The Motherhouse Chapel was filled with faculty and staff of Brescia University the evening of Aug. 14, 2013. A prayer service to start off the new school year took place, followed by dinner with the Ursuline Sisters in the dining room.

Sister Mary Henning played the music for the service. She served as associate professor of music at Brescia until this year, when she became director of worship and liturgy for the Ursuline community. Sister Rose Marita O’Bryan, director of the Contemporary Woman Program at Brescia, led the prayer service.

Sister Marie Bosco Wathen, a professor of education at Brescia from 1974-97, proclaimed the mission statement, which begins, “Brescia University is a Catholic, liberal arts institution founded in the Ursuline tradition of personal and social transformation through education.” Sister Pat Rhoten brought an oil lamp to the altar to represent “our willingness and readiness to be light.” Other Ursuline Sisters with ties to Brescia also participated in the ceremony. The closing including singing the Alma Mater of Brescia song which was written by James Massie, the class of 1970. It includes, “Light our way, Soli Deo Gloria. Onward and upward, truth and honor, light and learning, be with us forever. Onward Brescia, fill our spirit with the fire of life’s endeavors.”