Sister Constance Kramer (formerly Sister Marita)

Sister Constance “Connie” Kramer, formerly Sister Marita, passed away on Thursday, January 30, 2025, at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. She was 82-years-old and had been a Sister of Providence for 60 years.

Commentary

By Sister Rosemary Schmalz, SP

Jeremiah 29:11-13

I alone know the plans I have for you, says our God, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all of your heart, I will let you find me, says our God.

This scripture, chosen by Sister Connie Kramer as the first reading at Mass, certainly describes the faith life of this remarkable woman who throughout her whole life, sought God with all her heart. About five years ago, Sister Connie asked me to give her commentary. I readily agreed and was not surprised that I soon received a three-page document, a commentary she had written herself.

It was an excellent summary of her early life and her SP life and ministries. Well, my dear Sister Connie, I cannot just read your text. I must embellish it, adding to it words that try to describe the force you were in our lives.

Sister Connie began, “I always felt blessed to have been the daughter of two faith-filled German Catholic parents, George Kramer and Florence Westendorf Kramer.” She was born April 1, 1942, the youngest child in a family of six girls and four boys. When she gave me the commentary, she told me that it was very important that the twin brothers, John and Joseph, who were still-born, be mentioned as well as another brother, William, who died months before his 8th birthday when she was only 18-months-old. Thus, she grew up with one brother, George, and five sisters, Mary, Anne, Susan, Karen and Julie, all of whom have preceded her in death.

Connie continued, “Because I was the youngest child, I usually went to daily Mass with my mother. I felt privileged to both experience her faith life there and learn from her spontaneous Stations of the Cross reflections and prayers. It was she who taught me to believe in God’s plan to always give me a future full of hope. If I was humble enough to come to God in prayer with all my heart.”

Connie grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and was educated by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in elementary and high school. She first met the Sisters of Providence in 1948, when her oldest sister, Mary, attended Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.

This became a family tradition for all six girls in her family. Connie once told me that she really wanted to go to Trinity College in Washington, D.C., but the family tradition prevailed. She wrote, “It was in my junior year of college that my own call to religious life awakened within me. While reading The Journals and Letters of Saint Mother Theodore. I was deeply touched by her willingness to leave all and come to this country as a missionary, if Eucharist was present to her. This belief resonated with my parents’ deep faith in the power of the Eucharist that I had witnessed in my life and in theirs too.” I can attest to the fact that Connie’s devotion to the Eucharist never lessened.

After graduating from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in 1964 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and an Indiana Secondary Education Teachers Certification, Sister Connie entered the Sisters of Providence on September 12 of that year, following in the footsteps of her sister Julie, who had come in September of 1962.

She wrote, “The decision to embrace what I believe is the sacred mystery of my own call to religious life has clearly been the most treasured and life-giving choice I ever made in my life.” She was given the name Sister Marita, a name she retained for five years. She professed first vows August 15, 1967, and perpetual vows October 4, 1970. She wrote, “Throughout my religious life, it was a privilege to share this life with my sister, Julie, which for me was a very special gift from our Provident God to the both of us for almost 40 years before her death on July 30 of 2002.”

Sister Connie continued, “Because I entered the Community as a certified teacher, I began teaching four days later, at the Aspirancy (a high school at the Woods).” After her first profession, she began graduate studies at Indiana State University, earning a master’s degree in mathematics in 1970. During these years, she was also assigned to assist in the Congregation Business office. This resulted in a close and long friendship with Sister Margaret Kern and also gave her some practical training in financial affairs, something which stood her in good stead throughout her ministerial life.

Having completed her years in formation, she then ministered for 11 years in high schools, teaching mathematics and religion at Costa High School in Galesburg, Illinois, teaching mathematics and serving as Business Officer at Providence High School in Clarksville, Indiana, and teaching religion and serving as Business Officer and Director of Development at Ladywood-Saint Agnes School in Indianapolis.

Remember that I mentioned that she wanted to go to Trinity College? She wrote, “In the Fall of 1975, I was given the opportunity to follow my heart’s desire to study full-time at Trinity College in Washington, D.C., where in June of 1978, I earned a Masters of Arts degree in Pastoral Ministry as well as Certification in Group Facilitation/Group Counseling. Upon completion of this degree and certification, I returned to Indianapolis and for nine months, participated in the Clinical Pastoral Education Program at Indiana University Medical Center, which was followed by a year as a Group and Individual Counselor at Jackson Clinic in Anderson, Indiana.” Such was her ministry foundation for the years ahead.

