Dominican Sisters Open Mic

What changes when you finally understand whose you are? Sr. Mary Avila, O.P. sits down with Sr. Miriam, O.P. to talk about spiritual adoption and the identity every baptized person inherits as a son or daughter of God the Father. She starts with her favorite movie since age five, The Princess Diaries, the story of a girl who discovers her father was a king and slowly grows into the mission and the gifts she never knew she had. It turns out to be a surprisingly good picture of the Christian life. From there she and Sr. Miriam trace Sr. Mary Avila’s own path: a childhood of Catholic school adoration, an early tug toward religious life, and the simple prayer that began to heal something missing in her, “Catherine, help me to be a daughter.” She shares how the Lord renewed that identity by deepening her love for her own baptism, and tells the remarkable story of meeting a biological sister who shared her very nature, a living glimpse of how the Father draws each of us into the family we were made for. Once that truth sank in, even Scripture began to read differently, like St. Paul was speaking right to her: you are no longer a slave to fear, but a beloved child who gets to call God “Father.”

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Why do the Dominican Sisters wear what they wear, and where did it come from? Sr. Maria Reginald, O.P. sits down with Sr. Miriam, O.P. to tell the story behind the habit, starting with her own patron, Blessed Reginald, who received the scapular from Our Lady herself in a vision. It was a bold addition to what the early Dominicans were wearing, but as Sr. Maria Reginald points out, when someone says Mary appeared and asked for something, St. Dominic was not the one to doubt it. From there, she and Sr. Miriam walk through the meaning woven into every piece: the unbleached white that speaks of simplicity and poverty, the black that signals the vows and a life given constantly to God, and the difference between the novice’s white veil and the blessed black veil received after vows. A Texas native who knew by first grade she wanted to teach, Sr. Maria Reginald also shares how a high school teacher’s habit of praying the Liturgy of the Hours after tests, an app she started praying on the bus, and a junior-year retreat in Michigan led her to realize she couldn’t wait until after college to give her life to Christ. She makes the case that the habit is not a loss of individuality but a kind of freedom: it tells the world she belongs to God, and lets what’s truly unique about a Sister – her virtue, her love, her way of being with her students – shine through.

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What's it like to carry the name of one of the greatest saints in Church history? Sr. Thomas Aquinas, O.P. sits down with Sr. Miriam, O.P. to share her vocation story and the friendship that shaped it. It began with a children's book she read in third or fourth grade, told in Thomas's own voice, that ended with a line she never forgot: "My name is Thomas, I want to be your friend." Years later, after an experience in Rome of wanting to belong completely to God, that early friendship helped lead her to the Dominican Sisters of Mary. Sr. Thomas Aquinas and Sr. Miriam talk about how Sisters actually receive their names, submitted as three prayed-over choices and ultimately bestowed by Mother at the reception of the habit with the question, "What do you desire?", and why a name in religious life isn't a new identity but a deepening of who God made you to be. She also opens up about the weight of a name so strong it signals an intellectual giant, and how she came to embrace introducing the world to her friend Thomas. Along the way they get into her twin sister, a Poor Clare of Perpetual Adoration, and the difference between a sister and a nun (the question behind that viral TikTok clip), plus where to start with the Summa and the Eucharistic hymns of St. Thomas that open the Sisters' prayer each day.

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What does it take to go from knowing a lot about God to actually knowing Him? Sr. Mary Andre, O.P. sits down with Sr. Miriam, O.P. to share her story, and it starts with a question that wouldn't leave her alone. An Ann Arbor native and lifelong lover of science, Sr. Mary Andre was studying biochemistry and imagining a future in a research lab, fascinated by the hidden workings of the cell, when a friend leaned over in the back of a car one night and simply prayed from the heart, speaking to Jesus as if she knew Him. Well catechized but spiritually restless, Sr. Mary Andre found herself wondering, "What does she know that I don't?" From there she and Sr. Miriam trace the moments that changed everything: a two-hour confession line at a Notre Dame summer camp where she gave the Lord her full attention and heard His voice in return, the "proposal moment" she still has journaled somewhere, and her need for a word she couldn't doubt before giving her whole self away. Along the way they talk about hearing God in Scripture and the Eucharist, the artistic gifts she now pours into convent chapels, and a striking image of the samurai sword, folded and hammered again and again, as a picture of how God uses suffering to make us strong and flexible for His Kingdom.

