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Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph Proclaiming Jesus through Education and Christian Formation
We hear so much about collaboration these days. Collaboration – working together to complete a project or to create a solution or to fulfill a mission. Perhaps we’ve even thought or lamented how much we need persons in positions of authority to collaborate with those “across the aisle,” to work together to craft solutions for the troubles we encounter in this world of ours. We remind ourselves and others that we cannot “do it alone.”
Yes, collaboration is an attractive way to respond to needs we encounter. But I have been asking myself, “What kind of collaborator might I be? What is necessary to be a beneficial collaborative partner?” Consider with me three types of collaboration – alloy, catalyst, and cayenne pepper cheese straws.
An alloy blends two or more metals to gain strength. Perhaps the alloy that comes most quickly to mind is steel – a blend of iron, carbon, and often chromium. It was steel that first made skyscrapers possible. Iron alone was too friable; it could not support the multi-storied structures imagined. Working together, blending the qualities that supported and strengthened each other, the alloy relationship made possible outcomes and applications individual elements alone could not support.
A catalyst is an outside substance that precipitates or speeds up a chemical or biological or social reaction, without being changed or consumed itself. Catalyst is also defined as a person whose nature, enthusiasm, or energy causes others to become more friendly, enthusiastic, or energetic. So, a catalyst, in the presence of other elements or in a situation requiring a response, collaborates to initiate or accelerate change or growth.
All very scientific; how do cayenne pepper cheese straws belong? I make a tasty, baked, crispy snack known as “cheese straws”: 3 cups of extra sharp shredded cheddar, 3 cups of flour, and 1 cup of butter form the dough. Those ingredients alone make a pleasant crispy snack – but add just 1/8 of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper to those seven cups of other ingredients, and pleasant becomes spicy, memorable, and quite addictive. That’s 1/8 of a teaspoon collaborating with over 300 teaspoons of other ingredients to make a significant difference. Quite a huge impact for such a tiny ingredient; clearly the weight of a collaborative effort cannot be measured by the size of the offering. Rather it is that mysterious interaction of all involved that makes the difference.
As you imagine the myriad ways you might collaborate to help animate your mission or your dreams, ponder how your gifts might be used – will you be an alloy, a catalyst, or the cayenne pepper in the cheese straws?!
Blessings for your endeavors this Lent. -Sister Sharon Sullivan, OSU
Ursulines Alive is published by the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, Maple Mount, Ky. Three issues are published each calendar year.
EDITORS: Director of Mission Advancement/Communications ....... Dan Heckel, OSUA Communications Specialist/Graphic Design Jennifer Kaminski, OSUA
ADVANCEMENT STAFF: Director of Development ................................................... Carol Braden-Clarke
Assistant Sister Amelia Stenger, OSU Coordinator of Ursuline Partnerships Doreen Abbott, OSUA
Advancement Assistant ....................................... Sister Mary McDermott, OSU Contributing Writer Sister Ruth Gehres, OSU
COVER: Left: Ursuline Associate Martha House, left, shucks corn with Ursuline Sister Marie Bosco Wathen in July 2018. The corn grown at the Mount helps feed the Sisters and staff year round. Right: Sister Mary Lois Speaks, left, and Associate Phyllis Troutman hold up a sign welcoming people to the Mount Saint Joseph Picnic in 2016.
We, the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, sustained by prayer and vowed life in community, proclaim Jesus through education and Christian formation in the spirit of our founder, Saint Angela Merici.
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... In the spirit of Saint Angela Merici
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Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph 8001 Cummings Road Maple Mount, Kentucky 42356 270-229-4103
Fax: 270-229-4953 info.msj@maplemount.org www.ursulinesmsj.org
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MSJ
There’s an adage that says, “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go farther, go together.”
The Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph have decided they want to go farther.
In the spring of 2021, the committee planning the Sisters’ Chapter of Affairs this summer – consisting of Sisters Sharon Sullivan, Julia Head, Martha Keller and Mary Ellen Backes –asked the community for input on areas to focus on. Several Sisters identified “collaboration” as a need, specifically with other religious communities or diocesan programs. Group discussions during the Chapter meeting that summer led to a decision to make expanding collaboration one of the focus areas for the coming few years.
“I felt encouraged by the community to expand our collaboration beyond supporting the work of the diocese,” Sister Sharon said. “We want to strengthen and establish collaboration with like-minded groups, in both Catholic and civil service.”
The year following the Chapter gathering, Sister Sharon was elected congregational leader. She and the rest of the new Leadership Council are in the early stages of determining how to match the Sisters’ strengths with other groups to serve the common good.
Sister Mary Celine Weidenbenner, left, visits with Western Kentucky Ursuline Associate Risë Karr during Associates and Sisters Day in 2022
“Maybe we work with the homeless council? I don’t know how it will evolve,” Sister Sharon said. “Maybe it’s our experience or our contacts that will help. If we can strengthen a culture of collaboration, that will be part of our legacy.”
