Sr. Mary Dominic

Blessed with devout Catholic parents and a Catholic education, growing up I called Little Rock, AR, home. When I was 12, along with imagining myself becoming a cowgirl with a horse ranch, getting married and having children, or becoming a musician, I began to feel God beginning to "court" me too. Within a few years He prevailed and I fell in love with Him completely. There was no attraction to teach or nurse, as active sisters did; I dreamed only of a life of contemplative prayer and simple

community. Especially He used the Eucharist to offer me small touches of His presence at first, ever growing, until an abiding awareness of His promise "I am with you always" (Mt. 28:20; cf. Jn 14:20) eventually enveloped me after my profession. Immediately after High School the Carmelite Nuns in Little Rock received me. But the eremitical emphasis of their lifestyle, precious as it was, didn't seem to fit me - a sign that this was not God's place for me. I left that novitiate and shortly afterwards, at their recommendation, applied to the cloistered Dominicans. That had been God's plan all along, I just had to follow His lead until I found it!

One of the Lord's talent-gifts to me is music, and all through the years I have drawn the assignment to use it in the service of my sisters, as an organist and liturgist. I love our daily Dominican celebration of the Mass and Liturgy of the Hours and find my constant spiritual nourishment in them. The monastic contemplative life is unique in that it is not driven by ambition or any preference for what the duty of the moment may be. All is consecrated, and all is service to God and neighbor. As one of my favorite sayings goes: "All the raw material of sanctity can be found in the NOW, just as it is."