Biography of Sister Celeste

Hello, all! Recently, I was asked to write a biography of one of our sisters, who is a missionary in the Northwest Territories of Canada. I want to share excerpts of it with you. Her life of loving service is truly inspiring.

Name: Sister Mary Celeste (Josephine) Goulet, CSSF

Congregation: Sisters of Saint Felix of Cantalice

Mission To: First Nation People of Tulita, Northwest Territories of Canada

Years in Mission: 1979-Present

Sister Celeste has become a member of the North Slavey community, where she is considered an elder. She has great respect for them. Their reverence for the created world resonates with her Franciscan spirituality. In a meditation that she submitted to a Felician reflection book, she wrote, “God our Creator gave us the earth to care for and to care for us.” She began her ministry by spending time with them on the land, sharing their spiritual love for their ancestral grounds. She is often invited to go out on the land with families or groups.  She also joins them for cultural feasts and celebrations. Her commitment to her adopted community was best seen in 1995, when extreme heat and dry conditions caused a forest fire that approached Tulita. Everyone packed a bag and was flown to Norman Wells. With the help of the local people, Sister Celeste transformed the community hall there into a preschool. The fire continued to rage, and was moving toward Norman Wells, so the Dene were moved to Deline. Miraculously, the blaze did not destroy any houses or schools. That year, Sister Celeste did not take her usual summer vacation to the Felician convent in Mississauga, Ontario, opting instead to stay and support the people, whose sacred land, Great Bear Rock, had burned.  Annually, on June 6, they celebrate “Fire Day” in commemoration of how God saved their town.

 The Dene people return her respect and admiration. In 1995, when the preschool’s name was being changed from Fort Norman Child Development Centre, the majority of the people voted to rename it the Sister Celeste Child Development Centre. They’ve also renamed a street in her honor, Celeste Street.

Sister Celeste is present to the people, day and night. Whenever a plea for help comes, she is there for them, available at any time. “She showed me what it really meant to be a pastoral minister in the North,” Fr. Justin Glyn, SJ, wrote in his blog for the Jesuits of the English Canada Province, after his visit in 2016. Sister Celeste describes herself as a pastoral worker. She is a deeply religious person who lives her faith through her love, service, and a strong commitment to the well-being of adults and children. She loves and accepts the people there, and has dedicated her life to the preschool and to the people of Tulita. Her gentle and cheerful nature, as well as her sense of humor, recommends her to the people. She never judges but speaks honestly, encouraging and bringing hope whenever she can. One of her goals is to rebuild a native sense of community, bringing God to people, while respecting their ancestral heritage and commitment to the earth.

         One priest serves the entire Sahtu region, and only comes to Tulita three or four times a year. Sister Celeste is fully involved in Church life as a Pastoral Worker. She both prepares the people for and administers the sacraments, presiding over baptisms, first communions, weddings, and funerals. Every day people come to pray the rosary. She leads the communion service on Sunday, which consists of songs, the rosary, readings of the day, her homily, and reception of Holy Communion. Afterward, she brings Communion to the homebound. She also leads prayer at the beginning of events that the people have. She has a Holy Hour once a week with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The intention at the Holy Hour is for youth, that they may have guidance and follow a good path.

Over the last 39 years, she has initiated several programs that meet the needs of the community. She started an Alcoholics Anonymous group and provides support for victims of drug and alcohol abuse. The AA group meets once a week in the evening at the preschool. Through the years, she has increased her emphasis on counseling for all genders and ages, and helping people overcome addictions. When people return from the rehabilitation center in Edmonton, she provides the support that they need. She also opened youth and elders drop-in centers for the supervision and care of at-risk populations of the community. The youth drop-in center began in 1983 in the basement of the St. Theresa’s Church basement and was in operation into the 1990’s. She is a refuge for women and children whose domestic lives are unstable, and she provides a temporary home for young girls in the community for whom it is dangerous to live with their families. Foster care is rarely available in Tulita, and without her intervention, such children would have to leave the community to be taken care of. She also helps women write resumes and fill out job applications and legal forms.

          She's also the longtime director of the Sister Celeste Child Development Centre. The Centre offers school readiness programs geared toward academic success and improved social skills. Materials are placed within the children’s reach and they are encouraged to explore and try them. It focuses on six main areas of development: cognitive, social, physical, spiritual, emotional, and cultural. The young students benefit from a setting with structures and routines, where boundaries and expectations are clearly established. This is good preparation for the school environment. They also learn independence, manners, and self-esteem. It teaches them how to cooperate with each other and to solve problems by talking it out, which she hopes will deter future drinking.  Families are included in the activities at the school; some events that occur are specifically for families. She offers literacy classes to parents who want to become better readers. Now, when she visits the homes of her student’s families, she often sees coloring books, papers, writing tools, and books for the children to read. Parents will consult with her about what educational toys to buy their children. Her influence has extended beyond Tulita, too. Other early childhood education schools will often ask to come and observe hers to see how theirs should be run. She not only allows this, but reaches out to them by meeting with them and giving them advice. The preschool has become a model for others in the north, and early childhood education has become accepted throughout the territory.

There is a second mission of promoting respect for Dene culture and tradition. Students learn the North Slavey language from local teachers, and about their traditions from their elders, who also come in to teach the children. She encourages the staff to speak to the children in Slavey, and to conduct circle time in that language, too. The elders participate in field trips that focus on the traditions of the Dene; snow-shoeing, playing hand games, looking for animal tracks, and drum dancing are some of them.  Another example of the role that culture plays in the curriculum is the lesson about how to snare and cook a rabbit, which is then shared with the elders at a communal feast.

Sister Celeste is also committed to helping the Dene remember and value their own stories. She does this through the preschool curriculum. She also does this through the books that she has written. She has already written and/or illustrated fifteen books of Dene cultural stories, which are written in both English and North Slavey. They are legends and recordings of the Elder’s memories of former days. The books are used in the Child Development Centre and schools in the Sahtu region, ranging from preschools to high schools. They have also been translated into the South Slavey language, so that children from that region can benefit from them. The children listen to the story, read in the Slavey language, while they look at the book. There are nine more books, about the Dene creation story, the Legend of Great Bear Rock, which are ready to be published. These books are a community project, as she works with elders and local translators, as well as young illustrators.

She has been the recipient of multiple awards for her work in the early childhood education and in the mission. In 1991, she received her first award for her work in child care. In 1999, she was one of four women from the four regions of the Northwest Territories to receive the Northwest Territories Wise Woman Award. This was given by the Status of Women Council. This is given to those who work at the grassroots level to help better the lives of women, their families, and their communities. In 2008, she won the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Education. She was selected as the top Early Childhood Educator from across the region of the Northwest Territories and Nunavit. She was one of ten from the Early Childhood Education field from across Canada. Each winner attended a Best Practices workshop, where she shared her work and experiences.  In 2016, she received the St. Joseph Award for Outstanding Missionary Work. This is given to a religious or lay missionary who has demonstrated dedication to the missions and has greatly influenced people. When she received it, she called it “an honor for the whole Felician Community.”