Threshold Winter 2009

Proclaiming God’s Ways: Fifty Years of Faith


Back: Sisters Mary Collins, Mary Ann Dice, Sylvia Kenkel and Evangeline Salazar
Front: Sisters Irene Nowell, Mary Grosdidier and Mary Jane Vigil

Hundreds of years of faithful religious life and service were celebrated by the Benedictine sisters at Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas, on July 12. This year’s golden jubilee celebration honored Sisters Mary Irene Nowell, Mary Ann (Ursula) Dice, Mary (Rochelle) Grosdidier, Mary (Mary Dennis) Collins, and Sylvia Kenkel.

Three classmates have since become members of the Benet Hill monastery in Colorado Springs, which the Atchison community founded. Two of them, Sisters Evangeline Salazar and Mary Jane Vigil, were part of the Atchison celebration, but Sister Lucile Hartmann was unable to attend. Two more classmates, Sisters Mary Kay Haidusek and Mary Alice Guilfoil, are deceased.

At the celebration, Sister Anne Shepard, prioress of Mount St. Scholastica, praised the women as she noted the many changes that have occurred in the past fifty years, both for the Benedictine community and for the individual sisters. She mentioned the many ways in which they have served others, but noted, “Benedictines are not identified by unique works. Our success is determined by our fidelity to common prayer and communal life.”

The sisters have, indeed, had unique lives and ministries, with many unexpected changes. All the sisters have faced the changes with grace. At this landmark moment, Sister Anne told the several hundred friends and relatives in attendance, “These sisters did not know when they professed 50 years ago that they would look differently, pray differently, learn and teach differently, face physical hardships and challenges so gallantly, and still look young today.” She encouraged everyone to “Look at these models of fidelity.”

Sisters renew their monastic profession

Spotlight on Golden Jubilarians

Sister Mary Irene Nowell
Sister Mary Irene had the Benedictine charism in her blood. She was taught by the Mount sisters at Lillis High School in Kansas City and is the niece of the late Sister Virginia Minton. She began her teaching career in a typical classroom setting, but now deals with students around the globe from the computer in her office.

Although her talents in music and language were strong, she realized that her greatest love was Scripture and, with a doctorate in the Old Testament, she has become a renowned speaker and writer. The internet, and her long-distance relationship with Saint John’s University in Minnesota, allows her to bring her expertise to many who would not otherwise be able to study with her.
She hasn’t given up her other interests. The language she’s most often seen reading now is Hebrew, and her musical talents are exercised in playing the cello and organ, conducting the community schola and canting. She also serves as director of scholastics, those sisters who have made their first commitment but are not yet perpetually professed.

Her life has allowed her to make many friends and to travel extensively to many other monasteries and throughout the world. She knows that she has been blessed with many gifts, “I am very grateful for my 50 plus years in the community. My life has been very rich and the community has given me so much. Every year has been full of surprises, some not so pleasant at the time and some delightful. But I wouldn’t change a thing!”

Sister Mary Ann Dice
When Sister Mary Ann was growing up, Lenexa, Kansas was a little farming community of 300 people, but is now a major sprawling suburb of the Kansas City area. In elementary and high school, Sister Mary Ann felt called to the Benedictine way of life to which she had been inspired by her teachers. “The sisters,” she says, “were a great example for me in the way they taught and interacted with their students, and they seemed very happy.”

Teaching for nearly 50 years, she even got an opportunity to spend 11 years in her home parish. “We had about 60 children in the whole school when I was young; by the time I came back, there were seven hundred,” Much of her teaching has been with very young children. “I especially love first grade because I get to introduce them to reading. I really love to get them excited about reading.”

Sister Mary Ann is well aware of the justice dimension of education. Many of her classrooms have been in areas of cultural diversity where the special needs of minority students must be addressed. Her last teaching experience was in Tecumseh, Nebraska, a town trying to assimilate an influx of Mexican workers. The parish school has committed itself to giving poor immigrant children, from families with limited resources and English language skills, the opportunity for a better life.

Now she has had to make another change, away from the classroom and into ministry at the Mount. She is currently the supervisor of laundry services for the monastery and Dooley Center. She is still helping people better their lives, this time the lay employees who look to her for personal encouragment and an example of the importance of manual labor in the monastery.

