Messages Home: A new education at two schools

Sister Loretta Jasper is serving as a “military life counselor” at Fort Rucker, Alabama, for six weeks this summer. This is her second “Message Home” about her time there. To read her earlier report, click HERE for the first and HERE for the second.

Sisters, Agrégées and Associates,

Today, Sept. 28, 2009, begins my fourth week in the Fort Riley area. Seven of my colleagues began working in nine schools within the Fort Riley area: one high school in Junction City — off-base; one middle school and five elementary schools on-base; and two elementary schools off-base. When we rotate from this assignment at the beginning of Christmas vacation, another group will rotate in during the second semester. We first-timers in these schools and in this position within Fort Riley are setting the tone for those who continue.

The three off-base schools require Kansas-licensed mental health therapists. That includes me. I have the privilege of working within two very different elementary schools outlying Fort Riley. Spring Valley Elementary (350 students-K-5) is on the western edge of Fort Riley, in its third year of operation and is located in a newly established neighborhood comprised mostly of military families. Ogden Elementary (250 students-K-6) is an established school and community on the eastern edge of Fort Riley. Spring Valley is in the Geary County school district; whereas, Ogden is in the Manhattan school district. The two schools are about 25 minutes apart, which makes the drive between them a feast for my eyes, given the panorama of the Flint Hills. I am in each school two days per week, and rotate Fridays. Each of the districts is on a different schedule re parent/teacher conferences and planning days, which provides me with the opportunity to be more available to parents as they stop in for conferences and then to staff during the planning days.

The schools are staffed with spouses who are either in the midst of the soldier or adult child coming to or from Iraq/Afghanistan. The parents or caregivers of the children (since both parents or the single parent is deployed) are tending to the day-to-day of home, children, daily responsibilities and adjustments with to/from deployments. The children are trying to focus upon school, home, absent parent in the midst. Some spouses/caregivers are gainfully employed while the soldier is deployed “to keep the light bill paid”; and some are employed to keep their minds occupied in the soldier’s absence. Simply stated: we were not born with an equal set of skills to tend to life… some folks are doing well. Each person is doing life as (s)he knows best at a given moment.

The really good news? Each of “my” two schools is delighted to have me/my position in the school. This is understandable, given the thumbnail sketch provided in the above paragraphs. My/our role wherever we go is to support/assist. For persons who want outcomes and long-term effects? I am only able to know what happens in a moment… the inching along of life: the contemplative life-stance at its best… being in the right place, with the right heart-touch, at the right moment.

If a teacher welcomes my presence in the classroom to sit with and assist a wiggly child in tending to getting the number sentence or letter completed… yes! If the secretary shares a story about her own or her spouse’s transition from Viet Nam, listen! The principal shares about his recently married daughter adjusting to spouse being deployed to Iraq. A pint-sized kiddo has difficulty settling into math problems states his stepdad will be deployed in January and he is to be the “man of the house.” I am there! A student teacher from KSU while fixing a bulletin board in the school hall shares that she has a nervous stomach and cannot sleep because the man whom she married just prior to his deployment is returning within the next 48 hours. How about the child who is not eating lunch, and my negotiating he eat at least three bites to fuel the rest of the day. Who knows what I happen upon with staff, kiddos, parents as I walk the school hall or sidewalk. I am there! Support/assist/presence/listen/re-direct/problem solving.

Mom shares lunch with child in lunchroom and states they not only just moved here, but spouse was just deployed. A child was particularly belligerent in Physical Ed. one morning. Both parents, with Dad in uniform, shared lunch with the child… Dad returned from Iraq within the past 24 hours. A cluster of five kindergarten moms sitting together outside of the school with toddlers in tow, waiting the close of the day echo: “Our spouses are all in Iraq.”

Next step?

This week, the start of weekly support gatherings in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening for spouses, soldiers and caregivers in the school library.

Next week: Lunch in the library for kiddos with pre-deploy, currently deployed, post-deployed parents to connect and share.

