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Read JUST Words volume 21, number 1, the winter 2020-2021 edition. Download the latest edition of JUST Words here.

Building a Bridge is the Greatest Reward
In 45 years as a respiratory therapist I’ve never seen anything like this. Not AIDS. Not SARS. Nothing.” After “hello,” these were Howard Derrick’s first words to me on a May 1st video call from his office at St. Dominic Hospital, Jackson, Miss. “This” was coronavirus. Howard, a Springfield Dominican associate, and I have served …

Advent and Christmas:
Seasons that Never End
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 …

SISTER DENISE GLAZIK: VOCATION ENCOURAGEMENT IS “A.I.D.ING”
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 …
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Walking the Talk at Bethany House
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 …

Teen Preachers
Catch St. Dominic’s Spirit
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 …

Fletcher Farrar:
High Adventure, Old Houses,
and Giving
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 »

What is the Call to Leadership?
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 …

Seeking the Global Common Good:
Seeing, Connecting, and Sustaining
Life-giving Change
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 »

Dismantling Racism:
collaborative study at its best
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 »
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JUST Words is a publication that shares the mission and ministries of the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois. It is published three times per year and is available in print or digital edition, free of charge to friends, family and supporters of the Springfield Dominicans.
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Read the digital version of JUST Words volume 19, number 2, the summer 2019 edition. Click here here to read the summer 2019 JUST Words as a digital flipbook.