Living a life of loving service:

Sister Theresa Diane Streif, CSC

by Sister Margaret Ann Nowacki, CSC

On a bone-chilling Saturday morning in December would you volunteer to be out in a wind-whipped, snow-covered pasture to bring horses into a cold, cold barn for a students' riding class? Sister Theresa Diane Streif would, and she loves it!  Sister Theresa is one of the volunteers in the Reins of Life program in the northern Indiana/southern Michigan area, which is an accredited member of the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association. As a volunteer and horse lover, Sister Theresa gives willingly of her limited time and abundant energy to work with the students and horses in the therapeutic riding classes. For more than 10 years, she has been involved as a volunteer in programs of this type which aid and support the physically, intellectually and socially challenged. The program in South Bend, Indiana, offers classes in eight- or 10-week sessions of therapeutic riding, grooming and tacking with an individual instructor. Every Saturday morning of class Sister Theresa is at the stable working with the students and their horses. She is also involved in caring for and sometimes training the horses for their special role in this program.

Sister Theresa is enthusiastic about the Reins of Life program and about a myriad of other activities that exemplify her concern and willingness to discern needs and respond. Her helping nature extends from her years as a pharmacist to the present where she serves not only as an accountant but as a community helper/volunteer, an environmentalist, a tutor, a convent "handyperson," wherever the need arises.

Recently, Sister Theresa reached back to her professional days as a pharmacist to draw upon her knowledge and skill to tutor a Bosnian refugee who was preparing to take the state certification exam for pharmacy technicians. As with everything to which she gives herself so generously, she brushes off the effort and the deserved praise.

"We, Sisters of the Holy Cross throughout the world, are called to participate in the prophetic mission of Jesus to witness God's love for all creation.

"Compassion moves us to reflect on the signs of the times, discern needs, and respond. We stand in solidarity with the poor and the powerless. Our life together enriches and strengthens us to foster community wherever we are."

Sister Theresa earned her degree in pharmacy in 1971 from Purdue University and worked at Miles Laboratories in Elkhart, Indiana, until 1974. This became a period of religious and philosophical searching as she looked for a group with which she "could build the world together." St. Vincent de Paul Church in Elkhart was in the renewal process of examining parish life in relation to the directions dictated by Vatican II and this stance fit perfectly with her own philosophy of socialism in its broadest sense. After prayer and some soul-searching, she decided that life in a religious congregation best met her own goals.

She entered the formation program of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross on April 7, 1974, made her Profession of Initial Vows on January 27, 1977, and her Final Profession on July 31, 1982. For the first 13 years of her religious life she used her expertise and experience as a pharmacist in a variety of ways. Sister Theresa worked in Holy Cross hospital pharmacies in South Bend, Indiana, and Silver Spring, Maryland. In 1980 she went to Raymondville, Texas, where she managed the pharmacy in Su Clinica Familiar, a health care clinic for those who have difficulty affording health care, but primarily aimed at the migrant worker population. It was there that circumstances arose that began to turn her life in a different direction.

As manager of the pharmacy in Raymondville, she was responsible for the budgeting and accounting of all finances related to the pharmacy. In response to this obligation of her job and her desire to understand the financial area of pharmacy, she took some accounting classes at the university. This proved to be a fateful decision because she discovered accounting appealed to her; she found it interesting and enjoyable. Because Sister Theresa aims to be versatile, enthusiastic and true to her spirit of discerning needs, she was willing to meet the challenge of a possible change in ministry. She began formal training at the University of Texas at Austin in 1987 for what would become a new career in accounting. After receiving her B.A. in accounting Sister Theresa accepted a seven-month internship at the corporate headquarters of the Holy Cross Health System. The health system wanted to evaluate the value of including a person with the combined skills of pharmacy and accounting work with their pharmacy contract team. This group evaluated vendors' proposals for corporate pharmaceutical purchasing.

In 1992 Sister Theresa was assigned to the accounting department within the Congregation and began her second formal career in the Congregation, that of accounting assistant under Holy Cross Services Corporation. Primarily, she handles the accounting details for the financial matters relating to individual sisters, such as income tax returns for those earning taxable incomes. However, she also devotes time to general and area-level Congregational finances. This is her formal, full-time job but she finds time to be an environmentalist with a desire to preserve the earth and its resources. Whether tending her compost pile in the convent backyard, taking multiple items to the recycling center, or making minor repairs in the house, her intended approach is one of reverent use of what God gives us. Expertise and willingness to give time and individual help is a personal goal for her. Accountants usually work behind the scenes and this fits Sister Theresa's style. She is a self-effacing and generous religious who continues daily to live her commitment "to participate in the prophetic mission of Jesus to witness God's love for all creation."