| SPRING 1999 | Volume 40 |
with Father Dick de Ranitz, O.P.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
"Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, he has been raised." Luke 24:5
Who was this Jesus, who God the Father raised from the dead? He was a person who loved life. He was a life-embracing person. He was a man dedicated to life and who struggled that life might break forth again and again.
The parables with which he taught were all about life, and I might add, not very church-like: losing a coin the way you and I might lose our car keys, birds building nests, mustard seeds and weather, laborers looking for work. And where would we find Jesus when he was walking this earth? Maybe in the temple, but just as likely in someone's home, the marketplace, the lakeshore, wherever people were.
Because Jesus was so totally dedicated to life, when he was killed, the living God raised him to the life to which he dedicated himself.
What does Jesus' resurrection teach us about our own?
1) Our resurrection is related to our love of life on earth.
2) Resurrection is God's doing, not ours.
3) Resurrection is not being raised back to life but forward into a new life, where every tear will be wiped away.
4) It presumes a life of helping others and being dedicated to God, the source of all life.
When we are dedicated to life, when we nurture and foster it, we become witness to and agents of mini-resurrections that adumbrate the ultimate resurrection.
Many years ago, I was pastor of one of our Dominican parishes. I used to teach religion to the eighth graders. Every day as I approached my classroom, I found myself walking next to a seventh grade boy who never talked or played with anyone. His mother died a few years before, and his father was never really there for him. He was alone and very shy. Each day I would call him by name and say hello. Each day he lowered his head and said nothing. I'll never forget the morning he came along side me, and before I could say anything, exclaimed, "I got a dog yesterday!" He connected. He reached out to me. For me, that was a mini-resurrection.
Yes, resurrections happen all the time when we have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts that love. "I am the resurrection and the life," proclaims Jesus. Jesus is with us always.
of Prior Provincials
Bologna, Italy
July 13th - August 4th 1998
MEN AND WOMEN IN MISSION TOGETHER
34. 1. The Order of Preachers is proud of its tradition and legacy which includes Friars, Cloistered Nuns, vowed religious women, and lay men and women. While other Chapters have referred to the dignity of women and our collaboration both with the laity and our sisters, this Chapter believes it is important to say more at this time in our history. Our Order reflects an understanding of mission that has its origin in the life of the Triune God. As a sharing in the divine mission, our Order, in all its unique branches, is both to manifest communion and collaborate in the mission of leading all creation towards communion in the divine life. The friars do not monopolize the vocation, nor the charism, nor do they hold 'pride of place' in the Order founded by St. Dominic. The mission holds the 'pride of place,' while every branch realizes this vocation in the manner proper to it. We, together, constitute the Order and together realize its whole mission.
2. Thus, the most complete manifestation of our total identity is in our collaboration together. This collaboration includes praying together, mutual planning, decision making, and the execution of projects in mutual and equal complementarity. These projects include such fields as ministries of prayer, preaching, teaching, pastoral leadership, justice and peace, mass media, research and writing, as well as in the promotion of vocations and formation.
3. We are aware that this consciousness calls for a conversion of mentalities on the part of everyone, and will be only gradually realized. Often friars of the Order have treated the sisters and the laity solely as objects of their pastoral care rather than as peers in their apostolic mission. Failure to listen to the laity has created a dependency of the lay chapters on a friar, thereby impeding the development of their own self-responsibility. Failure to recognize the apostolic capacities of Dominican Sisters has negatively affected the mission of the friars as well. Further, we believe it is important for the friars to examine their image of women and what is conveyed to others by our speech and behavior. If we listened to the brothers and analyzed attitudes, reactions, spontaneous reflections of speech, we would be surprised to note that our masculine and ecclesiastical world carries strongly contrasting images of women. We ask pardon for all the instances of condescending and destructive attitudes and action on the part of the friars. For many Chapters now, the Order has called us to this conversion.
4. Lay men and women offer a unique vision of preaching and living the Gospel because of their total insertion into society with all of its secular, economic, and political realities. They are able to live shoulder to shoulder with men and women with whom our religious brothers and sisters will hardly have contact. The friars and sisters need their vision and expertise. In addition, women bring a distinctive vision and sensibility which we can learn from and which isessential to save the soul of an age in risk of losing its soul. Women are the principal educators and nurturers of the children of the world, so their critical formative needs to be acknowledged and valued more highly. In a world characterized by social and religious fragmentation, women are often models of solidarity in families and society, transcending forces that create division.
