2024: A year for general chapter. What’s that?
Please join us in prayer for this important community gathering “General Chapter” is one of those terms Catholic sisters use that makes almost no sense to anyone else. The Dominican Sisters of Springfield’s general chapter is scheduled April 1-7, 2024, but preparations have been underway for about a year. Why is it such an important time for us? The dictionary defines chapter as a) a division of a book, b) a period of time in a person’s life, […]
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The last word: Insights from Sister Norma’s family
“The thing about Sister Norma is that she is a lot of fun” So says her nephew Matt Grady, a what who lives where. His mother was one of the four Somers sisters: Mary, the oldest, then Therese, Matt’s mom, then Norma and her youngest sister Gerry. The two oldest sisters are deceased. These siblings had a special relationship, Matt says. “Aunt Norma, Mary, my mom, and Gerry were close to one another. I think as a consequence […]
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“Back then she was Sister Bernarda” – A Christmas tribute to Sister Norma Somers
Joy. Grace. Humility. These are the gifts Sister Norm Somers, aka Sister Bernarda, shares with the world today. Don’t we need more of that? Thank you in advance for your gift to the Dominican Sisters of Springfield. Sister Norma and Sister Beth are grateful for your generosity and your belief in the Dominican Sisters mission for the life of the world.
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Sister M. Kristin Rever, OP
Sister M. Kristin’s Service Visitors are welcome. Visitation: 4:00 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday, January 2, 2024, in Aquinas Center at Sacred Heart Convent, 1237 W. Monroe St., Springfield, IL 62704. Visitation will begin with a prayer service. Mass of Christian Burial: 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 2, 2024, at Sacred Heart Convent Chapel, Father Michael DeTemple, OP, celebrant. Wake and Mass will be livestreamed. Burial: 10:00 a.m. Wednesdsay, January 3, 2024, Calvary Cemetery. Livestreamed on Facebook […]
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A Christmas message from Sister Rebecca Ann Gemma, OP
Dear Friends Since Thanksgiving evening, Christmas songs have been playing on the radio. They fill the airwaves in stores readied for the shopping rush, but how often do we really hear the songs’ message? Today, let us pause to take in the words from the third verse of O Holy Night, too often left unsung: Truly He taught us to love one another;His law is Love and His Gospel is PeaceChains shall He break, for the slave is […]
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Christmas greetings from Amazonia
“We celebrate this Christmas in union with our brothers and sisters in the Amazonia. In these lands we glorify God and join with the cries of the land, the cries of the poor, the promotion of an integral education and the plea to God to send us more workers to his harvest, to inspire in the Order and in the Church the desire of voluntary collaboration to announce the Gospel.” As we celebrate God becoming incarnate in our […]
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An Ecclesial Dream: Volunteering
Contemplate “I dream of Christian communities capable of giving themselves and becoming incarnated in the Amazonia, to the point of giving the Church new faces with Amazonian features”. With the words of Pope Francis, we want to invite all of us who make up the great Dominican Family to dream and be encouraged to be part of the missionary community in the Amazonia of the Vicariate of Puerto Maldonado in Peru. These missions have their roots in the […]
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Outreach program by ISU Audiology helps sisters
By Tricia Larkin In early 2023, the Eckelmann-Taylor Speech and Hearing Clinic, on the campus of Illinois State University, began a collaborative partnership with the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois. From a positive appointment that one of the sisters had at the on-campus clinic, contact from Ruth Kopec, M.S., RN Director of Nursing for the Dominican Sisters, was made. From there, the possibility of having clinical audiologists and Au.D. graduate students travel to Springfield, Illinois to help them […]
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