Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

 Chuc Mung 
Giang Sinh! 

Joyeux Noel!

Nakutakia

 Krismasi Njema!

From the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate 

     Phuong, Rolande, Cathy, and Lorraine

Happy Thanksgiving !

Thanksgiving Day is the time to remind one another of the many reasons to be grateful. As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, we give thanks and rejoice in the Lord who has blessed each of us with so much and in so many ways. Also, I am reminded that the word thanksgiving is composed of two words “thanks” and “giving.” Through the Holiday of Thanksgiving we are reminded to give thanks, and to give.

Early this month, on November 1^st, the ICN “Inter Community Novitiate” gathered to celebrate “All Saints’ Day” in honor of all the saints, known and unknown. Ten days later, at the CDN, we celebrated the birthday of Sister Cathy, one of the co-directors. She shared with us that, at every celebration for each decade of her life, she took a moment to reflect on all the graces that she had received in the last decade.

Through our classes at Aquinas, the ICN, our panel discussions, and other social gatherings, I have been building intimacy in my relationship with God, and through encounters with others. These gatherings have allowed me to share special moments such as stories, meals or just having deep conversations. In our discussions, we always experience laughter, warmth and love.

Now, I pause for a few moments to take time to pray, reflect on my life and give thanks. I give thanks for the graces of God, for the gifts of my family, for the friends and for my loved ones.  Especially, I give thanks for my co-directors and co-novice at the CDN, the novices and novice directors at the ICN, and for those who have been a part of my life, sharing their faith and lives with me during this novitiate year. I am thankful to God and to all who have prayed and supported us these past months in various ways. 

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, please receive from the community at the CDN our gratitude and warmest wishes for a peaceful day. We hope that you have a very blessed and happy Thanksgiving.

OUR HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN

                                                              

W

hat made special our Halloween celebration was the carving and exchange of pumpkins among our intercommunity novitiate congregations. We carved our pumpkins and exchanged them.  The pumpkin we received as a community was carved by the Daughters of Charity.  For me, its meaning and the way it appears, reminds me of the meaning of the life of Jesus given to us through love, and which we share with our beloved departed. 

The bright light which we see through the pumpkin is itself a symbol of resurrection.

May we always see life, love, light and hope in our Halloween,

All Saints, and

All Souls Celebrations.

To Be A Novice

All of the novices in the Inter Community Novitiate (ICN) recently came together to participate in the planning and preparation for a mass celebrated during one of our meetings. The entire process was mainly devoted to celebrating our cultural diversity, and we had an explosion of willingness to share and to learn from each other, especially as we discerned how to pray within our preferred worshiping styles. I must admit that we even surprised ourselves with how well we came together since most of the preparation was done separately then brought together in a single hour, which certainly required trust among all of us. We brought items (cloths, statues, flags, etc.) that represented our culture, using it to create the environment in front of the altar. We sang the Gloria in Bemba, the language of indigenous people of Zambia. We represented seven different languages (English, Spanish, Vietnamese, French, Tonga, Mandarin, and Tagalog) in the readings and intercessions. We celebrated through dance during the offertory with a song in Swahili. We did all this in a spirit of prayer, of ministry, and of joy. It truly was an intercultural image of being Church – in fact, it was our own way of being a witness to the mission of God.

Every time we gather for the ICN, we take part in a shared path of formation through a spirit of community and of study. We share our charism as the novices from each congregation in the ICN are given an opportunity to present their congregational history and mission. We share at table with good food, good company, fun conversations, and much laughter. We share our stories and experiences as we engage in discussion on the topics of personal and communal discernment, Enneagram types, transition and the movement to our true self, communication skills in community and in our congregational charism, communal theological reflection in a parabolic mode (using the lens of the parables), and the journey to interculturality for Jesus, for us, and for our congregations. Each topic has challenged us and encouraged us as we walk this sacred journey to personal and communal growth. Yes, our ICN days are quite full, and there are more topics to come that will continue to challenge us (and hopefully encourage us) to go even deeper into awareness, freedom, and growth.

I am blessed to belong to this company of novices. We are novices still discovering our identities in religious life and in our own congregations – still discovering how to live our call to religious life and how to do so through our congregational charism and mission. With so much work ahead of us, at least we have discovered each other as companions on this formation journey. We have discovered the blessing of cultural diversity, the value of collaboration, and the support of friendship in the family of religious women and men.

