“When I grow up, I want to have 500 kids,” announced five-year-old Celeste Goulet. “Then you’ll have to become a Sister,” answered her mother.  

And Celeste did. The path to her dream led her from Guelph, Ont., to Tulita, NT. There, for the past 45 years she has conducted a pre-Kindergarten class for three- and four-year-old children.

In 1979, she and two other Felician Sisters began their ministry in Tulita, home to about 400 Sahtu Dene First Nations people. Their first year was spent in getting to know the people and discerning with them the needs of this mainly Catholic community. When early childhood education emerged as their priority, their need matched her heart’s passion and her childhood dream became fulfilled beyond her hopes. 

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Goulet still takes delight in the little ones she tends every afternoon, saying “They are a source of great joy.”

Over the years, her ministry has received great support from the community. After her first year of teaching, she taught for 11 years in an empty warehouse. In 1992 the community built a pre-school in which she’s held classes ever since. The entire project is financed primarily by the Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith through funds from Catholic Missions In Canada, along with federal grants. 

Through this pre-K program the foundation of character is laid as children learn basic human skills such as being kind, sharing and taking turns. The seeds of faith are planted through learning simple prayers, religious songs and Bible stories. Bernette Horassi, one of two local assistants, teaches them Slavey, their ancestral language.

Just as God delights in His people (Ps. 149), so too does Goulet take delight in her students and in the surprising ways that they think. One day an elder stopped by to show the children a frozen rabbit he’d found in his snare. One of the girls then ran and pulled out the sick cot. Thinking that the sight of the dead rabbit had upset her, Goulet asked if she felt ill. “No,” the girl replied. “It’s for the rabbit. It’s cold!”  

Goulet enjoys the children’s honesty. One day she taught them how to use scissors. That evening a look in her mirror revealed a mini brush cut on her head. When she asked the children who had cut her hair, one little boy happily owned up, enormously pleased with his successful first attempt at using scissors. 

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Their openness reminds her of Jesus’ words, “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven” (Mt. 18:1-5).

On countless occasions Goulet has learned firsthand that Jesus’ words, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me” (Lk. 9:48) includes welcoming their pranks. 

Sometimes they tease her by running their toy cars and trucks up and down her legs and arms. Mischievously, they steal her place on her chair and giggle until she shoos them off. She states that the children have taught her much about forgiveness. One minute they can be squabbling and then, all forgiven, they’ll be playing together again. 

Now teaching the third generation of Tulitans, Goulet recognizes certain family characteristics. For example, one day a new disabled child was met with shyness by the other children who began to hide their toys from him. Johnny, however, welcomed the newcomer, gave him a kiss on the cheek and said lovingly, “You are so silly!” She recalled that as a child his grandfather used to show similar kindness to disadvantaged children. As for little Rosie, she stands up for what she thinks is right, said Goulet, just like her mother and grandmother did when they were little.

Jesus spoke of tending lambs. Elaine Zakreski, in her book on early childhood education, emphasized the importance of meeting, in their earliest years, children’s need to feel seen, known and loved.  

“Sr. Celeste,” she said, “has had the most privileged opportunity to write her name on the hearts of countless children and it will always have power in their lives. An example of love in action, she has named them for the beloved.”

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“There is really no one like Sr. Celeste,” said Saskatoon Bishop Mark Hagemoen, former Bishop of Mackenzie-Fort Smith. “Her spirituality strikes me as profoundly incarnational. She is a quiet, humble, steady presence of the Lord Jesus as she lives and works among the people of Tulita.” 

(This article first appeared in Catholic Mission In Canada magazine and is reprinted with permission.)