Sister Elizabeth Marie with baby gifts.

By Elaine Spencer

FRANKFORT -- Having three baby showers in three days for a 100-year-old Franciscan nun makes perfect sense when the nun is Sister Elizabeth Marie Schweickert, OSF.

As Sister Elizabeth prepared to celebrate a century of life, she noted that her thoughts and prayers are frequently with the unborn who might not have the chance to celebrate life at all.

"That (pro-life) is my number one cause," Sister Elizabeth, a native of St. Joseph's Parish in Peru, said prior to three 100th birthday parties held for her at the motherhouse of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Frankfort, near Joliet.

Guests at each party -- one for the Sisters on Sunday, another for her family on Monday, and a third on Tuesday organized by employees of the motherhouse -- brought baby gifts to be donated to Birthright crisis pregnancy centers, which Sister Elizabeth has supported for years.

Collecting donations for women and infants in need is just one expression of Sister Elizabeth's approach to life, which is "to make use of every day and do all the good you can."

"Worry doesn't get you anywhere," Sister Elizabeth told The Catholic Post in a telephone interview last week from the Frankfort mother-house of her community. "Live happily as you can each day, and take what comes."

And she believes one secret of her long life on earth is that she has spent more than two-thirds of that life as a religious in "total surrender" to the will of God. "You are so united with Christ, and everything you do is for Him," she said of her more than 70 years as a Sister. "It is beautiful."

Born Jan. 28, 1902, in Peru, Sister Elizabeth is one of 11 children of Henry and Elizabeth Schweickert. She attended St. Joseph's Grade School and St. Joseph's Commercial School, a two-year vocational program which taught typing, shorthand, bookkeeping and other business skills.

The Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart, then based in Joliet, taught both the grade and high school programs and Sister Elizabeth was attracted by their way of life from an early age. In addition to teaching at various schools in the diocese, the order also staffed St. Mary's Hospital in LaSalle, which closed in 1976, and the former St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Danville, a predecessor of what is now Provena United Samaritans Medical Center.

"I always had a great admiration for them, and when I thought the Lord was calling me, that's where I went," she said.

She cited Sister Johanna, superior of the parish convent and a teacher in the commercial program, as one of her role models. "She was always genuinely interested in her students, was gentle and had a good sense of humor," Sister Elizabeth said.

After graduating from St. Joseph's Commercial School in 1916 -- she earned her diploma at age 14 because she had skipped two school grades -- Sister Elizabeth worked as a bookkeeper in a local furniture store. However, she tried not to think about a possible religious vocation for almost a decade.

"I was not docile to the call at first and sort of pushed it off," she recalled. "I had a lot of friends, we had a lot of fun, I had a wonderful home and it wasn't easy to break away."

She kept "postponing and postponing" a decision about religious life until she was 26 years old, when "one day the Lord made it clear to me that I should go" to the convent.

She entered the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1928 and professed her first vows in 1930. Her first assignment was teaching fifth and sixth grades in Schererville, Ind., for 13 years from 1936 to 1949. "I fell in love with the place and the children and the people," she said.

From 1949 to 1957 she served as novice mistress of the community, guiding the formation of postulants and novices. She taught sixth, seventh and eighth grades at St. Mary's School in Avilla, Ind., from 1957 to 1963, then returned to the mother-house as a general councilor and secretary of the community from 1963 to 1974. She was the order's vocation director from 1964 to 1969.

Other assignments included serving as librarian of Sacred Heart School in Springfield from 1974 to 1978 and as a teacher's aide at St. Joseph's School in Garrett, Ind. from 1978 to 1987. She has also sbeen a parish or convent organist in all her assignments.

After retiring from teaching in 1987 she returned to St. Francis Woods in Mokena, where she was a receptionist for four years. In 1998 she and other retired Sisters of the community moved from Mokena to the order's new motherhouse in Frankfort.

Sister Elizabeth's favorite activities today include playing cards and Scrabble -- she belongs to a Scrabble club with members in Illinois and Ohio -- and writing letters to "anyone who needs to hear what I have to say," including local and diocesan newspapers and elected officials. Her letters on pro-life and other related topics appeared regularly in The Catholic Post during the 1990s.

She also helps plan community Masses and prayer services every six weeks and helped organize a benefit garage sale for local pro-life organizations at the motherhouse last fall.

Sister Kathleen Moseley, community archivist, described Sister Elizabeth as a "remarkable woman" and noted that "she was just overjoyed and could hardly speak when she saw all of the baby gifts" at the party the other Sisters gave her last Sunday. In recognition of her special interest in babies, Sister Kathleen added, the Sisters also made baby signs with humorous messages for the party.

Sister Elizabeth noted that religious life has changed considerably since she entered the community. "At that time you were either a teacher, a nurse or a housekeeper -- those were the three things we did," she said. "Now, we can go wherever there is a need, and we are not restricted to one or two or three areas of ministry."

She said the most fulfilling aspect of her religious life was teaching. "I loved all the children and even when I was no longer a teacher, I always wanted to do something for children," she said.

She added that religious life also provides freedom to devote one's life to prayer and service without having to be concerned about "a lot of worldly things like money and where our next meal is coming from."

"God takes care of us, and we try to do what He wants us to do," she said.