Sister Butler helps students deepen spirituality
By Fabvienen Taylor
MADISON — “Is this my ‘sister day’? I really need my ‘sister day.’ ”
That’s the plea Mary Ann Crowley, St. Joseph senior religion teacher, hears often from her students.
She checks their names and the schedule for spiritual direction small group meetings before sending them on their way.
“The kids love it,” said Crowley. At first she thought it was because they were getting out of class once a month. “That wasn’t it. They really love Sister Ann Marie, and meeting with their small groups.”
Just ask Ellen Kent Hammett, 18. “At the first session she gave us a morning prayer. It’s a very peaceful prayer and I enjoy praying it every day. A lot of the kids do.
“Sister helps us with everything — making decisions about college, what’s really important to us, what to major in, what work will make us happy.”
The small group sessions, which are for seniors and sophomores, are led by Sister Ann Marie Butler, spiritual director for the school.
A Daughter of Charity, she served as a teacher, principal, mentor and spiritual director for 43 years in Missouri, Illinois, Ohio and since 2001 in the Diocese of Jackson.
For five years Sister Butler and Sisters Mary Stella Aquilla and Joanne Cozzi developed a Catholic Identity Program for all the diocesan schools.
“She prepared some of the most remarkable programs that brought everyone together in a true love of the Gospel and the love of Christ,” said William Heller, St. Joseph School principal.
While working for the diocese, Sister Butler received her Certificate of Completion in Spiritual Direction from the Redemptorist Renewal Center in Tucson, Ariz.
After a chance meeting at Mass, Sister Butler and Heller discussed a pilot program of spiritual direction for seniors.
In 2006 she began meeting with the seniors in groups of three or four for small group sessions. All sharing in the groups is confidential.
The response from the seniors surprised Heller.
“All I know is that in all the years I’ve been in education, I have rarely had students come up to me to thank me for an educational program,” he said.
“I can not tell you how many students have come to me and thanked me for bringing Sister Ann Marie to St. Joe,” Heller said.
As a result of that, Heller asked her to develop a program for the sophomores beginning the next year.
Sandwiched between freshmen and upperclassmen, the sophomore year is one of big changes and transitions, according to both Heller and Sister Butler.
“Sophomores are sometimes a little tough to teach but Sister Ann Marie is phenomenal with them,” said Heller. “She loves them and they love her.”
Unwilling to lose the connection they forged with her last year as 10th graders, some juniors asked to meet with her this year too.
“Her schedule would not allow it,” said Heller. “But she meets with them when she can.”
While the aim of both the sophomore and senior programs, according to Sister Butler, is similar — to assist students in developing their prayer life and deepening their relationship with God — the topics of the small group sessions differ.
The senior program includes walking through a spiritual discernment process as they make decisions for the future, learning various forms of prayer and sharing their experiences of God’s presence in their lives she said.
For sophomores, the focus is their relationship with God and the strong friendships that can flow from being grounded in God’s love, appreciating and sharing the gifts God has given each of them as well as any issues typical of their transition as sophomores.
Prayer styles Sister Butler teaches include lectio divina (divine or holy reading), centering prayer, and guided meditation.
Senior Micah Okoye, 17, said participating in the small group relaxes him. “I’ve been stressing because of the different things going on here at school, or about scholarships, or graduation,” he said.
“Going there relieves my mind about all that’s going on in my life. I just sit down and focus on what we are doing while we are in there. I’m looking forward to the next one,” the future pharmacist said.
Assistant librarian Debbie Gibson said Sister Butler offers students a refuge.
“It gives them a place to talk about things they wouldn’t have mentioned in a classroom with a large group of students,” she said.
“My son Jacob really enjoyed it,” said Gibson. She and husband John saw their son Jacob, now a 19-year-old music major at Millsaps, gain more confidence in his music performance and in one day teaching.
“He was a quiet student and he spoke more about things than he had previously with his father and me,” she said.
Jacob credits the experience with helping his prayer life and enabling him to continue using the discernment process in making choices and decisions.
“I pray more frequently now,” he said. “And with discerning I always think about how any decision I make will affect everyone involved. How it will affect their feelings, how it might seem from their viewpoint. And of course that serves as a reminder that I can bring anything to God.”
For religion teacher Crowley, a difference in the depth of the seniors’ writing has caught her eye.
“Their homework essays have a deeper spirituality. They don’t share specifics with me, and I don’t want them to, but they really delve into their spirituality.”
As the year progresses, Crowley said, their essays turn to new considerations about their lives, about confirmation, about how they may have encountered God in a different way.
At St. Joseph, prayer is an integral part of the students’ lives, Sister Butler said.
“One thing I love about St. Joe is that we start the day with prayer and we end the day with prayer. So by the time I get these students they are very comfortable with prayer. I just take them to a little deeper level. They are a delight to work with.”
Sister Butler said, “St. Joseph is an outstanding school and credit must be given to the leadership of Bill Heller. A true faith community is obvious in the dedication of the faculty and staff and the goodness of the students who want to make a difference in their communities.
“It is a true joy to be a member of the St. Joseph family,” she said.
it. They really love Sister Ann Marie, and meeting with their small groups.”
“I’ve been stressing because of the different things going on here at school, or about scholarships, or graduation,” he said.