Click on the Name of the Sister or Associate you would like to meet!
Lynette Brown,
CSJ Associate
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Lynette first met the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1983 when she moved to Silver City, New Mexico after graduating from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas with a degree in theology and a minor in philosophy. Her husband, Wayne, had grown up in Silver City and had been acquainted with the CSJ's most of his life. Lynette reflects that being a CSJ Associate is especially important to her because it is almost like a surrogate family. They live far away from both her and Wayne's family. Lynette says, " Being a CSJ Associate gives us part of the built-in intimacy that everyone needs. The depth of intimacy and sharing is an invitation to grow and to look honestly at one's self.
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It allows us to open the self to new ideas because of all the sharing that we do. It answers so many needs that we have and makes it possible to take the spirit of the CSJ's and try to manifest it in our everyday lives.
" Wayne and Lynette take great pride and joy in their three children. They give their children a variety of life experiences to share with them the tremendous zeal they have for working with the poor and the marginalized.
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Sister Faye Huelsmann, CSJ
Sister Faye co-founded The Center for Enriched Communications, Inc., in Grand Junction, Colorado, in 1981. She still works at the counseling center, where she is able to help people through psychological struggles wle answering the call she feels to work with young children, providing them with a good foundation of mental and emotional health.
She joined Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia in 1958 when she had just begun college. "I sensed a deep peace and a commitment that I wanted to be a part of," Faye said of CSJ.
She taught grade school, high school and became a director of religious education. She then helped found the Manna House center for prayer. While teaching high school in Colorado, talking with children about their difficulties, she and Sister Pat felt drawn to counseling and believed they could more effective in a setting where counseling was the sole focus and parents of the children could be involved.
"One of the primary things about CSJ is that we are to find what the needs of the times are and address that," Sister Faye said.
CSJ has allowed her to reach her personal goals in the context of a spiritual commitment that is liberating.
"I think it's a freeing experience in the sense of being able to serve the area we feel called to minister to," she says, "and we have a lot of support and freedom to fulfill our commitment to that calling."
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Sister Janice
Koelzer, CSJ
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Sister Janice was born and raised in Seneca, Kansas. She met the Sisters of St. Joseph when they were working in the hospital at Seneca. She says, "They seemed compassionate and joyful. I wanted to help in their works. I wanted to serve the sick." Sister Janice has devoted her whole life to doing just that. For 23 years she was a Nurse Educator and Practitioner with Marymount College in Salina. Living on campus, she went to the hospital early every morning where she supervised students, served as the Director of the womens' dormitory and was Campus Nurse. Her next ministry was parish ministry at Seven Dolors Parish in Manhattan, Kansas where, among many other duties, she visited the sick.
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She volunteered with hospice and was the first woman elected president of the group, a position previously held only by doctors! Sister Janice says, "I didn't realize how much that would help me in the future working with those with terminal illnesses and cancer patients."
In 1983 she helped start the Duchesne Clinic in Kansas City, Kansas for the homeless and those who could not afford health insurance. (The clinic was named after St. Phillipine Rose Duchesne who was canonized in 1988.) Sister Janice recalls, "We did health assessments at food kitchen and shelters, where ever we thought the homeless might be. We even had a large mobile van that we'd take to poor neighborhoods for the convenience of people who did not have a way to get to the Clinic." While in Kansas City, she again volunteered with hospice and was involved in social justice issues, such as participating in peace marches and protesting war. During her sixth year at the Clinic, the community asked her to be an administrator of the Motherhouse working with the 80 Sisters who lived there at the time. In 1997, Sister Janice was diagnosed with cancer. She received chemotherapy in Salina and drove back and forth to Concordia when she could.
Currently, Sister Janice lives in Salina. In her younger days, she played tennis and golf. Now she enjoys watching sports, playing bridge, reading, listening to music, working on computers, and swimming laps! In addition, Sister Janice still continues to assist with health needs of others and helps in the daily activities of living to promote wellness of others.
Sister Janice says, "I thank God for this life. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to serve the sick. Jesus did more healing of the sick than teaching in the temple. I believe in preaching the Gospel as St. Francis of Assisi mentioned, that sometimes we have to use words. I think he would have like the song, "They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love."
"I am grateful for my community. I have received support and had opportunities for education and many experiences. I'm very grateful for the growth and changes since Vatican II that we have incorporated. Being in community allows one to do more than if alone. I have much gratitude also to my family, friends and relatives. During all these years, their love, concern and support have been most helpful. Life hasn't been easy, but each opportunity has seemed to challenge me and prepare me for the next one. It's like the rungs on a ladder, a step at a time. Keep climbing and trying to focus on God."
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Johnell Crimen,
CSJ Associate
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Johnell has been an associate with the Sisters of St. Joseph since 1987 which, she says, "pleases her very much!" Her ministry is "assisting in any capacity that I can towards accomplishments being pursued by the Sister of St. Joseph."