Until next time, please pray for us and all novices around the world. 

MEET THE YOUNG PREACHERS!

We are very privileged to be reflecting about our call to preach as Dominicans and most importantly as baptized Christians. 

At the beginning of our Preaching class at Aquinas, we were given an assignment to write a paragraph and share with others about our preaching vocation. I believe, that as a baptized person, I am called to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to others. This is a call from Jesus himself when he says in the scriptures, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations... teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20). 

While reflecting on this call, I have come to realize that my missionary and preaching vocation are intertwined. One of my classmates shared this: “I see myself as one who has known God in Jesus Christ and has been transformed by his love, and who seeks to help others to encounter God in a similar way that they may be converted even as I am being converted. I find that the Dominican motto, ‘To contemplate and to share with others the fruits of contemplation’ constantly explains and enriches this identity for me.”

We are constantly reminded by Fr. Gregory Heille, OP, about how we, as preachers, are growing as good proclaimers of the Word in our communities and how we are proclaiming the scriptures in ways which communicate the Word of God meaningfully to the listeners. We are learning that one of the most important approaches to proclaiming the Word effectively is pausing and phrasing at the natural and logical places.  There is a meaning which is conveyed while pausing. For instance, are we aware that these two sentences below (Luke 23:23) have completely two different meanings which can raise some theological concerns?

Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."

Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise."

If the reader uses the comma as the place for pausing, we will discover that the sentence has two different meanings. Hence, as proclaimers of the Word, we have to bear in mind that we are mediators of meaning to the listeners. We can’t go without mentioning other elements like voicing and clarity of diction from the reader. They also carry a lot of meanings.

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All in all, as young preachers, we are still struggling in our preparations for preaching especially when it comes to considering this puzzle: ‘’WHAT, SO WHAT, AND NOW WHAT?’’  We are convinced that, as we are being trained as preachers of the Word, we are also being trained to preach with our daily actions.

Growing Together in the Dominican Family

As part of the novitiate experience, novices visit Dominican Congregations in the United States to learn more about the communities.

Last week, we went to visit the Dominican Sisters of Springfield Illinois at their Motherhouse. We also had a day of reflection with Sister Sharon  Zayac who taught us about the Universe story. The Sisters embraced us with open arms and made us feel like family. I was so moved when I heard the Sisters tell us, “You are our novices, you are all welcome to visit us anytime here.” The Sisters invited us to pray, have meals with them, and gave us a tour of their house. I felt very close and connected. I came to understand more about the relationship with our other Dominican Congregations as a family, and how we support each other, especially the novices at the CDN.

I am so grateful to receive the love from the Springfield Sisters, and this reminds me how I want to live in the CDN as a family during my novitiate year. It also reminds me of the image I saw at Jubilee Farm with big trees providing shade for plants and flowers, and the flowers and plants needing shade to grow. All the big trees, plants, wild flowers, and native flowers are growing together to make the field beautiful.

Two months ago, each Novice took the soil from the ground of her Motherhouse and planted the three different plants into one large planter as a living symbol of this new beginning for our CDN community. Now the plants are in the same soil, receive the same water, lean in the same way toward the same sun.

Look at the planter today. Although they are different, they still grow, and survive! Our lives as novices in the CDN are like the plants in the planter in the way we lean together to walk in the path of becoming a Dominican.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. I am deeply grateful for your prayers and support; we hold you in our hearts and prayers. 

Healing the Whole

“Let us be united,

Let us speak in harmony;

Let our minds apprehend alike.

Common be our prayer;

Common be the end of our assembly;

Common be our resolution;

Common be our deliberations.

Alike be our feelings,

Unified be our hearts;

Common be our intentions;

Perfect be our unity”

            From The Rig Veda, Earth prayers from around the World.   

Life Through A Camera _ September 2018

We are definitely creating memories together whether on the road or at home. Here's a glimpse of how we continue to build our community life!

Traveling to Kentucky

We were welcomed to St. Catherine Motherhouse by our Sisters of Peace.
We explored their farm and took home enough beef to last us the whole year.

