Alumni Feature: Karen Walker

Karen Monro Walker graduated from the Institute for Ministry Formation in the spring of 2024 from the Spiritual Direction program. She lives in the North Hills of Pittsburgh and works as the Pastoral Minister at Saint Luke the Evangelist Parish.

Karen uses what she learned in the IMF daily in her interactions with both parishioners and parish visitors. The topics covered in the IMF courses have greatly enhanced her knowledge of the Catholic faith, which has been extremely helpful in her facilitation of OCIA. She also uses the skills from her spiritual direction courses to assist individuals in need of someone to talk to about the struggles of daily life, or those seeking to go deeper in their faith journeys.

She really enjoyed Fr. Nathanael’s Praying Sacred Scripture course, which provided an intentional study of Sacred Scripture that was extremely enlightening to her. Karen says that the course “opened my heart to the ways that God continues to speak to us through His Word.”

As Pastoral Minister, Karen’s job is to facilitate the many ministry groups at Saint Luke the Evangelist Parish. They are a very large and active parish with nearly 60 active ministries! Her goal is to help each of them flourish. Additionally, each ministry can maintain its mission in service to the parish community.

She recommends that current students of the IMF allow concepts covered in each class to sink in deeply. “Let yourself become vulnerable so that you can be transformed,” Karen suggests.

Karen greatly enjoyed her IMF courses and is grateful for the opportunity to have participated in the program. Thank you, Karen!