The Sound of Music

By Jack Lynch, S.F.M.
September/October 2010

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Last year , the Sisters of Notre Dame gave their three guests a birthday gift—tickets to The Sound of Music at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. Their guests were three missionaries of St. Teresa, one from Colombia and two from Ecuador who are studying English in Toronto.

Top: The Sisters in Toronto.

The three missionaries had seen the movie dubbed in Spanish and entitled, La Novicia Rebelde, so they knew the story. Wearing their modified habits, the young Sisters, all in their 20s, sat in the upper balcony. One person who noticed them was Blythe Wilson, the actress who played the role of the Baroness. After the final curtain call, she quickly changed and caught up with the Sisters just as they were about to board the streetcar on their way home. She got on the streetcar with them even though she didn’t live in Toronto’s east end where they were going. She told them who she was and that since cast members of The Sound of Music were playing the roles of women religious, she wanted to know more about them. She explained that she had never met a nun before.

She asked the Sisters if they would be willing to come and speak with the cast about their lives as religious and why they had chosen to become Sisters. After exchanging names and phone numbers, it was about 10 days later that Blythe phoned and invited them to the theatre to meet with the entire cast on the following Sunday before the matinee.

Above L-R: Sr. Gladys, Sr. Pati, and Sr. Rosario with actress Blythe Wilson who played the Baroness in The Sound of Music at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto.

As the Sisters told me what happened they showed me photos of the cast sitting on the stage listening to the three of them as they answered questions and talked about their lives. After about 40 minutes, they thanked the cast for the beautiful production of The Sound of Music and for their visit together. Sr. Pati told them that the best way they could express their gratitude was in song and so they sang a song in Spanish and believe me they can sing in beautiful harmony. Sr. Pati said that initially she wasn’t sure about the reaction of the cast to their song because she saw that the women who played Maria and the Mother Superior were both crying as they listened.

I told the Sisters that they had already begun their ministry of evangelization, proclaiming the love of God for all through The Sound of Music.

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