Golden Jubilee ~ Sisters Marielle and Janice

Greetings,

Sister Marielle celebrated her 50 years of religious profession at Sacred Heart Monastery, Yankton SD on July 11 in the presence of her community, family and friends.  S. Marielle was born on June 3, 1944, to the late John and Amalia as the youngest in a family of three girls and a boy. At the age of six she began classes in a rural school a half mile from her farm home, the same farm where her father had been born and raised, in Bow Valley, NE.  S. Marielle was one of three first graders and her teacher was her oldest sister. As a student at Mount Marty High School she came to know the Benedictine Sisters. Marielle feels she was attracted to religious life as long as she could remember.  There was that desire to know God and to develop a close relationship with God and to help others.  She finally succumbed to that desire when she entered Sacred Heart Convent in August, 1963.

As a Benedictine Sister, S. Marielle zealously shared her love of scripture and theology in 32 years of teaching religious studies at Mount Marty College. Her excellent resource book, Beginning Biblical Studies, is a valuable tool for all who seek to improve their knowledge of facts related to Biblical history and religious studies.

Reflecting on her entrance into religious life Marielle states, “I entered the
community less than a year after Vatican Council II began in October 1962.  As a result I lived through the tumultuous years of the later 1960s and early 1970s when United States culture, the Catholic Church and religious life were constantly undergoing monumental changes.   While that made it much more challenging to  discern and choose religious life, from today’s vantage point, I can see that the long and sometimes very difficult process of discerning and making a commitment to monastic life in such times made me much stronger in that commitment.  As St. Benedict tells us, monastic life requires lifelong, repeated transformations of life that will continue in years to come.”

Marielle made monastic profession on June 29, 1965, and now fifty years later she offers two quotations that summarize what that life means to her. The first is a familiar line from Scripture: “God’s faithful love endures forever.” The second is St. Benedict’s primary instruction to monastics:  “Prefer nothing to the love of Christ” (RB 4:21, 72:11).


Sister Janice celebrated her 50 years of religious profession at Sacred Heart Monastery, Yankton, SD  on July 11 in the presence of her community, family and friends.  S. Janice, along with twin sister, Jean, grew up on a farm in the Dimock and Parkston area with twelve other siblings. Her parents, the late Peter and Clara, instilled in their children the love of church, family and farm life.

Janice attended school in Dimock where she was taught by Benedictine Sisters from Yankton.   After graduation she worked five years in the Parkston Hospital before entering Sacred Heart Convent in August of 1963. What surprised her at first in convent life, she says, was getting up so early as well as some of the food being served, like cereal for supper. After monastic profession in June 1965, S. Janice worked at the hospital in Tyndall for two years as nurse aide and as store room clerk before being assigned to Madonna Rehabilitation Home in Lincoln, Nebraska. At Madonna she worked six years as nurse aide, then  was asked to serve at St. Joseph Indian School in Chamberlain, SD. She returned to Madonna Home in Lincoln two years later in 1970  and was assigned  to Dietary as  Kitchen Supervisor and part time cook,  a position she held for 32 years until she retired to the monastery in 2006. S. Janice prefers to say she worked with the kitchen staff instead of supervising them.  She enjoyed the position and the people she helped very much. In 2005 S. Janice was honored with the Caring Kind Award at Madonna and was pleasantly surprised to see many of her family members present in Lincoln for the ceremony.   In retirement at the monastery S. Janice continues to help in assisting the Sisters in the Care Center and at activities whenever she can.

Looking back on her experience as a  Benedictine, S. Janice writes, “My life has become service for others.  Mostly this has been for the elderly throughout the many years at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital and now at our monastery Care Center for the older Sisters. I could not have imagined the joy and satisfaction I have received through these years, I thank God for these many blessings.”