Sister Mary Butzer, SSND

On July 9, 2018, just two days after her 84th birthday, our beloved Sister Mary Butzer died unexpectedly in her St. Paul, Minnesota, apartment. She had communicated with family and friends the previous day in her usual humorous manner, and the news of her death came as shock to many who knew her. The funeral liturgy, with Father Joseph Fogal as presider, will be held Wednesday, July 18, at 10:30 a.m. in Our Lady of Good Counsel Chapel. A prayer service of remembrance will precede the funeral liturgy at 9:00 a.m. Burial of her cremains will follow in the Good Counsel cemetery. A memorial service will also be held at her apartment building, Graham Place, 1645 Graham Avenue, St. Paul on Friday, July 27, at 1:30 p.m. We extend our sympathy to her brothers Paul, Karl, Luke, Stephen and Thomas, her sisters Susan Henning and Gretchen Jewison, her nieces and nephews and their families, her friends, colleagues and former students, and her sisters in community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame and SSND Associates. She was preceded in death by her parents, John and Frances (Rock) Butzer, her brothers, Jack, Mark and Matt, and her sister, Judy Small. Sister Mary was born in Mankato on July 7, 1934, the sixth child of twelve. She was baptized Mary Frances two weeks later at SS. Peter & Paul Church. She wrote, “Being the sixth child in a family of twelve had distinct opportunities for obtaining knowledge and sharing it. My father was a general practitioner and my mother an RN who read voraciously and insatiably. Dictionary games at meals kept all of us alert and determined to find words for the next family meal.” When she was one, Mary developed a serious hereditary disease that her father was able to check before it went too far. Mary wrote, “From that time on I was considered Dad’s little pet. No matter where he went, I was always with him. My dad played a great but silent part in my vocation. He never said a word to me about entering the School Sisters of Notre Dame, but this was his one big wish for me as he often mentioned it to his patients in the sisters’ infirmary and asked them to pray for me.” Mary also remembered, “It was Dad, who when I was exasperated at age four that no one would listen to me, told me there was a greater Friend who would always listen.” Mary started first grade at SS. Peter & Paul School in 1940, where her teachers were School Sisters of Notre Dame. She admired her teachers and imitated them at home, “teaching” her younger siblings. After eighth grade, she attended Good Counsel Academy as a day student, where she grew to love her teachers even more. Her first vocational choice was to be a mother and nurse but, as she wrote, “the sister idea kept creeping in.” She made the decision to enter SSND at Christmas of her senior year. Her dad signed the entrance papers immediately when she gave them to him. She entered the SSND candidature in August 1952, a member of the first group to have just one year as a candidate. Mary was received into the novitiate in July 1953 and given the name Sister Mary Gretchen, her younger sister’s name. However, a few months later, her name was changed to Sister Margaret Marie by SSND leadership in Milwaukee because Gretchen was not considered a saint’s name. (She later returned to her baptismal name of Mary.) She professed first vows in 1954 and spent the next year as a student in St. Paul. She then began a teaching ministry that encompassed the next 35 years. She taught primary and middle grade students at Holy Childhood, St. Paul; Crucifixion, La Crescent; St. Francis De Sales, St. Paul; St. John the Baptist, Dayton; St. Mary, Madelia; St. Peter, Canby; St. Benedict, Strasburg, North Dakota (where she taught upper grades); St. Joseph-St. John, Mankato; St. Stanislaus, St. Paul, where she was involved in a program that brought religious education into the home; SS. Peter & Paul, Mankato; and St. Casimir, St. Paul. With the exception of her first school, she was also responsible for the music in the school and/or parish. During her years of teaching she earned a BA from St. Catherine’s College in 1962 and a M.ED. from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, in 1973. Sister Mary wrote many letters to her family and friends, and from them it is easy to see her love for teaching and music. A few samples: Describing her first day with eighth graders in Strasburg, she wrote, “The girls said, ‘Sister, we don’t sing.’ I said, ‘That’s OK, I don’t do report cards either.’ So I told them that maybe we could negotiate. We did and those voices were out of this world heavenly. I taught them and they sang ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’ in three parts and it touched me so deeply. Lawrence Welk’s relatives!!!” While teaching at SS. Peter & Paul: “I taught fifth grade in the very same room I attended fifth grade. WOW! I was so blessed.” And finally, “My favorite compliment from one of my former students was ‘Sister, you are a terrible teacher to have had, because after you, everyone is boring.’” As much as she loved children and teaching, Sister Mary also held a special spot in her heart for the elderly. Growing up, she was close to her grandparents. While she was teaching at SS. Peter & Paul, she cared for her mother. This was a blessed time for Sister Mary. In 1991, she became a member of the pastoral team in Good Counsel’s St. Joseph Hall Health Care and served as organist for Good Counsel liturgies. She counseled sisters, companioned them during emergency care, planned their birthday parties, visited as often as possible and prayed at their deathbeds. During this time she completed work for her MAPS (Master of Arts in Pastoral Skills) degree from Seattle University in 1994. In 1995, Sister Mary transitioned into parish work, serving first at St. Joseph, Montevideo as pastoral associate and CCD coordinator until 1997 and then with the Delano Catholic Community as a parish minister until 2004. One of her responsibilities there was leading wake and burial services, a practice that she continued into retirement. Sister Mary retired from active ministry in 2004 and spent one year at the SSND folk art house in Oakdale. In 2005 she moved to Graham Place in St. Paul and endeared herself to residents and others whom she met. Music continued to hold a high priority in her life, and she was delighted when she was able to “rescue” the building’s thought-to-be-beyond-repair piano. She played for herself in her apartment and also played for residents in the Graham Place recreation room. She assisted with hospitality at Notre Dame Center by serving as a driver. A recent intercession in Give Us This Day read, “Show us how to use technology for the building up of your kingdom.” This aptly describes one of Sister Mary’s retirement ministries – reaching out to others through the use of e-mail and social media. Within minutes of receiving e-mail messages, she often responded to them with her special brand of encouraging humor. Her Facebook friends were many. Her family regarded her as the “glue” that held them together, and she stated, “It would take many pages to tell how many people have a place in my life.” Throughout her life she struggled with health issues, and was especially pleased to be able to celebrate her 80th birthday and 60th anniversary of religious profession, both in 2014. In her 2014 Jubilee Reflection, she wrote, “I know my own plans were often interrupted by God’s plan, Plan B. Once I understood this amazing fact I grew to know God’s plan was the better one every time. I decided this was the faith aspect I would eventually follow even if I did not understand it. I know everything became a wonderful life packet as I accepted Plan B.” Sister Mary’s family and friends are now faced with accepting “Plan B” as they mourn her loss, comforted by the thought that she is now praising (and probably entertaining) the God she served during her days on earth.