Associate Director Takes Program in New Directions
Sister Paul Mary Janssens brings a wealth of experience and energy to the Dominican Associates Program Director position. She joined the associate committee when the program was established in 1988 and served through 1996. Since accepting the position as director last May, she has started a program for associates to spend time with the retired sisters living at the motherhouse. She also has big plans for the future.
Sister Paul Mary joined the Springfield Dominicans when she was 29 years old. She met Sister Pauletta Overbeck while completing her first master’s degree in education at the University of Illinois in Urbana. Sister Paul Mary was teaching in Rock Island, Ill., at the time, but kept up correspondence with Sister Pauletta and visited her at Little Flower School in Springfield, Ill., before deciding to become a Dominican herself.
Most of Sister Paul Mary’s religious life has been spent in elementary education. She taught and served as principal – sometimes doing both at the same time – for more than 37 years, including most recently as principal of Little Flower, 2000-2003. Her years in elementary education made a necessity of the fine art of fundraising. In 2004, she was named director of the foundation at St. Catherine Village, an assisted living facility in Madison, Miss., that is associated with St. Dominic Health Services under the sponsorship of the Springfield Dominicans.
When she returned to Springfield in December 2005 she offered to help Sister Marie Vianney Trutter in her role as director of the associate program. With Sister Marie Vianney’s sudden illness and subsequent death in April 2006, Sister Paul Mary accepted the appointment as director.
Since becoming director, she has instituted a program for volunteer associates to spend time with the retired sisters at the motherhouse. To date, fourteen associates have been regular visitors, making friends with the sisters, helping the staff and uniting themselves more fully into the Dominican community. Thanks to her vigorous recruiting, 31 have made commitment during the commitment ceremony in May 2008. It is the biggest commitment class to date.
Sister Paul Mary spends a great deal of time traveling to conduct formation meetings. In January 2007 she spent two weeks with the sisters and associates in Peru, taking with her Spanish translations of the associate handbook and various other materials for their use.
Her plans for the future include building up the associate groups in geographic clusters, and establishing a program of ongoing formation for existing associates. She has already scheduled a day of reflection for associates and sisters for August 2007. If Sister Paul Mary’s past is any guide to the future, great things are in store for the associates.
The author, Paul Caselton, is an associate of the Dominican Sisters of Springfield.
This story first appeared in the Winter, 2007, edition of Just WORDS
