Sister Barbara Berthiaume

(Published Aug. 8, 2008) Though I seem to have lived forever, in reality I am just a flash in the life of the universe. My life is but one spark of consciousness in the eons of time. Yet I am blessed in sharing God’s Life through the love and obedience of Jesus Christ. Through His Redemptive work, I have been gifted with the Holy Spirit, and called to a life of loving service in sharing my blessings with others as a Sister of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kansas.

I arrived in this world in Escanaba in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan during the Depression years. Money and opportunities were scarce. I graduated from a Catholic school but wasn’t able to attend college because of the lack of finances. Instead, I followed my dream and entered the Sisters of St. Joseph Community. And thanks to these Sisters, I received an education at Marymount College and at the University of Detroit. These Sisters also provided me with formation in prayer and spirituality through retreats, seminars, theology courses and a study of the Vatican II documents. Because of this preparation and the support of the Sisters, I have enjoyed ministry opportunities that I probably wouldn’t have had if I had not entered this Community.

After teaching junior and senior high school for twenty years, the Community asked me to establish Pastoral Care Departments at St. Joseph Hospital and at the Mount Joseph Care Home in Concordia. The experience of working with the sick and the dying is certainly not something I would have chosen without the encouragement of the Sisters. But it has been a meaningful and rewarding ministry for me. I have also been involved in establishing a Home Health Agency and a Retirement Community, and I’ve worked with the Oneida Native American people in Wisconsin. In three parishes in Michigan and in Kansas, I have had the ministry of being “out among the people” with an emphasis on being with the elderly, the sick and the dying. The Sisters also permitted me to return to Upper Michigan to help care for my mother and also to minister in my home diocese. At the present time I minister at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Goodland, Kansas.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia are now celebrating their 125th year in Kansas. Each day this year we are praying for those with whom we live and work. The Sisters will be praying for the Goodland parish on August 12, 2008. We ask you also to pray for us.

As I review my life as a Sister of St. Joseph in the 20th and the 21st centuries in the United State, I see that one of the greatest influences on me has been Vatican Council II convened in the early 1960’s. Vatican II brought years of tremendous changes in our way of life as Sisters. Our Community suffered much anxiety during years of change, but I “stretched” and learned and conquered fears. And I came to appreciate the growth and new life that the Vatican II Council fostered in all of us. Our Concordia Congregation was blessed with women in leadership during the post-Vatican II years who provided a vision of new life in the spirit and who challenged us to venture out into new ministries. How grateful I am to all of them!

I thank God every day that I have been called to live out my life on this planet as a Sister of St. Joseph of Concordia, the Community of the Great Love of God. These women have been wonderful role models and faith-filled companions on my journey through life. To all of them I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude!