For Sr. Susan Karina Dickey, OP, the path to becoming a Dominican Sister began when she was just 14 years old. Growing up Lutheran, she was encouraged to consider ordained ministry, beginning a spiritual journey that would eventually take her from the Lutheran tradition to the Episcopal Church and, ultimately, to Catholic religious life. Along the way, she encountered St. Catherine of Siena and was captivated by the saint's deep love for Jesus – and her conviction that Jesus was deeply in love with her. That insight, Sr. Karina says, “just grabbed my heart and has never let go.” She chose the name Karina, a variation of Catherine, when she became a novice as a way of honoring her patron saint. This year, she celebrated 29 years as a professed Dominican Sister of Springfield.
As she explored religious life, Sr. Karina was drawn to the Springfield Dominicans' life of prayer and community. She was struck by how much the Sisters sing together, pray together, and, for the most part, live together. She recalls an old saying that captures something of what she found: “In community, your sorrows are halved and your joys are doubled.” She was also attracted to the Dominican motto Veritas – Truth – and to a spirituality that brings together prayer, study, community, and ministry. For Sr. Karina, these are not separate parts of Dominican life, but an integrated framework for living vowed life.
That way of being has shaped her 18-year ministry in health care. As senior director of mission integration at St. Dominic Health in Jackson, Miss., Sr. Karina oversees three broad areas: mission formation, ethics, and pastoral care. Her work includes forming staff in the organization's mission and core values, supporting pastoral care services, and helping people navigate complex ethical questions where medical realities and the teachings of the Catholic Church intersect. Her Dominican commitment to study informs that work, not as an end in itself, but as a way to serve others more deeply and bring a thoughtful, faith-filled perspective to difficult questions.
In 2027, Sr. Karina will leave St. Dominic Health for a one-year sabbatical and begin a new ministry: writing an updated history of the Dominican Sisters of Springfield. Drawing on her background in history and museum work, she hopes to look beyond a chronology of events to explore the meaning of the congregation's past 55 years, incorporating the lived experiences of Sisters and Associates. It is a fitting next chapter for someone whose vocation has continually brought together history, study, faith, and service.
When Sr. Karina was first visiting the Springfield Dominicans, before she had decided to join them, Sr. Santina DeLuca told her, “It's a beautiful life for those called to it.” Nearly 30 years later, Sr. Karina knows what she meant. The life she once came to explore has become the life she continues to choose – and, in her words, she continues to feel that she is living God's call as a Dominican Sister of Springfield.