Are you with me? I know it!

Loretta Jasper, csj

Neighbor ‘interim program’ now at Motherhouse

As the renovation work continues on the new center downtown, Neighbor to Neighbor has started a limited program at the Motherhouse.


Sisters Jean Befort, Patricia McLennon and Ramona Medina — the forces behind the planned center that will offer a wide array of programs for women and women with children — are offering the “interim program” for two hours on Monday and Wednesday mornings. This morning, Emily Brown and her sons Elijah and Noah were on hand for playtime for the boys and conversation for Mom.

Sister Jean, Pat and Ramona invite Concordia women to stop by and talk about what offerings would be valuable to them. Or, you can call the sisters for information, 785-243-9689.

The new center will be at 103 E. Sixth St., and the sisters hope to have the renovation complete by the end of the year so Neighbor to Neighbor can open in early 2010.

This weekend a volunteer crew from the First United Methodist Church in Concordia is expected to spend Saturday helping with interior demolition on the two-story brick building. One the entire building is cleared out, renovations will begin to create the new center.

Year of Peace rolls out with Fall Fest

The Concordia Year of Peace had a showy beginning this morning, with support from a number of local organizations for its float in the 2009 Fall Fest parade.


The Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia have taken the lead in the 16-month-long “year” to celebrate peace and teach about living a nonviolent life, but other local groups and service organizations have rallied to the cause. In Saturday’s parade, the Year of Peace float had signs recognizing support from the Concordia Rotary Club, the Concordia Lions Club, the Frank Carlson Library and Manna House of Prayer. More than 30 people have joined the committee organizing events throughout the year.

There was also a Concordia Year of Peace booth at Sixth and Broadway, staffed all day by sisters and members of the Year of Peace committee. In addition to providing information about nonviolence, the booth featured Year of Peace T-shirts for sale, buttons with the Year of Peace logo, and children’s games. Two songs composed by Patrick Sieben of Cloud County Community College specially for the Year of Peace were playing on the booth’s sound system/

Earlier this month, Mayor Greg Hattan issued a proclamation officially marking the Concordia Year of Peace.

The Year of Peace Committee has received a $500 grant from the Community Foundation for Cloud County, to help cover some of its initial expenses, and foundation chairman Bob Steimel and his wife Lorene were on hand this morning to show their support. Bob drove the pickup pulling the float while Lorene joined the sisters who rode on it during the parade.

For information about the Concordia Year of Peace or any of the planned events during the year, contact Sister Jean Rosemarynoski, who is heading the committee. She can be reached at 785-243-2149 or by email at sisterjean@csjkansas.org.

Dodge City paper leads with Sister Esther’s workshop

Coverage of a nonviolence workshop presented by Sister Esther Pineda leads the current issue of the Southwest Kansas Register, the newspaper of the Dodge City Diocese.

Sister Esther is a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia and works at the Justice and Peace Center in Salina.

To read the Sept. 27 coverage of the “God in a world of violence” workshop that was part of the Cathecist Formation classes earlier this month, click HERE. Using that link, you can read the article online or download a printable PDF of the article. (There is a large graphic illustrating the article on page 1; the actual story is on page 3.)

U.S. House honors Catholic sisters

The U.S. House of Representatives this week honored Catholic sisters in the United States in a resolution that passed with a unanimous vote.

House Resolution 441, sponsored by Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, “Honors and commends Catholic sisters for their humble service and courageous sacrifice throughout the history of this Nation.” It passed on a roll call vote Tuesday of 442-0.

The resolution also “supports the goals of the ‘Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America’ traveling exhibit, a project sponsored by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in association with Cincinnati Museum Center and established to recognize the historical contributions of Catholic sisters in the United States.” The exhibit includes information from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, relating the story of this congregation’s role in the sanctuary movement of the 1980s.

Rep. Kaptur had introduced the resolution in May, when the “Women & Spirit” exhibit opened in Cincinnati, but it had been stalled in committee until this week.

