Sister Helen Carey OSB

Sister Helen didn't consider religious life until after a "wild" year of partying. A retreat with the Benedictines calmed her down.

“I had a prayerful and peaceful time. I wondered what it would be like to be a nun. They all looked so happy.”

After that retreat, she couldn’t get the idea out of her mind.

"I prayed about it and discussed it with my father, who was very pleased. I wrote to several communities for information and even visited another group. But the Benedictines were for me. I valued their quiet happiness.”

Sister Helen entered the community in 1953.

“I had all kinds of friends say, You’ll never last,’” she chuckles. “I guess they were wrong.”