I grew up in Colorado loving God, family, and outdoor activities. After graduating college, I thought I knew what would make me happy and I explored several professions where I could travel, make money, and have time off for family and friends. When none of these brought me the fulfillment I was seeking, I started looking at religious life. After talking with and visiting several communities, I found God calling me to be a religious sister with the Sisters of St Joseph the Worker. I made my profession of vows in 2006. I have been the administrator of our nursing home, Taylor Manor, since 2011.

When I was growing up I was taught by the Benedictine Sisters from Atchison, Kansas. In high school, I was taught by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth. After graduation I went to a Jesuit College for two years before entering the convent. I was blessed to have been surrounded by good priests and sisters all my young life, and because of this I wanted to follow in their footsteps of dedicating myself to the Lord. They were an inspiration to me. When I was 21 years old I entered the Sisters of St. Joseph the Worker. I came to know them through the sodality I belonged to in my parish. Our pastor would take us to different convents all over the country in the summertime to experience religious life first hand. I knew I wanted to teach, wear a black and white religious habit, and live in a community that wasn’t so big that I wouldn’t know all the sisters. In 1977 our group visited such a community in Walton, Kentucky. The sisters had an elementary school and nursing home. They wore a black and white habit and they were a small, family-like group. In 1978 I asked to come back by myself for two weeks and on September 15, 1978, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, I entered the community. I am the second oldest of eight children, four boys and four girls. I finished my education degree while in the convent, then went on to finish my masters, followed by a principal certification. Most of my 37 years of teaching have been in the first and second grades. For five of those years however, I was assigned to teach religion in a high school, and then was assigned as a principal for eleven years. Currently I am teaching 2nd and 6th graders religion while working as vocation director for our community. I am also teaching Adult RCIA members in our parish church. I like the outdoors, especially working in the garden. I enjoy sports of all sorts. If you type “nun playing football in Philadelphia” in Google, you can see the tape someone made of me playing catch in the street while waiting for the arrival of Pope Francis. My favorite saying is “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

Fr. Nathaniel Haslam was ordained a Catholic priest in the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in Rome in 2010. He is an RPI graduate with bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a minor in mechanical engineering. While working for Xerox, he planned to found his own Fortune 500 company before God called him to the priesthood. During his 12 years of priestly training, he received degrees in both philosophy and theology as well as founded the “International Leadership Semester,” a certified leadership study abroad program at “European University of Rome”. He also helped organize and coordinate the first ever Vatican Executive Summit in which world economic leaders were invited to discuss a global ethics strategy to respond to the economic crisis in 2009. Living in Houston for 8 years, Fr Nathaniel has assisted at parishes such as St. John Vianney, St. Cecilia, Epiphany, Prince of Peace, and St. Anthony of Padua. He has served as the National Corporate Ethics Advisor for the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as well as a chaplain for the Lumen Institute for business leaders. Fr Nathaniel enjoys helping leaders bridge Sunday-into-Monday through one-to-one life coaching and small group gatherings.