SisterMary Lucille Janowiak

Surrounded by growth, challenged to grow; Surrounded by kindness, invited to care; Surrounded by love to offer love.

Through these gifts from so many of you, I find God’s mysterious Incarnation continuing. Thank you for gracing my life with joy, forgiveness, satisfaction and love.

All life on this planet forms one community.

My sense of community began with my loving family of parents, four siblings and many relatives. Soon it widened to include neighbors, friends and schoolmates in the small town of Manistee.

Sensing a call to religious life, the Grand Rapids Dominicans accepted and companioned me for 60 years. They broadened my understanding of community and made me a part of religious women throughout the world. Study, teaching and parish ministry brought me more fully into the larger Catholic Community.

And then in 1999, my communal sense widened even further. Our visionary Sisters and a Sabbatical leave led me to recognize that my life depends on the freely-given services offered by Earth’s diverse species. I’ve come to see that all beings are one family and trace their roots to One, Source of All Being, Who has been with us from creation’s first flaring forth. In this deep time, my deepest gratitude to all.