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Sister Margaret McCabe, SNDdeN

May 27, 1943 – April 7, 2024

“For I know well the plans I have in mind for you—oracle of the LORD—plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

Patrick McCabe and Margaret Murphy both emigrated from Ireland to the New York City area in the 1920s. There they met and married. Opportunities for work took them to the Philadelphia area where they welcomed their first child, Mary, in 1940. The McCabes welcomed their second child, Margaret Ann (Peggy), in May of 1943.  The family lived in St. Rose of Lima Parish where Peggy was baptized and later confirmed. Education was highly valued by the McCabes. Peggy later recounted her mother taking every opportunity to teach her skills for life: explaining the pictures in a book so Peggy could learn to tell time, helping her count the change they received at the store, and explaining how to check receipts. Mrs. McCabe wanted Peggy to know necessary skills and understand how things worked. Peggy's formal education built on lessons at home. Her primary education was with the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters at St. Rose of Lima Parish School and her secondary education was at West Catholic High School which was staffed by a number of different religious orders, including the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.

Peggy began to think about entering a religious order during high school. She read the life of St. Julie, foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, and resonated deeply with Julie's emphasis on serving those most in need. Peggy decided to enter the Sisters of Notre Dame. Her mother, however, wanted Peggy to marry and have a family. Mrs. McCabe would not even talk about the possibility of her daughter having a religious vocation. The Sisters were quietly supportive and encouraged Peggy to attend Mass regularly and to pray. They provided Peggy with reading material to feed her spiritual life. Her desire to dedicate her life to serving others, especially the most disadvantaged, grew. Graduation came and went. Mrs. McCabe continued to oppose Peggy's desire to enter. So Peggy found a job and began to save what she needed for the entrance dowry. Once she had it, she said good-bye to her parents and left home to follow where God was leading her. During a visit to her parents years later, Mrs. McCabe asked, "Are you happy?" Peggy replied, "I'm very happy." From then on her mother seemed to be at peace with the path Peggy had been called to follow.

September 2, 1962 Peggy entered the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur at Ilchester, MD. The Second Vatican Council was opened by Pope John XXIII five weeks later and closed just months after she made her first vows. Little did Peggy or the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur know the impact the Council would have on their lives corporately and individually. With other new members, Peggy entered into the structure and customs of community life that had been in place for 150 years. She began training to teach and was given the name Sister Patrick Moira. Sisters responsible for her early formation and Sisters in leadership tried to balance helping new members of the community in the spirit and traditions of the community while alerting them to changes that were coming. Peggy found it an exciting and a confusing time. She appreciated and welcomed the changes, but struggled to understand the reasons for them. The call to serve continued to deepen. Peggy kept her focus on God and took the leap of faith to make first vows in 1965 as change whirled around her. 

For the next few years Peggy taught at parish schools in Ilchester and Baltimore, MD. In 1970 she was missioned to St. Francis Xavier Parish School in Washington, D.C., where she served for ten years. In 1976 Peggy was asked to add the duties of Assistant Principal at St. Francis Xavier in addition to teaching. The summers and many weekends were spent studying. Peggy enjoyed studying, but her focus was always on how it could help her serve those in need. It was the era of new innovations in education, especially of the disadvantaged and she sought out courses that could help her be more effective with her students. After Peggy received a M.A. in Teaching and Counseling from Trinity College in 1980, she was missioned to the Academy of Notre Dame, K Street, Washington, D.C., to serve as Religion teacher and counselor. Her work at K Street opened her eyes to the disastrous effects poverty had on some of her students as Peggy realized learning problems were related to extremely challenging home situations. She felt helpless to address the roots of the problems impacting her students. Some Sisters of Notre Dame were serving outside of formal education to address some of these challenges. Peggy turned to one who ministered as a social worker to ask for advice about how to refer her students to agencies that could give them the help she could not. She also felt tugged to move out of formal education into areas where she could more directly address the problems of poverty.

