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Saints in the Parish
Sainthood isn't optional | Conversations on holiness, vocation, and the Catholic life.
Saints in the Parish
Sister Josefa Reveals Her Calling to the Dominican Order - (Ep. 115)
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Sister Josefa is a Dominican Sister.
Fr. Steve had the pleasure of sitting down with her and interviewing her about her vocation, the Dominican vocation process, and how to promote religious vocations.
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Father Steve Williams here, another episode of Saints in the Parish Podcast. We're always happy to bring these podcasts to you. Their podcasts are totally oriented toward people that are in the pews. So we're happy to have with us some Dominican sisters. They're in town to help us with our vacation Bible school, which is wonderful. And so I'm gonna let uh Sister introduce herself and tell us a little bit about herself.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you, Father. My name is Sister Josepha, and I'm a member of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. It's a longer name, but we're based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and our main apostle is teaching. So it's been a great joy to be here at the Vacation Bible School and to get to teach. Um I grew up in Northwest Ohio, the second of ten children. And so I I'm when I entered in Ann Arbor, I wasn't too far from from where I grew up. But um just to tell you a little bit about my story. Uh so my parents, I don't really know how this ended up happening, but they donated to the sisters, so they became benefactors. And I remember as a a young child, I was very blessed to grow up in a pretty devout Catholic home, and we learned about the saints. So Mother Teresa and Saint Faustina were two of my favorites, and I remember saying their lives are completely devoted to God, and that seems really attractive to me. So even from a young age, I I just had that attraction. It's kind of hard to explain, but just it seemed really neat to be able to devote my whole life to Christ. I uh when my parents became benefactors, the community we received a mailing from them. I'm assuming it was a thank you or you know, an update to let them know how their money had been used. And I also love sports, so I love basketball especially. And I remember seeing a picture of the sisters, uh, they were playing basketball, and I thought, oh my goodness, like this is amazing. I didn't know there's a community that they could dedicate their lives to the Lord and play sports. So kind of from a young age, probably second or third grade, I just knew I wanted to become a Dominican sister and had my heart set on it. Whenever people would ask, I would tell them how I'm gonna be a sister.
SPEAKER_02Now when you go out and play basketball now, do y'all have a uh a habit that's more of an athletic habit, or do you wear the same habit to go to the road?
SPEAKER_00We wear the same habit, okay.
SPEAKER_02I got you. Okay, you if you make it work.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Yeah, yeah. You know, and my try to make my shots too, so it's not you you adjust, but yeah, that's great. That's awesome. So I um love basketball, love Jesus, and I thought that's perfect. So I just had my heart set on it. I definitely went through a time in high school where other things started to be really attractive to me. So like I said, I was the second of ten, so I saw my mom raising our siblings, and I was like, that seems like such a beautiful vocation, and I really wanted to do that. So I actually started uh looking at maybe trying to go into the nursing field uh because I liked that idea of taking care of others and But you didn't like blood. Well, I didn't mind it. Okay, okay, because I don't like blood. I got to work in a nursing home the last year of high school, and I just thought that was the best thing ever. Awesome. Uh, to get to care for the the elderly and to help them. And you just learn so much from them.
SPEAKER_01Mother Teresa, what a great example she was.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I um ended up going on one of our discernment retreats that we have in Ann Arbor. Uh, we have three every year, and they have adoration, and you get to learn about the sisters' life, and I was just so captivated at that retreat. And I ended up entering. I just really felt like this is where I'm gonna be at peace and happy and just the joy of the sisters, too. I thought it would kind of fade when I left the retreat, but it just kept getting stronger, and so I was able to enter soon after that.
SPEAKER_02So we just had a bunch of uh junior high kids going to retreat this past weekend, and so they were coming home and they were here today, and so a bunch of them came up to me and tell me if they liked it. They said we loved adoration so much. We just loved adoration so much. And I'm like, okay, if you're in the seventh grade and you're love eighth grade and you're loving adoration, that's a great sign. That's a good sign. So it's amazing what Christ can do, the Eucharist, isn't it? Um, so um, so you entered the order and and tell us about how long it takes to take. I know you take simple vows, but and you take final vows, but uh I mean to help our our our our people understand that a little bit.