Collaboration isn’t a new idea for the Ursuline Sisters. But religious communities across the country are discussing the need to work beyond their membership as they strive to continue ministering while dealing with fewer numbers of sisters.
“Saint Angela Merici was collaborative,” Sister Sharon said. “If you look at the history of our community, no one did it alone.”
The Ursulines of Mount Saint Joseph opened schools in New Mexico in 1919 because families
who had moved from Daviess County requested them to come serve in their “Kentucky Mesa,” Sister Sharon said.
“We were never in isolation. We showed up in response to what was happening in that part of the country,” she said.
With today’s Sisters more limited by age, it’s even more important to pursue collaboration, Sister Sharon said.
“Since we are no longer able to build schools, to physically establish new ministries does not seem to be the shape of our ministry, but rather to collaborate with others,” she said.
The Ursulines are members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which provides leadership resources to religious communities. LCWR urges religious communities to think beyond their own membership to work for change on larger issues, including racism, gun violence and improved immigration policies. The Ursulines have collaborated with other religious communities in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio to
support these LCWR efforts, including a recent effort on behalf of the National Black Sisters’ Conference as it seeks to combat systemic violence against Black people.
As the Ursuline Sisters look for new ways to collaborate, here are some of the ways they currently serve with other groups:
After the Second Vatican Council put new emphasis on the role of the laity in the Catholic Church, the Ursuline Sisters began discussing how to incorporate lay people into the Ursuline mission. In the fall of 1983, the Ursuline Associate program was begun, under the direction of the late Sister Fran Wilhelm.
An Associate wants to be affiliated with the mission and the spirit of the Ursuline community; wants to share in the community’s goals, ideals, and challenges; and wishes to carry gospel living, as exemplified in the life of Saint Angela Merici, into his or her daily life. Associates share prayer, celebration and hospitality with the Ursuline community, while living their own lifestyles and spreading the spirit of Saint Angela in their workplace and environment.
Associates gather every summer with the Ursuline Sisters at Mount
Saint Joseph for prayer, formation and fun during Associates and Sisters Day, a tradition begun in 1985. There are roughly 330 Ursuline Associates today, with the majority in Kentucky, and others in at least a dozen states. Some of them periodically meet in groups in Kentucky and Kansas.
Lobbying the United Nations to influence international policy is difficult for individual groups. That’s why in June 2002, seven religious communities formed a nongovernmental organization named UNANIMA International, combining the word anima, from the Latin word for feminine spirit, with UN for the United Nations. The smallest of these communities was the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph.
UNANIMA exists to influence the United Nations on behalf of women and children, especially those living in poverty. It also seeks to serve immigrants, refugees, and to protect the environment, especially the cause
Three members of the UNANIMA International Board gather in February 2023 for a meeting in New York City. From left are Sister Lourdes Varguez Garcia (Religious of Jesus and Mary), who came from Quebec City, Quebec; Ursuline Sister Sharon Sullivan, and Sister Janice Belanger (Sisters of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin), who came from Worcester, Mass. All three represent their communities on the UNANIMA board.
From left, Ursuline Sister Catherine Barber, Sister Jacinta Powers, Ursuline Associate Phyllis Troutman and Ursuline Sister Mary Lois Speaks, along with state Sen. David Boswell, right, watch Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher sign into law the bill outlawing human trafficking in March 2007.
for clean water. UNANIMA has grown to 22 communities, each of which has a representative on the board of directors. Sister Sharon is the current representative –chosen before she was elected to community office. The current emphasis is on “the intersections of how family homelessness fuels human trafficking.”
“To advocate effectively, you have to be able to tell the story,” Sister Sharon said. “You have to do research and have grassroots initiatives. UNANIMA can speak at a higher level at the United Nations now, because its members are seen as experts because of their research.”
One of the main focuses of UNANIMA in its first decade was stopping human trafficking. While human trafficking is a federal crime, many states did not have their own law against it, which made local law enforcement slower to react. The Ursuline Sisters worked with a local legislator to introduce a bill in the Kentucky legislature to make human trafficking against state law. This legislation took effect on March 27, 2007.
The Ursuline Sisters have never served alone in the 149 years since they arrived at Maple Mount. Wherever Sisters served, they often relied on family members of the
children they taught to help them with transportation, food from their farms and fellowship. Many of the Sisters’ financial supporters through the years are former students who want to share in the mission of the Ursulines.
In the 1970s, collaboration led to two huge ongoing events involving the Sisters – the Mount Saint Joseph Picnic and Music at Maple Mount. The picnic began in 1971 as a marketplace for older Sisters to sell their skilled craft items, and to raise money for the retired Sisters. It became a cultural phenomenon on the second Sunday of September, with thousands of people descending onto the grounds at Maple Mount. Members of parishes all over the diocese joined together to cook and serve barbecue, host dinner stands, work booths and sell raffle tickets. The late Bishop
John McRaith once said that other than the Chrism Mass – held during Holy Week each year – the Mount picnic was the only event that brought the entire diocese together. The final picnic was in 2016.
Music at Maple Mount began in 1975, led by James White, the chairman of the Music Department at Brescia College. He brought guest conductors and musicians from around the country to teach high school students, who also eventually came from across the United States. The Ursuline Sisters worked side by side with the musicians, and the camp finale each year was a performance by the Owensboro Symphony or another orchestra. The final Music at Maple Mount was in 2005. The Sisters have long worked side by side with the Diocese of Owensboro. In August 1989, Bishop McRaith announced that the Mount Saint Joseph Retreat Center would become the Spiritual Life Office for the diocese. Sister Kathleen Kaelin had served in the diocese’s Spiritual Life Office since 1983, with this move coinciding with her becoming the program director for the Center. This role with the diocese lasted until the Center closed in 2020.
The Sisters have a goal of looking for new ways to collaborate with the diocese, especially Catholic Charities. In 2021, the Ursulines worked with Catholic Charities to temporarily house Afghan refugees who were resettling in the United States. Some collaborations have begun with individuals, and expanded to an institutional level. The creation of the Contemporary Woman Program at Owensboro’s Brescia College in 1962 was the result of a
collaborative effort between a Chicago psychiatrist, Dr. Phillip Law, and Ursuline Sister Francesca Hazel.
Dr. Law taught psychiatry at the University of Notre Dame and Loyola Medical School in Chicago. He shared with Sister Francesca his concern that so many of his female patients did not seem to value themselves. Sister Francesca was intrigued with the possibility of developing a program for women that she believed was in harmony with what Saint Angela wanted to do for women and girls, to strengthen the family and society. The Contemporary Woman Program was one of the
first initiatives in the country to recognize and address the special needs of women.
In 1992, with the farming community outside of Owensboro relying more heavily on Hispanic workers, Bishop McRaith felt moved to reach out to these migrants. Sister Fran Wilhelm became the “church person” to these people living in a strange land. Sister Fran advised the bishop on the need for a center where Hispanics could get help. She collaborated with the pastor at
St. Peter of Alcantara Church, who provided a building, and Brescia College, which donated beds, to open Centro Latino in May 1993. By 2000, Centro Latino had an office next to the Cathedral and Sister Fran – with other Sisters and volunteers – served Hispanics with transportation, translation and help with receiving government benefits until 2018.
Today, Water With Blessings is a thriving organization that began with individual collaboration. Sister Larraine Lauter began traveling to Honduras twice a year in 2000 with a diocesan priest, and within a few years, she began serving with a medical mission team, where she met Jim Burris, an architect, and Arnie LeMay, a hospital engineer. Year after year, the team realized they were treating the same illnesses – dysentery in the children caused by unclean water, which could sometimes kill the very young.
The team decided to begin treating the water, rather than the illness. By using a simple filtration system, Water With Blessings began in 2011, with Sister Larraine taking over as director the next year. She organizes the training
of “Water Women” in a growing number of impoverished nations, who promise to share the water they filter with other families.
Today, the organization has more than 100,000 Water Women serving in more than 45 countries. In recent years, Sister Larraine has turned her attention to the United States for the first time, serving the Navajo Nation in the Southwest, and also victims of flooding in eastern Kentucky.
The Sisters’ relationship with Brescia University could come full circle with new collaborations. Brescia College came to be in 1950, with the move of Mount Saint Joseph Junior College from the Mount to Owensboro. Sisters fully staffed and supported it in its early days. Over the decades, the Sisters turned over the leadership of the college to a board of trustees. Today, five Sisters still minister at the college and Ursulines serve on the board.
Sister Sharon – who concluded her teaching career at Brescia in 2022 when she became congregational leader – said while nothing is certain, potential opportunities for the Sisters to collaborate with the university might include joining with students for service projects, or perhaps the psychology program could explore the link between effective counseling and the practices used in spiritual direction.
“Brescia has a solid social work program, which is always looking for practicum placements and experiences for their majors,” Sister Sharon said. “There is a possibility of teaming with services through some of our parishes or services at Mount Saint Joseph, or our Sisters could be possible ‘lived experiences resources.’ Part of the social work explores gerontology – a lot could be done with our population.”
For now, the Ursuline Sisters are seeking how God can best use them in answer to the age-old question, “What is the need?” n
Despite the cold weather of late fall and early winter, Sister Mary McDermott helped a tree grow at Maple Mount.
It was not a tree that needed watering or soil. It needed prayers.
Sister Mary volunteers in the Mission Advancement office. Each fall during the annual appeal campaign, the Development staff also urges the Ursuline supporters to submit their prayer requests. The campaign has a different theme each year, but regardless, the prayer requests are hung on a tree in the front vestibule of the Mount Chapel.
me of how many people need our prayers,” Sister Mary said. “It’s very humbling being a part of that. I read the intentions as I put them up. I’m very aware of how much our prayers are needed, and how much we depend on each other.”
