If their smiles were any indication, Sister Maximilian Marie Garretson, Sister Mary Michael Carlson and Sister Ave Maria Hayes, members of the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist, were eager to begin their new mission in the Sacramento Diocese.

A relatively new religious community founded just 10 years ago, the Dominican Sisters of Mary’s numbers have soared, and dioceses worldwide have been requesting their ministry.

“The Holy Spirit is guiding us,” said Sister Garretson, superior of the Loomis mission, on accepting Bishop William K. Weigand’s invitation to serve in the diocese. “It’s a prayerful discernment, answering God’s call about where he wants us to be.”

In an interview just two days after they arrived in Loomis on Aug. 18, the Dominican Sisters of Mary spoke about their charism, the focus of their mission in the diocese and their calling to religious life.

“Our apostolate is teaching, and we’re here in a long line of religious here before us in Catholic education,” Sister Garretson said. “The first step is to learn more about the people we will be serving, the priests and laity…to understand how we can do the Lord’s work best.”

Started in Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1997 with four members and financial support from Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist at last count had 69 sisters in a community where the average age of sisters is 28.

Mother Assumpta Long, mother superior of the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist, said the community’s charism of “teaching and preaching” was inspired by the late Pope John Paul II’s challenge to consecrated religious to lead “a new evangelization.”

“John Paul’s dream…will occur through good, faithful people on fire with love of Christ and the knowledge of faith in the teachings of the church,” Mother Long said. “We believe that faithful, joyful religious women will be the spiritual spearheaders of such an evangelization.”

Joan Cordova, a member of St. Joseph Marello Parish in Granite Bay, learned about the new Dominican community in Ann Arbor by reading a brochure she received from them in the mail in 2003.

“On the front page there was a picture of the sisters in their habits and it struck me I hadn’t seen the Dominican sisters for years,” said Cordova, who joined the Third Order Dominicans, a lay order, in the early 1950s.

Educated by Dominican nuns where she grew up in New York City, Cordova said the sisters have “always been part of my life.”

When Joan and her husband Fred moved to the Granite Bay area four years ago to be near their youngest daughter, she decided it was time to say thank-you.

Cordova wrote a letter to Mother Long, asking if the order would be interested in establishing a new community in Loomis.

After receiving a visit from Mother Long to the 38.4 acre Loomis site the Cordovas purchased and donated to the sisters for a convent, they began remodeling a house on the property to enlarge it by about 1,000 square feet.

Volunteer work crews included members of St. Joseph Marello Parish, friends and relatives, who added two bedrooms, two baths, an office and chapel to transform the home into a convent.

“We’ve received so many blessings (from the Dominicans) through the years,” Cordova said. “They are what Northern California needs.”

While several women’s religious orders and a total of 180 sisters continue to provide vibrant ministries throughout the Sacramento Diocese, their numbers have decreased in recent years, both locally and nationally.

In 1987 there were 256 sisters serving in the Sacramento Diocese, a statistic that dropped to 208 by 1997.

It is Mother Long’s view that among the factors contributing to the growth of the Dominican Sisters of Mary is that the community sponsors annual spiritual retreats so possible candidates may personally experience what religious life is like.

Sister Garretson, 33, who took her first vows in 2004, said her own decision to enter the Dominican Sisters of Mary was made after going on a Dominican retreat.

Growing up in central Oregon, raised in a Catholic family of six children, Sister Garretson began “learning the truth about her faith” as a student at Magdalen College in Warner, N.H., where she earned a bachelor’s degree.

“A true definition of love was what I discovered there,” Sister Garretson said. “It was an encounter with Christ in the Eucharist that laid the foundation for a religious calling.”

But it was during a retreat sponsored by the Dominican Sisters of Mary that everything came together.

“I thought these are happy women. They were all the things I loved about the church, the new evangelization, a community living through their consecration,” Sister Garretson said. “I just knew I was home.”

The retreat experience also was a major factor in determining the vocation of Sister Carlson, 27, a native of Kingsport, Tenn.

While raised Catholic, Sister Carlson grew up with more Protestant friends than Catholic and found herself questioning her faith as a teenager.

It was while studying occupational therapy and going to the Catholic Student Center as a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile that her faith came alive.

“I learned how to pray the rosary again, learned what eucharistic adoration was and fell in love with prayer,” Sister Carlson said.

She began working with women religious in a ministry serving the elderly and attended a 24-hour retreat with the Dominican Sisters, where her vocation was decided.

“People want to know why we’re so happy and want to have what we have,” said Sister Carlson, who took her first vows in 2005. “It’s a life of self giving and love.”

Sister Hayes, 35, who grew up in a devout Catholic family of seven near Ann Arbor, Mich., had planned a career in nursing.

Majoring in nursing and theology, Sister Hayes earned a bachelor’s degree at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio.

After graduating from college, she landed a job working at the University of Michigan Medical Center as a cardiac nurse, making a good income.

Then on July 4, 1997, the same year the Dominican Sisters of Mary were founded, during a visit home to Ann Arbor, she went with her mother to a first Friday breakfast at Domino Farms.

Dominos’ founder Tom Monaghan had invited Mother Long to speak at the event which would redirect Sister Hayes’ career plans.

“The four founding sisters were sitting together and were so joyful I thought, ‘I want to be like them.’ I wanted their joy,” she said.

As it turned out, upon being introduced to Mother Long, Sister Hayes found herself invited to attend a cookout with the sisters the next day.

“Holiness is really having that balance in life, and community is key to having that balance,” Sister Hayes said. “Your prayer has to be number one and everything flows from that.”

Looking to the future, Sister Garretson said because the community is blessed with so many vocations, they hope to build a larger convent for perhaps 100 sisters.

The sisters are also working in collaboration with officials of the Diocese of Sacramento and Father Arnold Ortiz, pastor of St. Joseph Marello Parish in Granite Bay, to assess the need, desire and support for a Catholic elementary school in the Placer County area.

Father Ortiz said the arrival of the Dominican Sisters of Mary is already proving to be a blessing on many levels.

“Our primary focus (for the parish) is youth ministry,” he said. “We’re just so blessed the sisters are bringing their teaching ministry to our parish and to the diocese.”

For information about opportunities to learn more about the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist, interested persons can send an e-mail to ReginaCaeli@sistersofmary.org.

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