SPEAKER_00That's a great question. So when we enter, we have one year called postulancy. Okay, and it comes from the la Latin word to ask. So we actually don't enter with the habit. Um we wear uh like a blue skirt and vest, and uh we spend that year just asking the Lord, are you really calling me to this? And you're living the life, you're with the sisters, but um you you are still discerning that in a very um impactful way.
SPEAKER_02And it's kind of a two-way street. So it's you seeing if you feel like you have a call, but it's also them seeing if you fit into their into their their order, and you see what I'm saying. So it's kind of the Lord seeing if this is right for you too, right?
SPEAKER_00Definitely, yes. You if you're gonna spend your whole life, you want to make sure that that's a place you're gonna be able to flourish and and to really grow in your consecration. So you have that time uh to be able to discern that more fully and the sisters take such good care of the new sisters and welcoming them into the life. And after the first year, uh you receive the habit and a new name. And so then we uh have the white veil with the habit and you're a novice. And we do two years as a novice, and that's a a more radical way of living our life as you continue to ask this question of is God calling me to profess vows? So you learn more about the religious life and you're living it uh more fully. And then after three years, you can make first vows. Uh so you we professed vows for uh temporary vows first. So when I went through, I professed vows for two years, and then after those two years, I renewed for three more. And then last summer I professed my final vows. Final vows.
SPEAKER_02So it's totally when you get the black have the black veil?
SPEAKER_00At the at your first vows.
SPEAKER_02First vows. Okay. Yes, you get received the black vows. So when you're all together, you kind of know who the sisters that are. That's nice. That's a nice way to do it. I think that's a really nice way to do it. That's that's awesome. So uh so you want a really crazy question? Here we have to ask a few crazy questions. They know me and they know ask a few crazy questions. Have y'all ever like like have you ever like done a study of all the sisters that are there and uh and figured out a couple of common threads, like for instance, how many come from big families or things like that? I mean, y'all ever kind of do some common threads?
SPEAKER_00We do get to we do get to know each other, and that's one of the beautiful parts about religious life, is just getting to know, you know, the people God calls me aren't just random people. They're real people who've come from real backgrounds and and families. I think the one thing that does seem to come out pretty often is is sisters who were really able to grow in a Catholic environment where they were taught the value of the gift of self. So I know for me that was really impactful to see my parents sacrifice for my siblings. And you know, when you're one of ten, not everything's about you. And so being able for me to learn to take care of my siblings. So I think that is a common thread of sisters being able to see whether it was in their parents or priests that they knew, they had like that witness of the gift of self and the generosity.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, how important is that? I was um I was in college many, many, many years ago, and um and China came out with a a rule that they can only the families can only have one child. And um, I wrote a paper and did a study on how you know how bad how horrible that was, you know, for a lot of reasons. First of all, you're you know, you're aborting all the other children if they do get pregnant, which uh, you know, but they the fact that you only had one child, and I I was uh so we're talking about the you know late 70s and 80s when this happened. And uh I remember the Vatican was very much against it, the church was very much against it, you know, and no one else was. Everybody else was like, this is great, we're gonna stop the world's population from grow out growing, you know, whatever. And then, okay, so uh here we are, you know, 40, 50 years later, and they see what a huge problem it is now, right? Because they had two generations of only one child per family. And not only did they not have enough people to support, you know, the economy, you see, I mean, just on a pure business level, yeah, but then they also, those children were the only children in the family, and they ended up being kind of spoiled by two parents and four grandparents. So you can imagine if this happened over two generations, you see what I'm saying? Well, you know, so now they've kind of reversed their and really wanting more and more children now, right? I mean, isn't it? They've reversed their, you know, ideology, you know, and now wow, and I'm like, okay, hey, excuse me, can some of us get a, you know, we told you so on that? I mean, would you not think that through? But uh, but and and and even let the Lord be the one that kind of you know helps you, but obviously communistic country, they don't, you know, believe in the Lord. So it's really sad, you know, but how important is that in our world today, you know, the family life, prayer life, devotion, you know, so so vitally important. So um if you if some if one asks you how you would encourage vocations, what are some ideas that you might have or think of that would encourage some vocations?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I think there are two things that kind of come to my mind, and I guess they both pertain to my story and kind of how I discovered my vocation, but I've noticed it here with the children too at the Vacation Bible School is teaching the children the lives of the saints. I just remember being so inspired, like these are normal men and women who have stories and have families, and they did something remarkable. And uh teaching the children about their relics, they're just so enamored, they just can't get over like the bones of the saints are here among us, and uh so teaching the kids about the saints, and and the beautiful thing about the saints' lives is that they're all so varied. So it's it's showing children, you know, you could be called to marriage, and that is a really holy vocation. And here are saints who did that well, or religious life or the priesthood, or being a brother. Um St.
