Spring Break Travelogue Part IV

Yesterday (Thur) we packed up our suitcases and headed south, I think south, maybe west, it's hard to tell around here. Anyway, we're in New Jersey.

Like many of the other motherhouses in the area we saw the college first before finding the convent. And like all of the other motherhouses we were warmly greeted upon arrival. We learned some history, had a tour of the motherhouse, and met a number of sisters. The difference on this tour than the others is that we were followed around by what I'm going to refer to as the Caldwell paparazzi. We then had Mass and lunch with the sisters. From there we saw their newest building for sister housing and after a rare moment of down time we quickly saw some sisters in the infirmary.

It's been interesting to hear and see the unique viewpoints of the Regensburg tree

We got to meet the sister who made these beautiful windows (the picture does not do them justice)

The same sister designed the tabernacle

It was windy this morning

From Caldwell we drove to Summit to see the nuns there. We met with almost all of the nuns (even the dog) and chatted for quite some time. Somehow it seems appropriate that at the monastery we were the least rushed. Admittedly it was because there are fewer sisters and no tour but it was nice to slow down. We were then invited to join the nuns for rosary and vespers. As with all of the visits, it was quick but a great experience (and since I'm currently writing this post and not Quincy you can all be rest assured I did not stay in Summit).

After Vespers with Sr. Mary Martin

The choir board

Larger view of the stalls

The altar

Of course the front door

From Summit we headed back to Caldwell where we joined sisters, faculty, and students in watching Band of Sisters. We also heard a presentation about an oral history project the students are doing with the sisters. And as long as they had some novices present we fielded some questions about why we decided to take the path we are on currently.

A good night's sleep and now for more driving. Headed back west and we are down to only two more motherhouses; next stop Akron.

Spring Break Travelogue Part III

 Happy National Catholic Sisters Week!

Yesterday (Tue) we were fortunate enough to spend part of the day at the United Nations. We met Sr. Margaret Mayce at her office in New York City and then the three of us, plus the Dominican Volunteer working with her, all headed over for the talks that were being held for International Women's Day. It was exciting to be at the UN for such an event.

Don't we look official

It was pretty cool to go down and sit on the main floor

Planet 50/50

The Perfect Pint for lunch

After a late lunch with the two of them we went to the 9/11 memorial and museum. A powerful experience to say the least.

Today (Wed) was another very full day with another two mother houses. We spent an absolutely beautiful day in Ossining, NY. We had been to Ossining before. We spent a week at Maryknoll's Mission Institute this past summer and while there visited Mariandale so this was familiar territory; it was nice to be back.

First stop was Mariandale to visit the Hope sisters. We learned about some of their history, especially about the experience of founding Hope. We then took part of a tour of the grounds before lunch. Only a couple of the Hope sisters live at Mariandale but a good number of them were kind enough to drive in to have lunch with us. After lunch we finished our outdoor tour (including their bee condos).

Fulfilled my front door picture and Quincy's statue picture in one shot

Inside the chapel

The founding communities

The labyrinth

In the mid 70's today it felt, and was looking like, spring

From Mariandale it was a hop, skip, and a jump over to Maryknoll. This wasn't so much an educational stop as it was a social one since we had spent so much time there over the summer. We were happy to have a short visit with a couple of the sisters we know. It was really nice to be back.

The front door

The chapel

One of the garden's just starting to show some life

We finished the day by driving to Connecticut to have supper with a friend of Quincy's (and her two little kids). We couldn't get over how it was such a nice day and such a pretty part of the country. Perfect for a drive.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to the wonderful hospitality of the Blauvelt sisters and head to New Jersey for the next round of visits!

Spring Break Travelogue Part II

Well I thought maybe I would get away with writing only every couple of days but the last 24 hours have been pretty packed so I knew I should write again tonight.

Last night we had prayer, supper, and good conversation with a little smaller group. It was a nice example of greater Dominican family with inter-congregational living.

We attempted a selfie

This morning (Monday) we headed over to Sparkill, a four and a half minute drive from Blauvelt. Again we noticed the college (must be a Dominican thing) before the convent which sits back from the road. After meeting a few sisters we went to the Heritage room and learned about the Sparkill history, saw artifacts and pictures, and got a feel for the lay of the land. We then took a tour outside which included the old chapel and came back inside for a tour of the convent. The tour ended in the new chapel where we joined the sisters for Mass. Then we met more of the sisters in the dining room for lunch. Sr. Margaret stayed true to her word and got us out the door by 1:00 so we could be on the road again.