 What else did we do? 

Walked through the Shaker Village (they didn't smile in pictures)

Prayed with the monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani and visited Thomas Merton's grave

Learned Dominican history at St. Rose Priory Church

Having Too Much Fun

Crokinole = a Canadian board game
By the end of the year, we may be good enough to compete in a professional tournament.

Balloon Glow = grounded hot air balloons + night time + all lit up at the same time

St. Louis Cardinals versus L.A. Dodgers

 (Dodgers won!)

Inter Community Novitiate

We really wanted to take a group picture so we took one as it was beginning to rain. 

We seem to like each other.

We are novices from: 

Adorers of the Blood of Christ

Collaborative Dominican Novitiate

Congregation of Mary, Queen of the World

Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul

Oblates of Mary Immaculate

Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Houston

Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio

Sisters of Mercy

Sisters of Providence

Until next time...

remember us in your prayer
as we remember to take pictures to share.

Becoming A Dominican & Becoming Dominican

During my time in campus ministry with the Newman Center at UC San Diego, Fr. John Paul Forté, OP, planted a mustard seed that took root in my heart with a single comment, “You would make a great Dominican.” To be honest, I had no idea what that meant at the time and was close to dismissing it altogether, but I was curious about what he saw in me to make such a comment. As I witnessed the Dominican Friars living and serving together, I gradually surrendered to the clarity of a deep desire and calling to a life of study, community, prayer, and ministry. Through this clarity, I began to see in myself what Fr. John Paul had seen first, and it was a profound presence of God’s love that compelled me to contemplative action in pursuit of truth. Years later when I entered the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose as a candidate, I had begun my first official step to becoming a Dominican. I still had no idea what that meant, at least not completely, but with the start of formation, I learned that I was not alone in this life-long discovery.

When I entered the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose, my congregation changed as I changed through transition and formation. When I became a Dominican novice, the Dominican family changed as I changed through growth into the charism. In fact, religious life changes as each individual is called into it. This mutual change is as true for me and for future generations as it was true for Saint Dominic and for those who have gone before us. I began my candidacy with a call to become a Dominican, and I continued to the novitiate with a hope to become Dominican. As my formation prepares me to make vows, I am growing deeper into the understanding of how I belong to my congregation, to the Dominican family, and to the world as a religious sister. 

I shared a moment with Sr. Rolande after we preached our first homily that we prepared for our Preaching class at Aquinas with Fr. Greg Heille, OP. She asked me, “So we are preachers now?” To this, I responded, “Yes, but when will we learn to be missionaries?” We both laughed, and it was in our laughter that we acknowledged a thirst to learn about how each of us live out the spirit of Saint Dominic. Even in our Vowed Life class with Sr. Juliet Mousseau, RSCJ, we are exploring the various ways in which different religious congregations emerged and lived out their vows – how the vows were lived out in the past, how they are lived out now, and how they may be lived out in the future as new understandings and needs arise. What a privilege it has been to be immersed in a collaborative experience that allows us to share our charism among and beyond our community and that connects us to all congregations through a collective mission to serve God and to meet the needs of the world. The future of religious life is collaboration. I may not have a complete idea of what that means, but at this moment, I have a glimpse of what that may look like. I truly believe that the vision of collaboration starts now, with a pursuit to strengthen relationships with my sisters and brothers in the Dominican family as well as to establish relationships with my sisters and brothers in the whole of religious life. This is no easy task and requires the transforming presence of each and every one of us – as a preacher, a missionary, or any other facet of Saint Dominic’s spirit that abides in us.

As a young woman pursuing religious life, I have been asked many times how I feel about all the changes and uncertainties of the future not only for my congregation but also for all religious congregations. My response is one of gratitude and of hope. I am grateful for our pioneer sisters, our foundresses, and our sisters before us who, in their own time, in their own way, and in their own part of the world, have laid the foundation to continue the spirit of Saint Dominic during periods of great change and uncertainty. I am hopeful that, by their example and by the grace of God, I too can contribute to the growth of this same spirit. I was not the first to face these changes and uncertainties in religious life, and I will not be the last.

Until next time, we continue to pray for each other so that we may find or create new ways of being a Dominican and of being Dominican.