When Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory blessed the new altar at the renovated Chapel of Charity at St. Mary’s Ryken High School in Leonardtown, the chapel’s artwork and features highlighted the Southern Maryland Catholic school’s special identity and history. The June 5 Mass also offered a reminder of how students drawn to that place of prayer have found time for peaceful reflection during their school days and also felt called to serve God after graduating.
Assisting at the Mass were Deacon John Winslow of St. Mary’s Ryken’s class of 2015 and Deacon Christopher Feist of its class of 2016, who on June 15 will be among 16 men ordained as new priests of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. Another of those men about to be ordained, Deacon Joseph Heisey, is also a graduate of the school.
“I loved the chapel. It was a great place throughout the day to pop in, to re-center, to re-focus,” said Deacon Winslow, who like his fellow deacon at the Mass, entered the seminary right after graduating from St. Mary’s Ryken. He noted that during his senior year, the chapel offered “a great place to pray and discern where the Lord was calling me.”
As their ordination day approached, Deacon Winslow said it was special “to come back here and spend time in prayer and thanksgiving at a place where my vocation began.”
Deacon Feist said it was an honor to return to the chapel and assist at the cardinal’s Mass. “It’s a place where I went to daily Masses as a student, and I prayed there,” he said. “It’s beautiful,” he added, praising the renovated chapel.
The Chapel of Charity now includes dramatic panels of oil paintings on the wall behind the altar by artist Gordon Daugherty. The central painting depicts Christ the teacher, surrounded by students, teachers and staff of St. Mary’s Ryken. The painting in the upper left panel depicts St. Therese of Lisieux, the patron saint of missions, and the painting in the upper right panel depicts St. Francis Xavier, another patron saint of missions and the patron saint of the Xaverian order that sponsors the Catholic high school. The painting in the lower left panel depicts Mother Catherine Spalding, the foundress of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, the order that sponsored St. Mary’s Academy in Leonardtown from 1885 until that school merged with Ryken High School in 1981 to form St. Mary’s Ryken High School. The painting in the lower right panel depicts Theodore Ryken, a Dutch Catholic missionary who founded the Xaverian Brothers.
“We know the heart of Christ begins with our children, and this chapel will keep their hearts strong for the faith of our Lord,” said Rick Wood, the president and CEO of St. Mary’s Ryken, in remarks at the end of the Mass, as he explained the chapel’s features.
Wood noted that the year-long renovation of the chapel was guided by “a vision of honoring our founding brothers and sisters, patron saints, and St. Mary’s Ryken.”
The space where the chapel is now was originally part of the Xaverian Brothers’ Sacred Heart Novitiate and was later a school library before being rededicated as a chapel in 2002.
The name Chapel of Charity honors the educational legacy of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, Kentucky, including the late Sister Sara Ann Abell, Sister Alberta Abell and Sister Pauline Abell, who were relatives of Loretta Taylor, a 1942 graduate of St. Mary’s Academy who attended the cardinal’s Mass.
A mosaic above the oil paintings depicts a pelican feeding her young, the symbol of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, and the mosaic on the floor before the altar depicts St. Mary’s Ryken’s logo, combined with the crests of the sisters and of the Xaverian Brothers. Choir loft glass etchings list the five values of Xaverian Brothers’ sponsored schools – Trust, Humility, Compassion, Simplicity and Zeal.
The chapel’s new altar, ambo, altar of repose and the frames for the paneled paintings were constructed of solid walnut by Michael Klapal, a master craftsman. Enhancements to the chapel also include a new crucifix, tabernacle and statues, and confessionals were added to the back. The ecclesiastical design of the renovated chapel was done by GHA Studios, and Rainbow Construction did the project management. Eighty major supporters participated in the fundraising for the renovated chapel, and proceeds from the school’s gala, raffle and golf tournament also benefitted the project.
In a statement, Wood said, “This newly renovated Chapel of Charity is a testament to the unwavering support of our community and the deep spiritual roots of St. Mary’s Ryken. We extend our deepest gratitude to all donors whose exceptional generosity helped transform the Chapel of Charity into the magnificent space it is today.”