Peggy gathered a group of people she trusted to help her discern what God was calling her to do. As a result of that discernment, in 1985 she began working toward a degree in Social Work with a specialization in Mental Health at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Graduating with her M.S.W. in 1987, Peggy began her social work ministry with Health Care for the Homeless in Washington, D.C. She was a listening presence to the homeless in the shelters, offering help to get them benefits that might improve their situations. The homeless taught Peggy that there are no easy solutions and she began to understand why people chose to stay on the street. She listened to her supervisor who warned her she was not receiving the supervision she needed for her own ongoing training and looked for another ministry. 

Community Connections, an alternative community program for mentally ill persons who had lived in large institutions, hired Peggy as a Crisis Social Worker. It was the era of “de-institutionalizing” mental health services. The laws mandating the changes were good, but they were not funded. Peggy later explained, “…groups developed programs like Community Connections to offer services to people who were ‘de-institutionalized.’ I saw a lot of poverty, and a lot of bureaucracy.  I learned that just putting new laws in place did not take care of problems.  I carried a full caseload – I was helping all the while I got supervised experience.  I loved it!” In April of 1991, Peggy began serving as the Crisis Program Director for Crossing Place, under the umbrella of the Potomac Residence Club in Washington, D.C.  It was an alternative program designed to stabilize people experiencing mental health distress. Peggy felt her ministry at Crossing Place deeply resonated with the mission of the Sisters of Notre Dame to reach out to the most neglected. She shared, “The staff could go out to try to attract the poor homeless people to come in.  We tried to get them comfortable with the place.  We could feed them, let them get a shower, and then let them go away to think about coming back.” They did come back to a staff filled with compassionate people. Peggy poured herself into this much needed, and often stressful, ministry for the next eight years. It brought her deep joy and certitude she was doing what God wanted her to do. She left Crossing Place in 1991 when she was asked to respond to needs for internal ministry in the community. Years later Peggy spoke of the call to internal ministry as a true blessing because it probably kept her from experiencing burnout.

Peggy began serving as Administrator of Villa Julie Residence, Stevenson, MD, on January 1, 2000. Villa Julie was a retirement and care home for Sisters of Notre Dame in the Mid-Atlantic area. Peggy later shared that one of the biggest blessings she received while there was being able to pray with the people she was serving. That had not been possible as a social worker. Peggy said, “I found the words to pray with our sisters in their moment of need: when they fall, I kneel on the floor and pray with them until help comes.  When they are kept waiting, lying on a gurney in an emergency room, I pray with them, while I beg for the staff to help them.”

Her ability to organize, plan and keep track of the many details were also needed as Peggy carried out her responsibilities with quiet efficiency, loving compassion, and good humor. The experience of ministering to her own community opened her to another call: pastoral care. She enrolled in a year-long Clinical Pastoral Education program in September, 2004. That program prepared her to serve people in need through hospital ministries in the Baltimore area until her eyesight began to fail. In 2009, Peggy started volunteering in the Tri-Province Development Office, which was based at Villa Julie. By 2014, she became a member of the Villa Julie Community, continuing to help in any way she could.

Community was always important to Peggy. She followed communications faithfully, participated in meetings, Assemblies, Sing Programs and Circle Conversations, enjoyed community celebrations and held all of it in prayer. Her experience living and working at Villa Julie was a grace in an unexpected way. Peggy had opportunities to experience her Sisters in new and deeper ways that expanded existing friendships, created new ones and opened spaces for healing and transformation. Peggy was missioned to Mount Notre Dame Health Center the summer of 2017. She made herself at home in a new physical environment, enjoyed welcoming other Sisters from the Baltimore area when they joined the Mount Notre Dame community, and delighted in the opportunity to get to know and build relationships with Sisters she had never met.  Extreme physical pain and the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic were tremendous challenges for Peggy. She found herself cut off from so many of the ways she experienced God, especially finding God’s goodness in those around her. Peggy turned to The Letters of St. Julie Billiart, Foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur as she had done so often before. She found solace in words written by Julie during circumstances that mirrored Peggy’s. When she shared with another Sister she didn’t have any hope, the Sister responded, “Ask for it.” Peggy followed that simple advice and could gradually began to feel lighter.