The resolution lists a number of findings, including:

• “The social, cultural, and political contributions of Catholic sisters have played a vital role in shaping life in the United States;
• “Such women have joined in unique forms of intentional communitarian life dedicated to prayer and service since the very beginnings of our Nation’s history, fearlessly and often sacrificially committing their personal lives to teaching, healing, and social action;
• “At least nine sisters from the United States have been martyred since 1980 while working for social justice and human rights overseas;
• “Catholic sisters participated in the opening of the West, traveling vast distances to minister in remote locations, setting up schools and hospitals, and working among native populations on distant reservations; and
• “The humanitarian work of Catholic sisters with communities in crisis and refuge throughout the world positions them as activists and diplomats of peace and justice for the some of the most at risk populations.”

For the full text of the resolution, click HERE.

Sister Mary Keller, Feb. 12, 1917-Sept. 19, 2009

Eulogist: Sister Christella Buser
Vigil: Sept. 21, 2009, at the Motherhouse in Concordia

It was an honor when Mary asked me to give her eulogy. Her death is a loss, but also a gift to us.

Sister Mary’s parents, Peter and Mary Volk Keller, and most of her siblings, came from Russia to America in May 1908. She was born Feb. 25, 1917, in Collyer, Kan., and was given the name Mary Magdeline. She was the 11th of 14 children; all of her brothers and sisters preceded her in death.

Her childhood and teen years were lived on a farm 1½ miles east of Collyer, and she attended grade and high school there. From 1935 to 1938, Mary and her sister Sue went to Denver to find work. They managed to find something with very minimal pay. On their days off a group of them got together to go to the movies, dances or amusement parks.

In 1937, she decided to join the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia. After much prayer and discernment, on Feb. 12, 1938, she joined two of her sisters who were a1ready in the community: Sisters Francesca and Renilda. In her Life Story, she wrote: “Sister Sabinus, the Postulant Mistress, took me upstairs and had me dress in the postulant uniform. I immediately experienced a deep peace and joy and a feeling of “Yes, this is the place for me and this is where I am going to stay.’“ She received the habit and the name Sister Anthony on Aug. 15, 1938.

She recalled, “The novitiate years were good, but 1 had no desire to do them over.”

Mary’s first mission was Fairbury, Neb., where she was housekeeper for two years. The following year, she began her studies toward a bachelor’s degree to qua1ify to teach grade school. Her 33-year teaching career took her to Chicago and Aurora, Ill.; Concordia, Beloit and Salina in Kansas; Silver City, N.M.; and Grand Island, Neb.

After Mary received her master’s degree in education, she was assigned as principal of the grade schools in Grand Island and Salina.
In 1973, she changed her ministry from teaching to parish work. About her years of visiting the elderly and shut-ins she said, “They were very appreciative of everything and they were life-giving to me.”

In her yearly commitment statements, Mary repeatedly committed herself to praying for justice and peace in a world of violence and war, for the whole world that human rights and freedom may be respected everywhere: “To be a loving presence to one another and to be united in heart and spirit through our charism and the Eucharist.”

In her Life Story, she wrote, “I have always valued my religious life highly and have appreciated community life. I considered the renewal in the Church and religious life a great blessing. I welcomed the changes wholeheartedly.”

I visited Mary every week while she was at Mt. Joseph. Each time she would ask me to water her plant even though it did not need it. She would always ask me when I was coming back.

Toward the end of her life, she was not able to react to conversation, but her eyes always responded to the blessing I gave before leaving her.
Mary, this is my last blessing, but you will always continue to be a blessing to me. May you rest in God’s love.

