In Memoriam: Sister Mary Lucy Garcia, IWBS

June 15, 1927-April 30, 2018

Sister Mary Lucy Garcia, IWBS went home to God on April 30. She had recently celebrated 70 years of consecrated life.

Sister Mary Lucy was born on June 15, 1927, in Brownsville to Juvencio J. Garcia and Anita Gavito Garcia. She was one of six children. She was taught by the Sisters of the Incarnate Word, graduating at age 15 from Villa Maria High School in Brownsville. She worked for three years before entering the Incarnate Word congregation in 1946.

Sister Mary Lucy earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Incarnate Word College in San Antonio, as well as masters degrees from St. Louis University and the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores in Monterrey, Mexico.

Sister taught at Incarnate Word High School in Corpus Christi and Villa Maria High School and Catholic schools in the dioceses of Brownsville and Corpus Christi. She also taught at Mary Immaculate College and Christopher College in Corpus Christi.

From 1991-1997, she volunteered to help the Incarnate Word Sisters of Mexico at St. Xavier High School in Nakuru, Kenya, where she served as headmistress of the school. During her tenure as headmistress, St. Xavier achieved high honors among the Kenyan schools, scoring in the top 100 high schools in the country. 

In her years of ministry outside of teaching, Sister Mary Lucy spent one year in McKinney, Texas, where she helped initiate the first Job Corps program for women. She worked in campus ministry at Del Mar College and the University of Corpus Christi and served in pastoral ministry at St. Joseph Parish in Alice. 

During her retirement, she devoted her time to prayer and giving adult Bible Study Classes at the motherhouse and in various parishes.  

 Within the congregation, Sister Mary Lucy participated in all the activities of the community. She was choir director at the motherhouse; as sister-in-charge; as a volunteer on various commissions and committees; and actively participated as a delegate to the general chapters, held every four years to elect leadership and set a direction for the future. She translated in both English and Spanish at the international reunions and translated documents and letters for the leadership in the process of reconfiguration of the Incarnate Word Congregations throughout the world. 

Sister Mary Lucy has loved and proclaimed Jesus and the Incarnate Word in her prayer and worship, her community living, her teaching, pastoral work, mission work and catechesis. In her retirement at the motherhouse, she continues to serve the Incarnate Word and her sisters in her sharing in the community and her dedicated prayer for the needs of the community and the Church. 

“I am extremely grateful for a life intimate with God and for the many lives I have touched and in whom I have encountered Jesus,” Sister Mary Lucy said. “I thank God for the grace of perseverance. A vocation to religious life is a call from God.  If we persevere, it is God’s gift to us, because our human nature can get in the way, but with God all things are possible.”

Please pray for the eternal repose of her soul, and that God may comfort her family and community grieving her loss. May she rest in peace.

Reception of the Body will be on Sunday, May 6 at 4 p.m. at the Motherhouse followed by Evening Prayer. Rosary at 7 p.m. also at the Motherhouse. Mass of Resurrection will be on Monday, May 7 at  10 a.m. at St. Patrick Church on 3350 S. Alameda. Burial to follow at Rose Hill Cemetery.