Sister Louise

Some mothers admittedly tear up when reflecting on how Sister Louise Laroche, a Sister of St. Benedict of Ferdinand, influences their children.
 
Sister Louise, a religion teacher for grades K-8 at Holy Family School in Jasper, Indiana, can connect with students in ways only a Benedictine sister can.
 
Tara Eckman, who has three sons in Sister Louise’s religion classes, wrote in an email, “She is truly the heart of our school (and even typing that makes me well up with tears!)”
 
Vickie Beckman, who had two children graduate from the school, said in a phone interview, “I can actually see the light of Christ in Sister Louise’s eyes. Her eyes twinkle when she talks about God. It’s so evident to me, and it’s so rare. You know everything will be fine.
 
“You know her faith is number one in her life. There are so few people you see that truly live their faith. It’s not a question with her.”
 
She paused, and her voice caught as she said, “I tear up when I talk about her.”
 
Vickie was amazed that her son, as a grade school boy, shared things with Sister Louise in confidence.
 
“She is totally accessible to kids. That makes a difference. She knows the ways of the world, she’s been through so much, she understands peer pressure, she just gets it. She knows the guidance to give you to get through anything. Sister Louise is like a security blanket for Holy Family.”
 
Tara wrote that “Sister Louise is certainly at the top of that list” as to why her husband and her send their boys to Holy Family.
 
“I can’t think of anyone better to help us raise the boys into men of character and faith,” wrote Tara, a former student of Sister Louise. “Children of all ages respond to Sister Louise in such a beautiful way. She embodies Jesus’s immense and unconditional love for them, and they are drawn to her.
 
“She brings our faith alive in a very relevant way for them. “
 
Tara’s son, Leo, 6, said, “Sister Louise makes learning about Religion and the Bible fun.”
 
Leo is one of Holy Family’s 168 students. Sister Louise knows them all, by name. It’s the ultimate indication of how much she cares about them individually.
 
“What is rewarding is giving these children the Eucharist, or a blessing, and saying each one of their names,” says Sister Louise. “’The Body of Christ, Grace; God loves you very much, Sam,’ and seeing God in them.”
 
Her eyes twinkled as she spoke. She feels like a Godmother to all of them. Not having a homeroom of her own at the school, they are all her children.  
 
But everything is not eternally rosy during the school day. That’s when being a Benedictine sister really helps.
 
“I have students that are very difficult to love sometimes,” she admits. “So I pray, ‘God, please help me love them the way that God and their parents love them. There is something good in that child, just guide me into doing the right thing for that child.’ If I have a bad day, or I’m worried about a student, I bring it to prayer. It’s so much a part of who I am, and I want to share the gift of prayer with my students.”
 
Indeed, she practices the prayer form Lectio Divina, and meditation, with the students. And they latch on. It does help deal with the inevitable disciplinary problems and helps students to go deeper. She is adept at having open, meaningful conversations with students, ones that dig out the roots of problems and unearth possible solutions.
 
Regarding discipline, she tells her students, “Your parents and I are not the enemies here. If we are taking the time to discipline you it’s because we love and care for you deeply. Deep down they know it. Parents need all the help they can get these days, and I am there for them.”
 
That caring extends to Sister Louise taking time to create a curriculum, and activities, that are hits with students.
 
She’s taught at Holy Family for 23 years, with a two-year leave to care for her parents from 2008-2010. She took advantage of that time to fashion a more meaningful curriculum for students.
 
“I’d been teaching religion for a long time, but never felt the kids were making connections. You talk about Moses, and St. Paul, but students think it all happened about the same time.”
 
So she put a Bible time line, and a church history time line, on the bulletin board. She then presented her textbook material in those time lines.  It’s much easier for students to make the connections now, and much less frustrating for Sister Louise.
 
Holy Family Principal Sally Sternberg says, “She has a wonderful way of working everything together – what the kids know, what the church teaches, and what the Bible teaches. She has a gift.
 
“A lay teacher would go on the religion book, and that’s that. They don’t have the depth of knowledge that Sister Louise has. She makes religion come alive for students. We reap the benefits of her being a sister.
 
“She also teaches students how to be compassionate, and is more than ready to meet with them on personal and peer conflicts. She helps them reach a compromise.”
 
Sister Louise continually injects wrinkles into her lessons that keep the kids engaged. It could be the song about the apostles that children keep singing at home, and soon the whole family is belting out the tune. Or she’ll spy the popular clothes from GAP the students are wearing, and she ties them right into religion, saying it means “God Answers Prayers.” It’s just part of her trying to find God in everything.
 
She was particularly creative during Holy Week, setting up stations in the gym where students experienced various parts of the Way of the Cross. They could gently touch a crown of thorns, try a taste of vinegar, or hammer a nail into a cross while thinking of a sin they were sorry for. Or they could write something they wanted to thank Jesus for, or write the distractions that keep them from being closer to God. Fellow teachers told her afterward of students sharing their thoughts on how this experience touched them.
  
She says she has her dream job as a religious – being able to impart her life to others. And she particularly loves what she’s doing “because we’re all learning and growing in the knowledge and love of God together.”
 
“What better job can you have than being Godmother to so many children, helping them to being the person God created them to be,” says Sister Louise. “I teach children not to make a living but to make a life on our way to eternal life. I tell them when Jesus died on the cross, he gave us heaven, and now our task is to keep heaven by choosing heaven every day and to bring heaven to others.”
 
The joys of her ministry are many. From the random hugs given her by the little children at any time of the school day, to the serious conversations with older students that spell a difference in their lives. There’s the occasional note from a long-ago student thanking her. Or seeing kids being enthused about their relationship with God. Or seeing kids just being kind to one another, bringing heaven here on earth.
 
There’s the mother of an 8th grade boy who told Sister Louise last spring that her son was praying privately with his sister. The mother told her, ‘You have a great influence on those kids.’ Another mother said her child remarked, ‘I feel holier, I’m making better decisions.’
 
“These children have a spirituality,” says Sister Louise, “and they’re thirsting to know more. You can feel it.” Her 4th graders clamored for more meditation time last year, proclaiming how peaceful they felt. In a world perpetually on fast forward, it was a welcome time to reflect.
 
She tells of a former student who visited her, admitting that now he realizes how much she cared about him and his classmates. Others will also tell her how she made a difference in their lives.
 
Enough of a difference to bring tears to some people’s eyes.