Dominican Sisters, Oprah, and Columbus

Many of you have seen this by now, but this afternoon the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist from Ann Arbor, Michigan, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show.  This is a remarkable groups of sisters: their community is busting at the seams with vocations, and the average age is 28.  My family has had the distinct pleasure of getting to know several of the sisters and attending their final vows.  I can tell you first hand that these young woman are vibrant and full of life, and their presence in the world is so very important, especially as a witness to our daughters.

Equally as exciting as the sisters' appearance on national television is the news that they are coming to Columbus.  In August, a few of the Ann Arbor sisters will be joining the community at St. Michael's in Worthington.  The sisters will be teaching in the school.

I was unable to find "embeddable" videos of this afternoon's story, but each of the segments is available on the Oprah website.  If you missed the broadcast today, take some time to do so.  The link is to the first portion, but the subsequent segments can be found on the left sidebar at the same site.  In the wake of the bad press the Church has taken lately, this is indeed a breath of fresh air, and from the Oprah Show of all places!  I was impressed with the manner in which the producers let the sister simply tell their story without interjecting politics or stereotypes.

This is not the first time that the sister have appeared on the Oprah Show.  This past February marked their original appearance.  Portions of this story are on YouTube, and this interview is also well worth your time.  I noticed that the first and fifth segment have been removed, so it is unclear how long these three segments will be available.

(NB:  In the event that the videos are removed from YouTube, the website for the Dominican Sisters links to the Oprah videos for both stories here.)







As an aside, one of the new sisters this year is the same salutatorian form Harvard who delivered her commencement address entirely in Latin.  This circulated about a year ago, but is worth watching if you missed it somehow.



Finally, here is a promotional video for the sisters.