What's Happening

By Sister Nancy Jurecki, OP

February 12, 2025, Angeles City, Pampanga, the Philippines – Ever since the Dominican Sisters of the Our Lady of Remedies Congregation, based in Pampanga, the Philippines, merged with the Adrian Dominican Sisters in November 2011, the Sisters in both countries have sought ways to get to know one another and to experience one another’s culture and country. Recently, an exchange was initiated in which Sister Nancy Jurecki, OP, was to spend about eight months in the Philippines and Sister Abegail Santos, OP, was to spend about three months in the United States. Below is Sister Nancy’s reflection on her time in the Philippines. 

Since having met the late Sister Zenaida “Zenny” Nacpil, OP, 20 or more years ago, I have wanted to meet the good Sisters she spoke so lovingly about. My dream was fulfilled with the opportunity I have been afforded to spend time with our Sisters in the Philippines.

I left for the Philippines on the Feast of the Holy Rosary, October 7, 2024, having received a blessing from our Sisters at the Motherhouse in Adrian, Michigan. For the past several months, I have been living with 13 of our Sisters who reside at the Adrian Dominican House of Remedies, the Chapter House in Angeles City. Another 21 Sisters are scattered throughout San Fernando and San Jose Dioceses, sharing faith and life with the people through, essentially, teaching and social action ministries. I have already visited a number of our Sisters in their ministries and hope to be with them all before returning home in early June.

My days are fairly routine. I wake early for a morning walk to beat the heat. Sister Marlene Villar, OP, is faithful in walking with me. Prayer begins in the community chapel at 6:00 a.m. Through the miracle of technology, the Sisters join our Dominican brothers at the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag for office and morning Mass. 

After breakfast, I walk to the Dominican School, comprised of two well-kept buildings. A covered court in the process of construction separates the convent from the school. I am tasked with helping Sister Arsenia Marie “Seny” Puno, OP, in the Guidance Office in the morning. At 80-plus years, Sister Seny serves as both Head of School and guidance counselor. After lunch, I tutor a second grader who has learning disabilities. The day ends with dinner and prayer.

The Sisters have been very good to me in introducing me to their country and their culture. I am not tied to my little ministries but am encouraged to respond to invitations that open me to numerous locations and experiences. I have attended ordinations, festivals, parties, and funerals. To date, I have visited several of the Sisters in their communities and/or ministry sites.

I will have many stories to share by the time I go home. A thrill for me, early on, was visiting Holy Rosary School in Tala, near Manila. This school was started by a Dominican priest more than 70 years ago with much support from our Sisters over the past 50 or so years. Originally, the school served impoverished children and families affected by Hansen’s disease. 

Thanks be to God, the scourge of leprosy no longer affects the community, but poverty certainly does. While at an anniversary celebration there, I met with “scholars” attending college on scholarships provided by monies we collect during Mission Appeals at parishes in the United States. The Holy Rosary School students gifted me with a box of individually written thank you notes and presented me with a necklace they had created from dried leaves, shells, and the emblem of their school.

Another memory planted deep within my soul was spending New Year’s Day with Sister Seny’s family in Lubao. Sister Seny’s family now resides in a resettlement village, having lost everything under the ashes of Mount Pinatubo in 1991. The openness, hospitality, and generosity of people who have virtually nothing was humbling. Sister Seny’s family truly welcomed the stranger and allowed me insight into the truly important “things” in life: faith, family, and fun.

I’ve told the Sisters that, as I see it, they do two things very well: play and pray. Christmas was a perfect example. Advent is briefly interrupted in the Philippines by a tradition of Simbang Gabi. Nine days before Christmas, culminating on Christmas Eve, a Mass with all the songs, smells, bells, and prayers associated with Christmas is celebrated in the evening or during the early hours of the morning. No matter the hour, each day, the churches are packed.

The playfulness of the Sisters was on display, at its finest, during the visit by some of our leadership early in December and again on Christmas Eve when, each time, all the Sisters gathered to party ... and parties they were! The Sisters shared their customs, good food, and lots of laughter.

Church is central to the lives of the Filipino people. Our Sisters have done a marvelous job embedding themselves into the life of the Church both during worship and in the streets. The Adrian Dominican Sisters are well recognized and very much respected by the people. The support that the Sisters receive locally for their various projects is a testimony to the regard in which they are held. For example, outreach to indigenous and marginalized people is made possible, certainly by help from the Congregation, but equally as important through the assistance they receive from friendships that they have cultivated locally. 

One of my pleasures has been reading and rereading A Journey of Faith: Walking with God’s People. The book is a history of the foundation and works of the Sisters of Our Lady of Remedies, written for their 50th Anniversary. The people and places in the book take on life as I read about them, having first-hand experiences with which to relate. 

Now, as the Sisters approach the 60th anniversary of their founding, I can affirm words noted in that book as having been written by Sister Carol Johannes, OP, after a visit in 1981. Sister Carol was impressed by the “simplicity, warmth, intelligence, ministerial proficiency, and profound commitment to the mission of Jesus” by the Sisters – as am I.
 

