Sister Katherine, CareGiver

School Sisters of Notre Dame
Mankato, Minnesota

The School Sisters of Notre Dame are members of an international order of 4,800 vowed women religious. They minister throughout the Midwest, Latin America and Africa. Older sisters return to the Provincial House where they care for each other.

Sister Katherine

Sister Katherine: This place is our home, and God is the center of our lives. So, God is present and very real. I think, as we have grown in our own chronological life, as well as in our spiritual life, we believe and try very hard, to respect that God is within each of us. So, that makes it be a holy place.

Spirituality is our core. And I think, for sisters - or any person who is experiencing Alzheimer's - our spiritual growth from childhood is the beginning. And it was our foundation. And even as we grow older and experience dementia, or experience a stroke, or experience Parkinson's disease, all of that we fall back on - the foundation that God is the center of our life. And it gives us the hope. We believe in Scripture. There are promises from our God, Jesus, that He's always with us.

So when one becomes - and has a sense of - frailty and diminishment, you can reach back out to that -- that God is my foundation, my source. Then, there are people like myself, who are younger. Who still have to provide that energy for the folks that cannot do it by themselves anymore. That is a part, then, of belonging to a community. We are community. That's who we are and how we live our life.

My ministry is a ministry of presence. And so I go on, to the area of the building where our sisters with dementia are. And I am there for them, even if there is not a lot of interaction. They see me, and I can bring security, and affirmation, and warmth, and sisterly love. They are my sisters. They are my older sisters. So, I can bring them energy and youth, as they bring me their wisdom and their faithfulness.

Next: A place where God rests