Jubilarian Sister Theresa Kruml

Sister Theresa Kruml says, “A listening heart, joyful spirit and trust in God’s divine mercy have helped me to accept life’s daily crosses as I have attempted to grow in God’s love. All my life it has been my goal to serve God with a more loving heart.” The second of five children, she knew in third grade that she wanted to become a religious sister. The question was: which order? A native of Ord, Nebraska, she was attending St. Patrick’s Academy in Sidney, Nebraska, as a boarder where she met the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville. She entered the community at age 16, finishing up her schooling at Sacred Heart Academy in Louisville. Her sister, Georgia Jean, is also a Louisville Ursuline Sister.

Sister Theresa taught for 33 years in schools in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Nebraska. After retiring from teaching, she studied clinical pastoral education and earned certification as a Catholic hospital chaplain. Sister was in ministry at Methodist Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois, for nearly seven years, then moved to Iowa City, Iowa, in 1994 to serve as chaplain at Mercy Iowa City Hospital. Sister Theresa says, “I loved teaching, and that gave me skills that prepared me for the next big change, which was hospital chaplaincy, hospice ministry, and now, my volunteer work at Saint Wenceslaus Parish.”

Sister Theresa tells a humorous story from her teaching days—an eighth grade boy was misbehaving one day. Sister recalls that,“I told him, ‘I am so upset with you. I am not going to punish you right now, but you come back tomorrow and tell me what punishment you think you deserve.’ I then went home and forgot all about it. The next day he came in and was a little angel. And the next. Finally, on the third day he said, ‘Sister, when are you going to punish me? I can’t stand all this waiting!’”

Sister said the hospital always liked to have her in the emergency room as she had a calming presence. She sat with a woman one day at the hospital whose heart was out of rhythm. Sister spoke with her, prayed with her, and her heart went back to beating normally! Sister Theresa reflects, “That’s God’s grace working. What I have learned in my spiritual life is to always smile. Always receive people and be as kind as you can. That makes them free to open up, and they don’t have to be afraid.”

COVID-19 has, of course, created many obstacles in Sister’s current ministries, one of which is visiting the homebound elderly and those in nursing homes. She had been visiting a 108-year-old woman at a local nursing home, but is unable to do so right now, so the woman and Sister Theresa call each other to check in. Sister Theresa also sews baptism blankets for all the babies in the parish and sews dresses and shorts for needy children overseas. Sister says, “When you sew, you offer up every stitch for the person for whom you are sewing, asking for God’s love. That has been the process through my life—thinking of souls and asking God to bless them.”

In reflecting on her decades of being an Ursuline, the thing that is so important to her is living her four vows and being part of a family, with all the individual personalities and members on the same journey. Sister says, “I have always felt we belong together—like Saint Angela says, ‘Be of one will.’ We have a common end goal.”