5. Our contemplative nuns are at the heart of the mission of the Order. By their way of life, they proclaim to all that God is capable of totally captivating the human heart. At the same time, their prayer is a cry that the word proclaimed by the preachers may be received by the world. Their hospitality to their brothers and sisters of the Order strengthens fraternal bonds and stirs up a deeper faith and more fervent prayer. Sharing their liturgical prayer with God's people and offering an oasis of peaceful retreat and study is fundamental to the mission of the Order.
6. We encourage Dominicans from all branches of the Order to claim their identity as preachers. Furthermore, we ask all members to prepare themselves for this preaching and to take advantage of every opportunity. We are aware that the exclusion of women from ordained ministry and consequently from preaching the homily at the Eucharist is a painful experience for many. At the same time, we are also aware that the debate itself on the ordination of women is painful for many. While remaining respectful of the Church's Magisterium, we are convinced that our Order is called to find creative ways to release the fullness of our preaching charism. We owe it to Veritas÷the Dominican goal of truth÷to advance the theological and ecclesiological dimensions of this question.
7. It is crucial for us to note that, through our baptism and in a special manner through our Dominican commitment, all members of the Order participate without distinction in the common priesthood of the faithful. We ask all our brothers who exercise an ordained ministry in the Church to understand it as a service to this common priesthood lived in charity and without claims to power.
8. While we Friars desire to do all we can to collaborate with other branches of the Order, we encourage, in so far as is financially possible, all branches to be formed deeply in the theological traditions of the Church and the Order. Otherwise, collaboration will remain unbalanced.
9. Having said all this, the great challenge that lies before us is addressing in our concrete situation the many injustices that are still major issues for all of society, but which cause particular burdens for women and children: economic issues, health care services, violence, discrimination, disempowerment, and lack of fundamental dignity, equality, resources, and opportunity. Addressing those issues requires that we stand in solidarity with our sisters, that we listen to their voices, concerns, and challenges, and that we engage in genuine dialogue with an open spirit, so that together we can understand, address, and change attitudes and structures of male dominance, lingering feudalism, and systematic discounting of womenâs gifts and leadership.
Fr. Jerry Stookey, O.P., who has served the Province as Vicar Provincial since the 1994 Provincial Chapter, was asked in November, 1998 to serve as a member of the General Curia in Rome as General Promoter of the Dominican Laity, effective July 1, 1999. As General Promoter of the Dominican Laity, he will be responsible for carrying out the tasks laid down by the General Chapter of Bologna (1998), i.e., building up international networks of the Dominican Laity throughout the world.
HAPPENINGS AROUND THE CHAPTERS
BAY CITY, MI BL. JOHN DOMINICI CHAPTER
Final Profession: Kathryn Dawson
Sick: Louann Adcock's mother
Deceased: Thelma Brown; Ann Stevens and her daughter; Helen Doreyâs daughter
CHICAGO, IL ST. PIUS V PROCHAPTER
Deceased: Irene Bloodgood
DENVER, CO ST. DOMINIC CHAPTER
This chapter is using Psalms 2000 by Mark Link, S.J. as their study program.
FARMINGTON HILLS, MI THE BLESSED SACRAMENT CHAPTER
Received: Ed Kolodziej on December 13, 1998
Sick: Marie Gannon, Georgina McDermit, Barbara Norton
GRAND RAPIDS, MI ROSARY CHAPTER
Sick: Virginia Vipondâs husband
Deceased: Edward Eizel
MILWAUKEE, WI QUEEN OF THE ROSARY CHAPTER
Sick: Karen Sabourinâs mother, Florence
This chapter is studying the Acts of the Apostles from Beginnersâ Guide to Bible Sharing, Volume 1 by John Burke, O.P.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN HOLY ROSARY CHAPTER
Congratulations: James Longie who made profession as a lay Dominican in 1939, sixty years ago
Final Profession: Helen Kessler on Oct. 31, 1998
Sick: Loretta Dufour; Lydia Kolhoff; Mary Lawler; Florence Walker's daughter-in-law, Janine
Deceased: Mildred Parsons and Mary Sullivan
This chapter is studying fr. Timothy Radcliffeâs, "A Life of Prayer"
RIVER FOREST, IL ST. VINCENT FERRER CHAPTER
Sick: Jill O'Brien's sister, Judith Heyworth
ROCKFORD, IL ST. PETER MARTYR CHAPTER
Sick: John Osborne
SPRINGFIELD, IL OUR LADY OF THE SACRED HEART CHAPTER
Received: Barbara Blankenship, Lillian and Maurice DeMeyer, and Marie Harper on Feb. 28, 1999
Sick: Candace Randolph's father, Charles
OUR PRIVATE MEMBERS
Sick: John Cermak, Burbank, IL; Ruth Lewis and her parents
Deceased: Mary Gibbons, Springfield, IL; Ernestine Herrera, Albuquerque NM; Ed OâRourke, Portage, WI; Frances Marrin, St. Cloud, MN; Bridget McAuliffe, Naperville, IL; Helen Meeham, St. Paul, MN; Rosina Rokoski, Minneapolis, MN; Helen Schneider, East Lansing, MI; Mary Ann Shanahan, Springfield, IL; and Beatrice Tonra, Lemont, IL
PRAYERS REQUESTED FOR:
Our Dominican Friars during their Provincial Assembly and Elective Chapter starting on May 30, 1999, in River Forest, IL
Our lay Dominican brothers and sisters in Michigan and Northern Illinois as they gather for the election of their delegates to represent them at the Dominican Laity Provincial Council.
