Catching Fire From Dominic's Vision
Spreading the Fire to Students
Sister Judith Schaefer teaching at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota
Eight hundred years ago, the preaching of the first Dominican Sisters in Prouilhe was done behind cloister walls through prayer that sought to support the spread of the Gospel. Today, as a follower of Dominic and the early Sisters, I spend my life behind “walls of ivy,” and I, too, pray that my work will aid the spread of the Gospel in our time, especially within the Church itself.
As a professor of theology and pastoral ministry at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, I have the privilege and challenge of preparing young people to be youth and pastoral ministers in the Catholic Church. Every year I begin my theology of ministry class, however, with the disclaimer that I honestly have no idea what I am preparing them to do! All I do know is that they will need to be women and men of deep faith, who know the Gospel and live it, and who are utterly flexible. The ministry options that they have now will double by the time they graduate; the Church they love and serve today will have an ever greater need for their voices, their witness, and their service in many yet-to-be discovered ministries.
At the same time, in other parts of the state, men and women with whom my young students will eventually minister are pursuing formal training for their ongoing ministries. As a Catholic professor of theology, I have the privilege of teaching and proclaiming the Gospel in a variety of formation programs for lay ecclesial ministers, permanent deacons, and graduate theology students: each student eager to learn more and to participate in the proclamation of the Gospel through his/her own ministry.
Recently, after teaching an all-day course on the New Testament, one student came up to me and said, “I have been waiting for years for an opportunity to learn about the Scriptures and today it finally happened. Now I can teach better.” A privileged moment for me to learn once again that the Gospel speaks in all ages, to all ages, when we humbly proclaim it, step aside, and set it loose.
Sister Judith K. Schaefer, OP St. Mary’s University of Minnesota Winona, MN