Sister Stories
- Reflection on Preaching: Eleanor Lang, OP
- Reflection on Community: Sr. Charlotte Brungardt, OP
- Reflection on Prayer: Sr. Ruth Caspar, OP
- Reflection on Study: Sr. Mary Catherine Hilkert, OP
- A Letter to St. Dominic in Gratitude for Study: Sr. Irene Hartman, OP
- Reflection on Community: Sr. Jeannine Halloran, OP
A Letter to St. Dominic in Gratitude for Study: Sr. Irene Hartman, OP
Dear St. Dominic, my father in Christ,
This is long overdue, but on this the 134th birthday of my beloved Dad, I thought it an appropriate time to express my sincere gratitude for establishing an Order, one of whose pillars is study.
Beginning at the age of about four, I started to become a very curious little girl eager to learn. My Dad was my first teacher, reading to me and telling me stories. When my dear primary teacher Sister Dalmatia Hahn, OP gave me the key to the printed word, I was ecstatic. Dad would read to me and I would read to him. My grades were always good and I enjoyed nothing better than a good book. The topics varied. I never had access to a public library but our little school had all the books I needed at that time in my life.
At thirteen I was off to Great Bend to begin my postulancy and to become a high school student. I had marvelous Dominican teachers all during my four years of high school. Already at thirteen under the direction of a Dominican priest, I was studying the Summa of St. Thomas. In a fifth year of schooling, four of us newly professed Sisters took a Normal Training course to prepare us for teaching. At the end of the year, I was the only one who passed the exams. The other three Sisters went off to college that fall; I went to a little rural school to teach grades three and four. Although I was sad that a full year of college was never my lot, I was determined that my education would move along. After twenty-two summer school experiences, I had earned a bachelor’s degree and two masters. Study became a daily must and it continues to this day.
So, dear Dominic, I am grateful that I was called to become a Dominican, grateful to be called to an Order with a study pillar. I am grateful that I spent over three decades as an elementary teacher, grateful for my ten years in a retreat/preaching ministry, and the past twenty years as director of the RCIA in my parish here in Larned, Kansas. And Dominic, I am grateful that after seventy years of religious profession which I mark this year, you continue to smile on me and bless the ways I study and spread the Good News of Jesus.
One of your daughters in the Sunflower State,
Sr. Irene Hartman, OP