Sing to Me and I Will Hear You - A Love Story

Sing to Me and I Will Hear You — A Love Story opens when a nun and priest, newly assigned to Waterville, Maine, meet in 1968. After they (both members of the peace group, CALCAV) fall in love, she leaves the convent. Elaine and Father Francis’ relationship goes “underground” for two years. When the Vatican closes the door to fiercely debated optional celibacy, his “exodus” ensues, and the wedding date is set. Elaine and Francis’ married life is many-faceted and spiritually rich, engaging them in peacemaking, permaculture, and the founding of Portland Yoga Studio. Francis’ cancer diagnosis in 2009 leaves the couple only one hundred more days together. Deeply moved by the way Francis approaches his death, she celebrates his extraordinary patience, courage, and grace in dealing with pain and in facing the unknown. With the attitude of his patron saint, Francis welcomes “Sister Death,” with love on his lips.

Sing to Me and I Will Hear You — A Love Story opens when a nun and a priest, each newly assigned to the same parish school in Waterville, Maine, in September, 1968, are introduced to one another. Sister Maureen, also a campus minister at Colby College during those heady days of anti-Vietnam-war fervor, discovers she has fallen in love with Father McGillicuddy, and, after deep soul searching, leaves the convent. Reclaiming her original name, Elaine takes the reader into her confidence by sharing the story of her two-year “underground” relationship with Father Francis. Together they follow the optional celibacy debates in Rome, await with some doubt, but yet with some hope, a Vatican decision in its favor. Such an outcome would have allowed Father Francis to become a married Catholic priest. But when that door is shut in December, 1971, Francis’ “exodus” ensues and the wedding date is set. Elaine and Francis’ married life is multi-faceted and spiritually rich. After an attempt to adopt a child falls through, they put their energies into peacemaking, founding a yoga center, transforming their lot into a demonstration site for permaculture, and, on Elaine’s part, training for and leading Dances of Universal Peace. Their life together comes to a climax when in 2009, Francis’ cancer diagnosis leaves them only one hundred more days together. Deeply moved by the way Francis approached his own death, she celebrates his extraordinary patience, courage, and grace in dealing with pain and in facing the unknown. Francis does not directly use the expression of his namesake, Francis of Assisi, namely, “Welcome Sister Death,” but he goes out to meet her with the same attitude. And with love on his lips.

Elaine G. McGillicuddy MA, poet and writer, is a native Mainer. A retired high school teacher of English composition, she lived in Missouri, New York, Massachusetts, and Waterville, Maine, during the 15½ years she was an Ursuline nun. In 1968, as “Sister Maureen,” a Campus Minister at Colby College during the heady anti-Vietnam war years, she met and later married Francis A. McGillicuddy after he left the clerical priesthood. A certified Iyengar Yoga teacher, she, with Francis cofounded Portland Yoga Studio in 1989 which they directed for sixteen years. The main title of her two published books and a CD repeat Francis’ words to her before he died. Sing to Me and I Will Hear You – The Poems, as well as her CD of her reading her poems, were published in 2012. Sing to Me and I Will Hear You – A Love Story was published in 2014. Her third book, in progress, will include more poems and her “Widow’s Journal.” Living a largely monastic life at home in Portland, Elaine is on sabbatical from teaching yoga at Portland Yoga Studio.