The faculty, staff and administrators of Brescia University came to Mount Saint Joseph for their annual appreciation dinner on the evening of Aug. 15, 2012. About 60 visitors were in attendance at a prayer service in the Motherhouse Chapel, followed by a dinner of fried chicken and side items in the Motherhouse dining room. Many of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph were also in attendance.
The Brescia staff was welcomed by Sister Sharon Sullivan, who served as Brescia’s academic dean and vice president of academic affairs before being elected the Ursulines’ congregational leader in 2010. The prayer service was led by Ursuline Sister Rose Marita O’Bryan, Brescia’s director of the Contemporary Woman Continuing Education Programs.
The Brescia mission statement was read by Sister Marie Bosco Wathen, who was a professor of education at Brescia from 1974-97 and its institutional research assistant from 1997-2005. This statement starts out: “Brescia University is a Catholic, liberal arts institution founded in the Ursuline tradition of personal and social transformation through education.”
Sister Rose Marita mentioned the Ursuline Centennial and its theme, Woven with Threads of Courage and High Hope. “We Ursuline Sisters believe Brescia University is a tangible living symbol of what marvels can happen from weaving together with threads of courage and high hope,” she said.
The invocation was led by Sister Alfreda Malone, who ministered as Brescia’s registrar from 1965-68 and again from 1978-90. Incense and candles were carried in to symbolize voices rising in prayer (incense) and Brescia students (candles).