“Joyful Thanks” is the theme of this year’s Jubilee celebration of the Sisters of the Divine Savior. A Mass of Thanksgiving will be offered on Saturday, June 26, at 11 a.m. at the Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. A dinner reception for family and friends will follow Mass in the Seminary Dining Room. Celebrating 60 years of religious profession are: Sisters Maria Elena Arias, Jean Marie Hauck, Teresa Rebholz and Patricia Wieloch.

 Sister Terese Rebholz (Jacinta), SDS, was born in Auburndale, Wisconsin. Her parents were Susan and William Rebholz. Sister Teresa was one of ten children. She was a member of St. Joseph’s Parish and attended parish school in East Bristol, Wisconsin, where she was taught by the Sisters of the Divine Savior. She remembers a loving and caring family and hard-working parents during the Depression. Today her family continues to be a great support. During the Depression, the family home was destroyed by fire and she and her sisters stayed with the Salvatorian Sisters for a week until another home was found. 

After two years attending Columbus High School, she entered the Congregation and then made her First Vows in August 1950. She taught elementary students for thirty-five years in Wisconsin and Maryland. The majority of the years were teaching in the Milwaukee Archdiocese, including sixteen years at Mother of Good Counsel School. “I was at Mother of Good Counsel School for sixteen busy and wonderful years where I shared the joys and struggles of students and parents. They taught me much during those years,” she said.

 During her first year of teaching, she had sixty-three third grade students in her class. “I loved it as my childhood dream of being a teacher and Sister was being fulfilled. What joy the lovely stories, poems and art work of my students gave me over the years. Drawing out the talents of so many bright and beautiful children has given me a real sense of accomplishment, not to mention the happiness of helping so many children to a greater knowledge and love of God. For years, she was a substitute teacher and helped with catechetical programs in various parishes.

 She earned a Bachelor of Science at Alverno College and a Master’s in Education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

 Sister Teresa lives intercommunity at Ancilla Domini Convent in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with several Salvatorian Sisters and members of other Congregations. She has kept all of her class lists and continues to pray for all her former students. Teacher that she is, she continues to tutor elementary students in reading and mathematics.