Then and Now

Sister Evelyn (Mary Louis) Craig

I was raised in Akron, Ohio and grew up with six siblings. I attended St. Mary’s Grade and High School, where IHM Sisters educated me. Remarkably, 10 of my graduating class members entered the IHM community! My first mission was teaching eighth grade at St. Patrick in Carleton, Michigan. After two years, I moved to Kirkwood, Missouri, where I taught eighth grade at St. Gerard Majella for two years before becoming principal—a role I held for the next six years while completing my master’s degree in education.

While on a retreat at the Marianist Apostolic Center in Glencoe, Missouri, the Marianist Priests and Brothers invited me to join them in their high school retreat ministry and to train in spiritual direction at St. Louis University with a practicum at the Institute for Religious Formation. My experiences in campus ministry at John Carroll University in Cleveland and Bowling Green State University further shaped my commitment to spiritual direction and directed retreats, which have remained a constant in my life.

During a sabbatical in California, I explored questions surrounding ordination in other denominations. There, I learned a powerful lesson. “Don’t wait for authorization; just pastor your people,” became a guiding principle that continues to shape my ministry.

Upon returning to Monroe, I was invited to develop new protocols for membership, a role I held for 11 years. Working with women discerning religious life was a profound source of joy and challenged me to “not take my own call for granted, but to enable it again.”

My current ministry in spiritual formation at Duke University Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina, draws upon my previous work with college students—this time focusing on graduate students preparing to become pastors. It also offers me the opportunity to accompany pastors from all denominations after they complete their studies and begin their church assignments.

I recognize that my life’s path has consistently invited me to minister across generations and now extends to ministry across denominations, where I am immersed in “ecumenical goodness.” Throughout my religious life, I have cherished the freedom that continually calls me to become the best version of myself.