Park Retreat Centre, another enriching experience.
In 2005 Merrilyn went to South Africa to help at St Brendan’s Catholic Secondary School near the Zimbabwe border. It was there that Merrilyn met the girls at Bakhita Village. These primary school orphan girls were grateful for the opportunity to get a good education in safety and security. Merrilyn enjoyed helping them in the afternoon with their homework and one experience she remembers well was one day when she was helping Phillipine, a 6 year old, and Phillipine fell asleep with her head on Merrilyn’s lap. The little girl was so tired Merrilyn refused to wake her. The 3 km walk to school and then back again was quite a challenge for such small children. Phillipine is now at university doing law; this student’s success is one of the good stories! However, the future for her is very uncertain, as employment is hard to find, and now Covid-19 has made it more so.
After 9 years in South Africa it was time to return to Australia. Now Merrilyn is back at Hartzer Park Conference Retreat Centre which, as this is being written, is currently in lockdown.
We trust the future to the Lord, says Merrilyn, so wherever she is she will continue to live our motto of being ‘On Earth the Heart of God’ – May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be Everywhere Loved.
