Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia Celebrate Jubilarians and many years of love and service

Each year, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia celebrate our Jubilarians —- the remarkable women we celebrate on the noteworthy anniversaries of the date they were received as novices into the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia.
In 2026, we honor nine Sisters who together represent 485 combined years of love of God and service to the neighbor: Sisters Julie Galan, Cese Green, Helen Mick, Mary Fran Simons, Janet LeDuc, Susan Marie Stoeber, Pat Eichner, Jan McCormick, and Sharon Hayes.
The Jubilee Committee has selected the theme “Blessed, Broken, Given, Shared” for their special year. It reflects the lives of the Sisters, which, like Eucharist, have been blessed, broken, given and shared for God’s people.
The Community will host a private celebration for the Jubilarians on June 7, 2026, at the Nazareth Motherhouse.

Each of these sisters has taken a unique path in her journey as a Woman Religious. To learn more about these special women as they prepare to begin their Jubilee year, we asked each one to write a short reflection that would be an answer to these questions:

What stands out to you about your years in religious life?

What do you cherish and how would you describe it?

God calls us in different ways. My calling was one of attraction. I admired the priests and sisters who were happy, enthusiastic, and so much fun. Their strong influence on me helped me make the decision to live a life devoted to serving God and the Church. I loved the Sisters of St. Joseph, who were my teachers.
Did I ever think of leaving the Community? Yes, but not because I wasn’t happy, but because I wanted to try a different ministry. I gave it time and didn’t act on it. I am grateful for God’s grace to have persevered in my Religious Vocation for 80 years.
For me, Religious Life means that I have been blessed abundantly in every way. God has given me more than I had hoped for. I am blessed with good health and happiness. At this moment, Religious Life has been a family to me. God has been good to me in my ministries.
In 1969, I was assigned to Curé of Ars Parish School, where I contracted for the ministries I felt God was calling me to. I celebrated 53 years at the Curé of Ars Parish. My ministries were teacher, Elementary Religious Education director, Parish Ministry, and assisting with Parish Funerals. Prayer and Community are my focus as I continue to celebrate God’s grace and perseverance as a Sister of St. Joseph.
Today, if a young woman were interested in joining a community, she would research on the internet to find which order appeals to her and where she feels she would fit. While this is very different than when I joined, the essence of Religious Life has not changed. It is now what it has always been, but the way it is lived out has changed. That is what makes it look different to many people.
So, God calls each of us to a vocation, all of which reflect a particular Gospel call. Together, we all offer a complete picture of God’s plan for his people.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to all of you for the support and gift of friendship you have given to me.

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My memory fails me at times but I do remember a few things. Life has been so good to me. I’ve enjoyed the places I’ve been to, and the things I’ve done along the way, such as; mowing grass, planting flowers, doing dishes, painting, wood craft work, teaching school, and teaching CCD class, just to name a few. Yes, there were bumpy roads once in a while.
I’ve enjoyed my life and am eternally grateful for ALL of life.
In later years, life is a little different and one can choose what you can still do. I spend a lot of time putting jigsaw puzzles together, and even more time for praying. Sometimes reading, watching TV, and just sitting comfortably is worth taking time to enjoy.

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The gift of 70 years in this community is more than I could ever have imagined. All the changes I have lived through have been life-giving, expanding my vision of what religious life is. We are women of the frontier, and we see, know, and move, always in response to a call.
My 22 years in education started in Chicago and Aurora, Illinois. These were adventurous because I had never been out of the state of Kansas. I really enjoyed being a teacher and spent the next years in Monett and Boonville, Missouri. I still cherish the relationships I have developed with teachers, parents, parishioners, pastors, and friends. From education, I moved into administration at our Motherhouse, where I ministered with our older Sisters. That, along with experiences I had with older people during my years in education, built in me a desire to continue ministering among older adults. And so, after a sabbatical year in Cincinnati, Ohio, I knew that I still wanted to work with the elderly in some capacity. At that time, I moved to Atlanta, GA, to minister through the archdiocesan senior services, and later with elderly people in their homes.
The experience of living and working in the Atlanta area was grace-filled for me. I was blessed to live among and work with many of our Black sisters and brothers. Building those relationships was life-giving for me. I had no idea that I would receive so much from experiencing other cultures.  I have been blessed over and over.
Always, I have been called beyond my own dreams. From teaching to administration to ministering to the elderly and volunteering in parish ministries – all have been gifts.

