Our Blog: Holy Names Voices

Sister Marilyn continues to find inspiration for her works in nature.

For Sister Marilyn Nunemaker of Portland, OR, art is a spiritual path, a creative engagement with God, particularly through the splendor of nature. “With my art,” she says, “I want to give God glory with nature.”

Her primary subject is landscape, ranging from her own backyard awash in color to broad forest and mountain vistas and beachscapes drawn from her extensive hiking trips.

Wherever she goes, Sister Marilyn brings a camera so she can record images she might later use as inspiration for a painting. Her primary medium is pastels, which have the intensity of color that she feels captures the vibrancy of what she is painting. They are messy but forgiving, she says, and you can make a mistake or change your mind and adjust it. Essential to art for her is intention, of looking deeply into the subject, noticing change and nuance.

In her ministry as an educator, art has always been an important component. She worked with middle schoolers for 23 years and with adult learners for an additional 23 years as a GED instructor at Portland Community College, and art always infused her teaching strategies. Across all disciplines, she relied on art to enliven and vitalize learning.

Through the making of art, Sister Marilyn has a ready avenue to God, and it gives her a sense of joy to freely share it with others.

Sister Marilyn’s pastels.

Sister Marilyn’s work on display in her Portland studio.

Sister Bea with bricks from the Albany Provincial House demolition site.

In 2018, a committee of Sisters and community members discussed options for the former New York Province’s Provincial House in Albany. It was no longer used regularly by the Sisters or the Academy of the Holy Names-Albany that shares the campus. The aged water and power systems, plus pervasive asbestos fireproofing, made construction or renovation options costly and ultimately, they decided that the best choice was to return the grounds to green space.

During the next year, the 85,000-square-foot building was emptied of furnishings. Heating and water systems, hundreds of lockers, lights and built-ins were dismantled and carefully removed. All the items were recycled, donated or sold to area public and parish schools, minority and small businesses, charities and families. One of the chief project objectives was to recycle, reuse or re-purpose everything possible to minimize environmental impacts. For example, crushing the building’s bricks and cinder blocks kept them out of landfills and has provided 85% of the fill material needed for the future green space.

Preparations have reached the last stages, with plans to sift out any remaining bits of recyclable material, begin site contouring, add topsoil and seeding, and install a few lights and guardrails. Soon the adjacent school campus will have a limited-access extension of the natural woods along its border.

As part of their afternoon in the garden, Sister Janet and her friend Maxwell read “Diary of a Worm” to learn the importance of worms in the composting process.

This summer, Sister Janet Marcisz spent time at her local county fair with the garden club of Eugene, OR, which sponsored a booth providing flowers and containers to fairgoers wishing to explore flower arranging.

Gardening has always been important to Sister Janet, providing a close, heart-filling connection to the beauty of our planet. After 38 years of classroom teaching, she trained as an Oregon State University Master Gardener as a new facet of her ministry as an educator. In this way she continues teaching God’s love for us in the gift of Creation.

While the pandemic curtailed her in-person master gardener activities, she continues her own education and helps gardeners by sharing best practices via Zoom workshops.

Pandemic safety measures have also limited her work with the Lane County Literacy Council, which gives away books and encourages parents to read to their children. However, the council is still collecting books –accumulating garages full – and devising ways to distribute them, including visiting local parks with armloads full.

Sister Janet looks forward to when she can again dig in the dirt with novice gardeners and read to children tales of wonder and the splendor of our incredible planet Earth.

Sister Kay Burton (in broad-brimmed hat) with garden volunteers.

For the past 32 years, Sister Kay Burton has ministered in Jonestown, MS. A part of her message has been the importance of helping others, both through her own involvement and by training volunteers.

Through Sister Kay’s encouragement, adults and youth of Jonestown have come together to create a wonderful Community Garden. While taking care of the earth by nurturing the land, the gardeners benefit from better access to food, enhanced nutrition, increased physical activity and improved mental health.

In the summer of 2021, the Community Garden produced cabbage, squash, green beans, okra, tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelons. Forty tomato plants grew quickly, loaded with blossoms that produced fruit from April through mid-September. The volunteers enjoy and share their summer harvest while happily anticipating their next crop, as they now sow seeds for winter greens.

Sister Mary Rita with her bamboo paper towels and reusable water bottle.

Sister Mary Rita Rohde embodies the SNJM commitment to caring for the Earth. “For me, it’s a moral issue,” she says. “We need to be morally responsible for generations to come.”

When asked for two actions people can take to make a difference, she quickly identified eliminating the use of plastics and not eating beef.

She knows it’s not easy to be plastic-free, but when she goes shopping in her town of Sunnyside, WA, she chooses bar soap instead of liquid, brings mesh or paper bags for produce and avoids buying water or other drinks in plastic bottles.

Regarding beef, Sister Mary Rita explains that there are two related concerns: the methane that cows produce, which adds to the planet’s greenhouse gas problem, and the destruction of trees in order to provide grazing land for cows, especially in the Amazon region. When you consider that it takes more than 1,800 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef, the environmental impact becomes even more significant. She notes that good alternatives are available that make it easier to eliminate beef from your diet.

“Our interconnectedness with all of creation means that the actions of every individual matter,” Sister Mary Rita concluded.