“We pray for the intentions during Mass each day. I’m very aware of how much our prayers are needed, and how much we depend on each other.”
The prayer requests are not a seasonal event. After the tree came down at Epiphany in January, Sister Mary placed the prayer cards in a basket in the chapel, so they are not forgotten. This basket is used throughout the year, so anytime a supporter asks for prayers, it is passed onto Sister Mary, who fills out a prayer card and places it in the basket.
- Sister Mary McDermott
“When donations come in, Carol Braden-Clarke – the director of Development – gives me the prayer card, I cut it and put it on the tree,” Sister Mary said in January. “We had so many this year, I had to put them back to back. People are very generous every year.”
The 2022-23 annual appeal theme is “Serve with Joy,” and the prayer card features a colorful butterfly, a symbol of the personal transformation possible through Ursuline ministries.
“Every prayer request I hang on the tree reminds
“We pray for the intentions during Mass each day,” Sister Mary said. “Some Sisters will take a stack of cards to sit and pray with.”
The term “thoughts and prayers” has become cliché for some, at times dismissed as hollow words with no action. Sister Mary said the Ursuline Sisters take praying for the intentions of others very seriously.
“It’s important for people to know that the Sisters are praying for them,” Sister Mary said. “It’s an honor to be entrusted with these prayers.”
To send a prayer request any time, visit www.ursulinesmsj.org/prayer-requests or email prayer.msj@maplemount.org
In 1983, Ursuline Sister Vivian Bowles was serving as a psychology professor and director of the counseling center at Brescia College in Owensboro, Ky., when Father Joe Mills made her a unique offer.
In one of Bishop John McRaith’s early moves after he arrived to lead the Diocese of Owensboro, he appointed Father Mills to begin the Office of the Diocesan Tribunal. The office exists “to help divorced people understand their place in the Catholic Church regarding marriage,” according to information from the office. Most people know it as the arbiter of whether a marriage can be considered invalid, thus allowing divorced people an opportunity to remarry in the Catholic Church.
“Bishop McRaith told Father Joe to get competent people who were willing to work together,” Sister Vivian said. “I had just finished my doctorate in counseling psychology and was a licensed marriage and family therapist.”
Also on the team were Father John Vaughan, Father Pat Reynolds, Father Leonard Alvey and Father Kevin Karl (who has since left the priesthood). They began with 100 to 200 cases in which no action had been taken by the diocese.
“We met every week for a whole afternoon,” Sister Vivian said. “Two summers in a row, the bishop paid for us to attend The Catholic University in Washington, D.C., to study the law pertaining to marriage.”
“We got the old cases done first,” Sister Vivian said. “Some of the people had died, some others left and got married in the Protestant church or before a judge. We offered help if they still needed to pursue it.”
Sister Vivian served on the Tribunal until 2008 as perita – a word that translates as “someone who gives an expert opinion.” For the entire 40 years since she began, she has served as an advocate, the first person someone seeking an annulment meets. Sister Vivian serves at St. Alphonsus Parish as director of faith formation, and offers her voluntary advocate ministry there.
“We help decide what will be presented to the Tribunal,” she said. “If you come to me, we will talk it through first. It’s lengthy, you may shed tears. You may get resistance from your family.”
Even cradle Catholics tend to be confused about how the Marriage Tribunal works. Sister Vivian has to deal with a lot of misinformation.
“One myth is that writing a big check is all you need to do to get an annulment,” she said. “That’s not true.” In fact, the diocese doesn’t impose a fee
for the annulment process.
Another fallacy is that having a marriage annulled when it has produced children will somehow make the children illegitimate. Catholic annulment is a church matter and has no impact on civil law, and thus has no effect on the legitimacy of the divorced couple’s children, Sister Vivian said.
The Tribunal doesn’t use the term “annulment.” Instead, it uses “declaration of invalidity,” determining if the marriage in question was valid to begin with. Invalidity has to be traced back to the beginning of the marriage at the moment of consent.
The Tribunal includes a judge, sometimes a three-person panel of judges, and a defender of the bond of marriage, all of whom are canon lawyers. When Sister Vivian served as perita, she was to look for any psychological issues in the beginning of the marriage. She found that some people grew up with terrible parenting and couldn’t emulate a healthy marriage. Sometimes an unplanned pregnancy resulted in pressure to get married. Others had unrealistic reasons to marry –such as all their friends were doing it. One of the most common grounds for pursuing an annulment is “grave lack of discretionary judgement at the time of the marriage,” Sister Vivian said.
“You have to have at least three witnesses who offer substantial testimony, people who knew the couple at the time of marriage,” Sister Vivian said. “So many times, we’d have parents say, ‘We begged them not to get married.’”
The main reason divorced people seek an annulment is because they want to get remarried in the Catholic Church. Several of the cases involve non-Catholics who wish to marry a Catholic.
