Sister Karen Elliott felt an early call on her life, which her family supported. She says “even as a young child, I had a sense of wanting to be a sister and wanting to be a teacher, primarily because I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to be of service. I wanted to do something that lifted people up. And following that call was very much a part of my childhood. Once I got into high school, I realized that people thought being a Catholic sister was kind of strange. It was weird. And so I began to just talk about being a teacher and let the sister part of it drop. Until I was in college and I had an experience with a group of sisters, and I thought, wow, they’re really just like normal people. They were fun and prayerful, and it was very engaging. And so I followed that path. Fast forward, here I am today having been a sister for 45 years.”

As part of her vocational path, Karen also pursued her passion for teaching, earning advanced degrees and working in various educational positions, including a role as a junior high teacher, a director of religious education, and an athletic director.

One of Karen’s most poignant memories happened when she was living in a convent in a medium-sized city. She says “the convent was right off the interstate, and we would have homeless women and women with children stopping by. I would feel so powerless because all I could do was make them a sandwich or bring them in out of the cold for awhile. I prayed, ‘God, I can’t do this on my own. This problem is so much bigger than I am.'” So she contacted every minister in the city to see if they could unite to solve this pressing issue.

She comments, “You know, getting a group of Christians together is not as easy as it sounds, because Catholics have their way of doing it, and so do Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, and Church of Christ and on and on. And we argue about things. But when we come together, the amazing good that we can do for the people of God is this example. Because they did come and everybody wanted to support under the umbrella of wanting to life up the poor and vulnerable because they’re God’s children. That ministry is still going strong 35 years later. And it’s a powerful witness of what can happen when nobody cares who gets the credit.”

Recently life threw Sister Karen a curveball. She comments: “my dad, who was raised in Appalachia, always talked about, with his hillbilly accent, if you’re going to be a Christian it’s going to cost you something. I was recently employed at a place that was a faith-based institution. Decisions were being made that were moving the institution away from the faith, away from the important traditions about the people that created the institution. I had to speak up and was supported in speaking up. Ultimately, as it does often within the Biblical prophetic tradition, not that I’m a Biblical prophet, but in that tradition, when you speak truth to power, sometimes you are moved or eradicated from the situation. And I was.”

Being released from that assignment created a new reality for Sister Karen as a spiritual free agent. She comments, “I was always taught about the Holy Spirit being this dove. But doves are just too calm for my personality. The ancient Celtic Christians saw the Holy Spirit as this wild goose: unpredictable, untamable. When you really follow the Holy Spirit, you’re going on a wild goose chase because you have no idea where God is going to lead you.”

She continues: “I have this sense of peace in this transition. I don’t know where I’m going next, but I don’t feel anxious or upset about it. It’s such a God-guided experience that I feel very blessed, which might sound crazy that you lose your job and you feel blessed, but I really do. I’ve had so many opportunities that I would not have been able to follow. I am doing some speaking at different places and some consulting. It is just a joy to go in, share the energy of new ideas and then to walk out of the room with nothing on my to do list. So yes, I’m enjoying being a spiritual free agent.”