SPEAKER_02Lawrence is an incredible story, and of course, and we have some relics of St. Lawrence, of course, in our church. And we have relics of Peter and Paul. We have quite a few relics, you know, of different saints. Now, um, so you're inspired by Mother Teresa. Have you ever had the opportunity to watch the movie The Letters?
SPEAKER_00I I've seen a movie on her. I'm not sure which one it was. It makes me.
SPEAKER_02So if you ever get a chance, so it's it's I really encourage many of you to watch The Letters. Um, I I I it it could be in my top three best movies just because Mother Teresa is so inspiring. But uh I think what uh she was doing what you were doing, she was teaching high school students. Um and she would look out her window and she would see the poor out, you know, because they would come to the convent. She was teaching kind of the more wealthy kids that could afford to go to a school, you know, her order, and then she would look out and see they would come and beg for food. And so she would go out and give them some food. And her her the mother superior was like, no, we don't really want to encourage that because we don't want to have the vagrants around all the time. And so she eventually just said, I want to leave the leave for a year and just go out and just feed the poor. And that's what she did. And so the most moving part of the movie for me was when uh four or five of the girls that she had taught came to bring her some food to give out to the poor and to bring her some medical supplies and bring her some stuff. And the young girls, these were high school girls, they said, Well, we want to stay with you. And she says, No, you your parents don't want you to, and you know, so y'all need to go home. They said, No, we want to, we want to stay with you. We want to join you, we want to be with you in doing what you're doing. That was really to me, that was kind of the beginning of you know, her founding the order, you know, getting some girls that helped her do the you know thing. Now, the other part for all the people I was with the movie, we said we said, Well, what was your favorite part? What was your favorite? What was your favorite? Someone said their favorite part was when she became a mother, reverend mother at the and the order was, you know, was um um you know first established. First established by the church, right? I understand the, you know, so anyway, it's a good movie, and and she is so inspiring. And I had the opportunity, of course, meet her in my life. So wow, it was, you know, really she really inspiring. Um person.
SPEAKER_00And I think that the image or that scene that you highlighted is kind of in an analogous way, kind of how I discern religious life. It's like, oh my goodness, I want to join her, you know. God did not call me to the missionaries of charity, but you know, she was still an impetus of inspiring me to follow Christ.
SPEAKER_02She would probably love very much what you're doing, you know.
SPEAKER_00She was my confirmation saint too. So I think she helped me end up in religious life.
SPEAKER_02So that's what uh the saints do for us. It's a cloud of witnesses that really do provide a lot of grace for us in our lives. So I want to thank you for your vocation. Um, let you know that we do pray for uh we pray for all religious and uh priests and out deacons out there in the world. It's very important for us to pray. And so we just ask the Lord to be with us and uh to help us to grow closer to Him through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary. So uh I want to thank all of you for watching, take an opportunity to watch the podcast. Uh, you can go back and uh and look in the history of the podcast, catch an episode of just about anything you want to, because we have a wide variety of subjects that we talk about. So uh take advantage of that opportunity and go back and a lot of most of this doesn't change. But if you leave us a comment, it does help us. Because uh leave us a comment. Again, be nice, be kind, um, and uh and it'll help us in the future of programming. So thank you and God bless.