Sister Kathleen

I want to share a little more with you all about Sister Kathleen. Sister grew up in Ireland, the youngest of 16 siblings, but has been working in Glenmary's missions in the rural south for 50 years this summer. Understandably, her Irish brogue has been impacted by all of these years in the south. Sister has a few favorite sayings, which she can apply to almost any situation. These are: "There's a limit," "Oh! That's not right," "Okay. Okay," and "God love ya!" She has an astonishing amount of energy and is often running off to visit with somebody or pursue some new idea she has thought of.

Sister also loves to play cards. Once, while playing cards with the rest of the Sisters at their motherhouse in Owensboro, the other Sisters noticed Sister Kathleen whispering into her cards. She was beating them all pretty badly, and they began to get suspicious. "What are you saying?" one Sister asked her. She didn't respond, but soon she was speaking loudly enough for the rest to hear. "Jesus, if you ever played cards, give me a joker now, so help me God!" Again and again, Sister drew jokers!

Sister bakes excellent pies and breads, and never lets anything go to waste. Like a typical nun, she lists her interests on the Glenmary site as: "baking, sewing, card games and especially listening to Irish music and refinishing furniture," but she is a little ball of fire, truly anything but a typical nun!