That’s a Lot of Remembering…

In April I went to my 50^th class reunion at Dominican College of San Rafael in California.  I had a blast!  I stayed with my friend (of 50 years!), Patty, and her husband, Phil.

Then in June, because I was a transfer student from then Rosary College, later Dominican University, I also went to their reunion.

In between there was a smaller reunion of my classmates from high school.  We celebrated our 50^th reunion in 2014.

  

And then there is a reunion of parish consultants from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in August, to which I’ll also go.

That is a lot of remembering!  Especially when you consider all the 50s in there!

What do you remember?

Are you willing to go back there?

Ruth Poochigian, O.P.

Madison, WI 

Sacred Space—Sacred Time

I am growing in appreciation of both sacred space to pray alone and sacred time to pray together. Before community prayer each day I walk in the neighborhood.  

My Dominican prayer group (three sisters and two associates) meets for prayer each day at 7am. In one part of the prayer, a short current writing from indigenous peoples is read. Those writings have made me more conscious of the carved image, a five-minute walk away on the shore of Lake Monona.  The statue was carved from a storm destroyed hackberry tree in 1991 by Harry Whitehorse of the Ho Chunk people and bronzed by the community to preserve it in 2009. The carving is named “Let the great Spirits soar”.  It is adjacent to another image formed by people 10,000 years ago who gathered by the water and built mounds in the shape of animals in which to place the human remains of their beloved dead. 

So in my sacred prayer space along Lake Monona, I have become aware that I am accompanied by a great gathering of spirit souls.  Together we enjoy the beauty of Earth displayed all around us.  Then I come to the sacred prayer time with other Dominicans to praise God and ask blessings on many who touch our lives daily.

Where are your sacred spaces?  Where do you find others with whom to pray?

Joan Duerst OP

Madison, Wisconsin