Sister Helen Urban, July 10, 1914-Sept. 17, 2009

September 20, 2009
Eulogy by Bette Moslander CSJ

We come together this evening to honor and to celebrate the life of Sister Helen Urban, a Sister of St. Joseph for 75 years who died around supper time on Thursday, Sept. l7 at the Motherhouse. Helen’s death comes as something of a shock, not because she was not ready to die, but as far as we knew she was neither the oldest nor the sickest. As a matter of fact I remember with clarity that as we were leaving the Chapel to go to the cemetery for the burial of Sister Venard a few weeks ago, Sister Helen and I coincided in each other’s space as we were reached the chapel door. At that time she reached up, pulled me down to her level and smiling, her eyes laughing, she said in a loud clear voice, “I’m the next one. Remember what I say, I’m the next one.”

In her characteristic direct, no-nonsense manner Helen has left a long and beautiful “life review”. It is a very human account of the woman she has become. She recounts the ups and downs of her growing-up years on the plains of western Kansas. She writes with uncompromising honesty about her life as a young woman as she attempts to adjust to the rigors and restrictions of convent protocol, and the pain of frequent moves in her early teaching career. An earthy kind of woman, Helen never hesitated to say it the way she saw it. So let us reflect on her life.

Helen was born in Topeka, Kansas on July 10, 1914 and baptized at St. Joseph’s Church. Not long after her birth the Urban family returned to Pfeifer, Kansas to live on a farm that Helen’s grandmother had given them. Helen’s two sisters, Irene and Marcelle and her brother Raymond were born there. Her family, like that of so many of our Sisters from western Kansas, was not well to do, but they were a close family and faithful and dedicated to the Church and their Catholic faith. The small town of Pfeifer was a school mission of Sisters from Concordia, and each fall the sisters came to teach in the parish. Several of the incidents Helen records in her life review give insights into day-by-day parish life in those days: baptisms, first communions and first confessions; pastors and sister teachers; births and deaths; real life, lived in the flow of seasons in a rural community and in the dynamic and very human reality of a small Catholic village on the plains of Kansas.

Recalling her schooling in the elementary school there, in Pfeifer, Helen remarks “As I studied conscientiously under the supervision of the Sisters they planted the seed of my vocation. Their deep faith and love far surpassed their human limitations. The Sister who stands out in my memory was Sister Helena Robben, a fine teacher who ruled with an iron hand, but at heart was a real friend for us, especially outside the formal school time.”

One touching memory of those early days, was the death of her little brother Raymond who was crushed in a farm accident, “He lived three days,” she says, “but there was no hope. Dad blamed himself and became a changed man; my mother grew old before her time. Our deep faith in God finally triumphed and we came to see the accident as a part of God’s plan, strengthening our trust in God’s Providence.”

Helen wanted to go on to high school but there was no high school in the town. Eager for learning she took the 8th grade over again and Sister Alcantara gave her extra supplementary work. Her fortunes changed when Sister Helena was assigned to Tipton as principal of the high school there. Recognizing Helen’s ability and desire for an education, her family with Sister Helena’s help, made arrangements for Helen to board with the Hake family and go to school. After graduation, and a few months of discerning and hesitating, Helen decided that she really did want to become a Sister of St. Joseph and set her plans in motion. She arrived in Concordia on a beautiful, clear, cold day in February, put on the postulants’ uniform and her life in the convent was underway.

“I did find the postulancy and novitiate a big challenge,” she wrote, “but I took it all in stride, not considering anything too difficult or unreasonable. Some times however it seemed such a waste of time to ask so many trivial permissions. All seemed routine and I don’t remember ever spiritualizing them.” The early years of Helen’s life in the convent were a mixture of wonderful experiences of closeness to God, and difficult experiences of putting up with the all too human limitations and trivial injustices of the hierarchical rules and customs of religious life of that time. Frank and uncensored in her memories, Helen reflects on the first year on mission where she was assigned as a cook and music teacher, and in both departments found herself untrained and overburdened. Mid-year the Sister who taught the upper four grades fell ill and Helen was asked to take over her classroom. She concludes her account of her first mission experience in these words, “So the year passed. I had acquired a great deal of missionary experience, had my first taste of teaching and procured my precious teaching certificate.”

