Ellen Dauwer is a Sister of Charity of Saint Elizabeth of Convent Station, New Jersey, currently living in Chicago. She spent 20 years in higher education, teaching educational technology and serving in administration. She recently completed eight years in congregational leadership and began as executive director of the Religious Formation Conference in January.
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A new program for new religious
Participants in the Together program will engage in theological reflection, spiritual direction and experiences that foster interpersonal skills for community living, intercultural capacities and effective communication.
Out of season
This Easter season, I find it nearly impossible to continue proclaiming new and risen life, when it seems that so much around me is being taken away.
The lake lures me to pray
Living singly instead of in community in Chicago, I've done my best to adjust and try to focus on the benefits rather than dwell on the deficits. Top among them is my view of Lake Michigan and my mornings spent contemplating it.
Life in the liminal
There is something unsettling about liminality's blurry boundaries and unclear surroundings yet, as I continue to learn, it is unreal to expect complete certainly, clarity, and confidence. As much as l long to look out to a vast horizon where land and sky are clearly marked off, each to their own separate territory, there's also an unreachable "more" that stretches out beyond my grasp.