HUNTERSVILLE — The Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine serving in the Diocese of Charlotte recently celebrated their Conventual Mass as a way of joining in the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Diocese of Charlotte.
Father John Putnam was the celebrant for the Feb. 10 Mass at St. Mark Church, offered in thanksgiving for the sisters’ 23 years of presence and participation in the diocese’s evangelizing mission of proclaiming the Gospel. A conventual Mass is a special “community Mass” for a religious congregation.
The Dominican Sisters arrived in the diocese in February 1999, when the Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena sent Dominican Sister Anastacia Pagulayan to assist the faith formation program at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte. She was eventually joined by additional sisters, and their convent in Charlotte was inaugurated on March 16, 1999.
Presently serving Sister Zenaida, Sister Donabel, and Sister Jessica said they were grateful to Father Putnam for saying the Mass and giving an encouraging homily that in part recounted his contribution to their history in the diocese.
He invited the group of sisters to be part of Sacred Heart Catholic School in 2006 to 2018, and he accepted Sister Zenaida at St. Mark Church in September 2020.
In his homily at the Conventual Mass, Father Putnam noted that holiness is something to be cherished and protected.
“We always have to be very conscious of the fact that even though God offers us His grace, and
He does so freely, He still expects our cooperation,” he said. “We have to be open to the working of the Spirit. We have to be receptive to what it is that the Lord wants to do with our lives. And in all honesty, we have to be strong enough to say to the world: ‘No, we don't want this.’”
“That can be hard because we're inundated every single day,” he acknowledged. “I see so often, especially with our kids in high school, they are just bombarded constantly from this world in which they live. At the point in their lives when they want to be accepted… they want to fit in… they want to be able to feel like ‘one of the gang,’ so to speak. And it's hard. If they take a stand and want to push back and want to live the faith, they can be ostracized, they can be criticized, they can be made fun of. And yet, it really is what we're called to.”
It's easy to get distracted, he continued. “The point is, we have to keep our focus.”
“We have to be undivided in our trust, undivided in our faith and undivided in our love. And when we do that, we can withstand the snares of the devil. We can push back on whatever the world throws at us, even though there will be difficulties and struggles. We know that God will be with us and give us the grace that we need.”
— Amy Burger and Catholic News Herald