In an interview earlier this spring after Holly Kaufmann, a religion teacher at St. Mary’s Ryken High School learned she was named as a 2024 Golden Apple Award-winning teacher for teaching excellence and dedication to Catholic education, she described how she sometimes takes her class to the school’s chapel for discussions and for reflection and prayer.
The chapel at St. Mary’s Ryken is very important to Kaufmann. When she was a high school student at St. Mary’s Ryken, her father died unexpectedly. Kaufmann drew strength from praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament in that chapel.
Kaufmann said the chapel was a place “where I fell in love with Christ,” and now “it’s wonderful to take my students” there.
Before the Mass where Cardinal Gregory dedicated the new altar at the school’s Chapel of Charity, some students there spoke about what the chapel means to them. Evan Greer, a member of the class of 2025 there who helped bring up the offertory gifts at the Mass, said, “My favorite thing about the chapel is it gives me the opportunity in between classes and study hall, to pray and just reflect.” He added, “I enjoy going to daily Mass with my friends and getting closer to God.”
Emma McDonald of St. Mary’s Ryken’s class of 2026 who sang with the school’s Concert Choir at the Mass, said of the chapel, “It’s beautiful to see it come to life again. It’s nice to hear music flowing through the walls of the chapel again.”
At the Mass, Cardinal Gregory spoke about the importance of altars in churches and chapels, saying, “The altar is the place where the Church encounters the Father. It is the place where we come into the Father’s presence, and where we find that every prayer is uttered with perfect clarity, and the Father always hears us.”
After the litany of saints was sung, Cardinal Gregory sprinkled the altar with holy water. Then the altar was anointed with chrism, and it was incensed, which the cardinal earlier pointed out reflected how people’s prayers rise upward to God. After being covered with an altar cloth, the new altar then had candles placed on it that were lit, and the cardinal prayed, “May the light of Christ shine upon the table of this altar, and may those who share in the Lord’s supper shine with His love.”
Before the Mass ended, Cardinal Gregory thanked St. Mary’s Ryken for the priestly vocations that have come from that school in recent years. Among the Southern Maryland priests concelebrating the Mass was Father Ryan Braam, a parochial vicar at St. John Francis Regis Church in Hollywood who is a 2014 graduate of St. Mary’s Ryken and who was ordained as a priest for the archdiocese in 2022 along with another alumnus of the school, Father Alexander Wyvill, who is now serving as a parochial vicar at St. Bartholomew Parish in Bethesda.
A St. Mary’s Ryken teacher, and students and a graduate interviewed after the Mass also spoke about the impact of the school’s Chapel of Charity.
John Olon, a theology teacher there, noted, “Now with the renovations, there’s a perceptible beauty for the kids. When they walk in, there’s a grandeur in the design… It helps them enter into prayer, into an awareness of Christ’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament.”
The dedication of the altar came on the last day of school. Among the St. Mary’s Ryken students attending a reception after the dedication of the new altar was Sara McLaren of the class of 2025 who had read the second reading at the Mass. She noted how the chapel was a place where students and teachers stop in to pray during the day and also gather together as a community for Mass. “It’s peaceful,” she said.
Her classmate Lillian Peshek, who helped bring up the offertory gifts at the Mass, said, “Our theology classes stop in there all the time… We do reflections for journal entries. Sometimes we just go there to pray.” She added, “It’s really quiet. It just allows you to be with yourself and with God at the same time.”
Also assisting at the Mass was seminarian Jessiah Rojas, who graduated from St. Mary’s Ryken in 2016 and entered the seminary for the Archdiocese of Washington four years later after attending Ave Maria University in Florida. He noted how during his senior year at St. Mary’s Ryken, he was going through a tough time after a sports injury. “I spent every single day in the chapel praying… I wasn’t even Catholic then,” he said, noting that time in prayer was a “hinge point” that paved the way for his eventual vocation.
Like the other graduates at the Mass who are preparing to become priests, Rojas said it was special to come back to the chapel at St. Mary’s Ryken, especially after the renovations. “It’s a return home,” he said. “It’s still that same chapel, but with beautiful features it didn’t have before.”
