by Mary Jo Hobbs, CSJ Associate
Associates of The Sisters of St. Joseph are women and men from various faith traditions, married and single, who extend the mission and share the spirit of the Sisters of St. Joseph without becoming vowed members.
Mary Jo Hobbs has been an Associate since 2018, and extends the mission and spirit of the Sisters of St. Joseph through her work as a docent at the zoo in Topeka, Kansas. This mission allows her the opportunity to educate and make connections between God’s creation and our responsibility to protect it. “As an Associate of the Sisters of St. Joseph, we choose to deepen our awareness of ecological justice, which is both social and environmental,” she explains.
Mary Jo shares her joy of educating and “sharing the spirit” of the Sisters of St. Joseph, in protecting this Earth, and all of its creatures, including the dear neighbor.
“The Associates of the Sisters of St. Joseph literature says we ‘allow the mission to inform and guide our lives, while living the life to which we have been called by God.’ and that we are ‘to offer our life experiences, hopes, and gifts to enrich the community and world.’
It took me a long time to understand to what life I was being called, and finding my gifts might involve an invitation to change my life.
One of the many blessings of meeting my future husband began when he invited me to go birdwatching. It would be an understatement to say that I was not ‘outdoorsy.’ I didn’t even own a pair of jeans, let alone shoes appropriate for the backwoods, but I thought a lot of this guy, and so, of course, I went along. That day hooked me! On birds, on wildflowers, on bugs, and yes, on the guy – for close to 50 years now.
In looking back at that day of awesome discoveries of indigo buntings and yellow-billed cuckoos, of coreopsis and cup plant, of wheel bugs and leaf-cutter bees, I can still feel what a profound awakening it was for me and the beginning of so many opportunities that God sent my way to either fill my need to devour everything I could about all these wonders of creation and the amazing interconnections between them, us included, and the chance to share with others how precious those bonds are.
One such opportunity was to join a docent group at the Topeka Zoo to visit classrooms with slideshows and biofacts, and to give tours of the zoo. Now, fifty years later, I’m still delighted to introduce visitors to our friends, feathered, furred, scaled, and six-legged. To have our male giraffe, Sarge, towering over you is to know the feeling of awe. Or to have Abi give birth to her 6-foot baby in the yard and watch him take his first wobbly steps! The zoo is a place where I might be pointing out the cuteness of a baby sloth in the trees or the dangers of microbeads in cosmetics. All are of concern with wildlife.
I worked for the local school district in Outdoor Environmental Education for ten years before it was discontinued. Discoveries came every day for the children. I remember the delight on the student’s face, who had never seen a snail before, as she held one and found where it breathes. We made some budding microbiologists when we showed them wastewater through a microscope lens. It’s like landing on another planet, with alien-looking tardigrades and rotifers peering back from their world.
One of my favorite trips was to a little creek to do a bioassay of the water. We tested it chemically first to measure the levels of dissolved oxygen, phosphates, and nitrates. Then, we got in with nets and did a little ‘bug dance’ to dislodge the macroinvertebrates from the bottoms of the rocks. By identifying the bugs, the students could tell whether the water was healthy or not. ‘Oh! That’s why you said not to pour stuff down the sewer!’ Our oldest students went camping overnight at Lake Perry, where we walked the land where the Lenni Lenape once lived and where creatures in an ancient ocean swam millions of years before that. Although I have worked at public institutions most of my life, I have always had a sense of mission in my work. Pope Francis published Laudato Si’ in 2015 – a call for sustainability and ecological conversion. I became an Associate in 2018. Through these two graces and the powerful examples of the Sisters in their mindful living, I am learning how my experiences can be useful to our community and our world.”