In the One, We are One

“If the world takes something from us on the one hand, God will give us something on the other.”

St. Louise de Marillac

By Sebastian Isaacs, Communications intern

S. Alice Ann O’Neill commissioned June Pfaff Daley, a local artist, to bring her creative vision to life.

When artist June Pfaff Daley walked into S. Alice Ann O’Neill’s cello studio at La Casa del Sol carrying the first of four mural panels she was commissioned to create, S. Alice Ann felt a mix of excitement and anticipation. After years of imagining the artwork, she was about to see her vision come to life.

Holding the first panel, June asked, “Do you want to look at this now, or wait until it’s all up?”

Excited to see the piece, which was arriving just one week before S. Alice Ann would be hosting the inaugural Cincinnati Cello Institute in the space, she told June, “I want to look at it now.”

As she revealed the mural, S. Alice Ann recalled, “I was just bowled over with how beautiful it was, and it was only one panel!”

Installed together above the grand piano, the four panels form the image of a tree. The mural grew from an idea S. Alice Ann had carried with her for years, inspired by a greeting card featuring spindly, curling roots and vibrant leaves. Through June’s artistry, that vision became a movable work of art filled with layers of symbolism.

“I really feel like what she [June] did was guided by the Holy Spirit,” S. Alice Ann reflected. “She interpreted what I said, but some of what she put in there, I didn’t tell her,” though those details quickly became meaningful.

One of the mural’s features that took S. Alice Ann pleasantly by surprise was the addition of three birds to the panels – two cardinals and a robin. June couldn’t have known that S. Alice Ann had been grieving the recent loss of her mother or that she had taken on the project a week after S. Alice Ann’s parents’ estate was settled, bringing a long and emotional chapter to a close. Yet when she saw the cardinals, S. Alice Ann knew that they were symbols of her late parents, since cardinals bear symbolic meaning for lost relatives.

S. Alice Ann O’Neill’s studio mural was commissioned in remembrance of her late parents, Harry and Alice O’Neill, who she believes are symbolized in the two cardinals artist June Pfaff Daley painted.

The robin held special meaning as well. Often associated with new beginnings, the bird reflected S. Alice Ann’s own season of transition. This summer she hosted the first-ever Cincinnati Cello Institute, a passion she had worked tirelessly to bring to fruition. It also symbolized the fresh start she hopes to offer her Suzuki cello students and their families as they begin or continue their own musical journeys.

In fact, the desire for her students and families to feel welcome was the reason S. Alice Ann moved forward with her vision. She hoped the painting would be installed before the institute began, but finding the right artist proved challenging. After a muralist and a mosaic artist declined the project, her good friend Amelia Riedel referred her to June.

“I had decided, okay, the wall’s going to be blank for the institute. That’s just the way it is,” S. Alice Ann said. “But it wasn’t. This mural came the week before the institute.”

Using paint and an artistic technique called découpage, June created a tree shrouded in leaves, with no two exactly alike. For S. Alice Ann, each leaf represents the diversity and uniqueness of the gifts each student and family brings to her Suzuki cello community.

The image of the tree carries even deeper meaning. Beyond its symbolism of growth, connection and community, it also reflects the instrument at the heart of her ministry. Cellos are crafted from three or four different kinds of wood. “So we have three or four different beings included in the instrument itself,” S. Alice Ann explained. “We can’t be complete without each living being’s gifts being acknowledged and used.”

That appreciation for the interconnectedness of creation is echoed in the mural’s setting itself. La Casa del Sol, the environmentally friendly ministry center located across the street from the Sisters of Charity Motherhouse, was built using recycled materials and relies on solar energy. Its commitment to caring for creation reaffirms the mural’s message. Appropriately, the mural is titled “We Are One.”

The title has been on S. Alice Ann’s mind for years. In a providential coincidence, it has also become part of the motto of Pope Leo XIV’s coat of arms: In Illo uno unum (“In the One, we are one”). The phrase expresses a vision of unity in Christ that resonates deeply with S. Alice Ann’s own ministry of welcoming, teaching and building community through music.

Although some of the families she teaches are not Catholic, she believes her vocation as a Sister of Charity forms the beautiful roots of the tree that is her Suzuki cello community. “I think that the studio is a spiritual place,” she said. “I have people of all different religions that study with me, but they all know that I’m a Sister of Charity, and so my way of teaching is grounded in God, and I am in service to God’s people.”

The mural is dedicated in memory of S. Alice Ann’s parents, Harry and Alice O’Neill.

group institute

S. Alice Ann O’Neill’s mural, ‘We Are One,’ was installed one week before hosting the first Cincinnati Cello Institute at La Casa del Sol.

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