The full property

The new chapel

Mosaic in the old chapel that was repeated in the new chapel

The choir stalls for the sisters and the pews for the hundreds of children once cared for by the sisters

Outside the front of the convent

Our next Motherhouse today was out on Long Island in Amityville. Another whirlwind tour. First stop was the new chapel and a little history of the buildings and renovations then we met some sisters and employees. We spent time in their heritage room (it was neat to see it as is but we were also able to envision what it will be like when it finishes transitioning). We toured the original cloister and the old chapel. Both were beautiful, I really liked the cloister, Quincy better keep an eye on me when we go to Summit on Thursday. Then we took a tour of the grounds and learned all about the farm. We joined the sisters for supper as did a couple of Dominican Volunteers. We ended the evening by seeing their care floors before saying goodbye.

The "new" chapel

One of the many artifacts in the transitioning heritage room

The inner courtyard

The old chapel

One side of the farm

The front door

In case you haven't noticed, I've decided to capture our trip with, among others, pictures of the front doors. Quincy has decided to take pictures of herself with statues. I'm not sure if there is anything significant there or not; if someone wants to analyze that feel free.

This was a long but wonderful day. Now to bed for a little sleep before a very early rise to get us to the UN in the morning.

Spring Break Travelogue Part I

The novices are traveling again.

For spring break we are taking a whirlwind tour of Dominican Motherhouses between St. Louis and the Atlantic. We will visit Columbus, Blauvelt, Sparkill, Amityville, Mariandale, Maryknoll, Caldwell, Summit, and Akron. Then, just because we didn't want any down time (and when else would we get the opportunity), we will be visiting Sr. Margaret Mace at the United Nations and we will be visiting a couple fellow ICN members who are Sisters of Providence at St. Mary of the Woods.

My hope is to update the blog every couple of days so our loyal readers can follow along with our travels and because too many pictures on one post doesn't seem to work too well. So I am taking what I think is a rare, quiet moment in the trip to begin the travelogue.

We started Friday morning and drove as far as Columbus where we were warmly greeted and given a quick tour before supper. After eating and meeting all the sisters in the dining room we continued the tour including the history of the art and architecture of the beautiful chapel by the sister who was on the art committee when it was being built. We then joined the sisters for "Game Night" where they graciously let us win at Uno. A good night's sleep and breakfast in the morning rounded out a very quick but enjoyable time in Columbus. We were sent on our way with greetings to pass on to sisters in the east and sisters back home.

The chapel was filled with hints of water throughout.

Quincy won this game, note the look of determination.

This game didn't seem nearly as competitive,

Outside the front on our way out.

Goodbye Peace Sisters.

The next stop, after nine hours on the road, was Blauvelt. We are making home base here for a few days as we travel to some of the other communities. We pulled up in the dark to a big, old building across from a college. We were again (no coincidence, I know) warmly greeted and shown to our suite where snacks were waiting for the weary travelers. With the question of would you like a tour now or do you want to rest, we were both pretty eager to see every nook and cranny. We had the beginning of a tour that took us well into today. We have seen the buildings, inside and out, heard the history of foundation of the convent and the ministries that have been housed here, visited the infirmary, met many if not all of the sisters along the way and during breakfast and lunch, went across the street to the college, and I was even lucky enough to happen into the chapel just when the sister who is giving a virtual tour tomorrow of the artwork was there and she gave me a dress rehearsal.

The convent and in front the gate to the original building.

Outside the front door.

The chapel, the preferred design for Dominicans because there are no pillars to block the sound of the preaching.

Choir stalls to the sides of the altar and Dominican saints behind.

My mom has said before that when my sister travels you never know where she was but you definitely know who she was with and that with me you get the full history of a place but it seems as though I went alone. I am aware that once I got into a big, old building my pictures were a lot more of the space and less of the people. We'll see if I can stay aware of that or not as we go along.

To be continued...

CDN Ministry

My ministry on Mondays consists of leading book discussion groups with the women at the Clayton County jail—it’s hugely fun and rewarding.  I started a new group recently to read and discuss Wild by Cheryl Strayed and twelve women showed up for the first session.  I could tell pretty quickly that the group had a good dynamic.  One woman in particular sat in the chair next to me and made quite an impression on me—she was boisterous, funny and unguarded, a bit older than the others.  In the introductions she told us that she was a grandmother of 3, a long-time widow and a crystal meth addict. When I shared my story (i.e. novice doing ministry) she told me that she had attended Catholic schools growing up was practically “raised by nuns”.  She clarified that they were “not like me” though. 

