April 4, 1924 — May 17, 2025
Sister Mary Helen Widacki, 101, died in Mother of Good Counsel Convent in Chicago, Illinois, after 78 years in religious life.
Sister Mary Helen was born on April 4, 1924, in Bremond, Texas, to Theodore and Josephine Widacki and was baptized the next day in Immaculate Conception BVM Church in Bremond, Texas. She was the second oldest of five children. The eldest was Roman, who became a priest, affectionately known as Father Ray; Helen’s younger siblings included Florianna, Christine, and Frank. She attended St. Mary’s Elementary School in Bremond, Texas, where the Felician Sisters from Chicago taught her. She later attended Good Counsel High School in Chicago, Illinois, as an aspirant from 1941 through 1945.
Sister Mary Helen entered the Felician Sisters’ community in Chicago, Illinois, from the Immaculate Conception of the BVM Parish Church in Bremond, Texas, on August 5, 1945, and was invested with the religious habit on August 2, 1946, receiving the name Sister Mary Alvia, later changing it back to her baptismal name, Sister Mary Helen. She made her First Profession on August 12, 1947, and her Final Profession on August 12, 1953. In 1953, she was transferred to the newly established Province of the Assumption of the BVM in Ponca City, Oklahoma, since she entered from the territory to be governed by this province. She made Tertianship in 1961 in Ponca City, Oklahoma. She celebrated her Silver Jubilee on August 4, 1970, her Golden Jubilee on July 17, 1995, and her Diamond Jubilee in 2015.
Sister Mary Helen attended St. Mary College in Xavier, Kansas. She received a Bachelor of Science in Education on August 3, 1960, and her Master of Science in Education from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in 1971. She also had certificates in First Aid, Palmer’s Writing, and Nebraska General Education Elementary School.
Sister Mary Helen’s teaching ministry mostly touched the children and families in rural areas. She taught K-4 grades for 57 years in the following locations: Chicago and Joliet, Illinois; St. Hedwig, Cestohowa, Panna Maria, and Bremond, Texas; Exeter and Aston, Nebraska; and Blackwell, Tulsa, and Newkirk, Oklahoma.
In 1978, Sister Helen humbly accepted the role of Director of Novices and then Director of Postulants from 1980 in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. She also performed various other ministries: local minister, bursar, organist, vocation contact and peace and justice advocate. In 1996, she retired to the Provincial House in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, and was Co-Coordinator of Community Life, organist, and liturgist. She took a brief jaunt to San Antonio, Texas, from 2001-2004 to minister to the sick and lonely. Returning to Rio Rancho, she ministered to the infirmed sisters and taught CCD.
In 2008, Sister Mary Helen entered the ministry of prayer and presence. With the closure of the central convent in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, in 2018, she was transferred to the Care Center in Chicago, Illinois, at Mother of Good Counsel Convent.
Sister Mary Helen loved to sing and play the organ. A hymn often used in Rio Rancho was: “Father, we adore you, lay our lives before you. How we love You. Jesus, we adore you, lay our lives before you. How we love You. Spirit, we adore you, lay our lives before you. How we love You.” When you would sing it to her in her later years, she would give one of her famous big smiles. Her happy and pleasant disposition and love of Jesus made her a person with whom it was easy to live. Whatever Sister Mary Helen touched was made beautiful. It seemed she could create beauty from nothing, and when she had something, the more beautiful it became – whether it was sisters’ rooms or common spaces. In St. Felix Convent, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, hangs one of her precious banners of the Scripture passage from Psalm 46 — Be still and know that I am God. Jesus was her anchor, her source of strength and peace, and her source of hope.
Sister Mary Helen died peacefully on May 17, 2025, in the Mother of Good Counsel Convent in Chicago, Illinois. Community members and friends attended her wake and Mass of Christian Burial, celebrated by Reverend Michael Suszynski in the Mother of Good Counsel Chapel in Chicago, Illinois, on May 21, 2025. Her body was taken for interment to St. Adalbert Cemetery in Niles, Illinois.
