Nourishment for Good News

I never imagined that once I joined the Dominicans I would return to my hometown to live. Every place I have been called/sent has been an adventure—Suburbs of big cities, alternative school in Omaha, subsidized housing in Tulsa, Trinidad and Tobago, between black towns and white suburbs in Mississippi.  Each has been a place of learning and caring.  Each place and now Madison has been a place of community.  

“Community” sounds like such an ideal place.  And yet It has both blessings and tensions.  We ourselves are blessing and tension.  Learning from each one gives us experience needed to live in a neighborhood, a parish community, a city of challenges, a polarized nation.

I am looking at the back yard, where I brought the commercial composter from 3 other places where I lived in Madison. Each place had its challenges and blessings.  Each place had banana peels and vegetable leftovers to compost and turn into nourishment for garden or flowerpot.

Community life composts the blessings and tensions and turns them into nourishment for preaching the Good News of God

What is community for you?  Might God be calling you to Dominican community?

Joan Duerst OP
Madison, WI


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