A Marvelous Journey: S. Regina Kusnir celebrates 60 years of religious life By Erin Reder
“God’s ways are a marvelous journey. Sometimes it’s like sitting on the hillside and getting fed with the multiplication of fish and loaves and sometimes it’s like traveling through the desert for the 40 years. When you look at it in its totality you see the fidelity of God to us. God’s faithful despite us. I’ve always felt graced by the people who were part of the different experiences I have had along the journey.” - S. Regina Kusnir
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hroughout her 60 years of religious life, S. Regina Kusnir has seen God’s work as He has re-shaped and re-formed her for the many challenges and changes in her life and ministries. And while the reasoning behind those challenges and changes may not have been known at the time, eventually they unfolded to bring with them new understandings, relationships and joys. As a child growing up in Akron, Ohio, S. Regina recalls her parents being active parishioners at St. John’s Church, which was located just up the street from their home. Her father was a handyman and would volunteer his time helping with odds and ends. Often her parents would invite the Sisters at the parish to come for dinner or dessert. Her memories of the Vincentian Sisters of Charity (VSCs), and their kindness and compassion for the poor, left a lasting impression and eventually led S. Regina to enter their community after the eighth grade.
S. Regina Kusnir (right), who celebrated 60 years with the Sisters of Charity in 2020, has happily ministered at Light of Hearts Villa in Bedford, Ohio, for 15 years as the director of pastoral and special ministries. 24
In 2017, S. Regina Kusnir (right) was one of six recipients of awards from the Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging at its Annual Luncheon and Conference Day. She had been nominated for the award in Excellence in Service Provision recognizing her work in the creation of Light of Hearts Villa’s Seton Safety Net, a program which serves seniors in need providing non-perishable food, gift cards and assistance with paying bills and house payments.
Entering religious life at such a young age, S. Regina recalls her group of six growing up together during those first years of formation. Their bond, and with the guidance of S. Petronella Huzicka, the novice directress at the time, allowed a lot of fun to come into their life experiences. She recalls: “One time while we were in the novitiate we decided to decorate an old-fashioned Christmas tree and string it with popcorn. We had no access to popcorn and so we got one of the ladies in the kitchen to buy us the popcorn. We would sneak down at night, pop the popcorn and then take bathroom breaks throughout the course of the day to string the popcorn on the tree. Those were fun memories! … There was something about us all coming together, we were all about something that we believed in and were learning along the way. And, for the most part, it was a happy time.” By final profession, S. Regina was the only one of the six to remain in the community, and while each were called to new chapters in their life’s journey, S. Regina was just beginning to unfold the blessings she would find in religious life. With a bachelor’s degree in education from St. John’s College, her first assignment was teaching second grade at Holy Family in Parma, Ohio. The next school year she taught fifth grade with 42 children in her class followed by another change when two weeks before the start of a new I n t e rc o m
