We can also learn from the call stories of others.  The following are personal accounts of Sisters and their journeys into religious life.  These stories may help you come to know more clearly how God is calling you ... often it is in the very ordinariness of our lives. God was offering me a choice ... I watched them closely ... I was attracted by their way of life of prayer... The Sisters were always so happy to see them ... Why I am happy to be an SSND ... More stories... Return to "Am I Being Called?"

"Why I am happy to be an SSND..."

Sister Rosalie Reitzel

I remember with fondness the freedom of growing up on a farm with 3 brothers and 13 sisters, of being born into a family community in a home set among orchards with every variety of fruit trees and berry bushes, and a large vegetable garden.  Great respect for the gifts of nature was always fostered and upheld.  Respect for creation is a value of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

My parents provided a Catholic education for us at the village school in St.  Clements, ON, which was staffed by the School Sisters of Notre Dame.  The peace and joy they radiated and the respect my parents demonstrated for Sisters and Priests must have influenced my attraction to SSND.  I received my high-school education at Notre Dame Academy in Waterdown.  Then there was Hamilton Teacher's College, which prepared me to teach in elementary schools.  Later I pursued graduate studies at St.  Jerome's College and the University of Waterloo.  My education has continued in many forms.Over the years I have enjoyed teaching classes from kindergarten to grade 8, serving as principal, operating as primary consultant in Ontario, teaching children 9 years to 14 years in England, heading a parish religious education program in BC, working in religious education among native peoples in NWT, tutoring in elementary schools, helping with correspondence religious education. 

At the age of 73 in the year 2000, I lived in the SSND Interprovincial Novitiate Community in St.  Louis Missouri, feeling privileged and blessed to serve our congregation in this way at that time in my life.  The opportunities for spiritual enrichment on my SSND journey seem to be increasing in magnitude as my ministries take different forms.  Now I minister as an ESL tutor in the local elementary school.

The longer I try to live out our goals outlined in You Are Sent, our constitution, the more gratified I feel about being called by a loving God to live out the Gospel values of our congregation founded by a very inspiring woman of the 17th century, Blessed Theresa Gerhardinger.

I am proud to belong to a congregation so widespread throughout the world, with so many missionaries doing God's work, and so many Sisters working in solidarity with the poor.  I am empowered by the SSNDs on fire with God's love - allowing themselves to be transformed in order to transform the world.

"Out of the flame of our days, we build the fire and keep it burning." - Mother Theresa

Presently Sister Rosalie is retired and lives in Kitchener, Ontario