Sister Alice Wittenbach, OP

“It is a Joy to Be Here.”

I have enjoyed my life, whether at home on the big farm, whether walking to school along the country roads, whether taking field trips to Mexico, whether learning all about Ireland or Switzerland or the places of Sts. John and Paul.

We kids took advantage of the bookmobile that came to our little one-room country school. As a gift, my mother enrolled us in the book of the month club.

I always enjoyed school. That love of education saw me through high school and into college. I followed my mother’s advice to go to Aquinas College, even though I wanted to go to Michigan State University where my friends were going. That decision, of course, paved the way for the rest of my life.

At Aquinas I met the Dominican Sisters for the first time. I loved their joy and the delight they seemed to bring to each other. At the end of my Freshman year, I went to the Priest to tell him I thought I should go to the Convent, with the hope they would reject me and send me home. He told me that was no way to respond to a Religious vocation and to pray about it. A year later, God won out. I entered the Dominican Sisters as a College Junior, searching for that part of my life which had always seemed lacking. That decision has made all the difference in my life.