Sister Alverna’s ministry for the deaf trailblazes new path
Sister Alverna Hollis was a gifted artist, and, by all accounts, a serious-and wicked-tennis player. She taught elementary school for 13 years, and high school for another eight years. While teaching at Routt High School in Jacksonville, she was invited to consider learning sign language by a parishioner who worked at the Illinois School for the Deaf in that city so the children could learn their faith in their natural language, ASL. It was this skill that would […]
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CSW 2025 Sister Sharon Zayac: Redefining the narrative
As the child of a peripatetic military family, Sister Sharon spent her youth on U.S. military bases around the world. She joined the Dominican Sisters from Sacred Heart Parish, Redlands, Calif. Then she taught junior high and high school for about twenty years before transitioning to healthcare administration. She worked for about a combined dozen years at St. Dominic Hospital Jackson, Miss, and St. Mary-Rogers Memorial Hospital, Rogers, Ark. In the late 1990s, feeling drawn to the study […]
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Reflection on our Year Three LSAP Plan
“The measure of our courage is the measure of our willingness to embrace disappointment, acknowledge the wounds it causes, and rather than retreat from further participation, keep on insisting on what is good and possible for the world. In other words, hope.” Theologian Elizabeth Johnson shared these words as part of her presentation to the Catholic Climate Covenant gathering and we have shared her words with our sisters and associates. She spoke of hope as a muscle […]
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#LikeaCatholicSister: Sister Mila Díaz Solano
Sister Mila Diáz Solano joined the Dominican Sisters of Springfield in her hometown of LaOroya Peru, in 1998 and has since been instrumental in elevating the voices of persons not often heard in the U.S. Church, where she now lives and teaches. In 2000 she was among the pioneers at Parroquia San Juan Bautista de Jarpa, and other surrounding agricultural villages of Peru that in the 1980s and 1990s suffered much violence from the terrorist groups Sendero Luminoso […]
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Pioneering Courage: Sister Josephine Meagher, OP
Josephine Meagher: Immigrant. Orphan. Dominican. Founder. Forged in displacement, suffering, and grief. On this first day of Catholic Sisters Week-also International Women’s Day-we honor one of our founding sisters and celebrate her remarkable courage, which became the foundation and inspiration of more than 150 years of Dominican life. Though details are incomplete, it seems that Josephine was born in Roscrea, County Tipperary, Ireland, about 1840, and emigrated to the United States with her widowed mother, Nellie Ryan Meagher, […]
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Clothing swap offers way to help others
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. The adage rings true for the co-workers and the Dominican Sisters at Sacred Heart Convent in Springfield, Illinois. The higher cost of clothes, along with the desire to be good stewards of the Earth, inspired the group to offer a simple idea that benefits all. The workers at Sacred Heart Convent, along with the Dominican sisters, started a biannual clothing swap that helps everyone find something new. Becky Woiwode, SHC Administrator, […]
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Cor Unum Presents: Courageous Women for Crazy Times
Resources for grounded activists. Fear isn’t an option. “Between climate change, global instability, and the general challenges of everyday life, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. At Cor Unum, we believe allowing ourselves to be paralyzed with fear isn’t an option.” These words introduce resources curated by the Dominican Sisters who live at Cor Unum House in Springfield. They are meant for use by young adult women and anyone else who would appreciate some guidance about how to engage […]
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Do you know how to spot fake news?
Last evening, just as we sisters were getting ready to turn out the lights, I heard Sister Kelly’s muffled voice through my closed door: “Pope Francis is dead.” Jumping up, I joined her in the hallway, and we looked together at the social media post on her phone screen. “I think this is fake,” she said. I agreed with her. But how did we know? Can you quickly spot disinformation or misinformation on your own social media feed? […]
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