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Graduate
Zita’s happiest experiences in religious life were receiving the habit of the Sisters of Saint Joseph and professing final vows. A guiding principle for her life has been: “follow the signs.” She believes God sends signs to guide us, be it through people or events. “We simply need to take God’s hand and follow the signs.”
Birthday Cake
The most significant people in Sister Zita’s life have been her parents. She is especially grateful to them for stressing the importance of a life of prayer. She believes that the wisdom figures in her life are too numerous to mention, but include family members, friends and Sisters of St. Joseph.
Growing up on a farm south of Claflin, Kansas, Sister Zita Oberle’s early education through fifth grade took place in a one room school and was so individualized that Zita completed two grade levels in one year. She cherishes the memories of that rural education and all it entailed.
When the family moved, Zita had to change schools. It was at Immaculate Conception School that she came in contact with the Sisters of Saint Joseph and she remembers fondly those who taught her in grades six through eight: Sisters Henrietta Kimpler, Patricia Kelly, and Mary Elizabeth Burns.
Soon after Zita entered the congregation she received the religious name of Sister Mary Lauren and later returned to her birth name after Vatican II. Following thirty-one years in elementary school teaching and administration, Sister Zita spent ten years ministering at the Crises Center
for Abused Women in Great Bend, Kansas and for the past six years to the present in home care ministry for the elderly and homebound.
50 Years
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