Kindergarteners’ gift to religious sisters touches hearts and connects generations
Benedictine Sister Mary Luke Jones of Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove shares a smile with Margo Pierle, a kindergarten student at Christ the King School in Indianapolis. Margo holds a framed artwork she created that helped raise $1,547 that the kindergarten students donated to the sisters at the monastery. (Photo by John Shaughnessy)
By John Shaughnessy
The best moments in life sometimes happen when the past and the present come together in a special way.
And it’s even better when such a moment also offers a glimpse of a hopeful future.
Benedictine Sister Mary Luke Jones experienced that combination of realities recently when she opened a weekly e-mail newsletter from Christ the King School in Indianapolis and discovered a notice that brought her so much joy.
Every time Sister Mary Luke receives the newsletter, it returns her in a small way to a wonderful time in her life—when she served as the principal of Christ the King School from 1977 to 1986, and when nine other Benedictine sisters from Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove taught there, too.
Those years are among a long-gone era in Catholic education in the archdiocese and across the United States—a time when religious sisters shared their talents, their faith and their love with children in every Catholic school.
Nearly every Catholic school graduate older than 50 has memories of a sister’s influence.
Sister Mary Luke has her own memories.
“Oh, my gosh, I loved being principal of Christ the King,” she gushed. “There were 10 of us sisters living in the convent, which was right there on the property. We also staffed Bishop Chatard High School.
“I had nine wonderful years there. We had a terrific staff and a great camaraderie. And I knew the name of every child in the school, and I knew their families. We had wonderful support from the families and the parish.”
Her every word is touched with joy. At the same time, 40 years have passed since her time there, and while the memories last, there is also the tendency to lose sight of the remarkable difference that religious sisters made to generations of Catholic school children and their families.
That’s why Sister Mary Luke was surprised and delighted when she saw the notice in the weekly e-mail newsletter from Christ the King School.
‘This is so wonderful’
The notice shared the news that the 43 kindergarten students at Christ the King had created faith-filled artwork that had been put up for sale in a silent auction at the parish.
The notice also shared that the annual auction had raised $1,547.
As Sister Mary Luke read those details, she smiled. But it was what she saw next that surprised and delighted her even more.
The notice mentioned that the money would be donated this year to the Benedictine Sisters at Our Lady of Grace Monastery.
“I thought, ‘This is so wonderful, but I don’t know anything about it,’ ” Sister Mary Luke recalled. “I’m not in development work anymore, but I work closely with Sister Susan Reuber who is. I asked her if she knew anything about it. She didn’t. I called Christ the King because we needed to thank somebody.”
She connected with one of the kindergarten teachers, Janis (Dobson) Macey, who was a student at Christ the King School when Sister Mary Luke was principal there. Macey was also taught by Benedictine Sister Bernardine Ludwig in the first grade and Benedictine Sister Angela Jarvoe in the sixth grade.
Macey and her fellow kindergarten teacher Rachel Campbell-Maher had hoped to keep the donation a surprise until they could deliver it in person to the sisters at the monastery.
“There are several sisters living at the monastery who have a connection to the school,” Macey said. “Rachel and I talked about that. Looking on their website, they have their ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ campaign. We thought it would be fun to give back to the sisters who gave so much to the school.”
As for the planned surprise, Macey now knows she should have remembered from her grade school days that religious sisters who teach are always at least three steps ahead of you when it comes to learning things about you.
“Some of my fondest memories are of Sister Bernardine,” Macey said, recalling the market that her first-grade teacher set up every Friday. “If you were good, you could earn ‘money’ to spend there. If you chose to make bad decisions, you could lose your money. I was that child who talked a lot and lost a lot of money. I frequently was broke.”
She laughed and added, “I was kind of a wild child and did encounter Sister Mary Luke in the office several times.”
When Macey and Campbell-Maher decided who the auction money would benefit, they also wanted to teach their kindergarten children about the sisters. Even more, they hoped to make a connection—and maybe even some memories—with them.
‘It’s for the nuns!’
“Our kids become so close to us, and we know them so well,” Campbell-Maher said. “Some of our kids don’t know what a nun is. Being able to develop relationships with nuns is something we’re missing in our classrooms.
“The more they know about them and the more they have relationships with people like that, the more they understand that’s an option for their own vocation when they grow up.”
Macey nodded as she talked about the impact the sisters made at Christ the King in her days as a student.