The following summer Helen began the process of achieving her college education. That fall she began a three-year assignment in Michigan where she taught the seventh grade, returning to Marymount each summer for a few more hours toward her degree. In the years that followed Helen experienced short term assignments in various western Kansas schools. Her story of those years provides a good historical account of the rigors and the poverty of the Church in western Kansas in the first half of the 20th century. It was an immigrant Church and each small town had its own character determined by the concentration of ethnic majorities, Volga German, French, and Irish, the people, strong in the faith, but poor in most other ways.

In 1943 she was needed as an upper grade teacher in Aurora, Kansas, where in Helen’s words she experienced some feeling of security in her life. One senses that it was here that Helen began to come into her own as an educator. During these years,” she writes, “I experimented with ability groups within the upper four grades. Parents cooperated beautifully because they could see that their children were experiencing success. Monsignor Fraser practically lived in the school and often gave me points in teaching techniques.”

Six years later, on to Junction City to teach in the 8th grade! “The students there were very lively and it took a great deal of scheming to keep ahead of them,” Helen remembered “but I enjoyed them very much because they presented me with a real challenge.” There were added duties teaching at the Fort every Sunday.

In 1952 Helen returned to Herndon, this time as Superior of the mission for six years. Reflecting on that experience Helen said, “During those six year I always did the best I knew, but looking back I see that I unknowingly made many mistakes. It was a great learning experience.” During her time in Herndon Helen lost both of her parents in a short period of time. It was a great blow for her. By the time her two terms of Superior were over she was able to acknowledge, “I knew that I loved the place, the people and the school and I hated to leave. I had found peace there, in the midst of tears and fears.”

Returning to Junction City in 1958, Helen was appointed principal at a time that the enrollment in the school was bursting the seams. “I felt extremely handicapped in administering the school in a professional way. First of all I was expected to teach full time; I had no office; there were no files or records. There were constant withdrawals and new enrollments due to the Fort Riley school population.” These were hard years but gradually Helen organized the school, setting up a central library, creating an office and a good record system. By the end of her term as principal the school was in better order.

Vatican II 1963—65 was a critical event in Helen’s life. On one page that she left in her personal file she wrote, “The Holy Spirit has been very present in my life since Vatican II. I welcomed the word freedom, but I was not sure of the real meaning at first. I came to realize that it meant the right choices, the right values in living my religious life. I soon became aware that I was the one to make the ordinary decisions in my life, not my superiors. It was a great feeling and my self-image developed tremendously.”

She seems to have come to a new love for the Church and a new sense of herself. She continued “The Church took on an entirely new meaning—The People of God. It seemed that I became one with every person and my commitment to make the reign of God evident became very, very real. From here on my vows became very special for I could see the purpose of each as being related to God’s People.”

Her mission life went on and she breathed a sigh of relief when she was moved to Plainville where the enrollment was less than half that of Junction City. Once again the school office and records called for Helen’s administrative skills but three years later she moved on to Grand Island where she served for the next nine years until the grade school closed. “I learned to love Grand Island, the place, my work, and the Sisters that touched my life. It was there that The Lord came to share with me his many graces and blessings. I learned what real love for God and neighbor meant, due to the many spiritual advantages, wonderful confessors and meaningful liturgies. It was there that I discovered that it is not the work that matters so much, but how much love for God and neighbor is brought to the work.”

Following her years in Grand Island and saddened by the close of the grade school in 1975, Helen returned to Manhattan for another six-year term. By 1985 Helen, feeling herself moving toward retirement from the classroom took on work in Junction City directing the Renew Program for the Parish, and helping with the religious education program. During those years she also enjoyed and actively assisted Sister Viatora and Sister Mary Esther at St. Clare House, a home for women in need of shelter and assistance.

In 1991 Helen retired at Medaille Center where she served as a Hospital Visitor and was active in the parish. Reluctantly, she retired to the Motherhouse in 2002, having spent 50 years in the parish schools, and several more years in various volunteer services in Junction City and Salina.

