Learning from the maestros
More than 50 Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph – more than a third of all the sisters – attended the 75th anniversary Mass for the Diocese of Owensboro on Dec. 8, 2012, in the Owensboro Sportscenter. Sister Fran Wilhelm leads the sisters in singing the “Magnificat” to begin Mass.
Any discussion among today’s Ursuline Sisters about their musical influences will lead to discussion of a small core of sisters — Sister Marguerite Younker, Sister Joan Brown, Sister Mary Ivo Thompson, Sister Mary Victor Rogers, Sister Charlene Logsdon, Sister Marita Greenwell and Sister Francesca Hazel.
“When I listened to Sister Marguerite Younker play the organ in chapel on Sunday evenings or Sister Mary Cecilia Payne play the violin, I thought I was being transported into the realm of angels,” Sister Marie Julie said.
Sister Joan Riedley, center, with 18 of her guitar students in Grants, N.M., 1973.
“I was blessed to work for my tuition in the Mount Saint Joseph music department,” said Sister Rosemary Keough, who now ministers with Centro Latino in Owensboro. “Sister Mary Ivo would play beautiful classical music on Saturdays while we cleaned.”
Sister Elaine Burke transferred to Mount Saint Joseph Academy her junior year and was inspired by Sister Joan Brown, who helped her develop her singing voice.
“I couldn’t afford private lessons, but she still let me participate with those who took lessons and she used my alto voice to fill in when needed,” Sister Elaine said. “She developed my range so I could sing soprano, second soprano and alto.”
Students of all ages sing under the direction of Sister Marilyn Mueth at the opening school Mass on Aug. 21, 2009, at St. James School in Millstadt, Ill.
Sister Elaine’s first mission as a sister was in Nebraska. “Sister Francesca would come to the front room of our convent where there were many windows and I would sit looking out those windows with a beautiful snowfall and listen to her play the piano. Oh, how I wished I could play the piano like she did,” Sister Elaine said. “She knew I loved music and turned to me and said, ‘You really would like to learn how to play the piano, wouldn’t you?’ My answer came very quickly. She then taught me music every Monday night. It was mostly classical, but it started a real yearning in my heart that I would be able to play the organ in church.”
Sister Mary Marguerite Younker – Lover of the Lute. She researched this musical instrument as a part of her work at the Catholic University of America where she received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1927
Sister Rose Marita recalled her fifth-grade teacher, Sister Mary Victor, always had a daily 30-minute routine of singing.
“I noticed she would always come by my desk and stay awhile. I loved it and tried to sing even better,” Sister Rose Marita said. When she attended Mount Saint Joseph Academy it was Sister Francesca who mentored and nurtured her for four years in high school and then for three years during postulancy and novitiate.
Sister Alicia Coomes, center, sings with Jim Smith and Stephanie Dossett at St. Ambrose Church in Henshaw, Ky.
“That provided such a grounding for me,” she said. “Music for me has an eternal resonance. It is the human voice that is able to create the most touching and tender music. My spirit soared when Sister Francesca took the music students to hear Eileen Farrell, the American dramatic soprano, who was performing in Owensboro.”
Sister Catherine Marie Lauterwasser recalls how beneficial her musical instruction was from Sister Joan Brown, who was the director of the novitiate choir.
Sister Mary Victor Rogers playing the organ in the MSJ Chapel.Sister Mary Victor Rogers playing the organ in the MSJ Chapel.
“During the formation years, we were told ‘singing is twice praying,’” Sister Catherine Marie said. “Participating at Mass when there is singing seems to me a fuller participation then Mass without some singing.”
Sister Cheryl recalled her fondest memory as a Brescia College student was taking music lessons as a novice from Sister Marguerite.
“She was a petite bundle of energy. During several lessons I was playing a pretty complicated piece I’d learned on the piano and she’d jump (almost literally) onto the organ bench part of the way through and begin to play with me in duet fashion,”
Sister Cheryl said. “It was my only experience of duets, and I cherished the times we did them, because it was an experience of something bigger than me – of a concrete time when it was easily apparent that something I was contributing became part of something bigger that was better than either piece separately.”