In Grateful Memory

One aspect of my role this week as acolyte at evening prayers is to pray for community members by name on their death anniversary. Looking ahead, I noticed that today is the death anniversary of Sr. Mary Mel L’Ecuyer, and I didn’t know how to pronounce her last name. I asked my dining companions last night at supper and was told it is pronounced “liquer.” This morning at breakfast I commented that I had learned how to pronounce Sr. Mary Mel’s last name, and Sr. Bettina Tobin nodded and said, “Yes—‘leck'-wee-ay.’” I said I heard it was “liquer,” and Sr. Bettina said she was in Sr. Mary Mel’s class at the Mount Academy and “leck'-wee-ay” is the way she herself had pronounced it. “Leck'-wee-ay” it is!

The Benedictine Order is the oldest institution in Western civilization except for the Church itself, so it stands to reason that it has a long memory, stretching back to the lifetime of Sts. Benedict and Scholastica (480 to 547 AD). I’m glad to be part of a community that holds its former members in grateful memory. In addition to praying for deceased sisters every day and keeping a votive candle lit by their picture for a month after their death, as well as praying for them on their yearly death anniversary, we keep a book on permanent display in the main hallway of the monastery that contains a short biography of each deceased sister. We still have much to learn from the way they lived as followers of Jesus in the Benedictine tradition.

I suspect it no longer matters to Sr. Mary Mel how her last name is pronounced, because she has shed her earthly persona and has new life in Christ. Still, pronouncing her name correctly seems to be part of the way we honor the spark of Christ that was within her during her time among us.

Future generations, please take note: My last name is pronounced “hauling,” not “hailing”!