Sister Pamela Conte
Pastoral Counselor
Newport News, Virginia

Ministering in the counseling field as a psychotherapist with children, adolescents, and adults is satisfying to Sister Pamela Conte.  She feels at home with the spirit of her work at the Peninsula Pastoral Counseling Center because it harmonizes with the Franciscan spirit and values.  The agency’s mission centers on bringing peace and healing to persons of any faith or ethnicity who desire such outpatient help with the mental, emotional, some-times physical and often spiritual issues that are a part of their concerns.  Her counseling to persons of all income brackets enables her to minister out of Franciscan service to the poor.

Living in community with one other sister in their home,  “The Canticle Place,” includes the Franciscan ministry of building loving relationships with all creation: ourselves, neighbors, parish brothers and sisters, and others.  One special joy is our small group of persons who meet monthly to share Franciscan spirituality.  Several group members have made three-year commitments as Associates with our religious Congregation. It is a formal relationship that unites us as Franciscans by mutual prayers, with opportunities for deepening spirituality, and actions deliberately focused on practicing the Franciscan spirit.