She knows that many things about monastic life have changed, but she is still faithful, generous and committed. She attributes this to the strength she gets from “the example of the elders and the enthusiasm of the young.” Sister Mary Ann remains determined to live out her philosophy of faithfulness: “Give it all the enthusiasm you can.”

Sister Mary Grosdidier
A familiar sight around the Mount campus often draws the attention of visitors and retreatants. Sister Mary Grosdidier might be considered to have “mobility issues” physically, but she is more mobile than many who walk with ease. A motorized scooter allows her to cruise the roads and parking lots, digging weeds, picking up trash, and engaging in her own personal campaign to beautify the earth.

About her vocation, she says, “Coming from a large rural family in which religion and religious life were held in high esteem, Mount St. Scholastica seemed to be a great place to serve God and others. When I applied for entrance, I was graciously received.”

That gracious reception was especially significant to her as a childhood bout with polio had left her with some special challenges. In true Benedictine fashion, the community saw her for the gifted, generous and happy person she was. For forty years Sister Mary served in education ministry in Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri. Besides teaching elementary grades, as well as high school history and business, she also was school principal on several occasions. After that, she returned to the monastery and has served in a number of ministries there. A period of service as business manager of Dooley Center has been followed by work as a receptionist and as coordinator of receptionists for the community and Dooley. Her pleasant smile and gracious welcome present a wonderful first impression for the monastery’s visitors.

Summing up her life, she observes simply, “St. Benedict was rural, he loved to educate, and he understood the basic values that make a family. Our community is also a family. We, like Benedict and Benedictines throughout history, have changed with the times and the needs. The basic thing, though, is fidelity. God is always faithful and our faithfulness to God keeps us going.”

Sister Mary Collins
The name of Sister Mary Collins is well known to friends of the Mount because she is the past prioress of the community. Her name is also known in much wider circles for her role in liturgy and theology.

She came to Mount St. Scholastica College from Chicago, earned degrees in theology, including a doctorate from Catholic University, and became a significant voice in liturgical renewal. As head of the religious studies department of Catholic University before her election as prioress, she brought her Benedictine sensitivity to prayer, scripture and justice, as well as her special concern for the role of women in the Church, to many who were studying to be faithful Christians as well as leaders within the Church.

Her most recent ministry brings together many of her gifts. As pastoral care director for Dooley Center, she draws on both her pastoral concern for her sisters and her great appreciation of liturgy. She is very conmmitted to making the residents’ prayer experiences more meaningful by her efforts to match the liturgies to their needs and abilities. Sisters there praise her commitment to her ministry with such comments as “She’s always very present for us,” “She explains what she is going to do and then does it,” and “She’s made good changes.” There seems to be a feeling around Dooley Center that Sister Mary has made “good changes” in accepting this latest transition in her life. Pictured here: Sister Mary and Father Louis prepare for Dooley Mass

Sister Sylvia Kenkel
Sister Sylvia Kenkel, came to the monastery from Panama, Iowa, where she started life as a twin and one of eight siblings. She recalls with joy her life on the farm and how “it made me learn to trust in the Lord rain or shine.” It was also a place where neighbors shared their good and bad times.

“I felt eager to continue helping and serving others,” she says, and this led her to choose religious life after high school. The Benedictine way of life was familiar from her experiences with the Atchison sisters in her school and parish. “I found this family of Benedictine women to be a stable, joy-filled community serving others.” This would be a perfect match for Sister Sylvia, whose face radiates joy as she speaks of her 50 years of prayer, community and service.

At first, she was a primary teacher, but before long was asked to assist with the sick and elderly of the community. She trained as an LPN and spent nearly forty years caring for them in Dooley Center at the monastery. In addition, she has taught vacation school, was a camp nurse at a cerebral palsy ranch, and uses her creative talents in a number of ways.

Sister Sylvia has been a model of fidelity. Her enthusiasm demonstrates that Sister Sylvia is grateful and happy for her life, which she describes as “still full of joy and excitement.

Pictured above: Sister Sylvia cheered Dooley resident, Sister Mathilda.