A Day of Looking Back and Looking Forward

     It was a “bittersweet occasion” as one of the Sisters reflected. This past Sunday, February 12, marked the final Mass celebrated in the Oxford Motherhouse of the Dominican Sisters of Peace, formerly the Dominican Sisters of St. Rose of Lima.  Just four miles from our Monastery of St. Benedict, this community of Sisters and their ministries of teaching, retreat work and pastoral care have been a major spiritual presence in southeast Michigan and beyond for over seventy years.  Literally generations of our monks have shared friendship with our dear neighbors “down the road” and assisting them as confessors, retreat directors, Mass presiders and spiritual directors.  The closing of their convent was necessitated by declining membership and the advanced years of many of the Sisters.

     Presiding at the Sunday Eucharist was Fr. Ronald Kurzawa, an eminent preacher and liturgist of the Archdiocese and long-time friend of the Sisters. Speaking to the congregation which filled the Motherhouse chapel, Fr. Ronald proclaimed that “our God is a God of beginnings, not endings. . .  but often we must make the endings in order to experience the beginnings.”  The Prioress of the Dominican Sisters of Peace, Sr. Patricia Twohill, echoed hopes for a fruitful future and celebrated the friendships that exist and will continue to exist between the Sisters and all who were gathered there.

     With most of our community present for the Mass, we experienced great gratitude for our friendship with the Sisters.  Several of them are moving to an older convent in nearby Waterford where they will minister at the Lourdes Senior Living Community.  And so as we look back at celebrate the long history of these religious women, we also look forward to their remaining part of our lives as we all travel toward the future and many new beginnings!

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For last week's news story, click here.