News & Updates
Mount Welcomes New Oblates
The oblate class of 2025 with their directors and the prioress. Bottom row, L-R: Sister Therese Elias, Janet Paper, Jennifer Hausman, Jana Gowan, and Sister Barbara Conroy. Top row, L-R: Sister Jennifer Halling, Jamie Baker, Dorothy Williams, Sister Mary Elizabeth Schweiger, and Tom Weis.
A group of five lay persons brought many gifts to Mount St. Scholastica when they made their oblation on April 26, 2025. The new oblates come from different faith backgrounds and careers, including teaching, museum management, senior care, and business. Additionally, Jamie Baker transferred her oblation from Mt. Michael Abbey in Elkhorn, Nebraska, to the Mount after she and her husband moved to Liberty, Missouri, to be closer to family.
Jamie says she has always felt called to help others. She has done that professionally by answering the call to be a teacher of both the young and of elders. Jamie and her husband, Lance, have two daughters and one granddaughter, with whom they are close. Jamie has a graduate degree in gerontology and brings a never-ending smile to any event in which she participates. She is a member of the Trinity oblate deanery.
The Rite of Oblation was a special event for Jana Gowan of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jana’s mother and a life-long friend from Washington, D.C., attended the event, along with a couple of surprise guests, her pastor and his wife from Jana’s parish in Tulsa. Jana is a 2023 Souljourners graduate and says she has felt God calling her to a deeper relationship since she first came to the Mount in 2019. Jana is active in her Episcopal parish and works for the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa.
A native of St. Joseph, Missouri, Jennifer Hausman is a member of the oblate deanery in her hometown. Having been raised in a faith-filled home, Jennifer values her Catholic faith. Giving back to others is part of her work as an elementary school teacher and as a member of her parish. Jennifer’s mother was an oblate of the Mount, and it was through her example that Jennifer started her own journey in learning about the Rule of St. Benedict and deepening her faith in God. Jennifer and her husband, Dave, have a 12-year-old daughter.
Janet Paper has been a volunteer at the Mount for several years. She often is seen either covered in flour in the bake house or helping Sr. Loretta McGuire in the garden. Janet, a professor of biology at Benedictine College, has a deep passion for the earth and for Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si’. She is eager to learn from the sisters how to apply the Rule to living with others and honoring creation. Janet is a native of Iowa, and many of her family members came to support her at her oblation.
Tom Weis is a member of the Atchison deanery. He and his wife, Mary Muldoon, who made her oblation in 2024, started their oblate journey in the 1990s. Tom is grateful that after several job-related moves and years of raising three children, they have renewed their connection to the Mount. Tom and Mary now live in Colorado, where Tom is a consulting geophysicist. Tom appreciates the support and joyful spirit of the sisters and the oblate community in the midst of these divisive times. He and Mary rarely miss an oblate meeting on Zoom.
Dorothy Williams is a familiar face at Keeler Women’s Center, where she is a volunteer and attends meetings of the Keeler oblate deanery. Her friend and now fellow oblate, Deb Carmody, encouraged her to consider oblation. Dorothy enjoys lectio divina and admires the Benedictine approach to living in the world. Dorothy is a physical therapist and currently makes home visits to assess safety issues for clients. She lives in Shawnee, Kansas, with her husband, Tony. They have two children and one grandchild.
The Mount is blessed to welcome these faith-filled oblates to our community!