Her Sisters and friends experienced Peggy as humorous, interested, a good listener, a person of insight, and someone willing to take your intentions and hold them up to God in her prayer. She could be counted on to challenge the status quo and ask, “What about those most in need?” Peggy preferred action to waiting, living St. Julie’s advice, “Better mistakes than paralysis.” She valued depth of conversation and the risk of sharing with one another. Peggy experienced such conversations as the heartbreak and heart-mending of each other that creates transformation and the ability to see one another in a new light. This changed how Peggy saw people and events near and far, allowing her to pray for the same transformation for our world.

Peggy slipped peacefully into the arms of her good God in the early morning of Divine Mercy Sunday. As her community members, and all those who loved Peggy, gather to celebrate her life, we thank God for all the ways Peggy made known God’s goodness. We also find it fitting that the Gospel of the day calls us three times to hear and live the words of Jesus, “Peace be with you.” (John 20: 19-31) We ask God to enfold Peggy, all of us and our world in the peace only God can give. We ask Peggy to pray us the grace to live and share this peace our world so desperately needs as we pray: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love is everlasting!

BIO DATA

• Born May 27, 1943 at Philadelphia, PA
• Parents: Patrick McCabe (born: Ireland) and Margaret Murphy (born: Ireland)
• Sibling: Mary

 

• Baptized on June 20, 1943, at St. Rose of Lima Church, Philadelphia, PA
• Confirmed on March 20, 1950, at St. Rose of Lima Church, Philadelphia, PA
   
• Entered: September 2, 1962, at Ilchester, MD
• Professed First Vows: May 22, 1965
• Professed Final Vows: April 17, 1971

Education:

• West Catholic Girls’ High School, Philadelphia, PA, 1961
• B.S. in Education, Trinity College, Washington, D. C., 1979
• Masters of Arts in Teaching, Trinity College, Washington, D.C., 1980
• Masters in Social Work, Catholic University, Washington, D.C., 1987

Assignments Included:

• 1966-1967: Teacher, Our Lady of Victory, Baltimore, MD
• 1967-1970: Teacher, Trinity Lower School, Ilchester, MD
• 1970-1976: Teacher, St. Francis Xavier School, Washington, D.C.
• 1976-1980: Assistant Principal, St. Francis Xavier School, Washington, D.C.
• 1980-1985: Counselor, Academy of Notre Dame, K Street, Washington, D.C.
• 1985-1987: Student, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
• 6/1/1987-6/1/1988: Social Worker, Health Care for the Homeless, Washington, D.C.
• 7/1/1988-3/30/1991: Crisis Social Worker, Community Connections, Washington, D.C.
• 4/1/1991-9/30/1999: Crisis Program Director, Crossing Place, Potomac Residence Club, Washington, D.C.
• 10/1/1999-12/31/1999: Office Assistant, Chesapeake Province, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur,
• Baltimore, MD
• 1/2/2000-6/1/2004: Administrator, Villa Julie Residence, Stevenson, MD
• 9/1/2004-9/30/2005: CPE Chaplain Intern, St. Joseph Medical Center, Towson, MD
• 8/1/2005-10/31/2005: Chaplain, St. Joseph Medical Center, Towson, MD
• 8/1/2005-10/31/2005: Chaplain, University of Maryland Hospital, Baltimore, MD
• 11/1/2005-10/31/2008: Family Liaison, St. Joseph Medical Center (Surgical SVS. Department), Towson, MD
• 1/2/2009-8/31/2014: Volunteer, Tri-Province Development Office, Stevenson, MD
• 9/1/2014-7/1/2017: Prayer & Community Service, Villa Julie, Stevenson, MD
• 7/2/2017-2014 Prayer & Community Service, Mt. Notre Dame Health Center, Reading, OH

 

• Died: April 7, 2024 at Mt. Notre Dame Health Center, Reading, OH

 

Sr. Kim Dalgarn SNDdeN
 April 10, 2024