Michelle Henault
Sister Michelle Henault says, “I’ve had the privilege of being present to people who come to the House of Prayer and Villa Angelica in Carmel. I feel my ministry has been one of welcoming/hospitality to those who want to step away from the busy chaos of their lives to nourish their inner spirit and find, once again, the relationship they have with their God! I have witnessed their transformation as they leave with a greater sense of the Source of their life, becoming a more peaceful and loving presence in the world.”
She says that her work as a volunteer chaplain at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula “gives me a cherished opportunity to be with and listen to people as they approach the God who calls them Home!”
Her approach to her ministry is based on a poem from Tagore:
In all the events of life
I stand before my Beloved,
Face to face!
Let me take Your TOUCH for this day…
Let me take the confidence of Your friendship
Knowing that I will never be alone,
Face each day with Your touch of love for me today!-Tagore
“These words express for me that “touch of love” that I must bring to each day and share with those I meet!”
Sister Michelle Henault arranges flowers at the Carmel House of Prayer.
Sister Michelle with baby Eurita
She spent 10 years in Zimbabwe as the Director of the Pastoral Center for the Diocese. “I felt I was working with the “early church” as we trained lay people to work in the many ‘outstations’ of their parishes where priests were able to reach them only once a month. In between their visits, these lay pastoral workers would prepare people for the sacraments, visit the sick, bury their dead and conduct Sunday services for their people. I felt I was in touch with the ‘real church’ as it was in the early church.”
She is pictured with Little Eurita, an AIDS orphan. “I lived in a society dying of AIDS, and helped the teenagers who were becoming ‘parents’ to their younger brothers and sisters. This became a new image of family for me — caring, devoted brothers and sisters, quite young, yet strong.”
She said that this is the attitude that she wished to bring to Africa:
My task in approaching another people
Another culture, another religion
Is to take off my shoes, For the place I am approaching is holy
More precious still – I may forget
That God was there before I arrived!
Sister Michelle paints a new building at the Carmel House of Prayer.
She was quietly grateful to God as a 60-year Jubilarian, “for God’s wonderful loving, JOYFUL presence throughout these 60 years; for all my wonderful friends who image a variety of God’s love in my life; for the wonderful spirit and charism of this Notre Dame community; for the reality that I am still able to serve God’s people here in Carmel.”
Sister Michelle performs at a gathering of Sisters.
Updated in 2026.