Sr. Clare Stephen Kralovic is from Johnstown, New York. She is celebrating her 50th anniversary of religious profession this year. In her words, “How fabulous is that?!”
Sr. Clare, when did you first begin to consider religious life?
I had thought about being a sister since I was in fifth grade. The first time I reached out to sisters was when I met some Sisters of Mercy from Albany, New York, and I wrote to them to ask for their vocation brochure. I remember it had a picture on the front of a young woman in a garden, with this quote from Scripture: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away…the flowers have appeared in our land” (Song of Songs 2:10, 12). I still get moved whenever I hear those verses, because they remind me of the early days of my discernment, and of when I was beginning to discover my vocation.
When I went to high school, however, I had different ideas for my life. For a while, I wanted to be a ballerina, then after that, I wanted to be a lawyer. But among all these things that came and went, I still had this desire for religious life.
When I was a junior in high school, I found out about the Daughters of St. Paul through the diocesan newspaper’s vocations page, which was a big list of ads from a bunch of different religious orders. I read every single one, and this one tiny ad caught my eye. It talked about sisters who worked with the press, films, TV, radio. That stuck out to me because I loved books. If I ever found a really good book, I would read it over and over, so I knew how powerful books are. I wrote to the Daughters for some information.
My desire for religious life kept increasing, and I also looked into the sisters I had as teachers in high school: the Sisters of St. John the Baptist, or the Baptistines. I even got as far as beginning to apply to the Baptistines, and they encouraged me to go to college first. I ended up studying library science for a little bit. What I realized, though, is that I didn’t feel called to the teaching mission of the Baptistine Sisters. God was speaking to me through the mission of the Daughters of St. Paul.
I began to visit the Daughters, first in Staten Island, and later in Boston. I felt a great peace after these visits. I sensed that I had found the place to live my vocation. I entered the community in Boston when I was 19 years old.
What have been some of your treasured experiences of the Pauline mission?
I love serving in our book centers and doing outreach, bringing our resources to people who need them. I especially valued my time in Alaska and Hawaii, because those are places where people go to “get away” from the world—and that’s when God steps in.
I’ll always remember this one young man who worked in construction in Alaska. When he met us and received a book from us, he said, “You know, I am spiritually starved.” The fact that he recognized that right as we walked into his life—that is how God works. Not through our great plans, but through grace at moments we never expected.
There was another man we met in Alaska, an elderly man in a fairly remote village. He took a book about the life of Christ and a prayer book, and then he said to me, “Before the missionaries came to Alaska, I didn’t know that Jesus died for me.” This was in 1976, not hundreds of years ago! But here was this man who was so excited to learn more about Jesus. The world is full of these sincere, wonderful people who just need Jesus.
What most speaks to you about the Pauline spirituality?
I love our devotion to Jesus Master, Way, Truth, and Life. We have it all: the Way for our wills, the Truth for our minds, and the Life for our hearts. The whole Christ for the whole person, so we don’t end up lopsided.
I love this spirituality because I still need it after 50 years in the convent. All that time to practice and I still don’t have it all together—and that’s exactly why I’m here. Our founder, Blessed James Alberione, used to say that if God gives you time, it’s because you need it to become holy. In the world, people say that time is money. But really, time is grace.
What advice would you give to someone discerning their vocation?
To me, the biggest thing is to not put pressure on yourself to know everything right away when it comes to discernment. We’re never going to know everything. God doesn’t turn the lights on all at once—we’d be blinded if he did. He only turns them on as we need them.
Religious life is an adventure. For me, that’s the best way to live.
