Sister Kathleen (Sandra Marie) Storms, director of Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat Center in Wheatland, celebrated her 50th jubilee as a School Sister of Notre Dame.
She professed first vows July 17, 1966. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and science from Mount Mary College in Milwaukee and a master’s degree in spirituality from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
Sr. Storms served as an elementary and junior high school teacher immediately following profession of her first vows. She taught fifth grade for two years at Ss. Peter and Paul School in Mankato, Minn., and junior high school science and religion for four years at St. Andrew School in St. Paul.
After completing graduate studies, she served as director of novices for the School Sisters of Notre Dame’s former Mankato Province for six years before serving as director of vocations for the archdiocesan vocation office in St. Paul. Sr. Storms ministered in spiritual direction for the Loyola Spirituality Center in St. Paul prior to ministering in rural areas for the Mankato Province. She transitioned into the co-director position for the Center for Earth Spirituality in Mankato before serving on the provincial council for the Mankato Province. Sr. Storms was program coordinator for Springbank Dominican Retreat Center in Kingstree, S.C., before assuming her current ministry as director of Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat Center in Wheatland.
“An experience I would like to share,” Sr. Storms says is, “it took me 45 years as a School Sister of Notre Dame to find my life coming full circle with a return to my rural roots when I accepted the call to be the director of Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat in Wheatland in 2011. As I drove down the long lane for my interview, I clearly knew I was coming home. With the serenity and beauty of this space, the possibility of using all my talents was crystal clear. My spirituality has always been linked to the land, and I have been blessed to be able to be teacher, spiritual director, gardener and advocate for Earth and farmers. Our Lady of the Prairie is home to me. Ministry with the Congregation of the Humility of Mary (CHM), a congregation of 90 sisters with a passion for justice, has helped me to more deeply appreciate my call to SSND and all we are called to do and be. We are all one!”
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