Jubilee
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Sister Inspiration: Diane Dehn, OP
December 28, 2018
As an academic advisor with students at Aquinas, I was often inspired by the dedication, determination, and drive of non-traditional students returning to the halls of education. Some students were returning to college to complete a degree or program that they had been unable to finish earlier in their lives. Others were just beginning college […]
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Sister Inspiration: Margaret Mary Birchmeier, OP
November 30, 2018
It was 1965, when Sister Margaret Mary and Sister Innocence Andres, both nurses and midwives, arrived in Chimbote, Peru to initiate a child and maternal care program. When they arrived, they found the Maternity Hospital unfinished — one wall and a concrete slab for a floor — so they spent the first year learning about […]
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A Jubilarian Shares Her Story: Sr. Pat Kennedy, OP
October 26, 2018
“My decision to become a Sister wasn’t a quick one; there was lots of questioning on my part.” As a young girl, Pat Kennedy dreamed of being a wife and mother. Yet, at the same time, she says, there was a persistent tug to vowed life. She lovingly recalls parents who were devout Catholics, loving, […]
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A Jubilarian Shares Her Story: Sr. Mary Jo Beckett, OP
October 19, 2018
Sister Mary Jo Beckett’s faith and trust in God has remained steadfast throughout her life. In fact, He has held her up through two near-death experiences. In 1982, she was severely injured in a car accident in which Sr. Rose Patrice O’Donnell was killed. In 1994, it was a brain aneurysm that led to hospitalization, […]
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A Jubilarian Shares Her Story: Sr. Catherine Williams, OP
October 12, 2018
The path has twisted and turned during these 60 years, from a community of Williams on a small farm in Byron Center,… … to a community of Dominican Sisters who share their lives of simplicity and prayer, laughter and song,… … as we walk the road together toward, “the fullness of joy in God’s presence”. […]
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A Jubilarian Shares Her Story: Sr. Ann Hehl, OP
September 14, 2018
For more than 52 years, she cared for patients as a Registered Nurse, for 27 of those years she cared for patients with End Stage Kidney Disease. Today, Dominican Sister Ann Hehl’s presence comforts and uplifts in her ministry as a Spiritual Care Companion to women and men who are homebound by illness or mobility […]
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A Jubilarian Shares Her Story: Sr. Patrice Konwinski, OP
August 31, 2018
“Where is the sister chancellor?” called out Pope John Paul II raising his hand to pause a photographic moment in the papal greeting line in Rome. It was 1990, and Sister Patrice Konwinski was visiting Vatican City with then-Grand Rapids Bishop Joseph Breitenbeck. Grand Rapids Press reporter Ed Golder wrote of the visit describing the […]
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A Jubilarian Shares Her Story: Sr. Joyce Ann Hertzig, OP
August 10, 2018
My early teaching ministry in Saginaw at St. Joseph-Sacred Heart allowed me to experience cooperative efforts of African American, Hispanic, and Anglo students and families. Through study, action, and conscience-raising discussions, seeds of justice were planted. Issues of poverty, racism, and the cost of war have propelled me to search for ways to be in […]
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A Jubilarian Shares Her Story: Sr. Mary Courtade, OP
July 27, 2018
Dominican Sisters taught young Rosemary from first to 12th grade at St. Francis Catholic School in Traverse City, Michigan. Several of these teachers whom she admired and loved, along with her parish priest, helped prepare her for entrance into the postulancy. The avid student, former cheerleader, usher at the Michigan Theater, and summer cherry picker […]
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A Jubilarian Shares Her Story: Sr. Louisa Mogdis, OP
July 13, 2018
I was born in Muskegon Heights, Michigan on March 20, 1928 to Louis and Gazelle (Regel) Mogdis. There were seven children in our family, four boys and three girls, I am the second youngest. My school years were at Edgewood Elementary School in Muskegon through grade 5, Sacred Heart School grades 6-9 and St. Mary’s […]