Caption for above feature photo: Sister Nancy Jurecki, OP, center, and Sisters from Our Lady of Remedies Mission Chapter serve in a Christmas outreach to children with disabilities.

January 30, 2025, Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Sister Nancy Murray, OP, known for her long-time ministry of performing a one-woman stage presentation of 14th Century Dominican mystic St. Catherine of Siena, recently took on new roles. She portrayed Sister Catarina de Vigri, St. Catherine of Bologna (1413-1463), an Italian Franciscan Sister and later Poor Clare, as well as the two foundresses of the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee. 

The presentation took place recently during that community’s 150th-anniversary Gala, held at the Saint Kate Hotel in Milwaukee. The hotel is named after St. Catherine of Bologna, Patroness of the Arts.

“There was such a great enthusiasm about [the presentation and Gala] because they had never done anything like that before,” Sister Nancy said of the School Sisters of St. Francis. The evening included dinner, a silent auction, a live auction, and dancing to the music of mariachis, she recalled. “There was great joy that something they had never tried before was so successful.” 

Sister Nancy said she was invited in April 2024 to portray St. Catarina by Sister Deborah Fumagalli, SSSF, newly elected to the community’s International Leadership Team. Ironically, Sister Nancy said, much of Sister Deborah’s ministry experience was with Dominicans: a few years at Aquinas Dominican High School in Chicago and 26 years at Regina Dominican High School in Wilmette, Illinois – both sponsored by the Adrian Dominican Sisters. Now, Sister Nancy said, she returned the favor by immersing herself in the Franciscan heritage. 

Sister Nancy devoted a great deal of time to studying the materials on the life and times of St. Catherine, provided by Sister Deborah. As a friend of the daughter of the Duke of Ferrara, Catherine was brought up in the Duke’s court, where she enjoyed the advantage of an education. But when the Duke killed his wife and his wife’s boyfriend on learning of her infidelity, Catherine fled the court and joined the Franciscans in her town as a Franciscan Tertiary. Because her superior believed that Catherine’s privileges could make her too proud, she was relegated to tending the animals outside the convent. There, she met and befriended the local people, offering prayers for their intentions. The superior then ordered her to engage in full-time ministry as the community’s novice mistress – inside the convent and away from the people. 

After four years, Sister Catherine left that community and in 1432 co-founded a convent in the Order of Poor Clares. Catherine was named Superioress and later became the Abbess of a second Poor Clare community. Throughout it all, she was always willing to serve in humbler capacities and continued to work on her art – which has received recognition for its quality, Sister Nancy said.

Sister Nancy’s preparation also involved obtaining a habit of the Poor Clares. She asked Sister Barbara Quincey, OP, gifted at quilting and sewing, to create the habit. “The pattern would never have been done if it was up to me,” Sister Nancy said. “[Sister] Barb really was a pro.”

After her years of portraying St. Catherine of Siena, Sister Nancy said she can easily relate to St. Catherine of Bologna – who had probably heard about her Dominican predecessor. Like St. Catherine of Siena, Sister Nancy said, the service of St. Catherine of Bologna involved “compassion, empathy, and care for patients.”

But the focus of Sister Nancy’s presentation changed when she began studying materials about the history of the School Sisters of St. Francis – and especially about their founders: Emma Franziska (Mother Alexia) Hoell, Paulina (Mother Alfons) Schmid, and Helena (Sister Clara) Seiter. The three left their community in Germany in 1843 to come to the United States and establish their community in Wisconsin. 

“I had to change my accent to German so I could be the two Mothers,” Sister Nancy recalled. The story included the Mothers’ building projects – still standing today – and their conflict with bishops as they started their new community. The School Sisters of St. Francis “wanted to convey that they were standing on the shoulders of people whose lives showed a lot of sacrifice,” Sister Nancy said.

The timing of her performance also changed, from one hour to 20 minutes – with much more material. Ultimately, Sister Nancy spent 25 minutes portraying Sister Catherine of Bologna and the foundresses of the School Sisters of St. Francis.    

Sister Nancy comes by her own creative talent as an actress very naturally. A native of Wilmette, Illinois, and a graduate of Regina Dominican High School, she grew up in the talented Murray family, which includes her brother, the well-known actor Bill Murray.  

Sister Nancy took on her ministry of portraying St. Catherine of Siena after the April 2000 death of Sister Kathleen Harkins, OP. She followed in Sister Kathleen’s footsteps, bringing her one-woman performance to parishes, schools, and other organizations throughout the United States and around the world. 

She has also portrayed other women religious, most notably Sister Dorothy Stang, a School Sister of Notre Dame who was martyred in 2005 while helping poor farmers protect their land in the Amazon Rainforest.

Sister Nancy is available to bring her prayerful performance to schools, parishes, and other organizations. Contact her at 517-266-3533 or [email protected].

 

Caption for above feature photo: Adrian Dominican Sister Nancy Murray, OP, portraying St. Catherine Vigri of Bologna, interacts with guests at the School Sisters of St. Francis 150th Anniversary Gala.
Photo Courtesy of the School Sisters of St. Francis