Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Celebration for the Sisters of the Holy Names
January 23, 2005

We began celebrating the Centennial of our parish back on November 13, the day the first Mass was celebrated on this hilltop. We continue it today as we honor the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary who were in this city before our parish even began and who have been at the heart of the life and ministry of this parish since 1911, the year they opened the Cathedral School.

The Sisters operated the school for more than sixty-five years, educating thousands of students. But when the demographics of the neighborhood changed, forcing the school to close in 1972, the Sisters didn’t stop teaching. Sisters never stop teaching! The whole parish became their ‘school’ as they took on new roles of service – ministries to the elderly, the sick, the homebound, the bereaved, refugees and immigrants, the RCIA ministry, and always, always, the ministry of prayer right at the heart of this parish. I think it could be said that the great contribution of the Sisters of Holy Names of Jesus and Mary to this parish for nearly a century has not been any one thing they have done but rather their generous willingness to do anything and everything that needed to be done. This parish has never stood still for long and neither have the Sisters of the Holy Names!

They haven’t stayed in one place very long, either! The present convent, which the parish built for them in 1964, is the place they’ve lived the longest but not the only place they’ve lived in. They lived first at St. Rose Academy – their high school over on Broadway; then they moved to some makeshift quarters in the Cathedral School itself; then to a convent that sat right where O’Dea High School stands today; then to a large house at the corner of Marion Street and Boren Avenue; then to the convent we know on the corner of 9th Avenue and Columbia. Like Jesus in today’s gospel, who moved from Nazareth to Capernaum, then through all of Galilee and eventually through Samaria to Judea and Jerusalem, the Sisters have often been on the move. That’s because their concern has never been for themselves but for the Church whose faithful servants they have always been.

“Come after me and I will make you fishers of men” (and women, too, of course). Those words that Jesus spoke along the shores of the Sea of Galilee to two sets of brothers, Simon and Andrew, James and John, are the same words he has spoken to a long line of Sisters of the Holy Names who, like those brothers of the gospel, left everything to follow.

Unlike the brothers, the Sisters’ names (most of them, anyway) have faded from memory. But what a ‘Litany of Saints’ their names would make (and, yes, what a smile some of their names evoke!). Here’s a partial litany: Sisters Everildis, Roswitha, Edelberga, Wilfrieda, Raineldes, Columbkille, Amelburga, Febronna, Rictrude, Ethbina, Marcellosa, and Adelinda. Quite a litany! (I assure you I did not make up one of those names, and I also assure you that not one of them got by the spell-check on my computer!). But there are some names you recognize: Maureen, Kathleen, Margaret Jane, Mary Ann, Terence, Lucille and, of course, Frances, Anne, Mary, and Claudette. Each one of those Sisters heard and heeded Jesus’ call, “Come, follow me,” and each one of them has helped make St. James Cathedral what it is.

My personal association with the Sisters of the Holy Names goes back to the mid-1940’s – to even before I sat in Sister Mary Enid’s first grade classroom at St. Anne’s School on Queen Anne Hill - because my Mom would often take me to the 8:15 Mass, and sometimes after Mass Sister Celine Therese or Sister Maureen Eileen would slip me a holy card – a coveted treasure in those days – the Catholic counterpart of a baseball card. I have fond memories of my eight years of elementary school under the tutelage of the Sisters of the Holy Names, and I still remember well the day that my 8th grade teacher, Sister Miriam Arlene, pulled me aside to ask me if I had ever thought about becoming a priest. I had, in fact, but I often wonder how she knew it! In the late 1950’s, our family was blessed when my sister, Judy, became a Sister of the Holy Names – a point of pride for us to this day – and all my years as a priest, especially the years here at St. James, have been immeasurably enriched by the privilege of working with these remarkable women of the Church, just as this Cathedral parish has been immeasurably enriched by the ministry of more than 300 Holy Names Sisters over the years.

Twice in today’s readings we heard the proclamation from Isaiah, the Prophet, “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone.” Isaiah was inspired to speak these words as he looked forward to the great deliverance that God’s people would experience when the long-awaited Messiah finally came. Many years later, in writing his gospel, Matthew saw those words of Isaiah fulfilled when Jesus began his ministry of preaching, teaching and healing. For me, those words also find fulfillment in the ministry of the Sisters of the Holy Names because their presence in this Archdiocese and in this parish has been a liberating presence for a long, long time: a light in the darkness to a whole lot of people.

Think of all the young people to whom they opened up the mysteries of faith as well as the mysteries of math and science, geography and history, reading, spelling, grammar, composition and, of course, penmanship! Think of all the elderly who have found in the Sisters a caring and gentle companion for the last laps of their journey of life. Think of all the bereaved families who have faced the devastating loss of a loved one with the calming, faith-filled presence of a Sister of the Holy Names. Think of all the searchers and seekers who have come to know Christ through these Sisters’ guiding presence, their teaching, and the witness of their lives. Think of how this parish for nearly one-hundred years has been supported on the wings of their prayer! “People who walked in darkness have indeed seen a great light!”

And the wonderful thing about these Sisters is that they have never been ones to shine the light on themselves; no, they have witnessed to the light, they have never sought the limelight! And what light they have shed! Happily, they will continue to shed light because their move from the cathedral convent is not a move away from the cathedral parish. Their ministry here goes on, thank God, and our new Pastoral Care Center will itself continue their ministry of education and service.

As we celebrate our parish’s Centennial we have much to be grateful for. Today is the day to thank God for the gift of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. In so many ways, we are what we are thanks to them. As we break the Bread of the Eucharist – our greatest prayer of thanks – let us ask God to bless these Sisters and to continue to bless our parish long into the future by their loving presence and marvelous ministry among us!

And now, will you please join me in an expression of gratitude to the Sisters of the Holy Names?

Father Michael G. Ryan
Cathedral Pastor

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Read more about the history of the Sisters of the Holy Names

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