She continued, “In 1980, I began a period of over 33 years in pastoral ministry as a Director of Religious Education at St. Simon and St. Thomas Aquinas Parishes in Indianapolis, as a Pastoral Associate at Holy Spirit Parish in Indianapolis, and, finally, in Terre Haute, as the Associate Administrator and Director of Religious Education at St. Ann Parish for two years followed by 19 additional years as the Parish Life Coordinator there. During those years, I also was privileged to be of service to my beloved Alma Mater as a member of the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College Board of Trustees for 11 years.”

Sister Connie received the Service Award from Catholic Charities of Terre Haute in 2010, and the Wabash Valley Women of Influence Award in 2013. She commented, “I truly felt that the Community of Saint Ann Parish, who served as a place of refuge for the poor in the Wabash Valley during its 136 years of existence, really deserved these awards.”

She also received the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College Alumni Frances Murphy Rumely Award in 2021. She ends this recital with these words, “It was also during these years at St. Ann’s that I experienced in my own life and the lives of those I served, the graces hidden within each of the beatitudes that are proclaimed in St. Matthew’s gospel that you will hear proclaimed at Mass tomorrow.”

But we cannot celebrate the life of this amazing woman without more words about her presence at St. Ann Parish. In a 1993 article in the Terre Haute Tribune-Star, we read, “One of the qualities that drew Kramer (to St. Ann Parish) was the participation level of its members.” Sister Connie is quoted as saying, “I rely heavily on them. It’s their parish, not mine.” I know from living with Sister Connie for six years that the parish ran on the volunteer services of the members. She had volunteer cleaners, secretaries, maintenance people, musicians, on and on. A 2010 article in the Criterion reports that she expressed her appreciation every week in the parish bulletin with her “gratitude list.”

She is quoted thus, “It says thank you to you if you painted something, if you helped me with the dental clinic, if you decorated the social hall, if you sang at a funeral, if you did anything, we say thank you there.” The article continued, “And there were always a lot of people at St. Ann Parish to thank, Sister Connie said, because she was not afraid to ask people for help. And, more often than not, they were willing to lend a hand.”

I can’t give you a detailed picture of how St. Ann Medical Clinic and then the Dental Clinic were brought into being. Connie told me just a few months before her death, when she confirmed that I was still willing to give her commentary, that she wanted it known that these were the fruit of the commitment of the members of the parish and Congregation. Well, that is true. But in this past week, I have been contemplating this – what if I had an empty old school building and I wanted to make it into a free medical clinic? How would I start? Where would I get the money? Who would do the planning? If we could renovate, where would get the staff, the equipment?

Certainly, there needed to be a leader, someone who could see the desired end and take responsibility for every step of the planning. Connie was that leader! Her foresight, planning, collaborative partnerships and doggedness in pursuing funding resulted in the opening of the medical clinic in 1997.

Then came the dental clinic. A story in a January 2005 issue of the Terre Haute Tribune-Star reads thus, “About 2.5 years ago Sister Connie Kramer became aware of a 26-year-old Terre Haute woman who died because of an untreated abscessed tooth. The woman left behind two children. As a result, Kramer resolved to open a dental clinic to serve the poor and uninsured, and Wednesday, St. Ann Dental Services will accept its first patients.” More years of planning and overseeing and guiding.

St. Ann Parish closed in 2012, with Sister Connie leading the process in such a way that it closed without the contention often experienced in other diocesan closings. How does Connie describe her years of ministry at St. Ann? She wrote in a ministry report sent to Archives in 2012, “I have learned a great deal from the parishioners of St. Ann Parish about how to care for the poor. I have learned from the poor what is important in life and what struggle really looks like and feels like to make ends meet on a daily basis. I also believe that I have had the privilege of giving the poor a ray of hope in their lives through the services offered by our Outreach.”

