Meet a Sister

My parents had 11 children. In second grade when the teacher asked, "What do you want to be?" my hand shot up for: a Sister, a priest, a teacher, and a cashier in a grocery store. I eventually did three out of four. The Sisters' smiles made me think that being a Sister would be great.

I knew about Sisters in fourth grade at preparation for Confirmation. I chose Mary as my Confirmation name because she had said "yes" to God. That has been a consistent theme in my life - to do what God wanted.

I fell in love when I was three years old. I fell in love with the habit of my Carmelite teachers. It was so beautiful - brown tunic covered with a long white cape. Naturally I wanted one just like it and decided to be a Carmelite.

I'm a very simple person; I hope very genuine. I like people who make me laugh. Sisters weren't in my life until I entered high school. Then I began to think about becoming one.

What precipitated my first thought of becoming a Sister? It struck me when I was selling my company. At that time I was going to Mass every day, and I heard a voice say, "You could be a Sister!" and I thought, "NO!" I did have a spiritual director at that time, and I decided to ask her.

I met Sisters when I was very young. In our parish they were called Sister Visitors. They visited families and helped them in any way they could. My parents, fairly liberal Catholics, were very active in our parish so the sisters became very familiar.

What made me think of becoming a Sister? It happened because of a bet. Yes, the kind of bet where you bargain with someone. My calling was not at all pious or holy. My parents always encouraged my siblings and me to join the priesthood or convent.

How to sum up the life of Sr. Annunciata Chen takes one on a whirl of mission location and missionary activity, sometimes with family, from the time she was five years old in the Kienow mission with the Dominican Fathers of St.

Certainly not someone in the same vein as the earlier explorers searching for routes, but still searching, was Sr. Diane Hooley as she definitely turned into an explorer of the different Motherhouses of the Dominican Sisters of Peace.

"I have wanted to be a Dominican Sister since the 5th grade at St. Anthony of Padua school. My sister is Clovis, my twin, and I am Claudia, now known as Sr. Mary Edmund. We are very close to each other, attended St. Anthony School together all the way, where Dominican Sisters taught us.