“It’s a difficult process to dig up the past. But it’s a very healing process,” Sister Vivian said. Some people seek an annulment even if they never plan to get remarried, she said. For instance, people who were married to alcoholics and tried to make the marriage work, but could no longer put themselves or their children through the strain may want an annulment for healing, to know themselves better, or to know what to look for in a future partner.
When Sister Vivian began, it was rare for a woman to be named to a Marriage Tribunal. She “got a lot of flak” for her service, she said.
“The Tribunal is a very important arm of the Church, and in 1983 the Church was extremely male dominated,” Sister Vivian said. “Women were not on important committees or involved in legal aspects. Some people couldn’t believe that a woman was being appointed to a tribunal – but the women were happy I was there. A lot of priests said it was about time.”
Sister Vivian never regretted accepting her service on the Tribunal.
“My parents divorced when I was 11,” she said. “There was no tribunal, there was no marriage counseling for Catholics. Everyone in my small town knew my parents were divorced. Later, when I learned about a tribunal, I wished my parents could have done that.”
Sister Vivian never set out to become a marriage counselor. She had a degree in English
and was teaching at St. Thomas More School in Paducah, Ky., when a workshop for counselors in public schools was scheduled in nearby Murray. The public school superintendent at the time told Father Henry O’Bryan, the Catholic Schools superintendent, that he needed to get someone trained as a counselor in the Catholic schools. The pastor and principal at St. Thomas More both agreed to send Sister Vivian to the workshop.
“I loved it,” she said. She eventually pursued a master’s degree in counseling from Murray State University, and later earned her doctorate in marriage and family counseling from the University of Arkansas.
“I went into marriage and family counseling because we had a lot of adults at Brescia who were married,” she said. She also contracted to provide marriage counseling through some employee assistance programs, including with the police and fire departments.
“Education is my primary ministry,” she said. “The Marriage Tribunal is a wonderful way to educate people not just on marriage, divorce and annulment, but on the blessings of what the Church is about. Couples take the Church’s perspective on marriage much more seriously than they did the first time.”
Sister Vivian doesn’t subscribe to the thinking that only married people should serve on a Tribunal.
“We all grew up in families,” she said. “And most families now have someone who has been divorced.”
“I told Bishop McRaith our biggest problem is people getting married when they shouldn’t,” Sister Vivian said. That led to the establishment
of the Marriage Guidelines for the diocese, which Sister Vivian was very involved in creating. That required marriage preparation courses, either in a group or one-on-one with a married couple.
“I think the Church has used the resources of the social sciences very well in helping with marriage,” Sister Vivian said. “Retrouvaille is a wonderful program for marriages in crisis.” She’s impressed with what the Diocese of Owensboro’s Office of Marriage and Family Life is doing these days to nurture existing marriages.
“Catholics are learning to pray from the heart and to pray together,” Sister Vivian said. In the future, she wants the Church to help people focus more on the sacrament of marriage, rather than on the wedding.
Although Bishop McRaith and Father Mills have both gone to heaven, Sister Vivian said she still thanks them every day for asking her to be on the Marriage Tribunal.
“It’s been one of the most rewarding and enriching experiences of my life,” she said. “I’ve met so many beautiful people and journeyed with them. It’s the toughest examination of conscience they’ll ever make.”n
After Pope Francis wrote his encyclical Laudato Si´– On Care for Our Common Home – he invited all sectors of the Church to develop action plans outlining what they would do in response to his challenge. The response of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph was to set up a Laudato Sí´ Creation Care committee to produce an action plan. The members of the committee are Sisters Angela Fitzpatrick, Michele Morek, Suzanne Sims, Amelia Stenger and Sharon Sullivan. This is a multi-year project, and after reviewing what the Ursulines have already done, the committee decided to focus on Climate Change. Recycling was chosen as the specific project for the year because this is something everyone can do. As Pope Francis said, “There is a nobility in the duty to care for creation through little daily actions.” (LS211) As part of our educational mission, the committee will be writing a series of short pieces. Since some find clothing/fabric hard to recycle, that topic is featured first.
In the best tradition of the “three Rs,” start with Reduce and Reuse before you get to Recycle. Reduce starts with your closet. We assume that you know better than to shop for entertainment – how many shirts of the same color do you actually need? One little black dress (or the male equivalent) with imaginative changes of accessories should be enough for most. Have a “buy one give one” rule; for every item of clothing you buy, give one away.
If you can’t reuse something yourself, “vintage” clothing shops are very popular; try that or a consignment shop and get a little money back! Donate clothing to the Salvation Army, or – if it needs mending – give it to an organization like Goodwill, which hires people to mend and refurbish. Sometimes, domestic arts programs like to get used clothing to practice tailoring.
Recycle: check with a local activity group to see if they can use fabric for quilting, for making blankets for homeless people, or for making lap robes for nursing homes. Or, as a last resort, check your own rag barrel to be sure you have plenty of rags to use (instead of paper towels) for cleaning up spills. Check with your local thrift store: many thrift stores send unusable fabrics to be shredded and reprocessed into new fabrics.