I gave my spiel about how the book discussions would be structured, the basic gist of the story and explained how we would be reading/discussing it from the perspective of a “spiritual journey”.   I asked what they thought a spiritual journey was and we talked about what that meant for a while.  As the books were getting passed around and ladies were signing them out, she leaned over to me and said, “Can I ask you a personal question?”  I said something like “sure, I may not answer it though!”  Then she clarified it was a personal question about her and she wanted to ask me after the session was over, in private.  I said of course and was super curious (and slightly nervous) as to what she wanted to ask.  Later, as the women were leaving she said “So I’m Catholic and I mentioned that I’m a widow.  My husband committed suicide like 15 years ago.  When it happened I was told by two different priests—old guys—that he would go to hell.  Do you think he’s in hell?”  I said, without hesitation and with confidence, “No, I don’t believe for a second that he’s in Hell.”  She then added “I mean he was really, really sick and shouldn’t that make a difference?”  I said something about believing that God is a god of mercy and forgiveness.  I said something about how the Church and the God that I associate myself with wouldn’t condemn him to Hell.  I could see the relief in her eyes, which were glassy with tears.  I got the sense that she had not let tears flow in a very long time.  I threw in a disclaimer that “I’m not a sister yet, but I would guarantee that sisters in my congregation would agree with me.”  She thanked me in a way that was somewhat apologetic for asking in the first place.  She came to one more session before someone posted bail for her.  She returned her book with one of the other ladies and it tucked a note in it that said,

“Thank you for talking with me. It helped lay to rest some unanswered questions    and feelings.  Good luck with your journey—you’re gonna be GREAT.“

I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to work with these women this year.  The ministry is way outside of my realm of experience and leading book discussion groups is something utterly new to me.  I find it challenging and deeply meaningful in a way I couldn’t have anticipated, I love it.

Called

“Come after me and I will make you fishers of men”. 

This was Sunday’s gospel acclamation, and it was repeated, slightly different, in the Gospel reading. It is the call Jesus gave to Simon Peter and the Zebedee boys. Like the Gospel the first two readings were also about being called. A fitting weekend to reflect on after recently writing our evaluations and Friday’s integration day where we were asked to look at the common threads these past couple of months and what has challenged, affirmed and surprised us about accepting this call?

A call can come from anywhere; as we all know. Whether it is a call to religious life or to a ministry or even to a fertile fishing area. Just as important as the call itself is the willingness to listen to it and to honestly say yes. If the disciples had not agreed to let Jesus speak from the boats they would not have heard his message, if they had not trusted that this carpenter knew something about fishing they would not have put their nets out again, and if they had not accepted that this teacher had quite a bit more to say they would not have given up their lives to follow him. Do we do that? Do we give up our lives? Do we respond, as in the first reading from today, with “Here I am, send me”?

As religious we could probably argue that yes, we do. We give up security of a future we have been building, a career, a nuclear family; and find we need to trust in a future that is unknown. Even once we are in religious life and accepted all that is involved in that we need to continue to accept the constant call to new places, people, and experiences. Some we might be suited for and some we can’t imagine will ever fit.

It is because we can’t imagine that it can be hard for us to accept a call. Simon first objected to going out to fish again, giving a very good reason of having worked all night and having not caught anything. I know I ignored or objected to the first few calls, well quite a few calls, to religious life. Given what I thought my future would be, the life I had planned, becoming a religious wasn’t even on my radar. God knew this though. God knew that I would need multiple, some subtle and some not so subtle calls. I did not feel I was suited for the life, I was not worthy of it, I do not have the talent or skill or even the relationship with God to make accepting the call a possibility. So not only was I going to need to hear the message from the boat but I was also going to need to see the sign of the fishes. Both of these were needed before I could say yes to following Jesus. But I’m not alone, in fact, objecting to God’s call, usually because of a feeling of unworthiness, is a pretty strong theme that runs throughout the Bible; Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Peter, Paul (who reminds the readers often of his unworthiness) just to name a few.

I think it is because of this constant objecting that Jesus called so many fishermen. Yes, in that area there were a lot of fishermen and so statistically speaking he was bound to call some. But I think it’s more than that. Fishing takes a lot of patience, with no guarantee of results. Which is why I don’t fish. It’s time consuming. And I don’t really mind time consuming if I know there is a payout in the end but like the day that Jesus got into the boats, they had been out all night and hadn’t caught a thing. That has to be super frustrating. Being fishers of people was going to be the same thing. Long hours, hardships, people with a lot of doubts, not knowing what the outcome would be, hoping for a large haul and only bringing in the weak and outcasts. This was going to be hard, frustrating work that required a lot of patience. And so Jesus knew what kind of people he needed for the work.

