Born to Eternal Life + Sister Mary Louise Weis Funeral – Monday, February 13, 2006 at 3:30 p.m. Click here: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Obituaries
Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Therese of Lisieux . . . it is quite easy to identify mystics, artists, poets, who have lived in a time and a place far removed from our reality. Yet often those who have a mystical, experiential relationship with God live in our midst and we fail to claim them or to acknowledge that experience. Last evening, Sister Mary Louise Weis, a woman steeped in mysticism, went to meet her God. She was quite conscious during her final hours in the infirmary, asking for little except that Jesus would invite her into eternity. The daughter of Harry Weis and Louise Miller was a twin. She and her brother Regis were the oldest of eight children. Her early experience was one of growing up in a very warm, religious and loving family. She was particularly close to her father whom she describes as a sailor-carpenter, whose vivid imagination painted pictures of enchanted far-away places and of the sea. Obviously, Mary, who later mastered the use of blow-torch, kiln, hammer and nails, was her father's daughter. She felt a special call from God in her early years at St. Basil's School, where she was encouraged by the Sisters to consider religious life, and she entered the community at the tender age of fifteen. For her, the formative years in the novitiate were a great joy. She particularly enjoyed reading the New Testament , the Imitation of Christ and the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, quite an ambitious bibliography for this spirited novice. After teaching for several years in Wheeling and Etna, she began her life's work as an artist and ceramicist at St. Joseph School for Practical and Fine Arts in East Liberty . It was there that she discovered her true medium, clay, and initiated work as a potter. In 1958, she was asked to travel to New England for summer ministry at Camp Mishannock . She spent the next eight years there, establishing a ceramic department and building her own kiln and a grotto in Plymouth , complete with a running stream. She loved the sea and the people of New England, whom she described as extremely art-appreciative. In the 60's she returned to Providence Heights to establish her second studio, where she devoted herself primarily to pottery, and to her special Christmas crib sets, now the pride of many families in the area. Rather than claim her many gifts for herself, Sister Mary Louise would be the first one to view Christ as the potter and herself as the clay. Her real hallmark throughout life was her deep faith and her devotion to the community of which she was such a vibrant part. In an article published in the Post Gazette in 2001, Sister Mary Louise stated: “I'd go through fire for my vocation. That's how much I love it. I love music. I love art. Most of all I love my vocation.” The community bears witness to this claim. While we will miss the “music” of Sister's life with us, we know that a great friend of Jesus has returned home. Feast Day: August 25 SMJC |
