A House and a Home

Sister Darla Jean Vogelsang feels at home surrounded by pieces of her lifelong passion for art, the environment, and her dedication to creating a beautiful liturgical space in the Ursuline Sisters Motherhouse chapel.

Sister Darla has always had a deep love for the Eucharist and the worship environment. She finds a sense of peace while arranging flowers, carefully adjusting the altar cloth, and decorating for the Liturgical seasons. Even the simple act of ironing the altar linens becomes a form of meditation for her.

She has a special talent for sewing that began in her teenage years. Sister Darla and her sister, Linda, would take a bus from Hubbard to Youngstown every Monday for eight weeks to attend a Singer sewing class. Both Sister Darla and her sister would eventually contribute their sewing talents to the church, including creating vestments for priests.

Along with teaching sewing through the USM Education Outreach program, Sister Darla helps shape the sacred atmosphere for liturgy and the Eucharist in the Motherhouse chapel as the Community Liturgist.

Her master’s thesis in Spiritual Studies from Loyola University, Chicago, focused on the chapel’s 1989 renovation, a collaboration between architects Buchanan, Ricciuti, & Balog, the creators of the magnificent faceted-glass windows, and the Sisters.

She was part of a team educated in the process of design and renovation of worship spaces. She and the Sisters spent two years thoughtfully discussing their vision for the chapel’s future.

“We talked about what we wanted it to become as we looked ahead,” she says.

“We recognized that we were an aging community, and bad knees would make kneeling difficult,” she explains.

A first change was moving the tabernacle and the reserved Blessed Sacrament to a private space, but still visible and separated for private devotion. Another big change was the removal of the pews and kneelers.

They opted for chairs with arms to make standing and sitting easier and which would allow rearranging the assembly seating for various services.

The sanctuary was recently repositioned to be more central, with the ramp and railing to allow better accessibility for readers and presiders.

Sister Darla follows the “Art and Environment in Worship” directives from the US Catholic Bishop’s office, which offers guidelines on how to appropriately decorate sacred spaces.

Everyone involved in liturgical decoration in a Catholic church is expected to study and follow these directives.

“I keep the environment simple and cohesive, adding flowers on the windowsills to decorate the assembly space, and making sure everything complements the focus of sacred space,” she says. “It’s all about creating a setting that draws people into prayer and reflection.”

The directives also ask that the work be done using quality skills and items.

“My greatest joy is when the chapel houses people,” she says. “It is more than a building, a beautifully designed and functional space. It is the House of the Church where people gather for prayer and worship and sense the Divine Presence in the Scriptures, in the Eucharist, and in each other.”

Sitting in the chapel, dressed in a blue blouse she made herself, she clasped her hands and gestured the well-known nursery rhyme: “Here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the door, there’s all the people.”

Thanks to Sister Darla, the Ursuline Motherhouse chapel genuinely feels like home to all who gather there.