Sr. Teresa Reyes

Sr. Teresa (Malbri) Reyes, T.O.R., was called to the wedding feast of the Lamb by her heavenly Bridegroom on Monday, February 20, 2023 at the age of 38.

She was born on November 29, 1984 in Passaic, New Jersey, the third child of Pedro Reyes and Maria Vera. She enjoyed growing up alongside her two older brothers in a close network of family with a rich Dominican heritage. In 2003, she graduated from Passaic High School, where she was a member of the tennis team.  She also excelled in programs working with young people, such as the Teen Institute of the Garden State, and youth and peer leadership groups. She was also very involved as a core team member in the youth program at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Passaic, where she grew in her faith.

She attended Rutgers University in New Jersey and majored in sociology. The summer before her junior year, she read the autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux and experienced God’s personal love for her in a deeper way. Later that year, she was introduced to the Brotherhood of Hope, a religious community of brothers who ministered on campus. Through their witness, she began to be drawn to religious life, seeing that it could be joyful and fulfilling. During this time, she was very involved in campus ministry and found great joy in serving on mission trips to Tanzania and the Dominican Republic.

After graduating in 2007, she served as a missionary for two years at Florida State University with the Brotherhood of Hope, where she continued to discern a call to religious life. She returned home to be with family and to work at her home parish for a time. Drawn by the Lord’s merciful love and a desire to respond to Him with her whole life, she entered the Franciscan Sisters, T.O.R. of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother as a candidate on August 14, 2011. Upon becoming a novice, she took the name Sr. Teresa after her beloved patron, St. Therese of Lisieux.

She professed first vows on August 5, 2014 and perpetual vows on July 6, 2019. She put her gifts at the service of the community cheerfully and generously during her religious life. Some of her ministry assignments included service to the poor of downtown Steubenville and of Nicaragua and Romania on mission trips. She spent a number of years working in campus ministry at Franciscan University of Steubenville, in Steubenville and in Gaming, Austria, where she particularly enjoyed women’s ministry. Within community, she served in many areas, including vocations, liturgy, and most recently as the Sister Servant of Postulants.

In community, Sr. Teresa was known for her single-hearted love for the Lord, her love of prayer, and the exemplary way in which she lived the community’s way of life. She kept her sisters entertained with her excellent acting skills in community skits and her knack for spontaneously breaking out into song at random moments. She will be remembered for her thoughtfulness, kindness, and the way she always saw and spoke of the good in others. She engaged her final battle with cancer with positivity, gratitude, surrender, and a beautiful trust in God’s providence. She would often say she was being sustained by God’s nearness to her and the knowledge that He was working a great good through her suffering.

Sr. Teresa was preceded in death by her beloved maternal grandmother, Maria Jimenez Vera, and other grandparents. She is survived by her father, Pedro Pablo Reyes, her mother, Maria Idalina Vera, her brothers, Pablo and Edwin Reyes, 20 aunts and uncles, 68 first cousins, many extended family members and friends and by her Franciscan Sisters, T.O.R.

Visitation will be on Sunday, February 26 from 4-8 pm with a rosary prayed at 7:45, and Monday, February 27 from 9-10:45 am with funeral Mass following at 11 am. Burial immediately following.  All services will be held at Father of Mercy Chapel at the Franciscan Sisters, T.O.R. Motherhouse, 369 Little Church Rd., Toronto, Ohio 43964.

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