Marie-Louise Ternier-Gommers
Biographical Information

The oldest and only daughter in a family of five, Marie-Louise was born in Tilburg in 1955 and raised in the town of Rijen, both in the Netherlands (www.katholieknederland.nl). She moved to Canada at age 23 to marry a Saskatchewan farmer. She and Jim – an organic garden seed grower (www.prseeds.ca) – have been married for nearly three decades, and are the proud parents of their adult sons David and Daniel, and adult daughter Rachelle (www.malotg.com/family.html).

As a young adult her Christian spirituality was strongly marked by frequent visits to Taizé, France (www.taize.fr). Both active Catholics, Jim and Marie-Louise share a common experience at Jean Vanier’s l’Arche community with mentally challenged adults in France before they were married. Once married and living in rural Saskatchewan, they kept in touch as friends and supporters of various l’Arche communities in Canada (www.larchecanada.org/) Their commitment to farming/gardening without agricultural chemicals also affected their choice of family planning without artificial hormones; from the early days of their marriage Jim and Marie-Louise have been involved with Serena Canada (www.serena.ca) as a teacher-couple of Natural Family Planning (Sympto-Thermal Method) and taking their turn to serve on provincial and national Serena boards of directors.

Once their three children were school age, and after working for many years part-time as a counselor in a shelter for battered women and children, Marie-Louise enrolled in university studies, focusing on courses in theology, counseling, and liturgy. She obtained her Masters in Theological Studies in 1997 from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon (www.usask.ca/stu/luther).

In July 1998 Marie-Louise became the first lay and first female editor of OUR FAMILY Magazine, published by the Missionary Oblates of St. Mary's Province which since has amalgamated into OMI Lacombe Canada (www.omilacombe.ca). She remained in this position until January 2002 when the magazine was closed down after 53 years of publication). Through her position of editor with Our Family Magazine, Marie-Louise became the western Vice-President for the Association of Roman Catholic Communicators in Canada (www.arccc.ca) from 2000 to 2003. She has served on the National Advisory Board for the new Religion & Communications Project at St. Paul's College in Winnipeg (www.umanitoba.ca/stpauls).

After working briefly as a Pastoral Associate in a local parish, she worked in the Saskatoon Catholic Diocese in the area of Scripture Resources, Ministry Development and Parish Renewal (www.rcdiocesesktn.sk.ca) for three years. She has offered retreats and programs for women on a freelance basis, through the Battlefords' Catholic Family Services agency and through Queen's House of Retreats in Saskatoon (www.queenshouse.org). Marie-Louise currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Queen’s House and offers several retreats/workshops there each year. (link to the PDF Women in Ministry brochure and the article on the same)

As member of the Battlefords Ministerial Association, Marie-Louise worked with local Protestant clergy on ecumenical events and continues to be called on as a supply-preacher in several Protestant churches. She has co-directed the Ministerial's Christmas Hamper Project called the Empty Stocking Fund. She has been part of the ecumenical hospital chaplaincy team at the local psychiatric institution.

Marie-Louise has written on the Joint Lutheran/Catholic Declaration on Justification by Faith, an article that was published three times: in Our Family, the Canada Lutheran (http://www.elcic.ca/clweb/), and Catholic New Times (www.catholicnewtimes.org/). She has been copy editor for the denominational magazine Northern Light, published by the Worldwide Church of God (www.wcg.ca/). She is also a regular contributor to Living with Christ (the Sunday missal), Words of Life, and Celebrate!, all published by Novalis, Ottawa (www.novalis.ca/).

In her nearly twenty years of ministry experience Marie-Louise has served the Catholic Diocese of Prince Albert (www.padiocese.sk.ca) as a member of its Commission for Liturgy, as chair of the Battlefords' deanery liturgy committee, and as workshop facilitator in the areas of liturgy, Catholic education, parish mission statements, women's role in ministry, spirituality and ecumenism. She continues to be a popular guest-speaker at CWL conventions (www.cwl.ca), Catholic School Trustees Conventions, ACW (Anglican Church Women) deanery meetings, the ELW convention (Evangelical Lutheran Women), the 2000 Calgary Education Conference, Study Days for the Ukrainian Eparchy of Saskatoon, TRACE Conference, Anglican Clergy Retreat in Edmonton, to name a few.

Her first book Finding the Treasure Within: A Woman’s Journey into Preaching was published by Novalis in the fall of 2002, with a Foreword by Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI. The book was awarded third place in the category for First Time Authors at the Catholic Press Association at its 2003 convention in Atlanta, GA (www.catholicpress.org). A synopsis of the book, book reviews, related articles and photos of her book launches can be accessed at www.malotg.com/book.html

Marie-Louise’s second book was released in the spring of 2007, also published by Novalis. Entitled Catholic Women in Ministry: Changing the Way Things Are, the book shares the experiences, questions and insights of about 26 Catholic women employed in various ministry positions throughout western and northern Canada. Their contributions are woven into composite profiles and engage in lively conversation with the author’s personal story of ministry. The Introduction, along with the Table of Contents, related articles and book reviews can be found under Book Info on this website.

In 2005 Marie-Louise and her husband Jim relocated to Humboldt, Saskatchewan. Jim has entered a partnership with St. Peter’s Abbey in Muenster (10 km west of Humboldt) for growing garden seeds and assisting the monks to continue their commitment to sustainable and organic agriculture (www.stpetersabbey.ca).

As of the summer of 2006 Marie-Louise is once again employed by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate through the new province OMI Lacombe Canada (www.omilacombe.ca) as publications editor for the order’s bilingual missionary newsletters Oblate Connexions Oblates and Mission Oblate which report on Oblate missionary activities both in Canada and abroad (www.oblatemissionassociates.ca)
In September 2007 Marie-Louise added a second half-time job, this time in pastoral ministry at St. Augustine’s Parish in Humboldt where she is responsible for all areas of adult faith formation.

Marie-Louise has recently been invited onto a newly established Editorial Committee which is working on the creation of an Interdenominational Prayer Book. In her local community she serves on the board for Partners for Rural Family Support. The Sisters of St. Elizabeth in Humboldt have recently contracted her to help them write the history of their nearly 100 years in Saskatchewan. In between all this, she is still working on a second Masters degree in theology and ministry through the Saskatoon Theological Union.

Besides her love for and gift with words, Marie-Louise enjoys life-long learning, spending time with family, swimming in the lake at their farm (or sipping her morning coffee on the deck overlooking the lake while the pelicans fly over), swimming, emailing friends and family far away, going for walks, picking berries, baking bread, and appreciates a good glass of wine with friends.

Updated October 2007