These few vignettes of Helen’s life, moving much too frequently, from one school to another, provide a telling account of the energy and the self-emptying love that characterized the lives of many of our women who contributed toward the education in the faith of hundreds of children throughout this central plains country. Her life, not unlike that of hundreds of other grade and high school teachers, was spent laying the foundation of the Church here in Kansas.

So now, we remember Helen, her steadfastness and her tireless energy in serving others. Her life reminds us of the letter Paul wrote to Timothy (II, 1: 5-10). “We find ourselves thinking of your sincere faith—faith that first belonged to your family…and which we are confident you also had…The Spirit gave you no cowardly spirit, but rather one that made you strong, loving and wise…” Helen, your life has been poured out generously, lovingly, in the service of the Church and God’s people. We give thanks for you and for the simple, direct forthrightness of your life. As you surrender your life into God’s loving hands may you delight in the fulfillment you know now, hearing the voice of your Divine Lover, “Come my beloved, enter into my everlasting peace.” We join you in your own great “AMEN.”

MY LIFE AFTER VATICAN TWO
By Sister Helen Urban

The Holy Spirit has been very present in my life since Vatican Two. I welcomed that word freedom, hut I was not sure of the real meaning at first. I came to realize that it meant the right choices, the right values in living my religious life. I soon became aware that I was ‘the the one to make the ordinary decisions in my life, not my superiors. It was a great feeling and my self-image developed tremendously.

The Church took on an entirely new meaning- The People of God. It seemed that I became one with every person and my commitment to make the reign of God evident became very very real. From here on my vows became very special for I could see the purpose of each as being related to God’s people.

My vow of poverty gives me the freedom to become very in¬volved in helping spread the Good News in so many ways. Only by relinquishing possessions can I minister to the poor. My vow of chastity makes me free to keep moving. I can Lake risks which married people with concern for their families and for each other cannot be asked to take. Obedience is a public statement. that I bind myself to 1 I stun within and am commissioned by a community through its leaders.

Prayer has always been very important to me, but during these years after Vatican Two, my prayer became important in developing a contemplative attitude toward life. It helps me keep a proper perspective of life. It helps me focus on the most important values of the kingdom. Sincere and regular prayer returns me to the center, love which is the greatest gift and the greatest commandment.

Finally our culture is characterized by segregation and alienation. My religious community, by living the Gospel. can challenge these structures that depersonalize and alienate; it proclaims an alternative way. “This is how all will know you For my disciples, your love for one another” (Jn 13:35).

The Eucharist has always been the heart, of my spiritual life as long as I can remember. However, when the Mass was allowed in the vernacular, my longed for dream was fulfilled. It is now and always will be the most fundamental expression of the reality of my life.

For me the vowed life after Vatican Two was a deep call and a deep grace. LUMEN GENTIUM called me to enrich, challenge, encourage and stimulate the Church by my life and my action.

‘Interrupted Lives’ web site offers more info

Now that the documentary “Interrupted Lives: Catholic Sisters Under European Communism” has been aired across the country, a web site that supplements the program with additional information is also available.

You can click HERE to go directly to the new site.

The site includes a study guide, plus background information and other details about the decades of research by Sister Mary Savoie and Margaret Nacke.

Four faiths share peace prayers at Motherhouse

Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists and Muslims came together Sunday to share prayers in a commemoration of the International Day of Peace.


Yet one of the most powerful statements may have been in the impromptu question-and-answer period, when Mohamed Fall, a Muslim from the African nation of Senegal and a student at Cloud County Community College, was asked by an audience member, what people can do to dispel fears about his faith.


“All we need is days like this,” he said, gesturing to the more than 75 people who had gathered in the Motherhouse Auditorium. “We need to talk about peace and try to understand each other.”

That was the same message given by the Rev. Sandra Moore, pastor of the Concordia First United Methodist Church, four members of the Buddhist Temple of Kansas in Salina, and by Father Jack Schlaf in the Mass at the Motherhouse earlier Sunday.

