Sister Carolyn Kunzler

My vocation started when I was about 5 years old. I was inspired by the story of St. Therese and felt I wanted to be like that when I got older. I used to pray to St. Therese for guidance and all through grade school it was part of my thoughts and prayers. I wasn’t very fond of school but I really liked the sisters so it was something of an irony that I became a teacher myself. When I was in the eighth grade I liked to help out with the second grade students whose teacher was sick. I would do numbers and letters with them. I was determined after 8th grade to become a sister even though my mother felt I was too young. I did go to the convent….. I liked the prayers and I liked the chapel and I liked the sisters but I was horribly homesick. All I wanted was to see my mother! So my mother did come that very day, I saw her and I was fine from that time on. Both of my parents were so supportive of me in my religious life.

I loved the regularity of the Divine Office even though it was in Latin because the chant and music were very attractive to me, There have been many difficult things that I have had to face throughout my life but I knew that I had come here to serve God and that helped me. I never doubted my vocation.

I enjoyed teaching high school chemistry for many years but when our academy closed I was surprised that I didn’t miss it because I immediately became happily involved in working with the senior citizens’ center which then opened in the school building.

My prayer life keeps me going now from day to day, the most valuable thing…. better than any work I’ve ever done. Even though I can’t labor much I’m able to spend more time in prayer.