Women's Lenten convocation features
stories of faith, hope and love
By Mary Ann Wyand
Sharing stories of faith, hope and love with datelines in Medjugorje, Calcutta and Indianapolis, St. Pius X parishioner and broadcast journalist Anne Ryder of Indianapolis reflected on her inspirational “Hope to Tell” series for WTHR Channel 13 during the third annual Catholic Women’s Convocation on March 5 at St. Christopher Parish in Indianapolis.
Many of the 265 women from 10 area parishes cried during “Three Steps to Peace: Lessons from Mother Teresa and Stories of Hope to Tell,” Ryder’s poignant keynote presentation for “Peaceful Women,” a Lenten day of reflection.
She said a conversation with an elderly nun at the Marian pilgrimage site in Bosnia, who told her she was there to “do Mary’s work,” and her life-changing interview with Mother Teresa taught her important lessons about living her faith that helped her to report segments of the award-winning “Hope to Tell” series for the NBC affiliate.
“If anyone had told me that as a local news reporter I would have the opportunity to interview and bring [to television news] some of the stories that I’ve been privileged and blessed to [do], I would have said ‘No way,’ ” Ryder told the women. “I tell you this not by way of saying that I did this on my own because I didn’t do it on my own. … This is the hand of God, I believe, at work. He has the ability to use every one of us.
“What changed my focus in my career, and would also change my life in the process, started with frustration” about the often negative aspects of broadcast news in 1992, she said. “One of the ways that God talks to me is he lets me get good and frustrated first. … I go along in life and I try to do it my way, do it my way, do it my way, and then—what happens to all of us at one time or another—I hit the wall [of frustration] … Finally, I did what God was trying to get me to do in the first place, and that was I got down on my knees and I prayed. [I asked God] … ‘What are you trying to show me?’ In the power of silence, in the power of prayer, an idea was born that transformed everything.”
Ryder decided to report stories about how faith helps people cope with tragedy.
She said people of faith have three things in common.
“Number one [is] they make time for silence,” she said. “No matter how busy they are, they know the sacredness of silence. Some call it prayer. Some call it meditation. … Number two is knowing when and how to say thank you, and to say thank you all day every day for things in your life. … Be appreciative for all the things God has given you. … Number three is that when difficult things happen … when you can, you say thank you to God for that. … This didn’t happen by accident. [Ask yourself] … ‘What am I doing to become more Christ-like?’”
Ryder also discussed her family’s grief when life-threatening complications during pregnancy led to the death of their unborn son, Sean, two years ago. Their daughter, Jennifer, is in grade school. She left her position as a news anchor last May, but still reports stories for Channel 13.
Pastoral associate Nancy Meyer, who helped plan the Lenten convocation and coordinate five workshops, led the women in applause after Ryder’s emotional talk.
“Hasn’t Anne been Jesus for us today?” Meyer asked. “She has been such a blessing and a gift.”
St. Christopher parishioner Flora Villanueva said Ryder’s testimonial “was so good,” especially her narrative about interviewing Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Ryder was the only American reporter in more than a decade to be granted an interview with Mother Teresa. Their videotaped conversation was the last interview that the foundress of the Missionaries of Charity gave before her death on Sept. 5, 1997. †