Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt
The Order of Preachers sharing the Gospel for over 800 years.
Stories of Our Sisters
bring the Charism to Life
Here are Our Stories for July 2008
“Why did you enter religious life...and why have you chosen to live it for 50 years?” I have been asked this question many times as I am sure most religious have. I have no instant answer. My call to religious life was a gradual unfolding of God’s plan for me. My vocation was nourished by my parents and family, my teachers, the Sisters of Charity and the School Sisters of Notre Dame, and the Dominican priests who served in my parish.
During high school the seeds of my vocation began to sprout, and I felt that God was asking me to serve him as a member of a religious community (in the 50’s we referred to it as “entering a convent”). When my junior homeroom teacher asked me if I had ever considered religious life, her question served to make me think more seriously about a vocation, and eventually, I applied to the Caldwell Dominicans. Why a Dominican and not a Charity or an
SSND? The Dominican fathers were an early influence on my life, and my cousin had entered Amityville. God was just as subtle in revealing His choice of a community for me as He has been throughout my life.
So, “Like Mikey - I tried it and I liked it” (although homesickness was the pits). I am happy to have been living this life for 50 years.
Dominican Sisters of Sparkill
I began my teaching career in a Catholic school, teaching 5th grade. Little did I know that the Chapter of 1969, bringing the concept of personal option to our community, would change that early model of religious life forever. By the early 1980's, I moved into a new ministry, one which has changed my life drastically over the past 25+ years. I started out as a teacher at New Hope Manor ( a substance abuse program for women ). Quickly the needs of counseling these women, and role modeling a concept of family and community became apparent. I have been able to be a part of some very special miracles as I have walked with women on their journey from the death of drugs to a new life. I have learned much about life from them and have been stretched in many ways. It has only been through a clear understanding of God being at my side all these years that I have felt the strength to continue.
It's now time to reassess again what my role at New Hope should be. Seeing the fundamental concept of spirituality as a cornerstone of recovery, and hearing the grief of loss that so many women have experienced in their life, I can see a new role emerging for me that would best suit my experiences in religious life.
When I entered the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill in 1965, I could never have dreamed the path my life has taken. Thank God! I have been so greatly enriched and rewarded at each turning point of my life and I know God has walked with me every step of the way.
Often the spiritual journey is spoken of as the journey home to the true self. I believe that my becoming a Dominican is very much connected to the fact that this was my best choice for becoming my true self.
Being committed to and focusing on Truth is what means the most to me in my life as a Dominican. The way that commitment has been lived out in my life is through my love of the social teaching of the Church and the truth embedded in it of the dignity of every person, our relationship with others in community and work for the common good.
Dominican Sisters of Amityville
This love has led me to places I never dreamed of going and to ministries I never could have imagined when I first entered my congregation.
In my life as a Dominican I have had the privilege of teaching children, of ministering to adults in parishes, to young adults on college campuses and to traveling to Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action where I joyfully joined with others in educating about and nonviolently saying no to the Trident submarine, a nuclear submarine that can destroy 409 cities at once. I was also privileged during the war in El Salvador to join with Salvadoran refugees and accompany them home to El Salvador. It was through my relationship with the Salvador people that I was led to my present ministry Homecoming.
Homecoming is a sponsored ministry of the Dominican Sisters of Amityville and is committed to the understanding that the human and natural world are one sacred community. Through its two projects, Sophia Garden and Sophia Learning Center
Homecoming has created the opportunity for people to connect to the land by growing organic food and to learn the story of the universe and their place within it. We are all coming home to Earth and to our true Self.
I grew up in Harlem—the center of black culture in New York City. My mother was a convert who raised her children Catholic. Her dedication and willingness to sacrifice shaped me as I married and raised my two children. For 20 years I worked as a Program Analyst with the United States Army Corp of Engineers while at the same time, becoming increasingly active in my parish.
My journey with the Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt began through my mother. She knew one of the sisters who ministered in her parish and, when my mother died in 1992, Sr. Terry conducted her wake service and preached at her funeral.
Archived
Sisters' Stories
July 2008
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Dominican Sisters of Caldwell
Dominican Sisters of Amityville
Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt
Dominican Sisters of Sparkill
In the 43 years I have spent as a Dominican Sister of Sparkill, religious life has experienced tremendous change. In 1965, when I entered, that change was just beginning. Some of those changes were superficial; some of them took on the beginnings of deeper change in the church.
During the first 2 years after profession, I watched as week after week someone I had known and loved left to live out their Baptismal commitment in a different way. I had to constantly question and reaffirm my decision, wondering often why I kept choosing to stay.
In 1993 I became an Associate of the Blauvelt congregation. It was on an Associates’ retreat weekend that I first felt a call to religious life. I tried very hard to ignore the call but the more I did, the stronger it became. I discerned the call with my spiritual director and the congregational vocation minister and learned that my being divorced was not an impediment. With the support and encouragement of my children, I began the entrance process and professed first vows in 2005.
Presently I minister as a Pastoral Associate at St. Augustine’s Church in the Bronx, NY where I manage the Food Pantry and Outreach Program, coordinate the Senior Citizens Program and when the Pastor is away, attend to the day-to-day affairs of the Parish.
Throughout all this, prayer is a constant. Communal prayer confirms that this is what God meant for me to do while my personal prayer and contemplation keep me focused on God.
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