In this Random Nun Clip, composer and performer Sister Kathy Sherman sings an excerpt from one of her songs of healing. Hear the full In Good Faith episode IGF039 at aNunsLife.org. Sister Maxine with guest Sister Kathy Sherman, CSJ.
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Sister Kathy Sherman, CSJ, wrote her first song at age 14 and since then has published over 20 albums or CDs. Her music is widely used in settings of all kinds, such as liturgies, Catholic conferences and meetings, schools and universities, and justice advocacy events. Most recently, she has performed in concerts and events held online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sister Kathy believes that music has the power to unite people, to bring joy and healing, and bring about social and systemic change.
Sister Kathy was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago and currently lives in the metropolitan Chicago area. She is a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, a religious community of nearly 500 vowed Catholic women and over 500 lay associates who live and minister in the U.S. and around the world.
SISTER MAXINE: I am Sister Maxine of A Nun’s Life Ministry. Our guest today is Sister Kathy Sherman, an accomplished composer and performer. She wrote her first song at age 14 and has published over 20 albums or CDs. Her music is widely used in settings of all kinds, such as liturgies, major Catholic conferences and meetings, schools and universities, and justice advocacy events. Is there a song that you got published that you think would be helpful for people to hear at this time of coronavirus?
SISTER KATHY: Well, I think one of the songs that I think speaks about healing is called “All You Need to Know.” I wrote it quite a while ago, but I think it’s pertinent for today because I am just so aware, as I’m sure many are, of the front-line workers and people who have lost loved ones to the virus, and especially the incredible pain, I think, of not being able to be with your loved one at the time when you would most want to be with them: as they are dying. So I actually, in one of the concerts that I did during this time of pandemic, I did use that song, sing that song, as a hope of just people knowing, getting a sense that they’re not alone. Not only is God with them, but so is the community with them in their time of struggle and trial—and courage. I mean my goodness, the courage that’s been evidenced with these essential workers is really mind-boggling to me.
SISTER MAXINE: When you say a concert, was this one of the online concerts?
SISTER KATHY: Yes. I did an online concert for Earth Day. Then I also did a concert through the Archdiocese of Chicago during the Laudato Si Week. I have written a lot of children’s music through the years, because I was a liturgical minister in a parish and I wanted children to have songs that had good theology but also were very singable. So I did a half hour concert with the children. Then I did a 45-minute concert for adults during Laudato Si Week.
SISTER MAXINE: Can you sing a bit of that song for us, “All You Need to Know?”
SISTER KATHY: I’d be happy to. (music playing)
SISTER KATHY: (singing) I was there right with you. Never did I leave you. I was your strength. Your piece of mind. All you hoped that you could be. And though perhaps it’s hard for you to grasp or understand. All you need to know for now is I was always there.
SISTER MAXINE: Thank you for singing that. You know the reference to “I was always there,” you mention a reference to God always being there. What kind of image of God do you hope people will take from not just this song, maybe, but others?
SISTER KATHY: I think it’s that notion that it’s about the God that dwells within us. Not a God outside from us but a God who is intimately connected to our hearts and souls and is never far from us. He is never away from us. I remember one time years and years ago when I was on a retreat, and I was very concerned about a loved one in my life. I remember moving towards the ocean to sit by the shore, and I had this sense of there is a greater love that I could put my loves into. There is a greater love that holds all my loves. It’s this whole very much of a communion experience. That’s been a really helpful image to me, an image that I would hope for others to have, just to know that kind of intimacy and presence.
SISTER MAXINE: So your music is also your own journey with God, it sounds like, and your discovery.
SISTER KATHY: Absolutely it is, yes. Absolutely. I’ve been writing music for a long time, and I’ve always drawn on my personal experience and prayer life for my writing, but also on my observation of life. Being in a relationship whether with God or others or nature or the world, have all just definitely influenced my writing. However, as I’ve grown older and maybe acquired a bit of wisdom, my vision of the life in our world is wider, so my images of God have changed somewhat, of course, as I reflect on the unfolding story of the universe, for example. I remember reading something some time ago on a reflection on St. John of the Cross, his Dark Night of the Soul, and this writer said that perhaps what the dark night of the soul really is when our image of God is too small. I just marvel at the vastness and limitlessness of who God is and how God acts in the world. The millions of languages that God speaks so as to reach the hearts of all.
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This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.
