Grieving at Christmastime? That’s okay.
Grief is part of life, but when we grieve while it seems the world is rejoicing, the pain and loneliness can seem that much more acute. Here are three ways to help get yourself or a loved one through a sad time at Christmastime. Go low key. If you don’t feel like a Christmas season with all the trimmings, that is okay, too. Do what you can do, or want to do, to honor the season. Don’t worry […]
Read MoreInternational Migrants Day
Today is International Migrants Day. People are fleeing record violence in Central America, crossing thousands of miles in nearly unimaginable conditions to seek asylum in the United States. We can respect their right to migrate and welcome them while having a secure border. The militarization of the southern border is a waste of taxpayer dollars and the money spent does not making us any safer. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin asked the officials at the ports of entry what […]
Read More“Rico”—A Story of Gratitude
We received this message from Sister Marcelline Koch regarding her experience volunteering at Annunciation House a Catholic Charities-sponsored ministry serving families who arrive in El Paso, Texas, seeking asylum. Sister Marcelline, Sister Anita Cleary, and two of their friends, Kathryn Raistrick and Julie Wullner, volunteered at Annunciation House Nov. 13-19, 2018. She wrote on Sunday, Nov. 18. El Paso, Texas. Sister Anita Cleary and I, along with two colleagues, Kathryn Raistrick and Julie Wullner, have been working in […]
Read MoreMy Kind of Apocalypse
This essay was first published on November 18, 2018 in the Springfield State Journal-Register Beliefs column for which Sister Beth Murphy writes regularly. There is a certain way of reading Jewish and Christian apocalyptic texts that makes excellent B movie material. I believe we are living in an apocalypse—but not that kind! The word apocalypse means a revelation, or an unveiling. There is a strain of thinking among certain Christian theologians, which I favor, that recognizes the death […]
Read MoreDominican Sisters Head to the Border to Serve Children & Families
A week of service at an immigrant shelter in El Paso helps ease the burdens of desperate families Springfield, Ill.—On Sunday, Springfield Dominican Sisters Anita Cleary and Marcelline Koch will travel to El Paso, Texas to volunteer at a Catholic shelter for families called Annunciation House. “We’re going because Annunciation House and other shelters like it in El Paso are experiencing an increase in the number of families with children who are being released to the streets by […]
Read MoreThe Only Opponent is Hate
A Statement from the Dominican Sisters of Springfield Office for Justice We stand with all people of good will in opposition to the hate that has seeped into our public discourse and spilled out with deadly effect into our streets, neighborhoods, and places of worship. Our hearts ache for all those whose lives have been forever altered by the horrific anti-Semitic crime that claimed the lives of 11 of our Jewish brothers and sisters at the Tree of […]
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