She Has Been A Dominican Sister For 60 Years (Sr. Mary Samuel) - Ep. 114

Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist: https://www.sistersofmary.org/

Sr. Mary Samuel has been a Dominican Sister for 60 years.

She is a founding member of the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist.

In this episode, Sr. Mary Samuel talks about her vocation to religious life and what you can do to encourage vocations to the religious life!

Reach out to Donald Paul!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donaldpaulmaddox/

📚SHOP BOOKS IN THE STUDIO:
Ignatius Press Study Bible (Personal Size): https://amzn.to/4bS3K0q
Catechism of the Catholic Church: https://amzn.to/3NFWb53
I Believe in Love: https://amzn.to/4sGff2i
Confessions (Tan Classics): https://amzn.to/48cMu4V
An Introduction to the Devout Life (Tan Classics): https://amzn.to/4sCUnZT
St. Gregory's Prayer Book: https://amzn.to/4deriPA

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu_uB2bUoOVGC6grNuTJ5Ag

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Father Steve Williams here with Saints in the Parish. Always happy to bring another podcast to you. We're sister, we're happy to have a Dominican sister with us here. We have several sisters here with us for Vacation Bible School at St. Lawrence, which is really wonderful. And so we're happy to have her on our podcast for a wide variety of reasons. First of all, we pray for vocations all the time in our parish. We pay for religious vocations. We pray for vocations to the priesthood. And so we really do want to encourage vocation. So this is a good opportunity to say thank you, sister, for your vocation. And uh it's also a wonderful opportunity to listen to your story because I think a lot of times people are inspired by hearing our stories of how we came to walk with the Lord. And uh so that'll be inspirational. And then maybe uh maybe we can get some ideas of parents and grandparents that are watching this podcast. I suspect there aren't too many young people watching this podcast, but a lot of parents and grandparents will be watching it, and then they might can encourage um their children or grandchildren to consider a religious vocation. So with that, uh I'll I'm gonna allow you to just kind of introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you, tell us a little bit about your order.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Okay. Well, I'm Sister Mary Samuel Handworker. Excuse me. So I was raised in Memphis, Tennessee, and um I'm from a large family. I have seven brothers, younger than I, and uh two sisters. And um, so we were raised in a very Catholic and faithful home, you know, faithful mom and dad. Uh we went, my brothers went to a boys' school, and uh my sisters and I went to a girls' academy in Memphis, uh St. Thomas. And at the academy where I was going were the Nashville Dominicans. Right. And uh so I I knew the sisters, they were very friendly, they were very interested, and I played a lot of sports and had all those brothers, and they would come to our to the gym to watch some of our uh our games, and then if they didn't come, the next day they'd ask, they were just interested in uh how we did. So, and then they didn't, you know, I helped drive them around if they had to go somewhere, so they I would you know stop over Saturday, Sunday and drive them somewhere. So I was uh familiar and very comfortable with the sisters, and then I uh at uh the school, you know, I think it's very important that you have a devotion, uh certainly a prayer devotion, you know. So that's kind of how you feed your vocation. And we would go uh after at lunchtime, the convent was next to the school, and then next to the convent was the side door of the chapel of the of the church. And we would go over after lunch and then go into the side door of the uh church, and there was the Blessed Mother, beautiful Blessed Mother statue there. You know, so we you know, I remember going in there every day and praying and just saying, you know, uh Mary, help me to know what I'm supposed to be doing. You know, it was very simple, saying the hell Mary, and then you know, go out and go and play ball or do something like that. So you were in high school at the same time. I was in high school, so that was all through high school, and then you know, a lot of my uh friends and my girlfriends that time that that were at the academy, uh, we would do that. Um so we had uh a sodality, which we had a great love for the Blessed Mother. So I think having that devotion to Mary and having that uh desire to pray and to uh very simple prayer, just the Hail Mary of you know, helping me to know what I'm supposed to be doing and and the witness of the sisters. They were happy and they were joyful and they were interested in us. So um then I went on from high school into uh Sienna College, which is run by the Kentucky Dominicans. So I was surrounded by Dominicans and uh was there for two years and then uh we're really called. So I the vocation is a supernatural grace that he is calling you to come. And it's not something like, well, I gotta figure out I'm gonna go do this or that. You know, you you feel that that that yearning to want to give yourself.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Yeah, I like supernatural, although uh when we when a lot of people think about supernatural, they're thinking about Superman or something like that. It's it basically just means it's uh it's it goes above the natural as we would know it. Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

