Once Thanksgiving rolls around, there is hardly a resident of the United States who can escape the tidal wave of excess known as “The Holiday Season.” It carries us forward on a momentum of joviality, food, drink, gift-giving, and good will. Not a bad thing in itself, if it doesn’t obscure the foundational event […]
Advent and Christmas:
Seasons that Never End Read More »
Sister Denise Glazik says she understood the nature of call early in religious life when she realized she was not called to teaching. Try as she would, she found no life, energy, or satisfaction in that ministry. With the help of others, she discerned a call to pastoral ministry and finally knew she was doing
SISTER DENISE GLAZIK: VOCATION ENCOURAGEMENT IS “A.I.D.ING” Read More »
Bethany House residents celebrate graduation from the World Relief Job Readiness program. Imagine you are 18 years old (again!)—and have spent fully half of your life searching for a safe and welcoming place to call home. That is Elizabeth’s reality. She fled her home in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at nine years old
Walking the Talk at Bethany House Read More »
These students from Marian Catholic and Sacred Heart-Griffin High Schools so enjoyed their experience at the 2019 Dominican High School Preaching Conference they resolved to meet up one month later in Springfield to continue their immersion in Dominican preaching life! The schools’ campus ministers made it possible. Had they been able, the students from our
Teen Preachers
Catch St. Dominic’s Spirit Read More »
Spirituality and Money? These two concepts don’t often rub shoulders. For spouses Fletcher Farrar and Mary Jessup, however, it’s a connection continually made. Fletcher learned from his parents who were integrally tied to church and community in Mt. Vernon, Ill., where Fletcher Farrar Sr. worked as an oil producer. Frequently the product was a dry
Fletcher Farrar:
High Adventure, Old Houses,
and Giving Read More »
Invitation “The Call to leadership is deeply expressed by inviting others to use their gifts, providing opportunities for this, and promoting the common good.”Sister Rebecca Ann Gemma, OP Meet Sister Rebecca Ann Solidarity “Leadership urges me to journey in this service in solidarity with the rostros concretos of the marginalized.”Sister Mila Díaz Solano, OP Meet
What is the Call to Leadership? Read More »
This story was first published in the Fall 2018 edition of JUST Words. Passions for justice Among my Springfield Dominican Sisters there are many varied passions for justice. A quick review of the community directory brings to mind certain sisters who are passionate about or ministerialy engaged with the following concerns: immigration reform access to
Seeking the Global Common Good:
Seeing, Connecting, and Sustaining
Life-giving Change Read More »
This story by John Freml first appeared in the winter 2018 issue of Just Words. “Just because there are more people at the table, it doesn’t mean they all feel safe.” “One anti-bias training can’t undo a lifetime of bias training.” “If you’ve never seen anti-racism before, how do you know what it looks like?”
Dismantling Racism:
collaborative study at its best Read More »
Earth heals us As preachers, the first thing we acknowledge is that we do not heal Earth. We do not have the power, the breadth of knowledge, nor often the will. Earth is actually self-healing, just as she is self-educating, self-nourishing, and self-governing. And, in fact, Earth heals us. Who of us has not experienced
An interview with Daphne Skretvedt by Sister Rose Miriam Schulte, OP SRM: Daphne, how do you see the Spirit calling the Dominican Sisters forth at this time? DS: I have come to know you as courageous, prophetic women. I’ve witnessed your fearless and persistent ways in serving real people in real-time. I believe this acute
Trust is the Antidote to Fear Read More »
By Marcelo and Cookie Ruvinsky Doctor Marcelo Ruvinsky and his wife Cookie met in medical school in Cordoba, Argentina, and moved to Jackson, Miss., in 1971 for his internship and residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, thinking they would return home in four years. “Then, life happened,” he said. “We are still here,
A “Guiding Star” of Faith and Mission Read More »
In preparation for our upcoming General Chapter, we invited some of our sisters, friends, and associates to talk about how they see the sisters following the Spirit’s lead into the future. The Winter 2019 issue of JUST Words pulled their thoughts together, but there was more good stuff than we could include in the print
Dominican Sisters: Building Relationships in a Disconnected World Read More »
Three hundred fifty-one active associates, eighty-one prayer associates and eighteen candidates in formation have heard the call to partner with the Springfield Dominicans in uncovering the light and truth of the Gospel in the world. Their Mission calls Associates to proclaim God’s Word with their daily lives. This year, associates and sisters are studying an
“Let the Call Be Heard!” Associates in Action Read More »
An elderly woman, on the occasion of her 95th birthday, was asked, “How do you remain so vibrant after all these years?” Her response was simple: “I never turn down an invitation.” After a brief pause, she continued, “When you live a long time, you have to keep making new friends and moving in new
Invited by the Spirit Read More »
This article by Sister Susan Karina Dickey, OP, first appeared in the Fall 2017 JUST Words under the title Rehabilitating Dominican Religious Life: An Historical Perspective. Something new One of the memorable things about St. Dominic was his willingness to try something new while borrowing and adapting from the past. For example, the idea of
Dominican Religious Life: An Historical Perspective Read More »