- Sister Michele MorekHere is how we do this at Mount Saint Joseph:
We make quilts. Every quilter has a stash of fabric – some more than others! When one of our quilter friends dies, a loved one usually calls to ask if we want the fabric. One gentleman brought his wife’s fabric to us and cried with every box, as he shared her treasure with us.
We go through each box of fabric we get; if we can’t use it, we take it to Bellevue Baptist Church quilt ministry. They take what they want and send the rest to their mission in Appalachia, which uses what they can – which is most of it. They are very creative and nothing is wasted.
Fabric is a wonderful gift that we use to make quilts for our Quilt Bingo, Quilt of the Month Club and Quilt Sale, which all raise money to support our mission work. Even small scraps are used to make a quilt of one-inch squares. Any leftover scraps are put into a large square pillow for dog beds that we take to the Daviess County Animal Shelter. We believe that if people are kind enough to share with us, we must also share with others. In this way we all benefit and nothing harms our earth.
- Sister Amelia StengerCaring
Growing up in the small town of Calvary, Ky., Ursuline Sister Clarita Browning recalls that prayer was a normal part of her day.
“In the evening, Mother would say, ‘it’s time for prayer,’ and we kneeled and prayed,” Sister Clarita said. “It was Mother’s attitude toward prayer that touched me the most. It wasn’t anything that was pushed on us. I knew other children whose parents made them pray, and they didn’t like to pray.”
Attending Mass and saying prayers were always important to her family. Her two older brothers became Passionist priests, and one of her younger sisters is an Ursuline, Sister Marie Goretti.
“In the country, we had to get to Mass 30 minutes early to visit with the cousins and aunts and uncles,” she said with a smile.
This year, Sister Clarita is celebrating 75 years as an Ursuline. She remains active in the Powerhouse of Prayer, where she continues to talk to God “out of her head,” meaning in conversation rather through specific prayers.
“I ask myself, ‘What am I talking to God about? Why am I doing this? What would my life have been like if I hadn’t?’ I am so grateful that God took care of that early in my life,” Sister Clarita said.
The Browning family took part in the 40 hours devotion before the Blessed Sacrament, and when she attended Mount Saint Joseph Academy, she could join the Sisters in that prayer, she said.
“We had a lot of models who showed us that prayer was an important part of life,” Sister Clarita said. One of her role models was her classmate, Sue Emmick, who following graduation joined the Carmelite monastery in Baltimore and took the name Sister Veronica.
“After supper, she’d leave the dining room and go to the chapel,” Sister Clarita said. “I’d go to the study hall, but I’d wonder what she was doing. I thought it was so wonderful at her age that prayer meant so much to her.”
During a senior retreat while she was at the
Academy, Sister Clarita said she began to feel a tug at her heart that led her to join the Ursuline Sisters.
“I became aware that it was God,” she said. “I had been watching the novices and postulants all my senior year. I thought it was so interesting that these people would leave their homes and families to come live this life.”
She said she didn’t feel holy or prayerful, even though she prayed all the time.
“I could sit by myself and pray. I just sat before the Lord in my room, or when I was studying,” she said. “I wasn’t using a book; I was just talking to God. It made me feel so close to God. It always took me back to what I wanted. I knew it was something I needed, that it would make me a better person.”
During her years of ministry as a teacher, professor of education, and parish minister, prayer meant a lot to Sister Clarita.
“I’d find myself going to the chapel, or sitting in the yard looking at the trees and animals, and thinking about how good God is,” she said.
She came home to the Mount in 2002, and enjoys attending morning and evening prayer with the Sisters.
“It’s wonderful. It helps me to pray with the other Sisters. I find it very sustaining,” she said. “We need each other – as support, as models, as friends. We need prayerful people.”
Now at age 94, Sister Clarita’s eyes are too weak for her to read on her own, but she continues to call on her lifetime of conversing with God to pray.
“I just place myself in the presence of God. I want to be here, I want to be in touch with God, to see if he has anything for me to do,” she said. “I miss the help I get from a book. I do the best I can, and God knows the rest. I know it’s between me and God.”
Sister Clarita wants people to know how grateful she is – for the education, opportunities and support of her Ursuline community, for her family and friends, and for all the ways God has touched her life.
“I want everyone to know that I have a wonderful relationship with God, through all my ups and downs.”
Friends can write to Sister Clarita at 8001 Cummings Road, Maple Mount, KY 42356.n
We hope you enjoy our “Sister Sisters” featured at left and below...The Brownings of Calvary, Ky.
Meet Sister Marie Goretti – She enjoys books, croquet and Canada
Z Best gift you ever received: “The best gift I have ever received is learning to read. There are all kinds of things that I have that are gifts from God, but I love to read. I have always liked it. At home, my parents had a bookshelf with a lot of old books in it. They were good stories. I used to go upstairs into that room and get into that corner and read from those books.”
