A love of people and a deep commitment to God led Ararat\u2019s Sister Maree Holt to a lifetime of service to the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n
Sister Maree recently celebrated 60 years as a nun, and doesn\u2019t expect to slow down anytime soon.<\/p>\n
She told the Advocate this week, the influence of nuns during her final years at secondary school played a big part in her commitment to the church.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lived in Bacchus March and in year eight I went to a Catholic boarding school in Mentone and I boarded there for the last four years of my education,\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always keen to be a teacher, but then when I was at school with the sisters, and there were a lot of nuns in schools in those days not like now, I got to know a lot of them and I was attracted to that way of life and it just followed from there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way of life of the sisters, the fun they had and how they helped one another and being good teachers, that appealed to me. It was also a call from God,\u201d<\/p>\n
Sister Maree joined the Brigidine sisters in 1959 and was professed in 1961.<\/p>\n
She has been in Ararat since 1999, which is her second stint at the local parish, having spent four years here in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
Her work has also taken her to Horsham, Mordialloc, Malvern, Kyabram, Maryborough and Wangaratta.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not our choice where we go, we were sent where there was a need but I\u2019m glad I\u2019m here in Ararat,\u201d Sister Maree said<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been involved in the schools since leaving Wangaratta in 1999, but I am involved in parish work, pastoral work, visiting families and visiting the sick and I\u2019m involved in preparing and planning church services,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sister Maree said the people she comes into contact with is the best aspect of being a nun.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the people. I used to love the children and the teachers, now it is spread out a bit further, I\u2019ve moved out of the schools into the wider community, I get to see people out in the community and in their homes\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
St Mary\u2019s Church recently held a mass and luncheon marking Sister Maree\u2019s outstanding service.<\/p>\n
Ararat\u2019s Catholic Women\u2019s League also paid tribute to her years of service at their recent Christmas lunch.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A love of people and a deep commitment to God led Ararat\u2019s Sister Maree Holt to a lifetime of service to the Catholic Church. Sister Maree recently celebrated 60 years as a nun, and doesn\u2019t expect to slow down anytime soon. She told the Advocate this week, the influence of nuns during her final years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/IMG_4033-2.jpg?fit=1280%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-88","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}