Sister Janine Mettling is well known to those who attend the monastery’s Sunday liturgies as the Schola director with the fabulous voice — but there’s a lot more to S. Janine than her undoubted musical gifts.

The youngest of Paul and Mavis Mettling’s seven children, S. Janine grew up in a loving family on a farm near Pine City, Minn. An avid student, she attended St. Mary’s Catholic Grade School in Pine City and graduated as salutatorian from Pine City High School in 1989. She then graduated summa cum laude from the College of Saint Benedict (CSB), St. Joseph, Minn., in 1993 with a major in music education. As any Schola member will attest, S. Janine is an amazing music and voice teacher but in her college days, other gifts also came to the fore. She was a member of the CSB+SJU Chamber Choir, performed in opera productions and played on the CSB basketball team which made it to Division III Final Four.

Following graduation, S. Janine taught briefly at the St. Joseph Lab School in St. Joseph and then for 11 years at John XXIII Middle School and Cathedral High School in St. Cloud, Minn. As well as teaching music and directing choirs, she coached varsity girls’ basketball, taking them to the state tournament. It was a full and satisfying life, but there was a voice which kept asking something more from S. Janine … it was God’s voice calling her to monastic life. She said “Yes!” and entered the monastery in 1999, making first monastic profession 2001 and perpetual monastic profession in 2004.

During her time at the monastery, S. Janine has used her teaching and musical gifts to serve the community. She is currently the music and Schola director, where her deep and searching faith enables her to help members project not just the correct notes, but the underlying meaning of what they are singing. There have been opportunities for her to share her glorious voice and musical talent with a wider audience, including concerts in Sacred Heart Chapel. Of special note are her role in directing the Schola for the world premiere of “Quia Ergo Femina” by Turkish composer Yigit Kolat and a heart-stopping rendition of “O Domina Nostra” by Henryk Gorecki. She also served as liturgy director for a Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum meeting in Rome, an organization that unites Benedictine women throughout the world.

In typical Benedictine fashion, S. Janine has been called to a variety of other ministries, including as a member of the Monastic Council, the St. Cloud Diocesan Synod Team and Deacon Advisory Board, and the St. Cloud Hospital Board. S. Janine has a very enquiring mind which leads to a broad range of interests, from sharing her skill in healing touch with community members, through dedicated support of her grandnieces’ and nephews’ athletics, to learning new languages and active involvement with the monastery’s social justice ministries, a tangible expression of her deep commitment to the Gospel: “That in all things God may be glorified.”

Jubilee profile written by Karen Rose, OSB, and Jeanne Marie Lust, OSB