Sr. Janice Popilek, CSJ

SISTER JANICE POPILEK, CSJ Who entered into eternal life on October 12, 2021 (Private) Welcome Home & Viewing in Holy Family Chapel on Tuesday, October 19, 2021, at 9:30am (Private) A Funeral Mass will be celebrated & live-streamed* from Holy Family Chapel at Nazareth Center, Kalamazoo, on Tuesday, October 19 at 10:00am EST Burial of cremains will be in New Calvary Cemetery, Flint, MI *Live-streamed link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85984143789?pwd=a2ZvZlJ5cTBXMFcyOWxqaWdKTVQxUT09 Janice Marie Popilek, CSJ was born in Flint, Michigan on May 26, 1940, the daughter of Archie and Theresa (Fox) Popilek. She was a member of St. Agnes Parish in Flint, Michigan at the time of her entrance into the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth on September 1, 1958. She received the name Sister Mary Charles at her reception on July 2, 1959 and later returned to her baptismal name. She pronounced first vows on July 2, 1961, and final vows on July 2, 1964. Sister Janice graduated from St. Agnes High School in Flint in 1958. She later attended Nazareth College and graduated in 1967 with a B.S. degree in Biology. Sister Janice began her ministry of teaching at Holy Maternity in Dowagiac, Michigan and after four years continued teaching in various schools in the Detroit Archdiocese: St. Cyril, Taylor, St. Mark; Warren, St. Mary Magdalen, Hazel Park; St. Francis Home, Detroit; and St. Benedict, Highland Park. Her gifts as a teacher brought her back to St. Joseph school, Kalamazoo for the next 9 years. From 1989 to 1998 Sister Janice was the Personnel/ Facilities Director at the Nazareth Center Motherhouse. She then returned to teaching at St. Benedict, Highland Park and St. John Vianney Flint while also caring for her ailing mother in Davison. Sister Janice also served as a volunteer tutor between 2005 and 2007 at the Women’s Center, before becoming the Adult Literacy Director at the New Life Center, both on the St. Luke parish campus in Flint. In 1983 Sister Janice wrote the following words to all of us: “Treasure your sense of humor. Be open and willing to risk. Live life to its fullest. Each experience - positive or negative - has helped me grow in some way. … (Let us) not be afraid to reach out, stretch and risk.” Sister Janice has been blessed and has been an abundant blessing to the thousands who have been touched by her. May we follow her example of light-hearted service. May She Rest In Peace!