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Here I am, still in love — and attempting to love — God and human beings. I started out as a High School teacher, mostly of Latin, but while in Concordia at the Apostolic School and the local Notre Dame H.S., I was thrilled to get to teach co-ed Drama classes. I felt privileged to work in the Novitiate with young women entering our community in the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s. Then I moved to Chandler, Arizona, to be a chaplain at the Valley Hope Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center, where I served for more than 30 years. There, I was called to enter deeply into the human condition — how I loved listening to and being present with patients and staff at Valley Hope. How happy I was during this time to share my apartment with the precious, independent beings called Cats! While in Arizona, I cared for my dear friend, Fr. Don Larmore, at the end of his life.
In September of 2020, I began a new season here at the Motherhouse in Concordia, where I am with my sisters and with the staff whose loving care I depend on and for whom I am so grateful.
For this life in God and for the many people through all the years who have enriched my life, I say, “Deo Gratias.”

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This love is the energy of God through discernment and the Holy Spirit, that opens and draws me into the lives of people; their sufferings and joys, their anxieties and griefs, their sickness and deaths with a heart of compassion, courage, and gratitude. I am gifted to be an instrument of God’s presence, and at the same time, these moments in ministry contribute to growth in my life. Contemplation has brought Scripture, the Psalms, and receiving frequent Eucharist alive. These moments and actions build on each other. It’s an encounter with the God of surprise, happening daily in unexpected ways, that brings a new relationship between the love of God and the dear neighbor.
Religious life is a life called to walk side by side with others and experience how God’s love is planted anew. I have been blessed to have many experiences of this nature: to name a few.
I cherish being called to the life of the healing ministry: in hospitals, in pastoral care, and among many sick and dying.
I cherish having journeyed with many of our older Sisters in their life of transition of place, suffering, and near or at death, as well as to know their families.
I cherish several years in parish ministry, events and services with the ecumenical church, and participating in activities for justice and peace in neighborhoods and diocese of KC, MO.
I cherish having lived on a farm close to nature and soil, for the foundation of faith and love of my family that I have nearby.
I cherish the opportunity to have visited our Sisters in Brazil, traveling to Vietnam to encounter religious life there and experience the culture, to have met the people suffering in Nicaragua at war, and visited a priest friend in Belize.
I cherish all the friendships I have had and have today that have enriched my life as a person.
Most of all, I cherish the gift and grace of being called to be a Sister of St. Joseph of the Great Love of God, who sends me onward as a Pilgrim on a Journey, living into the unknown future of change with Hope and Peace.

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Graduating from Marymount, my first and only “job” was at St. Joseph’s Hospital, which later became Cloud County Health Center (CCHC). I was privileged to see many changes in the medical field. 
 Working as a nurse on the medical floor, as a night supervisor, and, finally, in the ICU was a learning experience I will never forget. The Sisters and the employees I worked with helped me grow spiritually and professionally in so many ways. 
 After retiring, Sister Anna Marie suggested that I take on Sister Charlotte’s job of providing supplies for the Motherhouse Sisters. That allowed me to get to know so many Sisters whom I had only known by name. 
 Being with the Sisters has helped me to grow spiritually and personally.

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I remember clearly working at Annunciation House in El Paso, TX, as a postulant, and cooking a meal for a homeless man. Then he handed me what little change he had in his pocket as payment. He taught me what it means to allow others their dignity. I think about the different youth groups that I would take on mission trips or ski trips. They taught me how not to take myself so seriously. I remember the many people that I journeyed with while teaching RCIA classes. Their willingness and eagerness to explore the Catholic faith and to discover their own faith journey along the way, which, in turn, helped me also to explore my own faith journey. When I think about all of the relationships I have formed over the past 40 years, either with my own Sisters in Community or with the people where I have ministered, the one word that comes to me is gratitude. Gratitude for how each person has formed and shaped me into the person I am today. Gratitude for relationships that are rooted in God’s love and sharing that love with one another, and with others as well.
It is these relationships that I have formed over the years that I cherish, as well as being a part of this wonderful Sisters of St. Joseph Community.  I remember when I first told my parents that I wanted to enter the Community, my Dad, who was not Catholic, was very nervous and not so sure about this decision of mine, until he got to meet Sisters Chris Meyer and Esther Pineda. He found out they were human beings just like him, who also liked playing cards. Our Heritage statement says it best for me, “The Sister of St. Joseph moves always towards profound love of God and love of neighbor without distinction….”

