In Tune With the Mission

“Be diligent in serving the poor. Love the poor, honor them, my children, as you would honor Christ Himself.”

St. Louise de Marillac

By Sebastian Isaacs, Communications intern

Since November, S. Mary Alice Stein has shared her singing talent as a soprano with the Delhi Senior Singers, which performs for area retirement communities.

Since November 2025, S. Mary Alice Stein has been practicing and performing with the Delhi Senior Singers, bringing music to various nursing communities in the area. Yet her music ministry began years earlier, long before she entered the Community in 1959.

Growing up in Tiffin, Ohio, S. Mary Alice was surrounded by music from an early age. She fondly remembers her father and his three brothers performed around town with their band called ‘The Steinies’. She often attended their shows, dancing along with audiences at parades and events. “By the time I got to second grade, I was with them all the time,” she recalls.

Music became foundational in S. Mary Alice’s life, just as it was for her parents, whose relationship blossomed after meeting at a performance.

S. Mary Alice first began making music herself in second grade when an Ursuline Sister at St. Mary’s School in Tiffin decided to start a band for the elementary school students. Encouraged at home, she initially tried the drums. “My dad said, ‘Well, you can use my drums,’ and I did for one week,” she laughs. “Then I went home and said, ‘Dad, I don’t want to play drums. I want to play a trumpet.’”

Her father was not immediately supportive, telling her that, “Girls don’t play trumpets.”

Undeterred, S. Mary Alice learned to play the trumpet anyway – and has now played for more than 70 years in multiple orchestras and bands throughout Dayton and Cincinnati.

Some of S. Mary Alice’s favorite musical memories include playing in the pit orchestra for a sixth-grade production of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and later performing in a concert band during her final two years at Lima Central Catholic High School.

Although she planned to attend Ohio Northern University to study pre-law upon graduating from Lima Central, S. Mary Alice made the decision to join the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati after a week-long hospital stay gave her the quiet space she needed to discern her future.

When she joined the Community at age 18, she says, “We weren’t allowed to listen to radios or TVs or anything for quite a few years.” Still, many Sisters found music through one another. During her first three years after commitment, S. Mary Alice played the trumpet in the Community orchestra, which notably performed as the first group of Sisters departed for mission in Peru in 1961.

As S. Mary Alice pursued a ministry in education and spent 43 of her 47 years teaching English and Latin at Carroll High School in Dayton, Ohio, her love for music continued to grow. While she had always participated in choirs and bands during her years in primary education, a new chapter opened when Carroll’s theatre director left. “Oh, I could do that,” she remembers saying.

What began as an offhanded remark soon became one of the most rewarding chapters of S. Mary Alice’s ministry years. Directing high school students brought her deep joy, and over the years she guided students through nearly 10 musicals and plays, including “Annie Get Your Gun,” “The Music Man,” “Oklahoma!,” “The Sound of Music,” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”

She especially treasured how meaningful the experience was for students. Many, she says, “felt like the drama club was the thing that kept them happy. I’m sure it was special – and something to do besides homework.”

Even when students teasingly called her “WWW” for “Wicked Witch of the West” following a production of “The Wizard of Oz,” S. Mary Alice considers her years directing music among the most meaningful of her long ministry at Carroll – for both herself and her students.

S. Mary Alice Stein has played the trumpet since she was in second grade, performing with various bands throughout her elementary and high school education, as well as with groups like the University of Dayton’s New Horizons Band and Westside Community Band.

While living in Dayton, she continued to nurture her musical gifts beyond the classroom, playing trumpet with the University of Dayton’s New Horizons Band for eight or nine years and singing soprano with the Dayton International Festival Singers for about six years.

In retirement, her ministry has taken on a renewed musical form. After moving to the Motherhouse in 2015, S. Mary Alice joined the Westside Community Band for two years, where she reunited with the director with whom she had collaborated on musicals at Carroll years earlier.

In recent years, S. Mary Alice has shifted from playing trumpet to focusing more on singing. She now serves as a cantor for liturgies in Mother Margaret Hall, admitting with a smile, “The crazy thing is that my stomach is going and I’m still nervous,” even when singing before her Sisters.

She also sings in the Sisters’ choir for major celebrations such as Easter, Christmas, and most recently, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s birthday. Singing alongside her Sisters has become a unique way of building community, one she finds deeply gratifying.

Music has remained central throughout S. Mary Alice’s life because it does more than entertain; it deepens faith. “There are some beautiful hymns that have very powerful things to say,” she reflects, especially about the Lord’s presence and our relationship with God. The hymns she selects for liturgies are not simply songs; they are prayers, creating sacred space where her lifelong commitment to music and her deep faith meet.

One of her favorite hymns, “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!” written by Reginald Heber, proclaims, “Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.”

For S. Mary Alice, the greatest joy in making music lies not only in lifting praise to God, but also in lifting others through song. Through her work with the Delhi Senior Singers, she has performed for retirement communities, offering residents the rare and joyful opportunity to hear choral music and to sing along.

Earlier, with the New Horizons Band, S. Mary Alice visited children’s hospitals and experienced their joy firsthand as she played the trumpet and helped raise funds through the group’s performances over five years.

“It’s not just me,” S. Mary Alice says of the impact of her music. In harmony with the Sisters of Charity mission to share resources with those in need, S. Mary Alice continues to offer her musical talents to uplift others.

“We’re not just doing this for ourselves,” she says, “but for the wider community, too.”

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