I was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., the first child of an Italian American family. One thing I know about myself is that I am a person of passion, whatever I love, I love deeply. I entered the Dominican Noviate at 18 years of age. I struggled with the notion of my vocation. I was dating and always felt I wanted a brood of youngsters - all boys - all ballplayers. But I could not put out of my mind the notion that God wanted me as a religious. I was so confused because it seemed God was calling me in two different directions at the same time. So I decided to let Him work out the details.
I taught for 12 years. My community asked me to serve in our mission in Puerto Rico. That was an experience that taught me so much - I moderated the sports teams and during that time 2 of my
youngsters who played on the volleyball team were killed in a plane crash. I knew my youngsters were struggling with a way to express their grief so we began a summer camp for the poor children of the Marina(people who lived in shacks on the beach). We called it Viromar to honor our fallen friends. What a revelation it was to me to see kids excited about the prospect of having real milk and nurturing food.
When I returned to the States I taught at a High School. I was also going summers for my Master's at St. Michael's College in Vermont. There I particularly studied under Father Pierre Babin. The focus of my study was Audio Visual Arts and he helped me so much "to see...to really see".
Once again I felt called to follow a path, I left the confines of my convent and started a home for runaway and homeless youth called Noah's Ark. God once again showed me when He wants something done - it gets done. For the next 22 years we serviced over 1400 youngsters who lived at Noah's Ark. Some for a brief period, our main aim was to reunite families, but there arose the problem of the youngster who had no good home to return to. In 1977 and the years that followed I was a foster parent to 68 youngsters, some for a short period, some for many years.
In 1999 I retired as Directress of Noah's Ark and moved upstate to a small cabin we had used for weekends for my youngsters. Once again heard God calling me to serve, this time as a counselor for drug and alcohol victims. For the next 8 years I worked as a Drug and Alcohol Counselor at a Crisis Unit, enjoying every minute if my 12 Step Work. But I did miss working with youngsters. My friend Pat, a nurse I worked at the Recovery Center told me about a program called CASA(Court Appointed Special Advocate for Children), so I began my training to work at Family Court. I am now involved in that work on a volunteer basis.
Stories of Our Sisters
bring the Charism to Life
Here are Our Stories for November 2008
Dominican Sisters of Amityville
Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt
Dominican Sisters of Sparkill
II met the Dominican sisters as I entered 4th grade when my family moved from Washington Heights in New York City to the suburbs of New Jersey. The sisters were wonderful teachers but even more wonderful people. They laughed with us, played jump rope with us and showed us how to really care about other people. I loved their spirit of joy and so I entered the Caldwell congregation after I graduated from college – 40 years ago!
I thought I would always teach 5th grade in New Jersey but God exploded my idea of where ministry opportunities would open to me. I taught elementary school in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Caguas, Puerto Rico and high school religion and Spanish in our academy in
I have been a Dominican Sister of Blauvelt for 23 years. From my early years, I was drawn to both religious life and teaching. In college, I became involved in campus ministry, and learned about lay ministry. Before graduation, the religious life question started stirring in me again. I came to clarity about the call in a moment of enlightenment about the meaning of consecrated celibacy. I had developed a deep taste for contemplative solitude, and suddenly realized that, as attractive as a whole array of lay ministry opportunities might be, as attractive as marriage and family life still was, this particular way of consecration was the life to which I was most called.
But I did not know where. In the interim, I joined the New York Archdiocesan Parish Mission Team, a community of lay people, religious, and priests who lived and prayed together while conducting parish missions. There I met the Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt through a woman on the team who was in discernment with them. Thus the call crystallized as a call to be Dominican in a
Caldwell. In Bridgeport, Connecticut and in New Jersey, I served in parish ministry as Director of Religious Education and Youth Ministry. I have even been gifted with brief missionary experiences in Texas, Mexico and Ecuador. I guess God wanted me to really experience the international Dominican Family!
During the past 22 years, my life and ministry has been shaped by living with progressive neurological disease which affects my mobility and causes me to continually re-adjust and re-shape my ministry choices. Right now I preach with the assistance of an Amigo scooter which offers me the freedom of movement I need to get to work every day in our Motherhouse in my newest ministry as communicator and webmaster for our congregation. I delight in God’s guidance all during my Dominican life that enables me to continue preaching in new ways as my physical abilities shift and change. My Caldwell (and extended!) Dominican Family is a tremendous support to me and it’s great to realize that Dominican sisters don’t need strong legs and arms to proclaim the Gospel. All we need is a big heart and an attentive listening to God’s continual call to be God’s holy preachers in whatever way best fits our individual talents and abilities.
The members of the Dominican Congregation of Our Lady of the Rosary Come together to proclaim with John the apostle the words of Christ:“I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.”
In late August, I attended the ceremony of a recent graduate who entered the Pax Christi Sisters. That gathering occasioned a flood of memories of my own entrance in1961. My “call” or vocation was an ordinary experience. It was an ongoing nudge during the two years I was a 9-5 secretary. I am a lifer in terms of my education by the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill.
congregation of women who embodied the integration of all my passions: a commitment to a simple, common life of prayer, to justice and solidarity with the poor, and to contemplative study for the sake of the preaching.
My Dominican life has entailed diverse pastoral ministries, including parish ministry in the Bronx, NY. There, our predominantly Latino community taught me much about God, suffering, and the immediacy of joy in loving solidarity. My hunger for more theology and my longing to be an instrument of change in the Church eventually led me into Ph.D. studies in Systematic Theology, and that path has led me to the University of Portland in Oregon. Here, I am privileged to teach undergraduate students in the most formative period of their lives. In addition, I have the pleasure of teaching graduate students preparing for ministry. I continue to preach in diverse settings, and I find that the vocation of the theologian frees me to embrace the Dominican call to “contemplate and share the fruits of contemplation” in a way that makes me supremely happy.
From a brief experience of the pre-Vatican structure of religious life; from the poets and singers of the Vietnam era to the congregation’s corporate stand response; from the classroom to the “board room” as a member of the congregational administrative team; through the life, death and resurrection experiences as a member of a family, congregation and human community, I believe I have lived life to the fullest these past 47 years.
The address at a recent assembly focused on our world view and how it changes and expands through one’s experience. Membership in my congregation has been a powerful force in shaping me into the person I am.
My primary ministry has been in high school education. Each experience has been a response to a call to be a changing force and influence in the lives of high school students at a crucial time of growth. For the past 15 years, I have been privileged to minister at our congregational high school–Aquinas. It has been particularly rewarding as we carry forward the Mission of the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill in this congregational school founded in 1923. It is in this place and time that I commit myself to “proclamation of the reign of God through a ministry for justice.” Each day brings new surprises and is never boring. The interaction with students, partnership with parents, and the collegiality among faculty and staff enable us to do together what could not be done alone. We educate young women in a community of faith and learning rooted in the Catholic tradition and committed to excellence in the education of young women–mind and heart, body and spirit (Mission Statement). The work is challenging, the rewards abundant. Through the legacy of the Dominican Sisters, the giants upon whose shoulders we stand and extraordinary leadership and dedication of the many men and women who have joined us in the ministry of education, we have and continue to make a difference. The hope of the future is in the hands of the young women we send forward to make this world a better one
Archived
Sisters' Stories
November 2008
(This page's stories are listed first for each congregation.)
Dominican Sisters of Amityville
Dominican Sisters of Caldwell
Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt
Dominican Sisters of Sparkill
www.catholicdominicansisters.org
+ Amityville + Blauvelt + Caldwell + Sparkill
