Articles & Newsletters

This is not your usual prayer book. Earlier this year—on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, to be exact—the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia released a new prayer book entitled A Short Guide to Praying as a Family. This book compiles prayers familiar to most Catholics and brings them together in a way that is intelligent, beautiful, and timeless. Let me tell you how.

As we conclude this month in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we thank the Lord for her maternal care for us and ask that we may continue walking with Mary every day of the year.

“Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you” (James 4:8). St. James reminds us that God is very near to us, and as we grow close to God, our desires are conformed to his. Through the celebration of the Paschal Mystery, we get a glimpse into God’s desire: oneness with us. May the Lord bless you and your family this Easter season and make his presence known to you.

Prayer nurtures the life of the family. It opens hearts, melts away resentments, fosters gratitude, and becomes a fount of grace, peace, and joy for the entire family. A Short Guide to Praying as a Family, written by our sisters as an aid for families who desire to grow in their lives of prayer, is illustrated with photographs of stained-glass windows from many different areas in the world. In simple and engaging language, the book directs families step-by-step in beginning to pray together and in deepening their prayer. Families who have used this book say that they have found especially helpful the sections on how to begin family bedtime prayers, the monthly family meeting, and praying with one’s spouse...

As we continue our Lenten journey in the footsteps of our Savior, may we rely on his strength to sustain our desire and our efforts to be transformed into his image through prayer, penance, and works of mercy.

As we conclude this Catholic Schools Week, we are filled with gratitude for the gift of Catholic schools and renewed in our efforts to provide young people with an education permeated by the Gospel and centered on the Person of Jesus Christ. May St. Thomas Aquinas, Dominican friar and patron of Catholic schools, guide us in all of our studies and teaching to seek God and to share Him with others.

This fall we especially thank God for allowing the community to establish new houses in Bracciano, Italy and in the Netherlands. We have also had the privilege of accepting the invitation of Bishop Terry Steib of Memphis to send two sisters to join the faculty at St. Benedict’s High School. In addition we are blessed this year to have a sister serving on the Campus Ministry staff at Providence College in Rhode Island, as assistant to the chaplain. This past summer we again witnessed within the community the fruits of God’s call and his fidelity. The celebrations of the Golden and Silver Jubilees; first and final profession of vows, reception of the habit and entrance of new postulants - all of these were occasions of “a delightful and comforting joy.” God gives new life and nurtures the growth of his Word within us, so that we might become spiritual mothers, spending ourselves for the sake of the Gospel…