In their presentation, the four saffron-robed Buddhists delivered a paper that explained their view of nonviolence and tolerance.

“Today the followers of the most compassionate Buddha have a special duty to work for the establishment of peace in the world,” read Dr. Suphol Saleengarm, one of the four Thai monks who took part in the ceremony. “Buddhism has never persecuted or maltreated those whose beliefs are different.”

Dr. Saleengarm also addressed the current worldwide proliferation of weapons: “If we do nothing about it, the next war will be the end of the world where there will be neither victors nor victims — only dead bodies.”

Focusing on nonviolence, he added, “Many people say that the Buddha’s advice to return good for evil is impracticable. Actually, it is the only correct method to solve any problem.”

Pastor Moore made the point that hers is a military family — “I am the mother of a soldier, I am the mother-in-law of a soldier, I am the wife of a soldier” — but, she added, “No one understands the value of peace more than we do.”

She urged other Christians to join in the conversation, to learn about “neighbors” so everyone can work for peace.

Sister Regina Ann Brummel, who with Sister Esther Pineda organized Sunday’s event, cited a quote by the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was the Supreme Allied Commander during World War II: “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”

Sister Regina Ann also helped Mohamed Fall with his presentation. She explained the Five Pillars that make up the basic beliefs of the Islam faith: A profession of faith, daily prayer, giving alms, fasting during the month of Ramadan and making a pilgrimage to Mecca.

Sunday’s ceremony closed with an interfaith prayer by Sister Regina Ann and Father Jack Schlaf, and then everyone joined in the singing of the Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.

The United Nations’ International Day of Peace — marked each year on Sept. 21 — is a global holiday when individuals, communities, nations and governments highlight efforts to end conflict and promote peace.

Established by U.N. resolution in 1982, “Peace Day” has grown to include millions of people around the world who participate in all kinds of events, large and small. The Motherhouse event on Sunday was presented by the Sisters of St. Joseph Justice and Peace Center in Salina.

Longtime educator, Sister Mary Keller, dies at age 92

Sister Mary Keller died Sept. 19, 2009, at Mt. Joseph Senior Village in Concordia. She was 92 years old and a Sister of St. Joseph of Concordia for 71 years.


She was born in Collyer, Kan., on Feb. 25, 1917, to Peter and Mary Volk Keller, the 10th of 13 children, and was baptized Mary Magdalene. She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph on Feb. 12, 1938. On Aug. 15, 1938, Mary received the habit of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia and was given the name Sister Mary Anthony. She pronounced first vows on Aug. 15, 1939, and final vows on Aug. 15, 1942. Two of Sister Mary’s sisters were also members of the congregation: Sister Francesca and Sister Renilda. Both preceded her in death.


Sister Mary received a bachelor’s degree in education from Marymount College in Salina and a master’s degree in school administration from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. She taught in schools staffed by the Sisters of St. Joseph in Aurora and Chicago, Ill.; Grand Island, Neb.; and the Kansas cities of Concordia, Beloit, Salina and Collyer. She also served in administration in the schools of Grand Island and Salina. In 1997, she retired to Nazareth Motherhouse. She moved to Mt. Joseph Senior Village in 2006.
Sister Mary was preceded in death by her parents and 12 siblings.

A Bible Vigil Service will be held Sept. 21at 7 p.m. in the Sacred Heart Chapel at the Motherhouse with Sister Christella Buser as the eulogist. The Mass of Christian Burial will be Sept. 22 at 10:30 a.m. in the Motherhouse Chapel with Father LeRoy Metro presiding. The burial will be in the Nazareth Motherhouse Cemetery.

Chaput-Buoy Mortuary, 325 W. 6th St., Concordia, is in charge of arrangements. Memorials for Sister Mary Keller may be given to the Sisters of St. Joseph Health Care/ Retirement Fund or the Apostolic Works of the Sisters; P.O Box 279, Concordia KS 66901.

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