I mean, so it's not some, you know, like a natural grace, actual grace, this is the supernatural. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

So that's important for us to understand that as the way God works. I mean, uh you know, we often think about the Eucharist being consecrated. Obviously, it's above the natural order. We think about uh other times that we've received that grace in our lives. So so and so how long have you been a sister?

SPEAKER_01 4:58

I've been a sister sixty years. Sixty? Yeah, sixty years. Well, okay. So it's been a wonderful, wonderful life. Uh God bless you. God bless you. The the religious life is certainly a gift. And it's uh and coming from a large family and and loving my family, and uh all of my younger brothers used to take them to the club, go swimming or go find a treat someplace, or you know, and so I knew I was leaving a lot, you know. So it's like, okay, I'm bargaining with God. He said, You leave everything, you know. I got a hundredfold weighting. I thought you better have a hundredfold because this is a lot to give up.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

And it was um so you know, I I and but I had friends of the sisters in the convent, so that helped too. So they were, you know, they had were studying with me at Siena College, so I I knew them and was friendly with them and would write them. So it wasn't like you were entering something that you didn't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

And what type of apostolates have you had over these years?

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Yeah, I've been uh I've been in administration, so I've been principal for a number of different schools, uh teaching all the grades, different grades, uh, and then um particularly running uh small um primary schools like four, five, and six-year-olds, just that. And you know, take ten fours, ten fives, ten six and up on a mountain in Signal Mountain, Tennessee, and that was all that you had, and it was wonderful, you know, but that age group, and then got into uh elementary school, and then I was a principal in Memphis at a a new school, it was uh St. Benedict at Auburn. It went from pre-K to 12th grade. So I had to hire 60 faculty and staff members. So, and it was a wonderful experience. It had not been a Catholic school, the the IC bought it, and they had over 600 kids in that school from that. So it was quite a challenge. So I had to get, you know, uh about 40 Catholics, hire 40 Catholic teachers for elementary to high school. So it was a wonderful experience, and we brought the Catholic faith into uh the school, and uh they responded very well to that.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

And those um those charisms are so vitally important. Um I'm sure you've even seen over that time in the schools there kind of a change, you know, in in in the parents or change in the children.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

I mean, you know, just uh we're we're very much fortunate in Ann Arbor where we build our motherhouse. So I was in the Nashville Dominican community for 30 years.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

And separated with three other sisters, and we began a new foundation in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and with the help of Tom Monaghan, who's the owner of Domino's Pizza. And Tom wanted us to um to run Catholic schools, and he said, I'll build the schools and you can have them. So he built four Catholic schools. Wow. Within that so within the the 28 years that we've started a new community, we've had that. So those schools have we asked them to put chapels in it. We have daily mass, and we still have daily mass. Or they should have about 200 kids that are in the super awesome.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

So so um so the Dominican sisters are are kind of have the same rule, you know, in following St. Dominic, you know, so it just depends, you know, the Nashville Dominicans, and it's like different motherhouses.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Right, yeah. So you the Dominicans are worldwide and each congregation is autonomous.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

That's what you call yourself a congregation.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yes, yeah. So you have Kentucky Dominicans, you have Nashville, you have Ann Arbor, solely separate, but still following you know St. Dominic.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

And love each other, and certainly you all realize we're all on the same path. Right. No, that's true. We see them.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

They study the young sisters study together in different universities. Right. In the summertime, they're all in school, so they know each other.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yeah. And that would be true with the Franciscans, the, you know, there'd be that would be true with a lot of the men's religious order, too, you know, like that also. So uh so then the question comes, you know, like in particular, y'all probably do run a lot of girls' schools too.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Well, right now we have mostly co-ed, but so we just went, we don't have any uh separate uh schools that we run just for different sexes.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

So you're encouraging vocations both to the free state and to the religious life. I got you. Okay, good. So so what do you think? You probably see a lot of young ladies interested, and and so what do you think are some things that again our parents or grandparents can do to encourage vocations?