From Albuquerque, NM, Lucille Silva Turrietta, O.P. graciously sends this tribute to her friend and fellow lay Dominican, Ernestine, who passed away peacefully at home with her Dominican friends around her, the same friends who had cared for her in her last two months at home and in the hospital.
"She was always ready to help anyone who needed her," Lucille writes. "Ernieâs house was always the stay-over place for [Dominican] nuns visiting Albuquerque for a day or a few days·. Ernie was a Eucharistic Minister and took Communion to the shut-ins in her parish·.When she couldnât come to our meetings when our Chapter was active, she was busy with the work of the Lord taking Communion, [but did so] silently, no noise about it."
Earlier in her life, Ernie and her husband helped at a convent in Arizona, where the nuns worked with the Indians. She also volunteered for many years at the Dominican nunsâ Barrett House for Homeless Women.
In Loving Memory of Mary Gibbons
From Springfield, IL, Carolyn Short, O.P. shares with us news of the passing of Mary Gibbons (1896-1998). She writes, "Mary was educated at the boarding school operated by our dear Dominican Sisters of Springfield, and was admitted into the Dominican third order. Early in her life, she moved to Paris, IL and served as a teacher assistant to the Dominicans at the local school and the housekeeper/secretary of the parish church for over forty years."
A well-respected priest of the diocese describes Mary as a remarkable woman, especially devoted to Our Lady. He further remarks, "I judge that we, who knew her, and all the world are a little happier, holier, and more blessed because of having done so. Go forth, O Christian Soul in the name of God who created you! Alleluia! All is well that ends well. Amen!"
James Longie is celebrating sixty years as a professed lay Dominican. A member of the Holy Rosary Chapter, Minneapolis, MN, he was honored in the summer of 1988 for his contributions to the community. Our Challenge described him thusly: "James (Chief Blackbird) Longie, a Cree Chippewa chief, was awarded the Hennepin County Outstanding Senior Citizen Award. Jim founded a halfway house, helped at a food bank, advocated minority employment, presided over the Upper Midwest American Indian Center and, has been a writer and radio announcer. He is the father of six, grandfather of 25 and great-grandfather of nine."
Wilfred (Bill) Hureau is currently the Vice-Moderator of the St. Vincent Ferrer Chapter in River Forest, IL. He writes: "My quest for identity began in 1946, when I met a Dominican priest at a Memphis psychiatric military hospital, where I played in the hospitalâs band. (I presume the medics thought that musicians could provide therapy. It turned out to be true.) After conversation with him, I decided to take his advice and talk to the registrars at Providence College, RI, who accepted my application to become a divinity student."
Other life decisions intervened during this interim between post-war blues and Korea, and Bill again found himself not knowing what to make of his life. He left Army Officer Candidate School within six weeks of commission.
Bill continues, "[However,] I found Mrs. Right in San Antonio, TX, married, and found duty with the Navyâs School of Music as an instructor. [I] was ordered to Korea with duty in the 2nd Infantry Division, doing combat service for the last six months of the War, and earning my Combat Infantrymanâs Badge the hard way."
"Five sons and the ravages of time found me and my growing family in Wurzburg, Germany, where military duty was far more tense than Korea had ever been. The air was dense with fear of Russians with cameras busy with filling film pointing at everything military they could get their eyes on. The 3rd Infantry Division had the responsibility of patrolling zones between East and West, where it was deemed possible the Communists would come through."
"In 1963, my family and I returned to the United States because [of my wifeâs] cancer. In October of 1964, I decided Iâd had enough [of life in military service] and put in my papers for retirement. And thatâs when I heard the voice for the second time...âGo find the Dominicans!â I found them in Washington, stated my case; they sent the Dominican shield, a Little Office of the Blessed Virgin and a BLACK scapular.·My kids couldnât tell how I could recite prayers out of a tiny little prayer book, but I did. I got out of the service and earned my teaching credentials."
