This article is one in a series of six featuring Dominican Volunteers USA (DVUSA) living with communities of Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters. DVUSA Ann Marie Castleman lives at the House of Connections, Chicago, IL.
By Ann Marie Castleman
Ann Marie Castleman (left) protests the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Little Village, a
neighborhood near the
House of Connections.
This volunteer year has been one of proclaiming Gospel values in a manner truly Dominican. With a focus on responding to the “needs of our sisters and brothers, especially those who are poor and marginalized,” I struggle to live out the Gospel as Jesus himself did through my ministry and community life, as well as to personally and communally pray and study.
Perhaps one aspect of this volunteer year that I most appreciate is living with Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters. Aside from getting to know each Sister personally, I have enjoyed the fact that the Sisters have become for me a modern manifestation of the Catholic Church―one of the best manifestations of which I have become aware. They are intelligent, talented, beautiful, spiritual women who represent what is good about the Church as an open, inclusive, hospitable, forward-thinking community of faith-filled believers who serve God and humanity.
In addition to the Sisters and my community, my ministry site―the Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues―has allowed me to see that I, too, can participate in building a holy and just society. By allowing me the opportunity to struggle alongside low-wage and immigrant workers seeking to create just working conditions, I am able to use my power and privilege as a middle-class, college-educated, white citizen to struggle in solidarity with marginalized and abused workers who do not fit any of the above-named criteria. Working in this ministry has allowed me to help make that broken part of our society a little more whole, a little less shattered, a little closer to the Kindom of God.
Return to Spectrum March 2008 Index