NEWS :: Red Cloud Indian School

Parish News: Getting to know Sister Connie Schmidt
by: Shannon Grooms, Our Lady of the Sioux Church
posted on April 15, 2008

Meet Sr. Connie Schmidt. This is the lady, who as Parish Life Coordinator, keeps things running smoothly at Our Lady of the Sioux Church in Oglala. She also works with the lay ministers at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, Drywood, and St. Bernard's Parish at Red Shirt Table.

Sr. Connie grew up on a Dairy Farm in southern Illinois. She is the second of six siblings. Throughout her childhood schooling years, Sr. Connie attended a parochial school in which the School Sisters of Notre Dame were the teachers. She knew she wanted to be a teacher and through their inspiration and her own divine calling she joined the convent after graduating from high school.

Sr. Connie joined the order of the School Sisters of Notre Dame entering the Motherhouse located in St. Louis, Missouri. She took her first vows at the Motherhouse after two years and then six years later she professed her final vows while teaching at St. Peter's School in Jefferson City, Missouri. Throughout her religious life Sr. Connie has ministered as a classroom teacher, a school administrator, a prison counselor and in service to her community as a formation director and provincial councilor. This spiritual journey has taken her to the Pine Ridge Reservation now, where for five years she has been in ministry to Our Lady of the Sioux in Oglala.

Sr. Connie works with Sr. Edna Marie, Terry Two Lance, Angie Two Lance and George Looks Twice in the parish. Together, they provide for the faith formation of the congregation preparing Sunday liturgies, sacrament classes, prayer hours and youth days. The larger Oglala community relies on the two church halls for their many community events whether it be a funeral, family reunion, Head Start, gathering memorial, pizza fundraiser or health clinic. It is not unusual to find this lady working very early in the morning and still going well past dark. She tends to the spiritual needs of the community. Whether it is the unexpected loss of a loved one, a sacrament class, or even the preparation of a food box, Sr. Connie is there.

In the last two years, Sr. Connie has taken on the role of the Pastoral Coordinator for the Pine Ridge Reservation. This gives her the responsibility of calling the staff of the other five parishes on the reservation to meet and work together.

In her "limited" free time, Sr. Connie says she enjoys going for walks, reading, doing embroidery and "putzing" with her musical instruments.

Overall this remarkable lady gives much of her time and of herself to the community. It is amazing she has the energy to do it all, let alone, with a smile on her face.

Shannon Grooms is a member of Our Lady of the Sioux Church. She taught Religion at Red Cloud Elementary School for four years until the birth of ther daughter. Shannon, her husband, and her daughter live on a ranch nine miles north of Oglala, SD.

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