Meet our Northern Lights Associates... (Yep, we have a group in Alaska!)

Dominican Sisters have served the Alaskan Diocese faithfully in years past, but now only a small Associate group remains, the Northern Lights OPAs. This is why Associate Peggy Frank usually tries to recruit people to the vast mission field that is her state.

Once a group with four active members, the numbers dwindled to two when Dino and Terry Frakes moved to the midwest. But Peggy and fellow Northern Lights Associate Sharon Hotrum share their Dominican identity and a spiritual connecttion with others through their affiliation with "Voices of Hope" (VOH). This group began as a contemplative prayer gathering in the winter of 2006, but then focused their work with a 12-week Lectio Divina outline written by Sr. Mary Noel, OP (Akron, OH).

To tell the story of Voices of Hope, Peggy confesses that she "whines too much." When she read about an Ohio group that gathered in prayer using Sr. Mary’s outline, she complained to her spiritual director about the absence of any such group in the area. Her spiritual director, of course, suggested that Peggy consider initiating something similar herself. "I walked away wondering, ‘what in the world did I get myself into?" she recalls.

After a few meetings to find a home and a name for a new group, Voices of Hope was born in the basement of Sacred Heart

Cathedral. Today, VOH is going strong and working through Sr. Mary's 12-week outline, adding a few additional weeks. Since its inception, the group has branched into other types of prayer and Bible studies: they have prayed through the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, enjoyed Taize services and Labyrinth walks, prayed the Office, and hosted guest teachers and speakers on various Bible study series, social justice presentations, and more.

While VOH includes our two Northern Lights Associates, it is open to anybody in the community. Many of the participants were, are, or have become among the most active volunteers in their respective churches. Participants include Benedictine Oblates, Lay Carmelites, Third Order Franciscans, and Associates of the Sisters of St. Joseph. But the core of the course is Dominican, and it is the Dominican cross that is depicted on the course materials.

"Several participants are helping me combine Sr. Mary’s original outline and my additions into an easy-to-use booklet that we can make available to our ‘bush parishes’ interested in starting their own Voices of Hope program," shares Peggy. "Please pray for this endeavor, for our Northern Lights Associates, and for the missionary Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska."