Featured Articles

Faith and Film: Brooklyn

Movie review by Fr. Tom Condon, O.P.

Brooklyn is a beautifully told story of Eilis (Saoirse Ronan), a young Irish woman who leaves her homeland to make a new life for herself in Brooklyn in the early 1950’s. With few prospects for herself in Ireland, Eilis leaves behind her mother and sister to sail alone across the Atlantic in search of a better life. The priest in her home town makes contact with Fr. Flood, an Irish priest in Brooklyn, who finds Eilis a place to live in a boarding house and a job in a department store.
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Dominican Sisters of Houston: Music flourishes inside St. Dominic Villa Chapel with virtual pipe organ

Sr. Fran Heins, Sr. Anna Marie Flusche, Fr. John Kellick, Sr. Annette Dworsky and Sr. Mary Magdalen Hanel

Written by:  Ceil Roeger, O.P.
with contributions from Sr. Eleanor Cresap, O.P. and Sr. Anna Marie Flusche, O.P.

Virtual Pipe Organ

In August several very large wooden boxes arrived at the St. Dominic Villa. They contained a virtual pipe organ from Martin Digital Organs in California as a gift from Father John Kellick.  Within days workers arrived and met with Sister Anna Marie Flusche to uncrate, set up and voice (sound adapt) it for our chapel.
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Dominicans and Associates attend annual SOA vigil at Fort Benning

Dominicans and Associates from Adrian, Peace, Sinsinawa, Springfield, and the Central Province traveled to Columbus, GA, for the annual SOA (School of Americas) vigil at Fort Benning November 21 and 22, 2015.

Saturday morning found the vigilers driving the 40 miles to Lumpkin, GA, for the rally and 1.7 mile march tomarch the Stewart Detention Center, one of the largest for-profit immigrant prisons in the country (1,752 beds). There are more people inside the prison than in the small, remote rural town. The march was led by those whose lives are
directly impacted by our country’s unjust, inhumane and racist immigration policies. More than 1,000 marchers joined in to raise their voices. They couldn’t see what the site looked like as large buses were parked to block any view of the building.

The Sunday morning funeral procession continues to be a powerful remembrance of those who have died at the hands of military violence. Crosses with the
names of those who have been killed or disappeared due to state violence are raised as the crowd responds with Presente.

After the procession, SOAWatch leaders announced that SOAW is planning to change its focus from Ft. Benning to the U.S.-Mexican border to address the plight of Latin Americans refugees who are fleeing increasingly dangerous conditions, especially those escaping violence in the “northern triangle” of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

Christina spent 4 years in a Salvadoran prison after suffering a miscarriage.
Christina spent 4 years in a Salvadoran prison after suffering a miscarriage.

One of the workshops on Saturday afternoon was about the Las 17 (the 17). In El Salvador, abortion is illegal even in cases of rape, incest, and maternal danger. Because of the strictness of the law, women who miscarry are arrested and tried for aggravated homicide, receiving up to a 30-or-40-year prison sentence. Activist groups have identified at least 17 women who have been jailed after losing their babies to medical emergencies. As one would expect, these are poor, rural women.

We carried you with us in prayer and spirit throughout the weekend.

 

Sisters Report on Paris Climate Summit

Pat Siemen,O.P. (Adrian) on left; Elise García, O.P. (Adrian) on right
Pat Siemen, O.P. (Adrian) on left; Elise García, O.P. (Adrian) on right

Sisters Pat Daly (Caldwell), Elise García (Adrian), Pat Siemen (Adrian), and Margaret Mayce (Amityville) are in Paris, France for the Climate Summit. Elise Garcia, O.P. has been writing for NCR’s Global Sisters Report, and Margaret Mayce, O.P. has been posting reports to the NGO’s Facebook page and the Dominican Sisters Conference Paris 2015 and Counting . . . website.

Reports by Elise Garcia, O.P. and Margaret Mayce, O.P.:

Paris Climate Summit – Civil Society Events
December 3, 2015 – Margaret Mayce, O.P. reports on the inspirational and instructive sessions she attended at the summit; as well as stating three crucial points that are being negotiated. Also, the Dominicans present in Paris sent off a statement to Delegates in an effort to make their voices heard. Read more

Expectations at the Climate Summit
December 1, 2015 – Sister Elise García, OP (Adrian), reports on the concerns of what the outcome will be from the summit. Read article in Global Sisters Report

‘Dominican Sisters USA . . . Climate Justice Now’
November 30, 2015 – Margaret Mayce, O.P. (Amityville), NGO Representative to the United Nations, is in Paris, France for the Climate summit. The climate march was canceled but people still “gathered along the march route, standing shoulder to shoulder in peaceful demonstration, forming a ‘human chain’ in solidarity with all those who are and have been suffering the bitter effects of global change.” Read more

Calling for Climate Justice
November 30, 2015 – Sister Elise García, O.P. (Adrian), reports on arrival in Paris for Climate Summit, and although the climate march was canceled, participants gathered in a “peaceful demonstration, chanting ‘Hear us, hear us,’ calling for climate justice.” Read article in Global Sisters Report

 

800 Years of Singing and Walking with St. Dominic

Singers Dominic DeLay and John Paul Forté, friars of the western province, take Dominicans and their friends on a virtual 800th jubilee pilgrimage with their new music recording, Maintain the Light.  Many of the lyrics are from or inspired by Dominican saints.

Dominic, who is also a filmmaker, is leading an actual Footsteps of St. Dominic pilgrimage in June.  The trip is sponsored by his, John Paul’s, and their magician classmate Daniel Rolland’s creative ministries, Torch3m:  Dominican Movies, Music & Magic.

Maintain the Light has several songs about St. Dominic himself. Speaking to You sings the often-told story that St. Dominic, as he traveled, spoke either to God or about God. Love One Another is a musical setting of his last words. And Light of the Church has new music for the classic hymn about the saint.

St. Catherine’s challenging and encouraging words are set to music in Be Who God Created You to Be. Additional Dominican saints are invoked in the Litany of Light.

Meister Eckhart’s prophetic words are sung in Every Creature is a Word of God. All Dominican women and men, living and dead, could be those huddled around the fire of faith in Keepers of the Flame.

Yes, Dominicans and their companions gather around the flame of faith, but they are also constantly on a journey or pilgrimage. Seek God and Truth tells the gospel story of the rich young man who wasn’t willing to let go of everything to get on the road with Jesus. And Going Deeper recognizes that this journey is most of all an inward one. You Are Closer sings that God walks with us and is, in the words of St. Augustine, closer to us than we are to ourselves.

How will you walk in the footsteps of Christ in the coming year? What saints, friends, and family members have especially paved the way for you and urge you along the path?

Whether you can accompany Dominic and Torch3m on the pilgrimage in June, you can sing this year of jubilee with them and John Paul. As he and Dominic sing in Make Me An Instrument, a song about the legendary meeting of St. Francis and St. Dominic, may we all be made instruments of peace and preachers of truth, the truth that brings freedom.

For more information, visit www.torch3m.org.

 

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