Wardsville native celebrates 70 years of professed religious life
Seventy years into religious life, Wardsville native Sister Celine Maasen retains a clear sense of purpose and mission.
“My responsibility is to pray for everyone I come into contact with,” she stated. “I think God is calling me to show people how to lead a good life.”
Sr. Celine, a native of St. Stanislaus Parish in Wardsville, recently celebrated the 70th anniversary of her religious profession as a Sister of Divine Providence (CDP).
“I’ve enjoyed all the time I’ve been a sister,” she said. “I don’t regret a minute of it.”
Sr. Celine was born Nov. 17, 1935, in Wardsville, the oldest of nine children of the late George and Margaret Maasen, and given the name Mary Louise.
She grew up on a farm and had Sisters of Divine Providence as teachers at what is now St. Stanislaus School.
“It was a public school, taught by sisters,” she said. “It’s much bigger now than it was. We had nine in my grade. There were three grades in each room.”
Sr. Celine remembers being a “tomboy” who liked wearing blue jeans and walking around barefoot.
One day in second grade — she clearly remembers the desk where she was sitting — something told her that she would enter the convent.
“I thought, ‘That’s crazy. It will never happen,’” she recalled.
She credits her eighth-grade teacher, Divine Providence Sister Mary William Haug, for awakening her desire to become a sister.
Her parents supported her decision, but leaving home was terribly difficult for her.
“I had a little sister who was 2 years old,” she recalled. “I spoiled her rotten.”
Another sister was born after Sr. Celine entered the convent. Because it was during her canonical year of formation under the old rules, she could not leave the convent or have any visitors.
“My little sister was 3 months old when I got to meet her,” she said. “That was hard, but she got to know me as Sister, and we’re very close.”
After Sr. Celine was in religious life for 10 years, her dad said, “I guess you made it! You’re in for good!”
Fifteen years later, he teased her again: “I guess you’re really in now! There’s no leaving for you!”
School days
The Sisters of Divine Providence (cdpsisters.org), originally founded in Germany, had a motherhouse known as Mount Providence in Normandy near St. Louis.
Most of the CDP sisters when Sr. Celine entered became teachers or worked in hospitals.
She taught first and second grades for 25 years in Missouri, Illinois and Louisiana.
She completed her bachelor’s degree in education from Harris Stowe State College in St. Louis in 1978.
She has many pleasant memories of St. Andrew School in Tipton, where she taught from 1963-64.
“The kids reminded me of me,” she said, “because I was country.”
She especially loved preparing the children for their First Holy Communion.
One girl in her class was so determined to see the inside of the convent, she deliberately injured herself with a piece of chicken wire.
“Her biggest joy was to go to the convent and get vinegar put on her hand,” Sr. Celine recalled.
A third-grade boy on the day President John F. Kennedy was killed looked up teary-eyed at Sr. Celine and asked, “What’s going to happen to his kids?”
Hands in the dirt
After teaching, Sr. Celine took up maintenance work at the motherhouse in St. Louis — painting and taking care of the cars and doing grocery shopping and driving people to the doctor. She loved it.
“I cut all the grass at motherhouse and worked in the cemetery,” she said. “I had to make sure it was in tiptop shape. I planted flowers — anything I could to get my fingers in the dirt!”
Those same fingers also stitched beautiful crafts to be sold at church fundraisers.
She took a correspondence class in car repair after an auto mechanic gypped her.
“I said ‘never again,’” she said. “Now, I can tell you what’s wrong with a car, but my hands won’t let me fix it anymore.”
Teaching by example
Over the years, the Sisters of Divine Providence began turning their focus more toward the needs of the poor and the homeless.
To help raise money for the ministry, Sr. Celine worked as a cook and housekeeper at a Franciscan-run women’s shelter, then did housekeeping at a hotel in St. Louis.
She then took up maintenance work at St. Ann Parish and School in Normandy.
“It’s a very interesting life,” she told The Catholic Missourian in 2010.
She was convinced that one of her missions there was to be an example of how people can live simply.
“I do get to talk to the children in school and explain vocations to them,” she said at the time. “I think that’s what God is calling me to do right now: whatever I can to show other people how to lead a good life.”
The students asked a lot of questions when she told them about the vows she took to be poor, chaste and obedient.
She told them she doesn’t need to own anything; her community takes care of her needs.
When children asked if she misses having children of her own, she told them that all the children she ever taught are her family.
“I pray for them to get to heaven,” she said.
Trust and awe
After retirement, Sr. Celine moved to Evergreen Place in Alton, Illinois.
She enjoys working jigsaw puzzles and word searches and making hats and scarfs for children in need.
“I love doing things for others and the poor,” she said. “I trust in the Providence of God for all the things that happen in my life.”
She loves to watch the deer and foxes coming out of the woods in the morning and marveling at the birds.
Her siblings include Harold Maasen of Taos; Pauline Strope of Springfield; Helen Boeckmann and Vicky Niekamp, both of Wardsville; Theresa Temmen of Folk; Bernadette Gillis of Naples, Florida; and the late Barbara Rackers and the late Bernard Maasen.
She believes God is still calling girls and young women to the religious life, and that it’s a call worth answering.
She asks for prayers to help her continue to do her work and be a good example.
