A funeral Mass for Sister Mary Joseph of St. Teresa of Jesus Heisler, DCJ, was celebrated Sept. 28 at the Shrine of St. Joseph in St. Louis. Sister Mary Joseph died Sept. 25 at the provincial house of the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus in Kirkwood. She was 58 years old.
Born on Aug. 28, 1966, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she was the second of six children and the only girl. Her vocation to Carmel came through Our Lady of Fatima during a pilgrimage her senior year of high school. One year later, at 18 years old, she entered the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus in Kirkwood on Sept. 8, 1984.
She entered the novitiate in 1985, receiving the name Sister Mary Joseph. After professing first vows in 1987, she served as a nurse aid and administered medications to residents in the community’s home in St. Charles. To her great joy, she was finally assigned to the Carmelite Child Development Center in Kirkwood, eventually earning an associate’s degree in early childhood education.
Sister Mary Joseph professed perpetual vows in 1992 and became the director of the daycare in the late 1990s. Later, she earned a master’s degree in theology from Christendom College. On Ash Wednesday 2001, she was transferred to the congregation’s motherhouse in Sittard, Netherlands, to engage in vocation work. Sister Mary Joseph brought LifeTeen to the Netherlands and began a zealous youth apostolate. On Dec. 8, 2002, she transferred back to Kirkwood, where she took up her assignment as novice mistress. She was careful to teach one thing above all else: “Keep your eyes on Jesus.”
In August 2003, Sister Mary Joseph began her first of four terms as provincial superior. These years were filled challenging dynamics. She led the Kirkwood community in a total “gut and rehab” and major addition to St. Agnes Home. She persevered through the final phase of the project even while fighting her first battle with cancer, diagnosed on Aug. 10, 2010. She also served as novice mistress, administrator of St. Agnes Home and director of the daycare during some of these years. After completing her fourth term as superior of the USA Central Province, she was assigned to administer the USA Southwest Province. In 2018, she was called back to the motherhouse in Sittard to fill the role of general secretary, additionally undertaking the role of general treasurer.
During a visit to Kirkwood in May 2021, Sister Mary Joseph was hospitalized, and it was discovered that the cancer had returned and spread. She persevered valiantly in the battle — full of hope and love, continuously feeling “lifted up in prayer,” even continuing her duties for the generalate while remaining in Kirkwood. She received treatment until it became ineffective in February 2024. She died Sept. 25 with sisters gathered around her praying the Rosary. A peaceful expression and a slight smile rested on her face. It was the monthly commemoration of the Incarnation, the day of St. Joseph and the month of the Sorrowful Mother, her baptismal patroness.
Sister Mary Joseph is survived by her parents, James and Denise Heisler, and her brothers, Father John, Paul, Joseph, Peter and Timothy Heisler. Sister Mary Joseph was buried in the sisters’ cemetery in Kirkwood.