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I did not begin college until I was 28. After earning my degree, I spent nearly two decades working in chemical dependency treatment with adults, adolescents, families, prisoners, and parolees. Those years became an unexpected path back to the Church, awakening in me a quiet but persistent desire for something more.
When treatment centers began closing, I returned to my hometown of Chapman and worked with disadvantaged youth in Manhattan. During that time, S. Carolyn Juenemann introduced me to the Sisters of Saint Joseph Associate Program. I was an Associate for more than ten years, sharing prayer, learning, spiritual growth, and service with the Chapman/Abilene group. Being an Associate shaped my faith and my understanding of community.
In 2006, I first learned about the Agrégée Program. After attending an information session in 2007, I felt called to explore further and began formation in 2008 with S. Jean Ann Walton and Ann Ashwood, and later, with Sharon Hayes. I learned so much about the Sisters of St. Joseph and after hearing the story of the St. Joseph Orphanage and Home in Abilene and meeting S. Marie Coleman and Louis Truly, who had grown up there, I recognized that this God was calling me more deeply than I had expected.
Alongside Sharon Hayes, I completed formation and made my vow of fidelity in 2011. As an Agrégée Sister, I was able to serve where I lived—working with women through book studies, substance abuse programs, employee assistance services, military families, my parish community, and caring for my elderly mother.
In 2016, I retired from civil service and began ministry at the Chapman Senior Center, which I dearly loved. In 2020, I was asked to move to Concordia as Development Director and was later elected to the Leadership Circle.
Living in community is both challenging and deeply life-giving. Looking back, I see clearly how God has written straight with the crooked lines of my life – guiding me, shaping me, and calling me repeatedly into deeper relationships, service, and love.

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Another desire I had at an early age was to go into healthcare, specifically as a nurse. This preparation began shortly after I entered the community. I started college in St. Louis and graduated from Avila University. By this time, I was stationed at our hospital in Kansas City. My days were filled with learning and giving as I became a new nurse and nun.
Many changes occurred in the 10 years in the church and in religious life following Vatican II. I came to believe that I could serve outside the convent as much as I could inside, so I left. I could never say I didn’t have a vocation, just that I wanted to do it a bit differently. Not much changed. I lived with sisters around me and shared the same job I had as a nurse when I was in the community.
Fast-forward to graduate school at the University of Arizona. I found myself at institutions run by the Sisters of Saint Joseph. The signs weren’t lost on me again. God was in charge, gently saying that my life path would be, in large part, with the Sisters of Saint Joseph. After graduate school, I went back to Kansas City and worked mostly in critical care. I taught and educated nurses and retained my position in the intensive care unit.
In the early 2000s, a fellow novice friend of mine from years earlier attended a workshop at Concordia to learn more about our shared roots as Sisters of Saint Joseph. As I listened to her talk about her experience and all she had learned, I knew I wanted to share that experience. I met Sister Marcia Allen at the year-end retreat in St. Louis, and she was the initial stepping stone that led me to a retreat in Concordia. I was amazed to learn so much shared history and about the Agrégée program from Sister Bette Moslander. Again, it was a part of the call. Within the next six months, I contacted Sister Bette to find out all I could and asked to enter the process.
I joined Jan McCormick in the educational sessions in 2009 and made my vow of fidelity in 2011 as an Agrégée.

“We wish you a very joyous year.
Our hearts are filled with gratitude – for all things past,
for all things present, for you.
We will be celebrating you – and, of course, God, who gave you to us
and who gives us to you
in this marvelous community of St. Joseph.”
~ CSJ Leadership Council