Wisdom of the Sisters

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Profiles of the Sisters

SSMO VOCATIONS
Sister Angeline Sohler

My family lived on a farm just outside North Plains, Oregon, and it was there that I was born on April 4, 1927. Our family was comprised of three older siblings, then a few years later, four younger girls of whom I am the oldest.

Nearby Columbia Academy was the school to which I walked every day. I enjoyed school, where one teacher taught all the children, one class after another. Students heard a review of the previous year as well as a preview of what was to come. Besides listening to the classes, I had lots of time to read and draw. Where else could you read all the books in the library!?! I began to think it would be fun to be a teacher.

Our parish, St. Edward’s, was a mission of St. Mary’s Home for Boys, so we had a priest only for Sunday Mass. He brought two Sisters from the Home to teach catechism after the Masses, and also to teach daily for two weeks in the summer. Besides the catechism, I heard stories of the saints, recited prayers, learned about liturgy, sang songs (both religious and entertaining) and played games. By third grade, I felt called to be a Sister and to do the work I saw the Sisters doing in our parish.

I looked forward to attending St. Mary of the Valley for high school even though I had met the Sisters of Providence by then and felt very attracted to their community. During my high school years, I often wondered which direction I should go. I think I was most influenced by working with the Sisters, as I was on a work program in the boarding school. The experience of seeing them not only as teachers, but as down-to-earth, friendly, caring humorous people made a great impression. One summer I worked at the Providence Hospital kitchen and visited the motherhouse in Seattle. But the prevailing call was to the more familiar Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon.

I think I would name “family spirit” as an attracting feature. Not only because I entered as a fifteen year old, but as the years went on, finding that a spirit of charity, support, helpfulness, humility, of giving and receiving was a gift and a life adventure. To the young woman of today, with more maturity and experience than I had, I would say, take a look at a life that combines community, prayer and service.