For further information on any of the news items listed here, please contact Alice Black, PhD, OPA, Director of Communications & Mission Advancement, at 614-416-1020.
When I reflect on growing up in the south one incident comes to mind immediately. A young associate pastor issued a challenge to members of Young Christian Students attending the public high school in Danville, KY, a segregated town in a segregated state. He challenged students to approach the managers of local restaurants and ask why they did not serve African-Americans. Needless to say, when I followed through with questions my presence was not appreciated. This was my first, up close and personal experience of racism, and served as a catalyst for my involvement in social justice concerns. I continued to see many forms of racism throughout high school. Continue reading →
Sr. Beata (Bea) Tiboldi professed first vows amid a joyous celebration on Saturday, July 11 in the Akron Motherhouse Chapel, OH. Click here for photos.
Sr. Therese Leckert welcomed Bea’s American host family, friends, as well as Sisters and Associates to the Eucharistic Liturgy . With the presider, Rev. Gordon A. Yahner, Sr. Margaret Ormond, OP, Prioress, blessed the congregation with holy water. Readers were Srs. Joye Gros and Megan McElroy (Grand Rapids) Directors of the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate in St. Louis, MO. Associate Madelein Breen led the responsorial psalm. Continue reading →
Sr. Siena Ward, OP, died at the age of 85 on Friday, July 3, 2015, at Regina Health Center, Richfield, OH. She was born to Edward and Sarah Lilly Ward of Youngstown, OH. She graduated from Our Lady of the Elms High School in 1948, entered the Sisters of St. Dominic of Akron, now Dominican Sisters of Peace, on August 24, 1947, and made religious profession on June 20, 1949. Sr. Siena was in her 66th year of religious profession. She earned her BSE from St. John College, Cleveland in 1959. In 1980, she became certified in Clinical Pastoral Education from St. Louis, MO. Continue reading →
Dominican Sister of Peace Theresina Greenwell, OP, died at the age of 92 on July 1, 2015, at Sansbury Care Center in St. Catharine, KY.
Sr. Theresina earned a BA in History and English from Spalding College (Louisville, KY), and two master’s degrees – one in Sociology from Catholic University of America (Washington, DC), and one in Religious Studies from Spalding University (Louisville, KY).
This past two weeks Dominican Sisters and Associates of Peace have celebrated the life, death, and entry into Eternal Life of four of our Sisters: Carmelite Zibilich OP, Theresina Greenwell OP, Aniceta Pitstick OP, Siena Ward OP, and Gemma Doll OP’s Father, Jane Brown OPA’s Mother, plus relatives of several Sisters and Associates.
As a relatively new Congregation uniting Sisters from eight different congregations and cultures, it is both gift and challenge to get to know and appreciate each other. To this end, we gather in Chapter Meetings, yearly or bi-yearly Assemblies, have monthly webcasts by our Leadership Team, share Daily OPPeace E-News and Weekly Associates E-News, and have set up geographic Mission Groups (and a Free Formed one).
When one of our Sisters pass away, I am especially grateful for the practice of Wake services where family, friends, Sisters and Associates have a chance to share memories of the Sister. When I am able to attend these, whether I have personally known the Sister or not, I have always come to appreciate the person through the eyes of those closest to her and/or influenced by her life and ministry, and I come away feeling privileged to belong to this awesome family of Dominican Sisters and Associates of Peace.
Last Saturday, July 11, marked a very special life step for our novice, Beata Tiboldi and for our Congregation as well, as she made her First Profession of Vows as a Dominican Sister of Peace and we welcomed her as a vowed member. This was just two days after we said goodbye to and entrusted our Sr. Siena to God. Both gatherings were celebrations of new LIFE, both a giant leap of FAITH, both graced moments for us to reflect and renew our own gift of self to God and others.
I held all of this in my heart as we sang the Communion Meditation at Bea’s Profession Mass: “How shall I sing to God when life is filled with gladness, loving and birth, wonder and worth? I’ll sing from the heart, thankfully receiving, joyful in believing. This is my song, I’ll sing it with love…How shall I sing to God and tell my Savior’s story: passover bread, life from the dead? I’ll sing with my life, witnessing and giving, risking and forgiving. This is my song, I’ll sing it with love.” – How Shall I Sing to God by Brian Wren.
