Saturday, September 21, 2019

A New Community




A new look for the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate
SP-OP Community Living
2019-2020

     






What is SP-OP?
The Collaborative Dominican Novitiate (CDN) is a joint effort by the sisters in the Dominican Order in the USA to provide its members in initial formation with an experience of the larger Dominican Family. Each year a new group of novices comes together to create its own unique experience of community with fresh spirit, abundant gifts, and eagerness to grow in the Dominican tradition. The purpose of the canonical year in the CDN is to provide a quality experience of community life, prayer, study, ministry, exposure to and practice of preaching skills, and personal growth. The process of this collaborative experience is intended to offer a rich novitiate experience, encourage a supportive peer group, share the giftedness and resources of the congregations involved, and promote the charism of the Order.

With one novice this year in the Dominican congregations, and with a request by the Sisters of Providence (SP) of St Mary of the Woods, Terra Haute, IN, to share space with us at the CDN, we, the co-directors, CFR’s, and the Board of the CDN, agreed to the idea that we share space and community life with the SP novice director and novice.  Their bios are included in this newsletter so that you can get to know them, too.  The Dominicans and the Sisters of Providence each retain their own times for formation in their specific charisms.  We do share prayer, community life, meals, and participation in common elements of both programs, including the intercommunity novitiate, Aquinas Institute’s vowed life class, talks related to social justice, and social activities.  We are mindfully attending to the blessings and challenges, especially how this may affect the novices.  Please pray for us that we may each be true to our charisms while building bridges and learning more about the charism of each.  We have informally named ourselves the SP-OP Community at the CDN.


Mingling of the soil, watering of the soil, and planting





Pioneering…
“Step down, Sisters. You have arrived!” Well, Sr. Jessica Vitente and Sr. Janice Smith didn’t have to step down as St. Mother Theodore and her companions did because the 21st century SPs arrived not by coach, but by car – actually two cars! On August 15, the SPs were warmly welcomed by Dominican Sisters Cathy Arnold, Lorraine Reaume and Ellen Coates. The two congregations refer to their new communities as “The SP-OP Community Novitiate.” However, they now affectionately call themselves the “S-Pops!” So in addition to the shared work of formation, the S-Pops know how to add a little fun into their new community life.  The S-Pops all send their greetings to everyone in our SP and OP communities and cordially invite you to “meet them in St. Louis” if you find yourself in the neighborhood.



Meet the OPs

Sister Ellen A. Coates, OP
Dominican Sisters of Peace

I was born and raised in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts.  After receiving a BA in art history from the University of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill and working for a Smithsonian Institution art library for a couple of years I shifted to a more service-oriented career in public health. My degree in international public health from Boston University opened the door to a challenging and rewarding career, focused primarily on women and children in the developing world.  I also served as a Eucharistic Minister in my parishes in Washington, DC and Massachusetts. Although I loved opportunities to live and pray with missionary sisters during professional trips abroad, it wasn’t until after taking time off to care for my parents that I began to feel a call to religious life.  I had made several retreats at the Dominican Retreat in McLean, Virginia, so when I realized that the pull toward religious life was growing I went back there and met with Sr. Agnes, who put me in touch with a sister in vocation ministry.  In 2017 I entered the Dominican Sisters of Peace and as a candidate I lived at their House of Welcome in New Haven, Connecticut and taught English to adult immigrants at their Siena Learning Center.  I am very grateful and excited to be starting my canonical novitiate year at the CDN, and hope to deepen my relationship with God and my understanding of religious life and the Dominican charism.


Sister Lorraine Reaume, OP
Dominican Sisters of Adrian

I am a Dominican Sister of Adrian, originally from Toronto, Canada, and am excited to be starting my second year with the CDN and to be able to minister on behalf of the many Dominican Congregations that make up the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate. My own CDN experience in 1998-1999 grounded me in the Dominican Family and gave me a solid identity as a Dominican.  I look forward to walking with women on that same journey and to broadening our experience by sharing our home with the Sisters of Providence Novice Director and Novice this year.  My undergraduate degrees are a BA in English and Psychology (University of Waterloo), and a B.Ed. (Lakehead University).   also have an MDiv and an MA in Theology from Catholic Theological Union. I have a certificate in Spiritual Direction and have completed the Collaborative Leadership Development Program. I am finishing up the ForMission program offered by the Religious Formation Conference. Before religious life, I was a teacher and then a Lay Missionary in Bolivia. I also co-coordinated the Lay Mission Program for Scarboro Missions for four years. In religious life, I have served as a Campus Minister at Siena Heights University, as a Pastoral Associate with a focus on Hispanic Ministry in both Anchorage, AK, and Detroit, MI, and as Formation Director. I love to walk with others as they discern and discover how God is calling them to life.


