Sister Katherine Theresa of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, made her First Profession June 25th, 2008.

“On Divine Mercy Sunday, the day after Pope John Paul died, on my birthday, I said Yes to God. My fears left me and my whole life changed. I placed my life in God’s hands and I knew that God would guide me.”

“God had been very persistent in His call to me. I doubted, questioned, feared and resisted it over the years. It was only as I surrendered more and more to God that was I radically open to hear his messages and eventually willing to say Yes to Him. It is amazing, but since I have said Yes to God’s call, I have felt more at peace and happier than I have for years,” said Sister Katherine of the Carmelite Sister for the Aged and Infirm, Germantown NY.

“On the eve of Pentecost, 2005, I finally got up the courage to tell my parents that God had been calling me to religious life for a long time. I was so moved, I was crying. My father turned to my mom and said; ‘We know. How long have we known—since grammar school or high school?’ My mom went on to recall how my sister and I both had a desire to be - nurse nuns in high school. She called the parish priest but he told my mom to discourage the idea. It was in the early 1970s, shortly after Vatican II, and there appeared to be more women leaving religious life than entering. My mother told me she had been praying all our lives to offer one of her children to God as a religious or a priest. My parents have been extremely supportive of me since I have entered religious life.”

Sister Katherine and her twin sister Nancy were active in their parish and CYO growing up in Massachusetts. They had the influence of a very good priest while involved in CYO and also enjoyed the socializing. Both later became nurses; Sister Katherine’s twin sister is married with children.

Sister Katherine attended Boston College for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Nursing. She has been a nurse practitioner for many years. She worked in hospitals including ICU as well as industrial settings in occupational health. She now works with the elderly as a nurse at Mother Angeline McCrory Manor in Columbus. She had an interest in working with the elderly in a home environment very early in her nursing career.

“I had this belief when I was young that serving God as a nurse was a lot like being a religious. I was serving God, helping people, and not making much money,” said Sister Katherine. “Religious life was really changing in the 1970s and there was confusion about it for a period of time.”

Having 3 great aunts who are religious Sisters and one aunt who is a Sister made it a familiar way of life for Sr. Katherine. They had seemed quite happy in their lives, but Sr. Katherine thought that hers was a different generation and not many people were choosing religious life. She saw how her aunt’s life had changed after Vatican II; her aunt had to find an apartment, a job, and clothes to wear. –Her life seemed oddly lonely. Sister Katherine was not attracted to that way of life.

“Although I had been searching to grow in my faith from the time I was young, it was not until May of 1990 that my spiritual life took a radical shift. I lived an Ecumenical Cursillo weekend,” said Sister Katherine. “During that weekend I felt God’s love like I had never felt it before. I went back to my parish the next weekend and realized the Mass came alive and Scriptures spoke to me in a new way. I was moved to tears feeling Christ’s presence in the Eucharist.”

Sr. Katherine ran into a deacon in her parish after her Cursillo weekend. “I said, can you believe the Apostle’s Creed?! It was as if I was saying it for the first time. Fortunately the deacon had recently lived a Cursillo and he did not think I was too crazy.”

Sister Katherine began to attend daily Mass; she formed a prayer group in her home, kept Sundays open for prayer, and began meditation and contemplative prayer. “I was drawn to contemplative spirituality – the Carmelite saints such as St. Therese of Liseux and St. Teresa of Avila. I connected with my aunt who was a religious Sister in a whole new way. She and I used to have lively discussions about religion and the saints,” said Sister Katherine.

“At the time of my Cursillo, I knew I was about to have a job change. I was asking God in prayer what He was calling me to do next. It had been a familiar prayer through my life at various turning points, i.e. in high school, college and in each job change,” said Sister Katherine. “I began to realize that God was calling me to deeper intimacy with Him and that is also what I most desired. I had been also praying to find that perfect man to sweep me off my feet. Little did I realize, then that it was Jesus who would ultimately be my groom.”

Sister Katherine started a new job working in downtown Boston and was looking for a place to go to daily Mass. She found a Franciscan chapel that had noon Mass followed by Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. “The first day I was so moved by people of all walks of life singing the O Salutaris so beautifully. I stayed for a while and felt Jesus’ healing, penetrating rays of love. It gave me an energy to get through the day.”

Later Sister Katherine found a Perpetual Adoration chapel closer to her home at St. Patrick’s in Natick, MA. She stopped by every day on her way home from work. She got involved with the parish in various ministries and took courses in leadership, including The Catholic Catechism and Stewardship course. It was also during this time that she began working on a team for Cursillo and her faith began to grow deeper.