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"Who is like God?" It's not a boast but a question, and it's the very meaning of St. Michael's name. Sr. Mary Michael, O.P. sits down with Sr. Miriam, O.P. to talk about her patron, the great Archangel, and the hidden world of the angels who are always closer than we think. A former occupational therapy student from Northeast Tennessee, Sr. Mary Michael shares how a college Mass at a campus student center reawakened her faith and eventually led her to trade a hard-won career path for the convent. From there she and Sr. Miriam explore who the angels really are: pure spirits with intellect and will, gifted with infused knowledge, and faced with a single, eternal choice for or against God. They trace Michael's stand against Lucifer, the pride behind the fall, and the humility that makes all the difference. Sr. Mary Michael also opens up about her deep love for the St. Michael Prayer, which she prays throughout the day for the Pope, for priests, in moments of temptation, and before big decisions, along with the joy of befriending our guardian angels, who quietly help us more than we realize. Get to know the angels not as distant figures, but as real companions in the daily battle for holiness.

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How did a bookish farm boy who hated farm life become one of the most influential voices in American Catholic history? Sr. Fulton Marie, O.P., one of the newest Sisters to join the community and a Peoria native like Sheen himself, sits down with Sr. Miriam, O.P. to trace the remarkable life and legacy of the soon-to-be-Blessed Fulton Sheen, whose beatification on September 24th has the whole Church talking. From his early years on the farm to the professor's chair at Catholic University, where he taught for more than twenty years, to the radio and television work that reached millions, Sheen's story is one of a life poured out for souls. Sr. Fulton Marie and Sr. Miriam unpack the secret behind it all: a Third Order Carmelite whose evangelization flowed entirely from his deep contemplation of God. Along the way they dwell on his beloved book Calvary and the Mass and his moving reflection on Christ's cry of "I thirst" from the cross, a thirst answered in the Eucharist. Sr. Fulton Marie also shares a bit of her own story, including the quiet afternoon at daily Mass when she first heard Jesus say, "I just want you." Whether you grew up watching Sheen or are meeting him for the first time, this is a chance to know the man behind the microphone and the God he pointed to.

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Time for another mailbag! Sr. Louis Marie, O.P. and Sr. Elizabeth John, O.P. are back with Sr. Miriam, O.P. to answer your questions, pulled at random from the cup and answered on the spot. This round covers a little of everything: how the Sisters take turns cooking for one another in community (and what that says about love in the little things), heartfelt advice for teachers weighed down by stress, and the freeing truth that you can be excellent without being perfect. The conversation even turns to the headlines, as the Sisters share their thoughts on Pope Leo's latest encyclical on artificial intelligence and what the Church has to say about living well in a rapidly changing world. Thank you for sending in such wonderful questions! You can submit more through the Torch app, linked below.

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When life feels like it's changing under your feet, what does it mean to rest in a God who never changes? Sr. Teresa Christi, O.P. sits down with Sr. Miriam, O.P. to share how meditating on the attributes of God (that He is eternal, unchanging, and utterly good) has quietly transformed her spiritual life. Drawing on years of ministry, including her time as superior of the Sisters' Priory in Georgetown, Texas, Sr. Teresa Christi speaks with warmth and plenty of laughter about trusting Providence in the middle of stress and suffering. Together she and Sr. Miriam explore how our words always fall short of God (as St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us, His goodness is only ever analogous to ours), and why that mystery is freeing rather than frightening. This episode is a reminder to keep our eyes on God, take the handrail He offers, and trust that He is good, even when we can't yet see how the story ends.

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Sometimes the friendship your heart is aching for is the very thing you've become unable to give. Sr. Mary Ignatius, O.P. sits down with Sr. Miriam, O.P. for a tender, honest conversation about friendship: what we're made for, why it so often feels out of reach, and how Christ heals us into being capable of it again. Sr. Mary Ignatius shares her own story of a season when she'd built a wall no one could get through, and how daily time before the Blessed Sacrament changed everything: "I was in the presence of somebody who loved me." From there, she and Sr. Miriam trace friendship all the way back to its source, unpacking how sin leaves us stuck and how Jesus, the perfect friend, is the one who befriends us so we can befriend others again. Along the way they get practical too, on the trust it takes to lower our guard, the danger of clinging to friendships to fill us, and the virtues that hold a friendship together: honesty, mercy, courage, and the one high schoolers name most of all, loyalty. This conversation is a beautiful reminder that when Christ is our first friend, every other friendship can finally breathe.

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What if the very fact that you exist right now is an act of God's love? Sr. Mary Elizabeth, O.P. sits down with Sr. Miriam, O.P. to explore one of the most beautiful and overlooked truths of the faith: causality. A Rochester native with a PhD in electrical engineering, Sr. Mary Elizabeth once designed the next generation of cochlear implants at the University of Michigan before Catholic radio and a growing love for the Blessed Sacrament drew her toward religious life (a journey she describes, true to form, as a "sinusoidal function" trending steadily upward). Together she and Sr. Miriam walk through Catechism 301, unpacking how God not only creates us but "at every moment upholds and sustains" us in being, enabling us to act and drawing us to our final end. Along the way they sort the true picture from the false ones (God as distant Watchmaker, as magician, as tinkerer filling the gaps) and arrive at something far more personal: a Creator who holds each of us in existence out of sheer love.

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