So is this the end of Connie’s amazing service? Not at all! She describes her journey after the closing of St. Ann parish thus, “I was given the gift of a sabbatical during which I did some additional study and became certified as both a Grief Specialist and a Spiritual Director. Then in August of 2013, I moved back to the Indianapolis area where I became a Grief Consultant for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, a retreat director at both Fatima Retreat House in Indianapolis and at Providence Spirituality & Conference Center here, and began my own grief specialist and spiritual direction practice. In addition, during these years I really enjoyed being able to share my love for and experience with 12-step spirituality as the Coordinator of the Fatima Retreat House Step-Up Ministry, which offered six annual retreats for men and women living in sheltered housing who were in early recovery, as well as my experience as the Spiritual Director for Seeds of Hope, which is a rehabilitation house for women with addiction also in Indianapolis. Likewise, my participation both in the You Are Not Alone ministry for Suicide Loss Survivors and the Peace in the Mourning Retreats for Widows, both sponsored by Fatima Retreat House, were cherished elements of my grief ministry.”

Having said all this, have we really described our Sister Connie Kramer? John Etling, when presenting the Catholic Charities award in 2010 described her as a “force of nature.” Sister Lawrence Ann Liston summarizes it thus in her nomination of Sister Connie for the Terre Haute Woman of Influence award in 2013: “Her influence in the northeast side of Terre Haute has been immense and legendary. She has been a living demonstration of Christ’s admonishment to love God and your neighbor.”

Sister Connie’s obituary on our website has resulted in many comments. I simply cannot share them here and so I invite you to peruse them at your leisure. Here is one from an email that her niece Amy White sent Sister Carole Kimes a few days before Sister Connie died. “Tell her we love her. She has given us so much love, help and support over the years. We are so grateful and we will do the same for others. She has given us an example to live and love by.”

So, our dear Sister Connie, the angels have led you into paradise where you are welcomed by the God that you have loved so totally. But your untiring service, your loving care for all, your passion for the poor, will remain with all of us, your sisters, your family, your friends, the poor, the grieving, the addicted, and for sure, the people of Terre Haute. Indeed, may your example continue to encourage all of us to “do the same,” as Amy promises.

Funeral services for Sister Connie took place on Monday, February 10, and Tuesday, February 11, in the Church of the Immaculate Conception at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.

A Wake took place from 2:30-4:30 p.m., on Monday, February 10. Mass of Christian Burial was at 11 a.m., on Tuesday, February 11.

Memorial contributions may be made in honor of Sister Connie to the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.

We welcome you to share your memories of Sister Connie in the comment section below.

Sister Constance “Connie” Kramer (formerly Sister Marita)

Complete Ministry

In Illinois: Teacher, Costa Catholic High School, Galesburg (1968-70).

In Indiana: Teacher, Aspirancy, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (1964-65); Treasury Office, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (1966-68); Teacher/Business Officer, Our Lady of Providence High School, Clarksville (1970-73); Teacher/Business Officer, Ladywood-St. Agnes, Indianapolis (1973-74); Teacher/Business Officer/Development Director, Ladywood-St. Agnes, Indianapolis (1974-75); Clinical Pastoral Educator/Pastoral Minister, Indiana University Medical Center, Indianapolis (1978-79); Group/Individual Counselor, Jackson Clinic, Anderson (1979-80); Director of Religious Education, St. Simon, Indianapolis (1980-81); Director of Religious Education/Pastoral Ministry, St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Indianapolis (1981-83); Group Consultant/Facilitator, Indianapolis (1983-84); Pastoral Associate, Holy Spirit, Indianapolis (1984-89); Group Consultant/Pastoral Ministry/Facilitator, Nativity Convent, Indianapolis (1989-91); Associate Administrator/Director of Religious Education, St. Ann Parish, Terre Haute (1991-93); Parish Life Coordinator, St. Ann Parish, Terre Haute (1993-2012); Administrator for Dental Services, Wabash Valley Health Center, Terre Haute (2012); Retreat and Spiritual Director/Grief Specialist/Consultant, Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Indianapolis (2014-19); Retreat and Spiritual Director/Grief Specialist, Indianapolis (2020-23); Retreat and Spiritual Director/Grief Specialist/Providence Hall Treasurer, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (2023-24); Retreat and Spiritual Director/Grief Specialist/Sisters of Providence Wake and Funeral Ministry, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (2024-25).