What’s in a Date?
August 15, September 8 and 15, October 25, December 8, April 25, May 24, May 31. What do these dates have in common? By the zodiac, they loosely demark the seasons of the year: summer, fall, winter, spring. By the…
Sister Eleanor Craig SL, Loretto Community Historian, served as director of the Loretto Heritage Center Archives and Museum from 2012-2020. While beginning her Loretto ministry as a math teacher, she soon developed a way of teaching life lessons through storytelling and adventure traveling, including, as Eleanor once put it, leading more wagon trains along the old western trails than any mountain man. She is guided by an inner passion for the natural world, for history in its natural context, and for teaching beyond the walls of a school. Now into her 80th decade, Eleanor is still avidly listening, reading and writing, and telling true stories.
Loretto and Native American Boarding Schools
Now that directorship of the Heritage Center is in the capable hands of Ayla Toussaint, I have time to write occasional pieces of Loretto history for the Community. As there are more questions all the time about Loretto’s involvement with…
Reflection on the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Numbers 11:25-29 James 5:1-6 Mark 9:38 … 48 “Whoever is not against us is for us.” With these cryptic words, Jesus breaks through the partisan clannishness of his disciples and puts us all on notice that the team of God’s…
Reflection on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Revelation 11:19; 12:1-10 1 Corinthians 15:20-27 Luke 7:39-56 When I rose early this morning, my Amaryllis had opened two glorious red blooms in the night. One is surely in celebration of Sister…
Remembrance of the Life of Sister Jean (formerly Sister Regina Rose Burke) Johnson SL
(Editor’s Note: The first portion of this remembrance is Sister Jean Johnson’s autobiography. The latter portion was written by Eleanor Craig SL.) “On May 12, 1927, I arrived, the fifth child of my parents, Daniel and Elizabeth Burke. The fourth…
Remembrance of the Life of Sister Theresa (formerly Sister John Bosco) Coyle SL
Editor’s note: This is Theresa Louise Coyle’s own account of her life, pieced together from much longer essays whichshe composed in the decades since her Golden Jubilee in 1998. “In 1929, when I was born in the small town of…
Remembrance of the Life of Sister Sylvia Ginder SL
In early March of 1970, Sister Sylvia Ginder wrote to Sister Mary Luke Tobin, then completing her 12 years as the General Superior of the Sisters of Loretto. Sylvia’s letter is a kind of autobiography and the clearest statement of how…
Reflection on the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Exodus 24:3-8. Hebrews 9:11-15. Mark 14:12-16, 22-26 Last Sunday Eileen Custy introduced her reflections saying, “The God I grew up with is not the God I know now, and I suspect the same is true for all of you.” It’s true…
Remembrance of the Life of Eileen Wirtz CoL
Loretto Co-member Eileen Loretto Wirtz passed away peacefully on June 1, 2021, in Overland Park, Kan. In the 14th year of her Loretto commitment, she was capping a lifetime as a high school student, college graduate, teaching colleague, and parent with the Sisters…
Reflection on the Third Sunday of Easter
Acts 3:13-19 1 John 2:1-5 Luke 24:35-48 Sometimes thoughts and prayers just don’t come together to make a good homily. Today is one of those days. After a strong start, what I have to offer are just a few hints and fragments.…
Remembrance of the Life of Marjorie Riggs CoL
Marjorie Riggs died in the 25th year of her Loretto Co-membership. When she applied for co-membership in late 1996, Marge wrote an autobiography in which she laid out her life in plain and simple words: “I was born in the…
Remembrance of the Life of Sister Mary Denis Bruck SL
Hedwig Isabelle Catherine Bruck arrived as Frank and Mary Bruck’s first child exactly nine months after their marriage, “an embarrassment” her parents joked. She was born in Quincy, Ill., although both sides of her family were settled in St. Louis.…