Sister Pat Kieler, SDS
Spiritual Director says, "I love this ministry!"

“I love this ministry and the Church as the people of God,” she exclaims. And because of this, priests, grandmothers, teachers, women and men, religious and lay, married and single regularly climb the stairs to her lower duplex on Milwaukee’s northwest side. Some of them have been coming to her home for over twenty-five years. They are seeking spiritual direction and reflecting on God in their daily life journey with Sister Pat Kieler, SDS, on a monthly basis.

“Faith and belief in a living God, that dynamically informs one’s life, is dreadfully absent in our culture. Yet there is a hunger for God. I find a Salvatorian call in me to invite persons, one by one, to discover God in their lives, to allow themselves to be transformed and to stay close to their inner fire and be a light for our world,” Sister Pat explained.

According to the Director, “Spiritual direction is the ongoing discernment about one’s life and ministry. Persons already have a spiritual direction, which I simply support, clarify, and encourage, or perhaps I assist in discerning a new direction. I listen for the person’s awareness of God in prayer and in the whole of life and help them recognize God’s footprints in his or her life.

One person describes Sister Pat’s efforts this way, “Sister Pat is outstanding! She listened and helped me to know that where I am is where I need to be, and that God is leading me to a different way of praying—just relax and let God lead the way. It is an immense help to me to be able to talk about my spirituality with someone who understands.”  

Sister Pat pointed out that a great deal of the ministry involves listening and affirming. “Sometimes I pose a challenge or connection that may take their awareness to a deeper or wider space. The process of spiritual direction frees the person to be fully themselves. I do not have to have the answers. We work at living fully with trust in God’s providence one day at a time.”

She has never advertised. Thirty years ago the leadership of her Congregation, the Sisters of the Divine Savior, invited her to create this ministry. Today, she can say, “I wish there were two of me. People feel a need for healing, a call to growth and a desire to develop their prayer life and become all they can be.” 

She has been described as encouraging, supportive, insightful and gently challenging.  During the summer months, she directs weeklong retreats at the Redemptorist Retreat Center in Oconomowoc; Jesuit Retreat House in Oshkosh; St. Joseph’s Retreat Center in Bailey’s Harbor, and Siena Center in Racine.

“There is a hunger for deeper prayer in our Church and world. On the retreats, people pray contemplatively and reflect quietly several hours a day. They have a chance to discover their own souls, its riches, needs, the presence of God in their own person and their own experience. They then bring that gift for creating a better world,” she pointed out.

“The most powerful thing is not what I say. It is the presence and the relationship itself. I hope I can free others to be fully themselves. I am blessed to walk with each person and to have our lives intersect,” she added.

“I am grateful for my Salvatorian Community. As a Sister of the Divine Savior, I have had international experiences such as giving a retreat in Taiwan. Our worldwide community keeps my vision big. The spiritual direction and retreat ministries have made me aware of God’s providence in my life and others. We help each other to understand this loving God. My very public ministry is spiritual direction but I serve my Congregation as musician and choir director.”