Narrative Summary
Interview with Sr. Joyce Schramm by Emily Nea
Joyce Schramm was born in St. Charles County in Missouri in the 1940s. Her parents
raised her Roman Catholic, and she attended church and Catholic school across the street. Her
parents were instrumental in her faith; attending Mass and giving back to the church was
expected even from a young age. Joyce’s father had a great love for music and nature which he
passed onto her. Joyce has a BA and a masters in music education from Fontbonne College and
Missouri University-Columbia, respectively. At the convent, she was frequently called down to
the front to sing while they had community choir practice.
Joyce first thought of entering religious life when she was in the second grade. Sr.
Francis Ann taught her first and second grade, and Joyce adored her. She wanted to be like her.
She and her siblings were around the Catholic nuns who taught them a lot as children, and they
were friends with them because they lived right across the street.
Joyce was unsure when she entered the convent at fifteen, but she took a chance and just
made a commitment. She thought she could always leave if she didn’t like it, and still meet boys,
but after she made temporary vows for three years and then again for another two years, she took
perpetual vows. There was no one particular event that solidified her decision. Joyce lived
through the drastic changes of Vatican II, and while many nuns and priests left the religious life,
she decided to stay, though she wasn’t sure, and it scared her when so many people left.
There was a lot more freedom and justice in the Catholic Church for women after the
reforms of Vatican II. Attitudes changed, and people began to challenge the Church. After
Vatican II, the sisters were allowed to dance, which Joyce was happy about because she was
always getting in trouble at the convent for dancing when she didn’t realize she was doing it.
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Also since Vatican II and since she received education, Joyce says she likes being a
woman. Joyce originally wanted to be a priest because she wanted to be holy, but she had to
settle for what was implied to be second-best—being a nun, but especially after taking a class on
women’s gifts, she celebrates and takes pride in being a woman. She believes the Catholic
Church undervalues all that the women do and what they can offer, and they are crippled because
of it. However, she believes there has to be a balance because the Church would be crippled if
they didn’t recognize the men’s talents either.
After a sabbatical year studying Scripture in 1984, Joyce went to Israel, Greece, and
Rome and had the opportunity to see all the places mentioned in the Bible. She saw the River
Jordan and Jerusalem and noticed the ongoing tension there between Muslims and Jews. Before
living in Bolivia for ten years, Joyce visited her brother Don who was a Catholic priest in Bolivia
at the time.
Joyce loves Easter and Holy Week because of the liturgy and music involved. Easter is
“what it’s all about.” Music and nature and teaching feed Joyce, and this is how she expresses
herself.
Joyce loves being a teacher and working with children. She values education highly; it
does wonderful things for a person. She’s a certified teacher in the Montessori curriculum, and
established a Montessori school at an orphanage in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Right now, Joyce
volunteers at Catholic schools in St. Louis tutoring children in grades Kindergarten through
eighth grade. She teaches English as a Second Language to children who don’t speak English at
home.
Unfortunately, Joyce’s particular order, which is a smaller one in the church, is dying out.
While this fact brings her sorrow, she believes that her religious order is completing what the
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Holy Spirit guided them to do, which was implementing Catholic education. She doesn’t believe
nuns are irrelevant, and nuns will always be working for social justice. There are not women who
have religious vocations anymore because they have other opportunities in today’s society.
However, there aren’t many men who want to be priests anymore either, and Joyce believes there
are women who want to fill that role. Although Pope Francis does not want to ordain women, she
believes that will change because she thinks “God wants it.”
If Joyce had not entered religious life, she would not have been able to attend college.
Joyce’s favorite thing about religious life is the community. All of the women are aging, but they
are still vibrant and doing God’s work, praying, and caring for the poor and the children and
others on the margins of society. Their ministry continues whether they are active or retired.
Religious service is a large part of the community, and the women are close with each other.
Aging doesn’t stop the women, and they are still very involved in society and in the religious
life.
Joyce puts a lot of faith in the Holy Spirit, and she has hope that the Holy Spirit will
continue to work in her life as it has done in the church throughout Vatican II to bring her to the
religious life, and will provide a new avenue if she should ever have to quit teaching. Without
teaching, Joyce said she would feel a huge hole. She thinks children are amazing. She would
have loved to have children, and one thing she regrets now that she is older is that she has no
grandchildren. But she loves her life, and it’s hard to imagine her life any other way.
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Religious Lives of Ozarks Women