Sister Rose Marie Brooks, fmm

Sister Rose Marie Brooks entered the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in 1985 in Chicago, IL.  She pronounced her final vows October 4, 1992 in Fall River at St. Stanislaus Parish.

Prior to her entry into the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, she graduated from St. Joseph's as an RN and worked for five years in Rhode Island Hospital Surgical Intensive Care Unit, then six more years in Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, MA.

In 1992, she was sent in mission to St. Francis Hospital where she served as a staff nurse and completed studies earning a B.S. in Nursing from Molloy College. In 1993, she was sent in mission to Bushulo , Ethiopia

From 1993 to-2010, Sr. Rose was in Bushulo working as a nurse.  For the first thirteen years, she worked in the general wards with night emergency calls. After that, she received training in emergency anesthesia and managed the operating room of Bushulo.  At that time she also took over the management of the main pharmacy/supply store.

She served as a provincial councilor from 1995-2000 and again from 2009 until the present.

Presently, Sr. Rose’s mission is in Kenya where she resides in the novitiate community.  She is responsible for the candidates' live-in program. This is a program of three months where the young women live in the FMM compound, having input sessions on Human, Christian and FMM Formation. They share in the community prayer, have ministry twice a week and participate in other sessions such as computer, knitting/sewing. The purpose is to help them, and also the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary to discern if they could proceed to the Pre-Novitiate. In addition, Sr. Rose is helping to cover in the absence of the Novice directress, giving classes to the novices.

Sr. Rose is also involved in vocation ministry and when that program finishes, she hopes to start  helping  in the parish with the youth. She writes:”This has been very different and good for me”.  She describes her location: “I am now in Gikambura, Kenya- outside of Nairobi. It is a lovely rural area, but not far from town and easy to get to Nairobi and our provincial house.”