Sister Pat: 'We live in a sacred, evolving universe'

Global Sisters Report

“[Thomas] Berry said that each culture has its own ‘great work’ to accomplish. Ours is to reestablish our connection to nature and work toward sustainable lifestyles and systems that reverse the destruction we are currently inflicting on the planet.” Sister Patricia Siemen, OP (Adrian), director of the Center for Earth Jurisprudence at Barry University School of Law, Orlando, Florida, wrote an article, “Journeying into the ‘Great Work’,” in the Dec. 1 edition of the National Catholic Reporter’s Global Sisters Report. Read article

December 12, 2014

'We have family in Iraq': Delegation organized

Dominicans in Iraq
By Sister Marcelline Koch, OP

With gratitude, we write to let you know of the welcome of our family in Iraq to our proposal for a delegation. Sister Maria Hanna quickly responded:

Thank you so very much for your thoughtful email. I told the sisters about your proposal, and they were happy to know that they were dearly loved.

I am very grateful for this initiative. Your presence among us in such condition will be a sign of hope and solidarity. We know that we are not alone, facing our destiny on our own.

December 5, 2014

Nuns Build Dominicans among those returning to help in New Orleans

A recent article in the Clarion Herald, newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, featured the sixth annual Nuns Build, coordinated by the nonprofit St. Bernard Project. Since 2009, 69 houses have been rebuilt. From the story: “We want to come and help people so they can come back to their home,” said Dominican Sister of Peace Barbara Lavin of Boston, who was on her second Nuns Build. “It’s been nine years since Katrina. We are very interested in the issue of justice, and this certainly is a justice issue of people returning to their homes.” Read more

December 5, 2014

Springfield Sister Mary Lou: ‘We don’t have retirement’

Like most religious, Sister Mary Lou Owens, OP (Springfield), spiritual life coordinator for the Logan County (Illinois) Roman Catholic Community, sees her vocation as a lifelong ministry. “We continue in ministry until we feel we can no longer do it,” she told The Catholic Post, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Peoria, Illinois. Read article

December 5, 2014

Peace ‘Just reflecting’: Moving from hatred to forgiveness

peace-jolene-hessman Dominican Sisters of Peace Associate Bob Hessman’s daughter, Mel, was murdered in 1989, leaving behind a husband and three small children. Mel’s sister Jude Hessman, an associate candidate, says it took her eight years to forgive Gregg Braun, the man who was convicted of the murder and eventually executed. Gregg was a former elementary student at St. Dominic’s School in Garden City, Kansas. In this reflection, Sister Jolene Geier, OP (Peace) and Bob write about the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation, as well as the need for prison reform in the United States. Read article