By Carolyn White
While fewer sisters are ministering in classrooms, they haven’t lost their love of accompanying young people on their faith journeys. Here’s a glimpse at how Springfield Dominican sisters and associates are in partnership at the service of young folks, supporting their faith development and encouraging their personal and spiritual growth.
Learning empathy and service
Springfield Dominican Sister Maria Luisa Ñaupari Gutiérrez ministers at the Colegio Parroquial San Jose in Lima, Peru, where she teaches religion to students in the first two years of secondary school. In this middle-class neighborhood Sister Maria and her colleagues teach the students how to take care of themselves and how to build a sense of community and empathy. “We help them to really live their faith formation,” Sister Maria explained. The students visit nursing homes and, in order to understand the challenges facing those who are impoverished, the San Jose students live for 15 days with low-income families nearby. “They have to deal with limited availability of water and food” during their visit, Sister Maria explained, “but there is plenty of love and lots of hugs to go around.”
Becoming disciples of Christ
Molly Murphy, a Springfield Dominican associate, is the campus minister at Sacred-Heart Griffin High School, Springfield, Ill., though she spent her first four years there teaching theology. A native of Morrisonville, Ill., she attended St. Maurice School and learned the joy of having an older “faith buddy” to sit with at Mass. In partnership with Kristie Tolliver, a third-grade teacher at Christ the King School, she has incorporated a similar program at Sacred-Heart Griffin.
SHG freshmen are partnered with Christ the King third-graders, praying for them and exchanging notes and cards. Now in the post pandemic-era, this innovative mentoring program includes an annual all-city Catholic school third-grade retreat at SHG. This faith-driven event provides fun and reflection on why—and how—to live like a disciple of Christ every day.
Visits between SHG students and the sisters were common before the pandemic, and this year they have begun again. “Our prayer partners at the motherhouse send cards and words of encouragement to all students at SHG,” Molly said. “This year’s goal is to rebuild the prayer partner program and include monthly visits to the motherhouse and invitations to the sisters to activities at SHG.”
Pen pal literacy and forever friends
Stephanie Steele, an associate who teaches fifth grade and junior high language arts at St. Agnes School in Springfield, tells another beautiful story of developing community and teaching discipleship. Stephanie has always enjoyed the art of written communication and she was determined to instill that discipline in her students. Each fall her fifth grade students randomly draw the name of a sister out of a basket to begin the pen pal relationship. They correspond with the sisters every other week and Stephanie delivers letters to the motherhouse and picks up mail for the students.
“Over the course of these past two years the students in my classroom have made forever friendships with the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois,” Stephanie explained. “I feel that especially after being cloistered in our respective bubbles during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is wonderful to be able to bring these two groups together. Some of last year’s students, now sixth-graders, have continued to write to their sister-pen pals this school year.
“It is my hope that they can continue these relationships long after they are finished with the pen pal program, remembering the Dominican charisms of community—building relationships—and study—learning from each other.”
Growing in self-respect
My own story began while I lived in Jacksonville Ill., and started coaching Girls on the Run. I fell in love with the concept of the program and the girls who faithfully came to each practice and ended the season with a district-wide 5K. After moving to Missouri, I knew I wanted to stay with the program so I now help coach at St. Joseph grade school in Cottleville, Mo., and have started a team of third to fifth graders at my own parish of Ss. Joachim and Ann in St. Charles Mo. I also volunteer at the school library so I’ve seen these girls grow up from kindergarten. My goal is to make a difference in the girls’ lives by teaching them about team-building and community service.
We help the girls see themselves and each other in a positive light and teach them how to stand up for themselves and their friends. We teach them about taking care of their bodies through healthy nutrition and exercise. Whether they walk or run, our goal is to instill in them the ideal that they should keep moving forward. One of my greatest pleasures is hearing the girls share their feelings and reaching their goals. Our community service project this year was creating gift bags for the teachers and staff and making cards for them.
Whether the Dominican Sisters are themselves in classrooms, as Sister Maria Luisa is, or whether they mentor students in other creative ways, their passion for education, community building, and service continues in the ministries they serve and among the associates they have mentored.
Carolyn lives in St. Peters, Mo. with her husband, Paul, with their daughters and granddaughter nearby, and serves on the JUST Words editorial board.
