With a Song in Her Heart

Music has been a thread in the life of Sister Janelle Maes since she took her first piano lesson at age 10. Her Benedictine teachers at St. Joseph High School — Sisters Noreen Hurter, Malachi Kennedy, and Rosaria Schaeffer — nurtured her talent by giving her organ lessons, and she continued to take lessons from Sister Joachim Holthaus when she entered the Mount immediately after high school in 1956.  

Sister Janelle ultimately majored in music, with organ as her instrument, at Mount St. Scholastica College (MSSC). Her skills came in handy as she taught at a number of Kansas Catholic elementary schools and played at parish Masses when needed. Even after studying at Boston College for a master’s degree in elementary education and serving eight years in the education department at MSSC, Sister Janelle continued to take organ lessons intermittently; “It was relaxing for me,” she says. She got plenty of practice by providing music for the community at feast day Masses and Liturgy of the Hours. 

After discerning that she had a gift for counseling, Sister Janelle pursued a master’s in counseling psychology at Loyola College in Chicago. She then studied in Texas for two years to get licensure as a marriage and family therapist and to become a fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. In 1983, she started Samaritan Counseling Center (later renamed All-Faith Counseling Center) in Atchison, where she provided counseling for 24 years.  

“I love to look at a piece of organ music and see how it’s put together,” she says. “I marvel at the beauty of how the composer ever thought of that. It’s a wonder, a thrill, to make it come alive.”

Throughout these years of service, Sister Janelle remained a faithful organist at the Mount, and playing the organ became her primary ministry in 2007. “I love to look at a piece of organ music and see how it’s put together,” she says. “I marvel at the beauty of how the composer ever thought of that. It’s a wonder, a thrill, to make it come alive.” She especially enjoys playing during the Christmas season, at the Holy Saturday Vigil, and on feast days. “You get to do extra stuff, and it’s fun to figure out what pieces to play,” she says. 

Sister Janelle experienced a setback in 2021 when she fell in the St. Scholastica Chapel choir loft while trying to adjust a mirror and sustained a badly broken femur. She credits “wonderful physical therapy” with helping her get back to the organ, and she now uses a stadium seat with lateral restraints while playing. Losing an inch in one leg is a detriment, but she continues to enjoy providing music for Masses and Liturgy of the Hours. 

Sister Janelle has developed quite a repertoire, and the sisters and guests alike look forward to her preludes and postludes at Mass. We are grateful she has kept a song in her heart — and at her fingertips —during her 70 years as a member of the Mount!