Blogger Bios | Visitation Monastery of Minneapolis

Sister Karen Mohan, VHM

Sister Karen

When Sister Karen was growing up in a Mississippi River city at the “Gateway to the West,” she could never have imagined that she would end up near the origin of the “Father of Waters,” right here in Minneapolis. Did you guess that Sister Karen is from St. Louis? She migrated north as a founding member of the Visitation Monastery of Minneapolis in 1989.

River imagery still catches Sister Karen’s attention, and kayaking, swimming and riding her bike along the Mississippi River Parkway near the monastery are leisure activities she really enjoys! She also appreciates the stillness of water with its invitation to open her heart to the depths of God’s love.

Sister Karen’s education at the Visitation Academy in St. Louis was the beginning of a long and blessed calling to “Live Jesus,” the motto of the Visitation order. Her undergraduate degree in English and graduate degree in Spirituality have enabled her to serve the Lord as an educator and spiritual guide. She is currently serving in Leadership for her community and for the Second Federation of Visitation Sisters.

Sister Karen treasures the moments to meet Jesus in personal and communal prayer, in the daily life of her community, the “Nunz in the Hood”, and in the wonderful people who come to pray or just be with the Visitation Sisters.

Contact Sr. Karen: kpmvhm@aol.com

Melissa Borgmann-Kiemde

Melissa with Visitation Sisters on her 40th Birthday at St. Jane House.

Melissa, on her 40th Birthday at St. Jane House, with Visitation Sisters Mary Margaret, Mary Frances, Katherine, Mary Virgina and Karen.

Melissa Borgmann-Kiemde happily joins the Visitation Monastery blogging team as a devoted lay member and contemplative participant in the Vis Sisters’ North Minneapolis lives. Since she made their acquaintance in the summer of 2001 — and discerned vowed membership to the beloved order — Melissa has been an engaged presence alongside the Visitation Sisters. In the spring of 2005, she joined the ranks of the Vis Companions, and has since served on their Circle of Collaborative Leaders and as a Vocations Partner.

As a former Minneapolis North Public School English teacher, Melissa finds a restorative and inspiring space of contemplation, faith and action with the sisters; she is grateful for their prayerful witness and presence in her life and in the greater North Minneapolis community. Melissa marvels at the opportunity to marry her personal life and spiritual passions with her professional callings as writer, teacher, leader and blog for the Visitation Sisters.

She cannot think of a better way to serve God, or “Live Jesus” as the nuns say – especially as she enters her 40’s and embraces life as mom to daughter Marguerite Marie and wife of Francois Kiemde.

Blessings!

Contact Melissa: Melissa@visitationmonasteryminneapolis.org

Elizabeth Eilers Sullivan

Elizabeth with her family

Elizabeth Eilers Sullivan is a 1993 graduate of the Mendota Heights Visitation. After criss-crossing the country for 17 years, she currently resides in St. Paul, MN, with her husband, Peter, and their four sons. She is a freelance writer who is passionate about motherhood, adventure, and sharing Salesian Spirituality.

A lover of travel and stories, Elizabeth worked for Jesuit Universities. First, her alma matter, Boston College, where she led international immersion trips for students, faculty and staff while she further pursued her masters studies in developmental psychology and education. After Boston College, she went on to get her MFA in Creative Writing and Book Making at the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduate studies, she had the privilege to hear first hand vocational stories where she worked at Loyola University Chicago and later at Santa Clara University as a creative writing teacher and campus minister working on the Programs for Theological Exploration of Vocation funded by Lilly. These experiences led her deeper into her own callings as a mother, birth doula, kids yoga instructor, creative writing teacher, writer, healer, seeker of beauty–all callings that are about giving birth literally and figuratively. This also led her back home to Minnesota.

Reconnecting with her Visitation schoolmates she was invited by one friend to sponsor a family in north Minneapolis for Christmas. When she went to deliver what the sisters requested of her she was warmly greeted by Sister Katherine Mullin who seventeen years earlier had admitted her to Visitation Mendota as a seventh grader in 1987. This exchange led them into a deep conversation on vocation and how all are called to live out their holy longings for the good of themselves, God, and others. Recalling how the Vis Sisters of Mendota loved her up as a silly but serious pre-teen, who met her by her locker before school began to give her breakfast–(knowing she hadn’t taken the time to eat before her early morning bus,) and who not only fed but encouraged her spirit, she was thrilled to join the Sisters on dreaming how their monastery, legacy, and Salesian tradition will continue to respond to the present needs, giving birth to a more peaceful future in north Minneapolis and beyond. Live + Jesus!

Sister Suzanne Homeyer, VHM

S. Suzanne Homeyer

Sr. Suzanne Homeyer has been a member of the Visitation Monastery of Minneapolis since 1995 when she entered the community. Her life before the Twin Cities included 17 years at a student parish working as liturgist, campus minister, RCIA director, peace and justice coordinator and a little bit of a lot of other things. She also served as a city council person in her town, co-founded a soup kitchen, lived in a Catholic Worker community and volunteered at a day center for street people. She has lived in Germany, a tent in the Prescott National Forest in Arizona, grew up in Chicago and taught in rural Illinois. She loves to share her life with others and is a firm believer in storytelling, rituals and old-fashioned letter writing. Blogging is a newly developed form of communication for Sr. Suzanne and she hopes you enjoy her musings of Visitation life.

Contact Sr. Suzanne: suzannempls@aol.com