I have been a member of the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters for over 40 years. My call to religious life grew out of my everyday experiences within my family, education and faith community. There wasn’t any outstanding experience that led me to religious life. For me, it was attentiveness to the everyday experience of the people I met on my journey that led me in this direction. One of the people who probably influenced me the most was my great aunt who was a member of the Wheaton Franciscan Community. She asked me to think about religious life as an option and her question was like a seed that continued to grow as I discerned a direction for my life.

The majority of my life in community has been one of service to the sick, initially as a bedside nurse and then in administrative within the Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare System. My service within the healthcare field has helped me to develop a compassionate heart. I feel that my call is to serve others and ultimately, God, with a compassionate heart.

We are tempted daily by society to fill our hunger, thirst and restlessness with all the limitless options our world presents, but those options never seem to satisfy our thirst. It is God and only God who ultimately can satisfy our thirst. Therefore, it has been very important for me to take the time and space I need to experience God’s invitation not only in the interaction and activities of my days, but also in the quiet depths of my heart.

I have been blessed over these years to have many people within and without community call me to expand my boundaries and to imagine with new eyes. My journey through life has been one of coming back to God and of becoming more deeply one with God. I believe that in staying faithful to my desire for oneness with God is how my heart has grown tender and how my capacity for loving has expanded. It is what has made me a more compassionate person. In saying yes to God’s call I have found happiness. In saying yes to God's call I have found happiness.

- back to New Membership page -