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Well, I think to be able to see the sisters is you know, if we we give we have retreats, we have about three of them a year, and you can have 150 young girls coming. That's wonderful. You know, so they they get to talk with the sisters, sisters run the retreats, and we have, you know, dinner together, lunch together, and we have you know, praise and worship together, and they have all night adoration. So they have a sense of this is what you know we do as religious, aside from the fact that we are in the postulate of teaching. So we're teachers, but to be able to give them that opportunity to come and pray. So I think for parents, um, you know, and for young women, you know, that prayer life is important. Their private prayer life now is important, not waiting to get to a convent to learn how to pray. So it's important that, you know, we we have that inspiration, we have that time we set aside to pray or to go to adoration or to pray in your room, to have religious images, to be able, most of all, I think the most important person to communicate with is with the mother of God. Absolutely. So the blessed mother, you know, to help her, ask her help to give you you know direction. And I think to develop that devotion to Mary, you're gonna know which way to go.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

I even think our Lord wants us to communicate really well with her. Of course. I mean, how much did he love her, and how much did she love him, and how much does she bring us closer to him? You know, so you know, people say, Well, they Mary, I'm like, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. She's a mother of God.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

You know, that they all talk. We talk about this all the time, obviously. And uh, and so um how important she is.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Well, she intercedes. I mean, she intercedes for the at the wedding feet. You know, she intercedes for us. She sees what we need to go to her. She's like a really good mother. Yeah, go to her and uh and and have that love and the devotion and say the rosary. The rosary is a powerful prayer. You know, to pray that because you're you're you're learning the whole gospel. The rosary has all the you know gospels.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Go along with the gospels, yeah. That's right, exactly. And it's also, you know, one of those prayers that's kind of repetitive, so it just kind of flows once you kind of get into it. It just kind of flows, and it really is a beautiful, beautiful prayer.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

And now it is. Pray for us sinners now. That's who we are. And she will, she will intercede for us. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Well, uh, we certainly will keep you in our prayers, and we appreciate you being with us here. Uh we've enjoyed our time here. Um, so uh, so we'll uh we'll look forward to seeing you in the in the future.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Well, thank you, Father. The program here is excellent.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Yeah, they have uh you know the helps a lot of young kids to grow and and and as you mentioned earlier, just the witness value of seeing y'all is it really does mean a whole lot to um the to the children. I often uh I'll run into some children and they're like they've never really seen a religious, you know what I mean? And I'm like, okay, you know, well, it's important for them to have that, you know, value of seeing that.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

So uh we're proud that we're our habits, Father. We're proud that we get stopped all the time, you know, because of the habits and uh people are are open to asking our prayers or just to you know listen to them and their concerns and to pray for them. So, you know, it's a it's a it's it's beautiful to see that.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Yeah, I was uh I was had the wonderful opportunity of walking the Camino about three years ago. Um I I knew I had to do it sooner than later because I was getting a little older and knew I wouldn't be able to do it. So I said, let's this is it, let me do it. And so I you know, we were over there for about three weeks, and I was in my college the whole time, and so many people on the Camino wanted to stop and talk to a priest. And I was like, Well, uh, this is what this is what the Lord has called me to do, and I was so happy to talk to all of them. And good, thank you, Father.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Well, you've been very helpful to us, and it's very witnessing how beautiful your whole parish is here, how alive it is. Yeah, it's this school, this vacation Bible school with what 350 children and volunteers and high school kids, and it's wonderful, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Happy to be here. Thank you. Well, we'll certainly keep you in our prayers, and uh and as always, you can uh like us down below and you can subscribe. You can also leave a comment. Um, the producer and the co host of Saints in Your Paris, Donald Paul Maddox, will answer those questions. I I will I will not answer the questions, but he'll answer them. And we love seeing your comments because then that helps us know maybe what direction we should go in with our future programming. So thank you very much, and God bless you.