“God was working on my heart.” One night while in adoration, the message she received from the Tabernacle was that “someday I will be his bride.” She literally ran out of the chapel. She began to truly discern and sought spiritual direction from a priest. It was during this time that people from her parish began asking her if she was considering religious life.

“It still felt like a very scary thing,” said Sister Katherine. “I wrote for some vocational material but found it difficult to find direction on the next step. I did not know anyone in my generation who had entered religious life.”

She continued to wrestle with God about where He was calling her, but she felt like she was not getting an answer. At that time, she had a job offer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She immersed herself in her work, and during that time, she saw how God worked in her life on daily basis. “I still managed to get to daily Mass wherever I could. Coming back to work after Mass one day, a co-worker commented that she looked like she had been on vacation. “I had. Holy Mass is like a vacation!”

During Advent of 2002, she went on a silent retreat. “Mary said Yes, Joseph said Yes, even the Magi said Yes. I began to wonder if God had really called me to religious life and I had not given Him an answer. I had tightness in my throat when I thought about it.” That started again a quest for her to find a spiritual director and to discern what God was truly calling her to do. Sister Katherine met many holy people along the way who guided her and were instruments of God.

“It was during this time that St. Therese of Liseux kept popping up in my life in many different ways. I eventually prayed a novena to her regarding my discernment,” said Sister Katherine. “I believe St. Therese led me closer to Our Blessed Mother and ultimately to the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm.”

In March of 2004, Sister Katherine felt called to go to Medjugorje. On the feast of St. Joseph, she attended a powerful healing service with Father Jozo. “I had been praying to surrender to God in whatever He was calling me to. Later, in February of 2005, I had another powerful healing experience during a retreat when I was once again praying to surrender to God’s will.
I realized I had to take further action.”

Sister Katherine met with the Vocations Director in the Archdiocese of Boston. She gave Sister Katherine a copy of Vision Catholic Vocation Guide magazine. Sister Katherine found the courage to make some calls to various Orders. Two weeks later, she ended up on a discernment weekend at the Motherhouse for the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm in Germantown, NY.

“During prayer on my discernment weekend, the Lord told me ‘This is home. This is where I call you to serve.’ As I looked around the chapel at the Carmelite saints, I realized those were the saints I had read about and it was their way of praying that I had emulated. I also realized I had always wanted to work with the elderly but somehow my career had taken different twists and turns.

“Later during the discernment weekend, Pope John Paul II died. I felt his presence so powerfully and his message ‘do not be afraid’ reverberated through me. I knew then I would say Yes to God’s call to me.

“On Divine Mercy Sunday, the day after Pope John Paul II died and on my birthday, I gave my ‘yes’ to God. My fears left me, and my whole life changed. I placed my life in God’s hands and I knew that God would guide me.

“The moment I said yes, I had a peace I had never felt before. It was a knowing beyond knowing. I remember asking friends when I was dating how they knew when they found the right guy. They often said, ‘I just knew’. I had a similar experience. I have not looked back since.”

Sister Katherine is so grateful for all the experiences leading up to her entry into religious life. She is especially grateful to her family and friends who have been so supportive of her. “I realize it was a radical change. It is countercultural these days. It was a major jumping off the cliff into the abyss of the unknown trusting only in God’s providence.”

Sr. Katherine entered the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, Germantown, NY, as a postulant on October 23rd, 2005 and was clothed in the Carmelite habit and entered the novitiate on the Feast of St. John the Baptist, June 24th, 2006. Sister Katherine’s first profession was June 25th, 2008 – the feast of Our Lady of Medjugorje.

She admits that there are trials in religious life, as with any vocation, but she tries to remain steadfast in prayer surrendering each day to God’s will and living out the vows of obedience, poverty and chastity.

Sister Katherine has been in Columbus since the summer of 2008. She enjoys living and working with six of her Carmelite Sisters in a convent at Mother Angeline McCrory Manor in Columbus. There are 200 total sisters in this Carmelite community.

Sr. Katherine admits that it is difficult in this current culture to discern a call to religious life. There are not the role models there once were. In her discernment process, she spoke to a Sister who suggested she consider the key elements of religious life that Pope John Paul II advocated. Pope John Paul II advocated religious have a community life, community prayer, a habit and a community apostolate. The Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm have all these key characteristics and that was pivotal in helping Sr. Katherine answer God’s call to her.

Sr. Katherine suggests that women discerning a call to religious life consider going to daily Mass, spend time before the Blessed Sacrament, avail themselves to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and find a good spiritual director. Today, more than ever, the Internet is a source of good information about vocations, but it is also important to seek out other religious to talk to and to have the courage to visit religious Orders.