Sister of 60 years has a life of gratitude and peace

Intermountain Catholic

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Sister Judine Suter says being a sister is a call from God and a privilege to serve in a community. Community life is not always a soft, easy road. There are challenges and crosses to bear, but they are always grace-filled when accepted. IC photo by Chris Young

OGDEN — "Being a sister has meant a way of life that leads one to deeper prayer and a contemplative attitude toward all of creation," said Benedictine Sister Judine Suter. "It has been a life of gratitude and peace."

Sr. Judine celebrated 60 years as a Benedictine sister July 11, 2005, at Mount Benedict Monastery, Ogden. She made her first vows in 1945, at St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph, Minn.

Sr. Judine started thinking about becoming a sister as early as the first grade while attending St. Clara’s Catholic Elementary School in Clara City, Minn. She was educated by Notre Dame sisters from Mankato, Minn.

"The sisters were excellent teachers and I admired them so much," said Sr. Judine. "I watched them like a hawk, and I wondered whether I could ever be like one of them, and I wondered if I could be a teacher and a sister."

That wonderment turned into a desire in the eighth grade. Sr. Judine confided her desire to her eighth-grade teacher, who began mentoring her. She would ask Sr. Judine questions and give her special time and things to read.

"She had me read about the lives of the saints," said Sr. Judine. "She also trained me to be a lector at Mass. In those days it was unheard of for children, especially females, to be a lector.

"Then I told my mother I would like to be a sister, and she did not want to push me or interfere," said Sr. Judine. "My mother told me to think about it and we would pray about it, and if that is what I wanted, she would be happy for me. She thought I was very young to make such a decision."

There were six children in Sr. Judine’s family, and they grew up on a farm. They had to travel six miles to church and school, and in the 1940s, six miles was far especially during the winter.

"People do not believe this, but we were snowbound during the wintertime, and we had to go to school with a horse and sleigh," she said. "We had to bundle up and sit in straw with hot bricks that my mother would heat to keep our feet warm. She heated them on top of an old stove and then wrapped them. As a child, it seemed like it took forever to travel six miles. Our travel time depended on the depth of the snow, and whether the horses could trot or whether they had to really pull the sleigh. The snow plows did not come very often through the county roads where we lived.

"In those days, cars were not plentiful," said Sr. Judine. "So in the summertime, my father would let my older brother drive the horse and buggy.

"I sometimes look back and say I can’t believe this myself," she said. "I must be ancient. We traveled that way until my brother was old enough and responsible enough to drive a car in good weather. We really thought we were in style."

Sr. Judine’s father died when she was 11 years old as a result of a farming accident. Because of her interest in becoming a sister, she asked her mother if the family could afford to let her to go to a Catholic boarding high school. Sr. Judine hesitated about going to a public high school because she was afraid she would lose her desire to become a sister. So her family made sacrifices and she attended St. Benedict’s High School in St. Joseph, Minn.

"It was a good boarding school with good training," she said. "A lot of the girls who attended the school were also interested in joining some day, so there was very good companionship and support among the students. After I graduated from high school, I was old enough to ask if I could enter as a postulant, which is the first stage of formation. I was almost 18 years old, but they told me I was too young."

They wanted her to wait a year and go to college. She attended St. Benedict’s College on the same campus for one year, asked again, and was accepted. After a year as a postulant, she entered the novitiate. There were 23 novices in her class and that was not the largest class. Some had as many as 33 novices.

"Those were the days when we really had the vocations" she said. "The novitiate was really a great year of learning the Benedictine way of life. I made my first vows in 1945, or temporary profession for three years, and professed my final vows in 1948. I stayed at the mother house and continued going to college. I graduated with a major in social studies and a minor in English in secondary education. I began teaching in 1949 in Minnesota."

In 1976, she came to Utah to teach at Judge Memorial Catholic High School because the monastery in Minnesota had promised to help staff the Catholic school in Utah. She said the beautiful thing about Judge Memorial was they recruited sisters, priests, and brothers from all different kinds of orders. She taught mostly English classes at Judge Memorial for 10 years, and had already taught nearly 30 years in Minnesota. So in 1986, she decided to stop teaching and find a new ministry.

She chose the Corpus Program at Seattle University, and earned a Master’s Degree in alcohol and drug counseling. She transferred to the University of Utah to become certified, and started working at St. Benedict’s Hospital in Ogden in the Alcohol and Chemical Treatment (ACT) Center until 1995.

"In 1994, when we became an independent monastery and the hospital was sold, I began training in spiritual direction so I could have some kind of ministry and do outreach work," said Sr. Judine. "Now I do spiritual direction and the fifth step for patients in alcohol and drug treatment, in which they admit their wrongs to themselves, to God, and to another person."

Sr. Judine is the formation director at Mount Benedict Monastery, and volunteers at the Ogden Rescue Mission Clinic.