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The Journey of an Ursuline: Sister Dorothy Helbling Marks 60 Years

Story by Rafe Middeke
Messenger staff

 

Sister Dorothy Helbling is an Ursuline woman religious. Being an Ursuline is, so to speak, stitched into the fabric of her spiritual, personal and psychological life.

Almost from the earliest days of her memory as a child in the small North Dakota town of St. Anthony, she thought of becoming an Ursuline sister.

“At my first Communion I promised God I would be a sister — like my teachers,” she said during a recent interview.

The promise grew in intention during the ensuing grade and high school years. While in high school “I wrote to my eighth-grade teacher and entered (the Ursuline community) right after high school on July 3, 1946. “I just felt it was the right thing to do,” she said.” Her saying from the very beginning was: “In the simplicity of my heart I have offered all things.”

Sister Helbling is reminded of her Ursuline heritage each morning as her waking eyes see the words of St. Angela Merici — founder in 1535 of the worldwide Ursuline communities — on a wall hanging in her bedroom.

St. Angela’s words on the hanging are: “Let your first refuge ever be at the feet of Jesus Christ.”

While the Ursuline journey has been constant the roads on which Sister Helbling traveled were not imagined 50 years ago.

The Ursulines were a teaching community, and she assumed that education would be her ministry throughout her religious life. In fact, it was for many years.

After receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in 1952 from St. Louis University in mathematics, she taught at St. James in Millstadt and Holy Rosary in Fairmont City. On Aug. 6 of 1952 she made her final profession of vows as an Ursuline. Aug. 6 was the date chosen for her jubilee celebration with her community and friends. The anniversary liturgy and reception were held in Mt. Carmel Cemetery’s Peace Chapel in Belleville.

Two years later Sister Helbling returned to North Dakota to teach mathematics and typing at St. Mary’s Central High School in Bismarck, N.D. She joined the faculty of Bishop Ryan High School in Minot, N.D., in 1958 beginning 16 years as a teacher of mathematics, physics and religion there.

In the meantime she had received a master’s degree in education from St. Louis University in 1956 and a master’s in mathematics from Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, Ind., in 1962. Never ending her development in education with a variety of courses and programs during the years, she received a Masters in Pastoral Studies at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis in 1992.

In 1974 she returned to the Belleville motherhouse and began — or continued — her many years of Ursuline and personal leadership. In North Dakota she had been the superior of the Minot religious community and the president of the state Mathematics Association, conducting workshops on the state and local level, and representing the association at a national and international convention.

In Belleville Sister Helbling was a General Council member for six years and then Provincial Superior for seven years.

At the time the Belleville community was part of an international Ursuline community headquartered in Germany. In 1983 the local community became an independent Ursulines of Belleville community, and Sister Helbling was elected the General Superior, a leadership position she exercised for 17 years.

Sister Helbling’s active ministry also changed dramatically. “I have had many experiences and opportunities to help others spiritually — in retreat work, spiritual direction and days of prayer,” she said. “I hope always to use what has been given me for others.”

Her simple foundation in spiritual direction and dialogue is: “The God in me is communing with the God in you.”
Retreat ministry included working as a part-time retreat director at King’s House Retreat and Renewal Center (1978-1986) and conducting many privately directed retreats for laity and religious women and men. She coordinated and ran the Spiritual Directors’ Program at King’s House for a number of years and coordinated and ran the Ongoing Adult Spirituality program at Belleville and Mt. Vernon in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

For over 30 years, beginning in 1976, Sister Helbling has been a spiritual director for laity, religious, deacons and priests.

Probably the hallmark of her spirituality ministry has been the direction of Days of Prayer in a number of locations. She has directed over 100 of the days, including a Day of Prayer for 50 Methodist ministers and their wives — a unique but not singular ecumenical participation.

The Belleville Ursuline community was never a large community, though at its height it numbered over 70. Beginning in the late 1960s numbers steadily declined as did entries.

Two years ago the community merged with the Ursuline Sisters of Mount St. Joseph in Maple Mount, Ky. Today Sister Helbling is one of three Ursulines residing in Belleville, though several members of the former Belleville community minister and reside in other areas. The retired members live in Maple Mount.

Recent years leading up to Sister Helbling’s golden jubilee have been traveled on a road away from familiar surroundings and routine. There has been an experience of loss, with the merger, necessitating the auction of items in the former Belleville motherhouse, which is currently offered for sale.

There is some irony perhaps in the fact that she is continuing her Ursuline community presence as a single resident in a Belleville apartment. But the community continues in personal contacts, correspondence, a newsletter, prayer and her continuing ministry. A Day of Prayer is planned.

She thinks of this year as a year of sabbatical and discernment. Living alone is not being alone, but a way today of continuing the constancy of an Ursuline woman religious and a familiar Ursuline presence, a blessing for her and for many.