Bill has his Master of Music Education degree and is a violinist and violist who has performed at chapel. In addition, he is a singer, who is proficient in church music. He currently resides in Woodridge, IL.
(Editorâs note: It is fascinating to learn about our fellow lay Dominicans, but I need your help! Please send me your autobiography or a biography you have written of a fellow lay Dominican. Watch upcoming issues of Challenge for more Biographies. Chapter secretaries, please consider sending me a copy of your chapter minutes. I will be happy to include your information in HAPPENINGS AROUND THE CHAPTERS. You can contact me at: Mary Lee Odders, O.P.; P. O. Box 85451; Racine, WI 53408-5451 or e-mail: oplaity@mac.domcentral.org May God bless you for your generosity.)
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- Dominican Liturgical Calendar
- Also online at: http://www.op.org/domcentral/life/99ordo.htm
April
Holy Thursday
Good Friday
Holy Saturday
EASTER SUNDAY (S),
Hours Week I
5 - Monday, Octave of Easter (S)
- St. Vincent Ferrer, priest (M)
6 - Tuesday, Octave of Easter (S)
7 - Wednesday, Octave of Easter (S)
8 - Thursday, Octave of Easter (S)
9 - Friday, Octave of Easter (S)
10 - Saturday, Octave of Easter (S)
- Bl. Anthony Neyrot, priest/martyr
11 - 2nd Sunday of Easter (S),
Hours Week II
13 - Bl. Margaret of Castello, lay Dominican
14 - Bl. Peter Gonzalez, priest
17 - Bl. Clara Gambacorta, religious
- Bl. Maria Mancini, religious
18 - 3rd Sunday of Easter,
Hours Week III
19 - St. Joseph (S)
- Bl. Isnard of Chiampo, priest
- Bl. Sibyllina Biscossi, lay Dominican
20 - St. Agnes of Montepulciano (M)
25 - 4th Sunday of Easter, Hours Week IV
27 - Bl. Osanna of Kotor, lay Dominican
29 - St. Catherine of Siena, lay Dominican/ doctor (F)
30 - St. PiusV, friar/pope (M)
May
2 - 5th Sunday of Easter,
Hours Week I
4 - Bl. Emily Bicchieri, religious
7 - Bl. Albert of Bergamo, lay Dominican
8 - Patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary
9 - 6th Sunday of Easter,
Hours Week II
10 - St. Antoninus of Florence, bishop (M)
12 - Bl. Jane of Portugal, religious
13 - THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD (S)
- Bl. Imelda Lambertini, religious
15 - Bl. Andrew Abellon, priest
- Bl. Giles of Portugal, priest
16 - 7th Sunday of Easter,
Hours Week III
19 - Bl. Francis Coll Guitart, priest
21 - Bl. Columba of Rieti, religious
- Bl. Hyacinth-M. Cormier
23 - PENTECOST SUNDAY (S),
Hours Week IV
24 - Translation of Our Holy Father Dominic (M)
27 - Bl. Andrew Franchi, bishop
28 - Bl. Mary Bartholomew Bagnesi, lay Dominican
29 - Bl. William Arnaud, priest, & Companions, martyrs
30 - THE HOLY TRINITY (S),
Hours Week I
- Bl. James Salomonio, priest
June
2 - Bls. Sadoc, priest, & Companions, martyrs
4 - St. Peter of Verona, priest/martyr (M)
6 - THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST (S),
Hours Week II
8 - Bls. Diana and Cecilia, religious (OM) Hours Week I
10 - Bl. John Dominic, bishop (OM)
11 - THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS (S)
12 - Bl. Stephen Bandelli, priest 7- Bl. Benedict XI, pope
13 - 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time,
Hours Week III
18 - Bl. Osanna of Mantua, lay Dominican martyrs (M)
20 - 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time,
Hours Week IV
- Bl. Margaret Ebner, religious (M) Memorial
23 - Bl. Innocent V, pope
24 - THE BIRTH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST (S)
27 - 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time,
July
4 - Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, lay Dominican
8 - Bl. Adrian Fortescue, lay Dominican/martyr
9 - St. John of Cologne, priest, & Companions
(S) Solemnity (F) Feast (M) Memorial (OM) Optional Memorial
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Mary Lee Odders OP Editor
P O Box 85451
Racine WI 53408-5451
E-mail: mailto:oplaity@mac.domcentral.org