ADRIAN, Mich. • Elise D. García, OP, celebrated her first profession of vows as an Adrian Dominican Sister on Aug. 8, the feast of St. Dominic, in St Catherine of Siena Chapel. Prioress Donna Markham, OP, received Sister Elise’s vows. In the company of family, friends and Dominican Sisters from around the world, Sister Elise offered her statement of intent: “It is my intent to continue to follow the call sounded deep in my soul in fully embracing the life that you and my beloved sister friends, here and around the world, have lived and loved so well. In making this profession, I stand in solidarity with our Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, of Mosul, Iraq — Sisters Muentah, Randa and Sundus — who today, in the midst of war, make this same 800-year-old profession of vows. In following the way of the one who said, ‘I leave you my peace, my peace I give you,’ I strive to live in right relationship — honoring, protecting and cultivating the extraordinary diversity of life that has unfolded over billions of years and found expression in all the world’s peoples and cultures, and in the whole, magnificent community of earth.”

    According to participants, the ceremony was powerful and a soul-stirring event. The chapel was filled with Dominican Sisters from Detroit, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, Anchorage, Ketchikan, British Columbia, New Orleans, Iraq and so many others. There was a strong sense of global sisterhood throughout the ceremony; the Mass included prayers and readings in Aramaic, English and Spanish.
    “Throughout the service, and particularly with Donna’s homily, we were united with our sisters throughout the world celebrating Elise’s vows, St. Dominic’s feast and celebrating each other’s call and life,” stated Sister Nancy Ann Turner, OP.
    “Truly, today, as Elise referred to our sisters in Iraq taking their first vows at the same time, I felt that I had tasted the universality of our call.”

    Sister Elise is the co-founder of Santuario Sisterfarm, an ecological sanctuary in the Texas Hill Country dedicated to cultivating biodiversity and cultural diversity. She has served as a management and communications consultant to a number of nonprofit organizations, including NETWORK, Bread for the World, Democracy 21 and Common Cause, where she served as vice president for communications in the mid-1980s. 

    Born in New York, Sister Elise grew up in Latin America and Egypt. She entered the congregation as a candidate in April 2005. This fall Elise will attend the Oblate School of Theology.  
    The closing hymn reminded everyone, “we came to the feast: the young and the old, the frightened and the bold” — literally from around the world.