Cora Ann McGuire was born on December 24, 1929 in Brooklyn, NY to Peter and Frances McGuire. Cora was born into a large and loving family, she had 10 brothers and sisters. Her sister Grace Mary entered three years after Cora in 1952. Cora was baptized at Our Lady of Angels Parish, in Brooklyn. After graduating from Forest Hills High School, she worked as a stenographer for 2 1/2 years before entering our community. She was a member of our lay branch, the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate, for three years.
In 1949, she wrote this to Mother Mary Francis, “For a long time I have been praying that I’d know which community the Blessed Trinity wants me to serve Him in, and when he wanted me to enter. I’ve spoken with a priest and he also thinks God wants an MSBT after my name in religion.” Cora entered on September 24, 1949. She received the name Sr. Cora Marie of the Holy Trinity. She made her first Profession, March 25, 1951 and her perpetual profession on March 25, 1954.
Cora Marie earned a BA in Sociology from St. John’s University and a Masters in Religious Education from Boston College. She was also a lifelong learner. She attended many courses, workshops, in-service training, seminars and regional Catechetical Conferences to enrich her ministry.
The main focus of Cora Marie’s ministry has been religious education and parish ministry. She did have other experiences such as in a settlement house and retreat ministry, however parish life and all that it entails had a special place in her heart. In the ‘green sheets’, the yearly evaluations of our ministries, a recurring goal for Cora was always the involvement of the laity, catechist training and a solid religious education program and she wrote that she saw the charism expressed in her ministry by preservation of the faith and encouragement of the laity in ministry.
Beginning in 1951 Sr. Cora Marie’s ministries included: Christ the King Parish in Jersey City, NJ for fifteen years; Croagh Patrick in Cambridge, MA; Resurrection-Ascension Parish in Rego Park, NY; St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis, MA for eight years; Mother of Sorrows Parish in McKees Rocks, PA; Blessed Trinity Shrine Retreat in Holy Trinity, AL; St. Paul’s, a Paulist Fathers Parish, in Greensboro, NC; St. Timothy’s Parish in Tappahannock, VA with our ST priests and brothers. Fr. Colin Cooke, ST, her good friend, was pastor then. In 1995 Sr. Cora Marie was missioned to Immaculate Conception Parish in Monclair, New Jersey where she continued in ministry for the next 13 years until her fall and spinal cord injury. She loved her ministry and the people of that parish and had a great friend in Monsignor Tim Shagrue.
In December 2008, Cora Marie was missioned to the Motherhouse and later in 2010 to the ministry of Prayer. In January 2014 she was one of the Pioneer sisters to establish the Mother Boniface Missionary Cenacle in Wesley Enhanced Living. In 2019, she celebrated her 70th Jubilee at Wesley along with Sr. Mary Shaun. Monsignor Tim Shagrue and parishioners of Immaculate Conception parish were present and their music added to the beauty of the celebration.
This summary of her life doesn’t capture the many qualities that touched the lives of those who had the joy of knowing her.
She was a very community minded person. Cora served for many years as local custodian and she was also a mentor to many a young sister. She was hospitable to everyone. She was devoted to the Missionary Cenacle Family. She could be fun and spontaneous. In various correspondence, she would write, ‘I am very busy just now with luncheons and parties.’ She was very direct when she spoke and always kind. She was a great friend of priests, our priest and brothers as well as those she served with in ministry. They became her friends. She was a good friend to so many of us. She was always very close to her family and spent all the time she could with them. Who of us has not been inspired and edified by Cora Marie in her example and the way she lived her life particularly these past twelve and a half years?
In June 1949, her pastor, Fr. Dillon, wrote this in the recommendation he wrote for Cora to Mother Mary Francis, “She is a member of an excellent family. Cora is a practicing Catholic of solid piety, unostentatious, intelligent, of superior character, cooperative and humble. We believe Cora will be an asset to the Trinitarian Sisters…” How very true that turned out to be.
I want to close with a quote from the Farewell Mass for Sr. Cora Marie at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis in 1975. It reads, “you are the gentle goodness we can never forget.”
We are all grateful for your life among us, Cora Marie, and the example you have left us of a life lived to glorify the Triune God as a Missionary Servant of the Most Blessed Trinity.
