Originally, there were three Church Ladies, Rosaleen, Therese, and Lucy. Rosaleen graduated early and joined the Missionaries of Charity. I've spoken to her once since then... and today I received this email, which reflects Rosaleen's beautiful soul.
LDM
my dear ones,
Pax Christi! This email brings you much love and prayer. Please rejoice and thank God with me - on May 24, I had my first profession in San Francisco! Deo gratias! Novitiate was a beautiful and grace-filled time - a real piece of heaven...and a holy preparation for life in the mission house. I count on your prayers as I go to Cairo, Egypt! Jesus is waiting for me in Egypt region (in the MC world, Egypt region includes Malta, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt and part of Sudan---a vast geographical area). I will go to our regional house in Cairo and spend anywhere from a few days to a couple months, and then receive my official assignment somewhere in the region. Right now, I am at home for a little visit and will fly out of Chicago on June 11, stopping in Jordan before reaching Cairo.
Please pray for me! I pray for all of you, entrusting you all to Our Lady's beautiful heart.
If you have a chance, please let me know how you are, where you are.
Wednesday afternoon a consummate church lady, Gail Walton, beloved director of the University of Notre Dame Liturgical Choir, wife and mother passed from this vale of tears after a battle with leukemia at the age of 55.
It's difficult to begin to write about Gail. She was an amazing and wonderful woman, so selfless and tireless.
As Director of Music at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame, a position she held since 1988, Gail was extremely influential in liturgical music. She was an excellent musician, married to another wonderful musician, ND organ professor Craig Cramer. They were "the cutest couple" in everyone's eyes - especially when they played dual organ recitals.
Gail was everyone's second mom. She was always looking out for you, but she never looked out for her self. Last year she hurt her foot - falling off a stool if I remember correctly. The doctors told her the foot had to rest and be in its boot until it healed. But how do you play organ with a boot on your foot? So she took it off. I scolded her after one of our rehearsals (she was not only director of the Liturgical Choir, but assistant director of the Women's Liturgical Choir to which I belong) and told her she had to take care herself. She laughed and said she'd be ok. That was Gail. Our head director visited her just before Christmas. The doctors had allowed her to return home for a period, so long as she was strictly on bedrest. Was Gail following the doctors' orders? Of course not. She was baking, trimming the tree and doing all manner of things around the house. That was Gail. She was a such a wonderful woman...Absolutely unstoppable.
She was a perfectionist, too, and always drove us to be the best we could be. Everyone loved Gail. She will be missed so much - she already is. It's hard to believe she's gone.
"I came to Notre Dame raised on Christian values but as a non-Catholic. When I auditioned for choir my freshman year in 2000, I wasn’t sure I would feel comfortable in a choir that sang at masses weekly. Gail Walton and Andrew McShane selected me to sing for the Notre Dame Liturgical Choir and I did so for four years.
Gail had a profound influence on my life beyond music. Singing at the mass at the Basilica weekly, I was exposed to the Catholic faith. Gail provided an extraordinary example to me of what it meant to be a faithful Catholic through the respect she trained us to have for our service in the liturgy and the way she personally conducted herself with class. I was baptized after graduating from Notre Dame during my first year of law school. I was touched by a stunning bouquet of flowers sent to me by Gail Walton and Andrew McShane on that special day of my entrance into the Catholic Church.
Gail Walton gave so much more to us students at Notre Dame than training and excellence in music. She brought us closer to God and made us better people. The Notre Dame family matters because of people like Dr. Gail Walton who helped us grow beyond our years at Notre Dame.
Thank you Gail, we love you and will miss your presence terribly in the Notre Dame community."
Gail herself was a convert and I can think of few others who embraced the service of the Church as she did. Gail shines as a model for all of us - a true church lady in every way.
Please take a moment to pray for Gail and her family, especially her husband. This has been so difficult for him.
Requiescat in pace. In Paradisum deducant angeli...Chorus angelorum te suscipiat...Aeternam habeas requiem.
Gail conducts the Liturgical Choir in a 2008 concert:
(The Mawby Ave Verum (at the 5:20 mark) is one of my favorites)
Adapted from my original post at The Sober Sophomore. Funeral details can be found there.
The Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus were founded by Mother Teresa Casini in Grottaferrata, Italy on February 2, 1894. They are women who strive to attain union with God by offering their lives for the diocesan priesthood. Their special charism is both spiritual and ministerial. The sisters are called first of all to pray for priestly holiness and to offer the joys and sorrows of their lives for the good of priests. Ministerially, the sisters care for retired and convalescent priests and collaborate with them in parish ministry which includes teaching, directing religious education, hospital visitation and distribution of the Eucharist to the homebound. [website]
Quantitative Metathesis has posted the reasons why she is a Church Lady, which I thought were a good description of why this role is important to the Church:
I've also been recruited to the seminarians' sacristan team, mostly because I'm a little stronger on the tasteful decoration front. This comes with being a church lady, you see. The sems need help discerning which way a flower arrangement should face, so that they can focus on the tasks more befitting their roles (like lighting the charcoal in the thurible). They need someone else to candle-sit for a taper whose wick has been broken off and which, consequently, will not light. And they need a womanly eye to make sure everything looks the best for the King.
In true Church Lady fashion, she follows this up with step-by-step practical advice for removing candle wax from cassocks, altar linens, etc.
Monday, November 19, 2007
The Official Church Lady Kit (click to enlarge)
A picture of the Holy Father A St Benedict medal (to keep bad liturgists away) Extra cassock buttons Ruler for cassock alterations Sharpie for minor cassock bleach accidents Black dye for major cassock bleach accidents Corkscrew (for wine & self defense) A lighter Liturgically colored thread (contents may vary by season) Clear soap (for minor spills and back talking altarboys' mouths) Safety pins & a screwdriver Salt (for sloppy cruet handlers' stains) Jewelry cleaning gel (for dingy episcopal bling) Lint brush (to keep blacks black) Manly lace Knotted rosary to distract the baby
Every so often, I need to go back and read this to remind myself that there are other Not Nice Girls in the world.
Our eyes are squinty from reading too much and our tongues have dents from all the times we’ve had to bite them in futile attempts to supress our true natures. ... I’ve no idea where this demand that people who call themselves Christians are only allowed to discuss matters in hushed tones and frequent murmurings of “I understand where you’re coming from” has evolved from. Quite honestly, there’s a long and rather honorable tradition of smart aleck Defenders of the Faith behind us, if we only look. (entire article here)
So to all Church Ladies who say snarky things about terrible vestments, who amuse themselves by parodying insipid "hymns", and who not only take down posters advertising heretical events but then proceed to burn said posters: you're not bad people. You're just Not Nice.
Church Ladies can be found anywhere a priest, seminarian, or acolyte finds themselves in need of a little Feminine Genius, particularly in practical matters (and often before they realize the need).
Whatever vocation she has discerned, much of her spare time will be devoted to Catholic activities. This could include Eucharistic Adoration, sewing buttons back on a cassock, or throwing back a few particularly Catholic beverages with friends. (Said beverages were likely received in return for the aforementioned buttons.)
She is the antithesis of both the Planned Parenthood and Womenpriests mentalities. Whether she has no physical children or a vanful, her vocation as a mother is played out in thousands of little acts of service to her spiritual children.
Her talents may range from laundry to gardening to unjamming copiers, but she always seeks to use them ad majorem Dei gloriam.