Z Favorite thing about your childhood: “I grew up on a farm and we had all kinds of opportunities to experience work in the field and different places. We had a big yard, and we had a croquet game set up in the yard for a few months during the summer. I enjoyed that more than anything. We used to have more fun playing croquet! Some of our neighbors would join us and we would cheat with each other. That made it a lot of fun that we tried to get ahead of each other. I got pretty good at it, but I wouldn’t say I was an expert.”
Z When you were a student, what was your favorite subject in school? “It seems like I always liked the math class and did well in it. But I also liked good literature and good stories.”
Z Person you admire the most: “The one person who I admire the most and have learned so much from is (Monsignor) Bernard Powers (left). He was around when I was working at the Mount. I had him as a spiritual director and he really did bring me alive to God. I couldn’t imagine that I would ever feel that happy with God. He was so helpful and such an inspiration. He is at the Carmel Home now and I haven’t seen him for quite a while. Sometimes I think I’d like to see him and tell him how much that meant to me. He is a good man.”
Z Favorite place you have ever been: “The most unusual place I’ve ever been is Canada. When I was missioned in Paducah in my 30s, there was a teacher who was from Canada. We became good friends, and she took me and Sister Marie Michael Hayden to Canada where she lived. They showed us such a big time and it was really a good vacation. I had never been any place like that. It was so different from what we have – it was beautiful.”
Z Morning person or night owl? “I am a morning person. I have more energy and am more interested in things in the morning.”
Z Favorite author: “One of my favorites is Thomas Merton, and I also like Henri Nouwen.”
SISTER CLARENCE MARIE LUCKETT, 92, died Feb. 14 at Mount Saint Joseph, in her 72nd year of religious life. She was a native of Greenbrier, Ky. Sister Clarence Marie was a friendly person who served wherever she was needed. She witnessed the love of Jesus to all those she met. Sister Clarence Marie was a teacher for 30 years in Kentucky, then ministered to Hispanics and served in parish ministry and outreach. For the majority of her years as a Sister, she made beautiful quilts to support her Ursuline community, completing more than 50 quilts for the Ursuline Quilt Club. She led the craft room at Maple Mount from 1985-92. Survivors include the members of her religious community; her brother, Benjamin Luckett of Louisville; and nieces and nephews. The funeral Mass was Feb. 17, with burial in the convent cemetery. Donations in memory of Sister Clarence Marie may be made to the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, 8001 Cummings Road, Maple Mount, KY 42356.
“All together we are members of the Church, and the Church has been on a mission since the first day, sent by the Risen Lord, and will be until the end, with the strength of his Spirit. And in the People of God, sent to bring the Gospel to all humanity, you consecrated persons have a specific role, that derives from the particular gift you have received: a gift that gives your witness a special character and value, for the very fact that you are fully dedicated to God and to his Kingdom, in poverty, virginity and obedience. If each person is a mission in the Church, then each and every one of you is a mission with a grace of your own, as a consecrated person.”
This quote is taken from Pope Francis’ message to consecrated people on the occasion of the 2023 World Day for Consecrated Life. It reminds me that we, the Church, are on a mission together. Consecrated women and men live out that mission in a unique way. Do you (or does someone you know) have the desire to join the mission of Proclaiming Jesus to all who they encounter?
World Day of Prayer for Vocations will be observed on Sunday, April 30, 2023. This day celebrates vocations to ordained and religious life in all its forms. In the Gospel reading for this day we will hear, “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” (John 10:14-15) We pray that more women and men will grow to recognize and hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and courageously respond to God’s call to this way of life.
Loving God, you call each of us to serve you according to our gifts.
In the name of Jesus, we ask you to send your Spirit into the hearts of your people so that women and men may respond to your call to service and leadership in the Church.
As you inspired Saint Angela, our founder, to be confident and risk new things, we ask for that same grace.
Guide the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph into the future. Help us to invite those who have the gifts needed to continue the mission you have entrusted to us. Amen.
One of the best parts of my job as development director is reading the notes that come with donations.
We are so grateful for the many people who generously give to support the mission of the Ursuline Sisters. Often times, people include with their gift a note about how the Sisters touched their life. Many people share how being taught by an Ursuline Sister gave them a solid foundation that they carried with them throughout their lives. We also get notes asking for prayers. These notes can be heartbreaking and hopeful.
We also get notes asking us to remove someone deceased from our mailing list. As I update our records I often read the person’s obituary to find out their connection to the Ursuline Sisters. What I find is what an extraordinary life the person lived, giving their time in service to others in their community or through their church. It reminds me of how much good is happening and the difference one person can make in the life of another.
Our Sisters continue to serve and nurture relationships and you can help support their work in a variety of ways. The Kindness Campaign can send a card to a person who needs a little kindness for $50 a person. The recipient will get a monthly card for one year with an inspirational message or words of encouragement tailored to their situation. We have sent cards to people in nursing homes, those struggling with health issues or someone who just needs a good laugh. We have received feedback from recipients saying they look forward to getting the cards each month.
