“When I came to the [Rochester Franciscan] Community, I felt it was kind of like another family… a little bigger family. And, as I reflect on my call, originally I thought I was making all the choices and I had to say no to certain things. I found out later that it was really God making the choices in my life, and that all I needed to do was respond.”

“Our family belonged to a small country parish …Sisters came to teach for two weeks and I enjoyed listening to their life experiences and the stories they read to us. I think it was in about seventh grade when I thought this might be the right life for me. After I graduated from high school, I worked for two years. Then I decided I must take that first step. So, I talked to our parish priest and he encouraged me to join the Franciscan Sisters in Rochester. And so I did, in 1955.”

“My passion in ministry has probably been to invite others to find the beauty of life. Some of that is in believing that there’s a God who loves all of us equally, no matter what our culture is, and believing that we have the skills and talents inside of us to become happy, vibrant individuals.
Right now, I have the best job in the Community; I’m the art archivist. I can change things with the beauty that’s available in this absolutely gorgeous building and enhance it for the joy of all of us throughout the year. I think for me, just the beauty that exists in an each individual is a gift to find, and to live with that and enjoy that and celebrate that.”

“My parents were very religious and the faith life of the parish and prayer was a part of our life. There was something about the Sisters that drew me toward desiring to witness and to help out in any way that I could. The Franciscan Sisters were the only community that I knew at that time. My parents’ were open for me to explore that desire, knowing of their love of church and their God and wanting to help in any way within the church.”

“What does ministry mean to me? I picture the world as a puzzle and if there’s a puzzle piece missing, it isn’t really very beautiful. There’s something missing. So I always believed in being as thorough [as possible] in my ministry to find the missing pieces and make things whole.”

“Franciscan Sisters were my teachers in grade school and high school; this was the only Community I knew. Since we lived near the school, the Sisters sometimes took a walk down our street and I would notice how happy they were with each other. I always wanted to be a teacher. And so, in second grade, the Sister asked, “Who would like to be a Sister?” Of course, I raised my hand. I didn’t think about it until I was a junior in high school. And during our retreat day, the retreat master challenged us with a question, “Where is God calling you to serve?” So I went home and ponder that. And a few months later, the principal, a Sister, called me to the office and said, “Lorraine, you have a religious vocation. Would you consider it?” I said I would go home and think about it and pray about it. And it seemed on very different occasions, different teachers would raise the question, “Are you considering becoming a Sister?” I thought it was strange, but God was talking to me in various ways. And in my senior year, I sent in my application to this Community and I remember completing the one question, “What is your reason for joining?” And it was to serve God and to serve other people.”

“Being a Franciscan has opened a whole world of opportunity for me by getting to know other Sisters and how they live. I learned a lot from other Sisters just in sharing a community life and being a part of their prayer life and discussing and getting involved in needs of the world and seeing how we can serve each other.”

“I made the decision to come to the convent when I was in high school. I had four different kinds of Sisters as teachers up to that point. So, the one I thought I of joining was the one that I knew last. My mother had been a postulant in a religious community and was concerned that being the oldest of eight children and very responsible oldest daughter, I was a jumping a little bit fast. She had not been happy in the Community that she joined, so, she thought I should go away to college for a year. I entered the College of Saint Teresa as a freshman in 1960. At that point, I saw a whole new vision of religious life. The Sisters were very different from the Sisters that I had in the past and I kind of liked them. But at the end of the first year, I wasn’t ready to join the convent. Three years later, I finally bit the bullet… I put in my request and at the end of my junior year, I joined the Sisters of Saint Francis.”

“Why did I join? Well, I think God had most everything to do with it, actually. I grew up on a farm as a baby boomer and, in our era, we enjoyed a lot of peace and prosperity and growth. While still a young girl, television opened up the world to me. I saw another world that I wasn’t living in. My reality was so completely different than what I was experiencing on the evening news. I saw civil unrest and poverty and that greatly affected me… What I really liked [about joining the Rochester Franciscans] is that I belonged to something larger than myself. We worked together, we prayed together, we lived in community, and we had time to study. But underlying all of that, I believe, was a sense of doing good, answering the needs of society. And that’s why I joined and that’s why I’m still here with no regrets.”

“My commitment to be a Sister has always remained constant. When I was coming to the convent, as mom and dad were driving down highway 52, Dad said, “Now remember, you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to be in that convent, you come on home.” And I thought, “What a funny thing to say. Of course I’m going to stay!” And it never entered my mind that I would think to leave. I will tell you I knew I’d become a Sister when I started in the first grade. Father would come into our room and say, “How many girls are going to be Sisters?” And everybody raised their hand. When we got to the fourth grade, a few girls raised their hand. When we got to the ninth grade, I was going to raise my hand and I looked around. Nobody else was raising their hand. So I put mine down, too, even though I always knew I’d join.”

“My whole life I wanted to be a nurse. I didn’t even think about entering a Community. But one night I was driving home from the late shift at the community hospital in Winona, and I had received my first paycheck. I looked at that and I said to myself, “If I keep this up just working and getting a paycheck for me, I’m going to be very selfish.” I became a nurse to serve. That’s when it struck me that I should talk to the Sisters of Saint Francis because I had them as teachers throughout my school years. I went to the priest and he immediately got in contact with the Sisters, and I think I ended up being interviewed within the next two days after I’d made this decision. So that is how fast it happened.”

“I think I always wanted to be a Sister, but my first recollection of really wanting to be a Sister was probably in the eighth grade. I had always known the Rochester Franciscans. They were staffing the grade schools in Saint Joseph and Saint Lawrence parishes, and I was from Saint Joseph parish. My father had a shoe repair business. The Sisters would give us their shoes to take home for my father to repair and then we’d take them back and we laugh. My sister and I liked doing that because we could sit on the merry-go-round outside the convent and they’d come out and visit with us. So, as a young girl in grade school, I was really kind of enthralled by the Sisters and the life. They all seemed so happy.”