“The sisters were in it 100%,” she said. “That was the life they lived. They taught, they lived on campus, and they cared. As an adult, I look back and see, ‘Wow, they were really trying to form me, not only as a person but as a faith-filled person.’ ”
In their own way, the two kindergarten teachers are doing the same with their students, just as many lay teachers across the archdiocese and the country are doing today.
Creating the faith-related artwork is part of that approach for Macey and Campbell-Maher, who also praise the help of their kindergarten aides, Leah Sears and Erin Bischoff.
“For the auction, we encourage religious-themed art,” Campbell-Maher said. “We talked about different symbols that mean different things in the Church. We made sure they weren’t all doing the same thing. We used some videos of how to draw. We did some practice ones in pencil.”
Macey added, “It’s amazing what 5- and 6-year-olds can do on their own.”
So was the response to the silent auction, with all bids starting at $5.
“We had some that went for $75, $100,” Macey said. “And it wasn’t just parents buying their own kid’s art. We actually had parishioners outbidding parents.
“We had one parishioner who donated $200 to cover any art that didn’t have bids. I contacted him and told him that all of the art had bids. He said, ‘I’m still going to give you a check for $200.’ People were really into it.”
So were the kindergarten artists when they heard how much money was raised.
“When we told them they raised $1,500, they were through the roof. They were jumping,” said Campbell-Maher, who also notes that a kindergartener figures you can buy a Ferrari for that amount. “We would say to them, ‘What is it for? Is it for you to take home?’ And they’d say, ‘No, it’s for the nuns! The nuns are going to use it to help people!’
“It was really cute.”
So was the interaction on March 7 when 11 of the kindergarten children, their moms and their teachers came to Our Lady of Grace Monastery to meet with some of the sisters and share their donation.
Tears, smiles and ice cream treats
That Saturday afternoon was rain-soaked outside, but the scene inside the monastery felt like a burst of sunshine as the children came together with the sisters.
Sister Mary Luke greeted the children and led them, their moms and their teachers into the chapel first, telling them, “The chapel is the heart of our home.”
“We pray for you, for ourselves and for everyone in the world—the people of God,” Sister Mary Luke told the children, adding that the sisters pray every day of the year together in the chapel. “It never gets cancelled. We believe it’s such a privilege.”
From the chapel, she led the Christ the King contingent into the sisters’ dining area where a
kid-friendly lunch of hot dogs, macaroni-and-cheese, lemonade and ice cream treats awaited, with each of the children sharing a table with at least one of the 40 sisters who live at the monastery.
There, a touching, emotional scene unfolded when Macey saw her first-grade teacher Sister Bernardine. With tears filling her eyes, Macey hugged her former teacher. And when their embrace ended, Sister Bernardine showed Macey one of her favorite keepsakes from her 14 years of teaching at Christ the King—a picture of her first-grade class from the 1981-82 school year, the year Macey was in that class.
“It’s amazing to see someone who was so impactful,” Macey said. “She was strict, but she also loved us.”
When Sister Bernardine was told that Macey described herself as often getting into trouble that year, the sister smiled and sincerely said, “She was good. All of the children I taught were good.”
It was also that kind of day for the children and the sisters, a day touched with shy smiles, many photos and the shared joy that came when the two kindergarten teachers gave the children’s donation to the sisters, along with some framed pictures of the children’s artwork.
And when the ice cream treats appeared near the end of lunch, it was hard to tell who enjoyed them more—the children or the sisters. In that moment, it almost seemed that the years washed away for many of the sisters, taking them back to the years when they were children, back to the years when they taught children.
Later that afternoon, most of the sisters would get their first look inside the new $24 million monastery that will become their home in mid-April.
“We have about half a million to raise yet,” Sister Mary Luke said, joyfully noting the generosity of people who have contributed to the sisters’ new home. “Our Lady of Grace is blessed with so many friends. We know that some people are able to make very substantial gifts, and God bless them. And there are others who make gifts that are substantial for them. And God bless them. We are so very grateful for those who support us.”
In comparison to $24 million, $1,547 may seem such a small number to some people. The Benedictine Sisters of Our Lady of Grace know and feel otherwise.
As Macey talked about making this connection an annual visit between the kindergarten students and the sisters, Sister Mary Luke recalled the first phone conversation she had with Macey—the one that led the sisters to want to share this lunch with the children.
“Honest to goodness, if she had called me and said we’ve raised $15, we would have responded in the same way,” Sister Mary Luke said.
A touch of emotion filled her as she savored the scene of the sisters and the children together.
“The money helps,” she said. “But what’s even better is it’s another way of showing how people care about the sisters.”
(For more information about Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove and the construction of its new monastery, visit benedictine.com.) †