Johnell is an accomplished artist whose works are on continuous display at the El Paso International Museum of Art where she a member of the Hall of Fame. Her wish is that her works depicting religious and spiritual themes draw individuals closer to God.
Johnell does not limit her art form! Talented in many areas, she is accomplished in ceramics, jewelry, lapidary, leather, macrame, metal enameling, mosaics, printing (acrylics, alkyd, enamel oils, vinyl and watercolor), photography, print making (acid etch, diamond point, lithograph and wood block), sculptor (bronze, clay, plaster, and wax), weaving, wood carving and pottery.
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Her spirituality is the basis on which she produces all of her arts and crafts work. Johnell says, "My most fervent wish in my art is to use knowledge and experience and come up with new approaches - I am truly addicted to experimentation! It is with this in mind that I use my art and my suggestions to help others to design their own composition and to express their own thoughts. To everyone reading this, I can truthfully say that each one will find a new way of thinking - perhaps even be inspired to depict innermost spirituality and all the facets connected with their connection with God - through art. My most successful abstract paintings have been accomplished with thoughts of my religion to draw from. My functioning as an artist-crafts woman has made me truly grateful my entire life!"
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Sister Doris Marie Flax, CSJ
Sister Doris Marie is originally from Ransom, Kansas. Currently, she lives and ministers in Ellis, Kansas. She says, "My present ministry as Pastoral Associate was not my first choice. I had really answered the vacancy as school secretary but during the interview the Pastor told me he liked my ides on the mission of parishes and asked if I would consider being his Associate. I have never regretted taking that position as it gives me a chance to be involved with people of all ages."
Another regret Sister Doris Marie has never had is entering religious life. "Although I questioned why God was calling me to be a member of this community, I have never regretted it and have found this life to be so life-giving. I often thank God for extending the invitation!" She appreciated the changes that came with the Community Renewal after Vatican II. "The Renewal allowed me to grow in my love of God and neighbor. God is not someone who is 'out there' but someone very near."
Her other ministries have included being a primary teacher, caring for an ill family member, and being coordinator of services at the Motherhouse. In her leisure time, she enjoys reading, quilting, crossword puzzles and walking.
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Sister Margaret Ann Buser, CSJ
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Anyone who knows Sister Margaret Ann knows that building relationships with people has been a top priority for her. She says, "Over the years I have made countless friends who have touched my life and left their imprint an my heart that will never go away. When I share with others - friends, relatives and the 'dear neighbor' - I draw from this grace-filled powerhouse in my heart the great wisdom and endless LOVE friends have given me."
Sister Margaret Ann spent the first forty years of her ministry teaching high school and college. She then worked in the Grand island marriage Tribunal for eleven years. Now she enjoys being a care-giver in the Stephen Ministry program for Cathedral Parish where she mentors recovering alcoholics, takes food to the poor and is available to anyone in need. She is also active in "Nebraskans for Peace".
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Sister Margaret Ann says, "One of my great joys is keeping in contact with former students by attending reunions and writing letters. Having coffee with them and telling stories of 'way back when' keeps me young at heart. I try to find God's presence in every person I meet and in all that happens each day. I ask the Holy Spirit to help me know what to say, when to speak and when to listen. Even as a retired person, some days can overwhelm me so I take "time out" to talk with Jesus and just rest in His presence a while."
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A native of Gladstone, Michigan, Sister Jodi Creten has taught language arts in grade schools in New Mexico, Chicago, Ill. and Missouri. From 1980 to 1987 she was coordinator of Safford Hall, the community's center for senior sisters. Since 1988 she has lived and ministered to the elderly both in assisted living and through senior companion services in Atlanta, GA. Sister Jodi says, "The elderly are at a time of integration in their lives. My passion is to help them to integrate all that has been, and to do so with a
listening heart. So often, they are the forgotten ones, but they have a wisdom we still desire. I want to honor them and their life stories, and I want to respect them for who they are." Every day I go to them, I feel sent!
Another one of Sr. Jodi's passions is cooking, and she often brings folks in for dinner, or she carries meals to them. She also has a quick wit, enjoys nature and walking, studying Spanish, whistling and raising provocative questions with or without answers! She also dabbles in poetry.
She has been involved with the SOA Watch (School of the Americas) in Columbus, Georgia hoping that those efforts "will close the school that is responsible for the bloodshed of innocent people in Central America." She writes letters through NETWORK (a Catholic social justice lobby), encouraging lawmakers to change policies that directly effect the poor and the marginalized. Her spirituality flows into action through the quiet time she spends each day in prayer. She says, "Prayer informs all that I am and do. I truly believe that Sisters of St. Joseph are contemplatives in action. God
directs. We listen, discern and then move into being for the 'dear neighbor'."
Sister Jodi has been a CSJ for 46 years and says, "My desire to minister in any way remains very strong, and so I search out ways I can meet the needs of all those with whom I come into contact. I believe that CSJs are contemplatives in action within the world and for the world, striving to bring justice and harmony wherever we go."
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