Quilt Club tickets are on sale now – if there are any left! For $25, you get 12 chances to win a handmade quilt if you get your ticket in by the first drawing on April 6. The drawings are held monthly.
The 52nd Mount Raffle ticket sales will begin in June with the drawing to be held on Sept. 10 at the conclusion of Quilt Bingo. Quilt Bingo is a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon enjoying the company of friends or re-connecting with old classmates.
We hope you will show your support of the Ursuline Sisters by sending a Kindness Card, buying a Mount Raffle Ticket or playing Quilt Bingo. For more information go to our website – ursulinesmsj.org –or contact me, Carol Braden-Clarke, at 270-229-2008, or carol.braden-clarke@maplemount.org.n
Rita Patti has known the Ursuline Sisters since the Sisters taught her at St. Romuald Elementary School in Hardinsburg, Ky.
But it was a call from her aunt – Ursuline Sister Mary Angela Matthews – to her parents in 1978 that expanded Rita’s world of the Ursulines. Sister Mary Angela returned to the Mount that fall to become principal of Mount Saint Joseph Academy.
“Grandma Matthews had passed away in November 1977 and Sister Mary Angela had a new job at the Mount for Fall 1978,” Rita said. “She wanted family close by and asked if my sister Rosanne would consider going to the Mount for her senior year of high school. Yes, she wanted to go. I was around the other side of the wall in the living room listening. I poked my head into the kitchen and asked, ‘Can I go?’ And before I knew it, I was packing a foot locker with uniforms and possessions for my freshman year at the Academy. I was on an adventure!”
Rita’s mother, Martha Ann Matthews, attended the Academy, a year behind her friend, the future Sister Mary Angela. She married Sister Mary Angela’s brother, Claud.
“My aunt joined the Ursulines. My mother followed her. One stayed, one left, yet each followed the path God chose for them,” Rita said.
Like her mother, Rita loved her time at the Academy. “During the school year, I helped in the dairy with Sister Ann Victoria Wasylina. Many knew of my mother and saw the resemblance. They would tell me fun stories about when she was in school,” Rita said. “I played on the MSJ basketball team and loved swimming class and math. I love to sing thanks to Sister Mary Henning and have finally gotten a bit proficient with my writing skills over the years. Thank you, Sister Pat Rhoten. My classmates – Rhonda, Alicia, Diane, Beatriz, Lisa, Maria, Shawn, and the list goes on – I remember having great fun and laughs with them as we made our way through the first two years of high school.”
Rita transferred to her hometown Breckinridge County High School during her junior year, where she
continued playing basketball on a team that made the state tournament her senior year. But she’s never forgotten the impact that the Sisters had on her life.
Today, Rita is enjoying retirement in Colorado with Steve, her husband of 35 years. Each year they make significant donations to support Ursuline ministries.
“The Mount gave me such a strong foothold in life and I feel it is important to support the Sisters’ good work,” she said. “I know I’ve benefited from their kindness and feel strongly that in giving, one receives.”
Rita and Steve have two children, Rebekah and Nick. Steve’s career made it possible for the family to live and travel overseas, and their children had the opportunity to tour Europe with their high school choirs, visiting the Sistine Chapel in Rome and St. Petersburg, Russia. One of Rita’s life-changing places to visit was the Holy Land, where she said her natural competitiveness was put to rest and she found a peace she had not known before.
Despite all of her travels, visiting Maple Mount is still special to her.
“My time at Mount Saint Joseph was and still is the foundation on which I continue to build on,” Rita said. “When I visit there, it feels like I come home.”
When she calls Maple Mount, she always ends her conversations with, “Say hi to all my friends at the Mount!” Those include Sister Joyce Marie Cecil, who was a dear friend of Sister Mary Angela.
“When I was young, she would visit our farm with Sister Mary Angela, bringing reading and workbooks … spending time with us one on one,” Rita said. “She was a great elementary teacher and made school fun.”
Both Rita’s mother and Sister Mary Angela are deceased. Rita recalled how much joy and happiness her Mom felt when she brought her to visit the Mount. “I cherish and miss those times,” she said.
Have the Ursuline Sisters influenced your life? If you would like to learn more about how you can support them, contact Carol Braden-Clarke at 270-229-2008.
8001 Cummings Road Maple Mount, KY 42356-9999
270-229-4103
www.ursulinesmsj.org
info.msj@maplemount.org
Fourteen Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph are celebrating anniversaries of religious life this year. They have dedicated a combined 965 years of service to God’s people. They will be honored during community days in July. You can learn more about them in our next issue.
More than half of the copies of “Hope & Firm Faith: The Story of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph” have sold. Do you have yours? Visit ursulinesmsj.org/ hope-and-firm-faith-book or call Dan Heckel: 270-229-2007 or email dan.heckel@maplemount.org.
Sister Marie Montgomery, left,
Sister Elaine Burke) turned 100 on Jan. 27 and there was a big celebration in Saint Joseph Villa.
