In 1992 I met Sr. Karen Klimczak for whom “hope” was her mission. She founded and coordinated Hope House which is a transitional living place for recently released prisoners. The house was in a former rectory where a priest had been murdered. She made the room he was killed in the prayer room in the house. For me that reflects her belief in hope in so many ways.

Spending time with her was like being with the energizer bunny. She never stopped, and she had a great sense of humor. Our first meeting involved her bringing some of “her guys” to our youth retreat house where she shared her ministry with our young people. Before the evening was over she and I had a water war throughout the two stories of our retreat house. She led “her guys” and I had the young people on my team. To know Karen was to love her. She also introduced me to Clown Ministry which I did for a number of years.

Sr. Karen was also the first person to take me onto AOL and teach me about the internet. Her screen name was KayHope, her friend Fr. Roy’s was RoyHope, so she set me up with DenHope. That is still part of my personal email to this day in honor of her. Sadly she was murdered by one of the men she was trying to help. She foresaw this in the late 80’s and wrote him a letter that was read at his sentencing. In it she forgave him for killing her. There are so many stories I could tell about her, but I’ll stop here. You may learn more about her on this website: http://www.sisterkarencenter.org/about-sister-karen

A few months ago I asked my good friend Mr. Mike Patin to do a presentation for the ministry leaders of our diocese. He chose “Hope is a Muscle” as the title and topic. There is no doubt that we need hope during this pandemic time. Sr. Karen was at the beginning of my youth ministry journey and I believe Mike’s topic selection as I embark on virtual ministry is appropriate.

Mike is a mystic in many ways and truly speaks God’s message. If you start at 8 minutes into the video, he leads us through an exercise on keeping hope. Perhaps it will be of help to you at this time.