Like I said, I don’t know that I would like to fish, I don’t know that I could accept that call. Thankfully there are others that can do this kind of work, that do have the patience, that are willing to go out time and again to bring people to the Word…there are people that can accept that call.

Thankfully too, the scriptures give us other examples, examples that I can relate to, that can help me accept my call, examples like Paul who was “one abnormally born”, as the NAB translates it, “one untimely born” as most other translations have it. But I like the “abnormally born” translation, it holds other connotations that untimely does not. It says to me that no matter how weird or at least unsuited I might feel, God will call me, and with the help of grace, I can overcome my feelings or at the very least use my abnormality, Paul did, and so was able to accept his call. I can use my abnormality to reach others in their own spaces, in their own abnormalities. So together, the fishermen patiently bringing in the swarms and the abnormally born bringing in the other weirdos, we can hope to reach the world, so that all can hear the Word. Or as Paul put it a little more eloquently:

Therefore, whether it be I or they,
so we preach and so you believed

 

Discernment is Not a Linear Process

I’m aware that the discernment and formation process is unique for every novice, but I can’t help feeling like I’ve approached it in a way that is unconventional, to say the least.  I asked to enter the Sinsinawa Dominicans because the calling was so unexpected and so far out of the range of possible paths I envisioned for myself that I felt compelled to listen.  I entered the congregation shortly thereafter, not aware that a more typical approach was to look at various congregations before choosing one to discern with.  Despite not making sense on many levels, my decision—to discern and to do it as a Sinsinawa Dominican—has felt strangely right and I haven’t second-guessed it once. 

I’m realizing, however, that one of the reasons I have felt so at ease and comfortable with the process is because I’ve been viewing it from a somewhat limited perspective—as discernment.  I’ve been conveniently telling myself that it was premature to speculate about whether or not I’d take the vows because I just didn’t know enough about religious life to make an informed decision, yet.  How could I decide whether life as a professed sister was the right choice for me when I had SO much to learn about what the vows meant spiritually and practically—how my life would be transformed?  Knowing that a decision would be deferred until I could make an “informed” one gave me comfort and the space to fully enjoy this process with a presence and curiosity without feeling pressured.  However, thanks to the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate, I’m quickly coming to a place where I can no longer fall-back on this “easy out”, so to speak.

 

During my candidate year I gained wonderful experience living in community and getting to know the Sinsinawa Dominican charism by building relationships with my sisters and via a phenomenal formation process.  Since beginning this novitiate year, however, I’ve been exposed to so many more aspects of Dominican charism, the vowed life and religious community—and I’m sponging it up!  Getting to know the Dominican student brothers and the men and women of the Inter-Community Novitiate has expanded my perspective of religious life to recognize the amazing diversity among men and women religious, their congregations and communities. 

Attending classes at Aquinas Institute has allowed me to learn about preaching—the mainstay of the Dominican Order—and to gain a well-rounded understanding of the vows at the heart of religious life.   I can’t say that the preaching and vowed life classes have made me any more eager to preach or to profess, but I CAN say that I’m developing a much deeper appreciation for them as foundational and profoundly defining of the vocation I’m considering.  In particular, I find The Vowed Life course valuable: the readings and the lively discussions about the theological basis of the vows and the complexities of living them out in today’s world are priceless.  Maintaining lively and engaging discussions is all the more impressive when you consider that the class consists of only Sr. Regina (the teacher), Nicole, and myself!  Our spritely and extremely well-informed professor doesn’t shy away from the more difficult and sometimes ambiguous finer points—and she also has a great sense-of-humor, which is essential at times.  

In the meantime, my novice director has also been providing top-notch guidance around the issues and questions that are surfacing for me personally—helping me piece together how and if I fit into this picture.  Her skillful counsel, gentle probing and non-judgmental observations are invaluable right now.

I can’t say that I’m “closer” to making a yes or no decision.  If there’s anything I know it’s that discernment is not a linear process—at least it isn’t for me.  I still flip-flop regularly: from envisioning my life as a professed Sinsinawa Dominican sister to anticipating what my next steps should be if this part of my journey ultimately leads me in another direction.  It reminds me of the numerous jigsaw puzzles I worked on at the Mound: focusing on fitting together the pieces of large, often separate sections, knowing that at some point these parts will “click” together to create the picture on the front of the box.   The good news is that I feel I’m quickly gaining the insights and understanding necessary to determine what’s right for me when the time comes. The tricky part is that I don’t have the picture from the box and I’m not even sure that the sections I’m working on came from the same box in the first place…

Blessings,

Sr. Quincy