Sister Cathy Arnold, OP
Dominican Sisters of Peace

Beginning my second year at the CDN feels different from the first having had a year of experience, plus welcoming the Sisters of Providence to share community life.  I am happy to continue to help provide a nurturing and life-giving environment in this new SP-OP community at the CDN. I participated in the CDN as a novice from 2000 to 2001 and have many wonderful and, yes, some challenging memories, which helped me to grow more deeply into Dominican life, especially in building relationships and on social justice issues. My educational background includes a BS in chemistry from Marietta College, an MA in theological studies from the University of Dayton, and completion of the Religious Formation Conference ForMission program. My final project for ForMission involved developing and leading an Intercultural Living mini-workshop with our Sisters and Associates. Since then I have also completed the Collaborative Leadership Development Program sponsored by LCWR.  In the past, I participated in a Peace Ambassador Training program and helped coordinate a Leadership for Peace program for college age students.  I have also ministered in special education and high school education. From 2007 to 2018, I served as a vocation minister and then as Coordinator of Formation for the Dominican Sisters of Peace. Walking with women in formation is a gift, privilege, and a sacred task as they and we discern how the Spirit is working in the discernment of becoming Dominican. For fun, I enjoy baking bread, walking, reading, biking, gardening, and sharing time with friends and family.



Meet the SPs

Sister Jessica Vitente, SP
Sisters of Providence
St. Mary of the Woods, IN

I am a Filipino-American born and raised in Southern California. I consider Pomona, CA as my I am a Filipino-American born and raised in Southern California. I consider Pomona, CA as my hometown. I am an only child and grew up with a large extended family. My educational background includes an AS in accounting from Mt. San Antonio College and a BA in human development from Cal State University of Long Beach. My most recent employer was a distributing company, Mutual Wholesale Liquor, where I worked for 7 ½ years as an assistant manager. My ministerial background includes serving as treasurer and corporal works of mercy/outreach coordinator on a core team for young adult ministry. When I was seeking direction from the Spirit as where to begin my discernment process as a future woman religious, I providentially met the Sisters of Providence Saint Mary of-the-Woods, Indiana when I attended the 2015 Los Angeles Religious Education Congress at the Anaheim convention center. On September 10, 2018, I entered the SP community and spent the next ten months at our motherhouse ministering as a volunteer at our Providence Spirituality Conference Center and our HOME (helping each other meaningfully engaged) team. I am excited to spend my canonical novitiate year at the CDN in St. Louis, MO. I am looking forward to deepening my relationship with my God through studies of history, scripture and theology, and deepening my understanding of Providence spirituality through the charisms of justice, love and mercy. For leisure I like to go running, biking, hiking, watch Netflix and color mandalas. 



Sister Janice Smith, SP
Sisters of Providence
St. Mary of the Woods, IN

As I enter my eighth year as Director of Novices for the Sisters of Providence, I am excited about the opportunity to walk with the Dominican sisters of the CDN in this new community living experience of the Canonical Year.  I have always supported the idea of participating with other experience of the Canonical Year. I have always supported the idea of participating with other communities in this special year of discernment. Like others, I have found the sharing of the novitiate year with other communities very rewarding when I was a novice in the early 2000s. The Intercommunity Novitiate program helped deepen my relationship with my God, my global relationship with God’s creation  and connected me more closely to my own community’s spirituality and charism of Providence and our founder, St. Mother Theodore Guerin. During my spirituality and charism of Providence and our founder, St. Mother Theodore Guerin.  During my academic studies, I received a BA in Ancient Studies from the University of Maryland, an MA in Greek and Latin from Ohio State, and an MTS in Theological Studies from the Franciscan School of Theology at the GTU. In addition to my current ministry, I was director of Adult Faith Formation at a parish in California, campus minister and theology teacher at Guerin Prep High School in Chicago, and an English instructor for Biblical and English Studies at Providence University in Taiwan. Prior to religious life, I taught German and Latin in a public school in Columbus, Ohio.  At Hewlett-Packard in California, I was an instructor for computer systems and a manager for Customer Education for 14 years.  Living throughout the United States and in Taiwan has certainly given me a love of the diversity in our world. Living life as a woman religious has opened my eyes and heart to the needs of God’s most vulnerable and our imminent call to care for Earth. I enjoy reading, traveling and having steamed crabs and beer when I am home with my large Polish-American family in Baltimore.

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