‘Thick’ Talk in Initial Membership
by Mary Ann Nelson, OP
You are invited to pray each day for the novices at the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate this year. They include (clockwise from top left) Sisters Ashley Gonzalez (Adrian), Gail Jagroop (Sinsinawa), Seniada Rivera (Tacoma), and Ginny Braniff (Houston).
Ever present God,
We thank you for the call to mission
as Dominican women.
Deepen in us our discipleship in the Word of God.
Empower us to contemplate the Word in prayer,
integrate it within every aspect of our life,
and preach it to the world.
Continue to bless us with new members
who have a passion for your Word
and the prophetic courage to preach it to others.
Shower your graces upon those in the initial process
of becoming Dominican
especially those sharing life and mission
in the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate.
We ask this through the intercession
of our holy father Dominic and our sister Catherine.
Amen.
Many of us have come to treasure opportunities we have for “thick” talk! The Appreciative Inquiry (AI) process and Community Days provided us with a chance for some of those good conversations. We also look for other opportunities to share thick talk in our regions and other community settings where we engage with one another. Our Sisters in Initial Membership are engaged in thick talk this year with several groups of our Sisters.
As part of their non-canonical novitiate program, Srs. Christine Walcott and Priscilla Torres will be studying the Constitution with our Sisters in Spokane and San Antonio. Both groups are using a study guide I prepared for each section of the Constitution. It includes quotations on the particular topic and provocative questions for conversation. This study guide, called The Living Constitution, is available to you as well, for your personal or communal reflection and sharing. If you are interested, please contact Mary Ellen Schonhoff by e-mail at mschonho@sinsinawa.org or by phone at (608) 748-4411, ext. 279.
The first bimonthly gathering of our Sisters in temporary profession in the United States―Anne Sur, OP, and Tanya Williams, OP―was full of thick talk about community life. Joined this time by our Sisters Marce Connelly, OP, Joan Duerst, OP, Elaine LaCanne, OP, Maureen McPartland, OP, and Pat Tyson, OP, we shared stories of life-giving community experiences. We then talked about what makes for a healthy community life, what community life is and what it isn’t necessarily (including living under one roof), and the place of community life in our future. This conversation took us from our experience to naming what is vitally important to us and what we hope for and desire, as well as our concerns. We ended with a myriad of interconnected questions that surfaced for us about our future, the Church, Jesus, creating healthy community, our life as witness, being Dominican today, developing common ministry, the role geography plays in being Dominicans of Sinsinawa, and how our evolution as women over the last 40 years changed our perceptions and expectations of community life. And there was so much more. It was simple, truthful conversation where each person had a chance to speak and to feel heard because each was also committed to listening deeply. One of the benefits of ministry in Initial Membership is that I have the privilege of being part of these conversations. They deepen and enrich our relationships as they connect us in the present and move us into the future. In the words of Margaret Wheatley, “When we talk about things that matter to us, the world begins to change.”