Sister Carol Stevens shared that when she was an impressionable elementary and high school student, she was always drawn to the School Sisters of St. Francis music teachers that she was privileged to have as guides.
“Their nurturing and care always made me wonder, ‘Could I be one of them?’,” she remembers. “When a valued confessor asked me if I’d ever considered religious life, I originally balked at the idea, but I never really dismissed it. Then, when several of my friends from Madonna High School made the decision to enter Postulancy, I was hooked. My closest friend had already joined the Aspirancy.”
On her first day at Mount St. Francis in Rockford, she was asking herself “What have I gotten myself into?”
“When I joined all the others of the soon-to-be-Novitiate class of 1964 in Milwaukee, I soon realized that this was going to be a big adventure and only God knew the outcome,” she said. “When we were asked to declare a college major, I chose history and English. I was asked if I had any other interests and I said that I loved music. I was sent for an audition, I was accepted, and the journey began.”
Sister Carol she had much to learn and really got her feet wet when she was assigned to Holy Ghost Parish in the Chicago suburb of Wood Dale. She was a second-year junior, one year away from graduating. “What a challenge! I had a sixth-grade homeroom, I taught music for all grades, and I handled all the church music. That year flew by.”
After returning to Alverno College and finishing her degree in Music Education and Liturgical Music, she was assigned to Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Aurora. “Twenty-eight wonderful years at OLGC were followed by 18 wonderful years at St. John the Baptist in Somonauk, Illinois, as music director and pastoral associate.”
“After freelancing as a piano teacher for two years, I accepted a part-time position as music director at St. John Neumann Parish in St. Charles, where I remain,” Sister said. “Good places, good people, and good times.”
She was touched that throughout it all, she was privileged to live and work with many wonderful sisters and lay people. “They have truly helped me to fulfill what I have vowed,” she said.
When asked about special ministry experiences, she recalled, “I was delighted to be the School Sisters of St. Francis representative in the mid-1990s ‘Sisters in Song’ project. Eighty Sisters from 50 religious congregations gathered in Los Angeles to form the Sisters in Song Choir, which recorded three CDs. The project initially raised more than $500,000 and the funds were distributed to the National Religious Retirement Office and SOAR! (Support Our Aging Religious) to help meet the financial needs of aging religious. What a thrill and highlight of ministry! The memories and the music are still very much alive for me.”
“All of these years have been filled with joys and sorrow, gains and losses, successes and failures, and each one has been a gift and a blessing. Each is new, and as they continue, my prayer is, “This day is my daily bread. Take it, bless it, break it, and give it to all those I meet this day.”