{"id":49244,"date":"2016-11-14T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T21:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/demo2016.hispanicprwire.com\/english-dedicating-lives-to-god\/"},"modified":"2016-11-14T12:22:30","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T16:22:30","slug":"dedicar-sus-vidas-a-dios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/dedicar-sus-vidas-a-dios\/","title":{"rendered":"Dedicating Lives to God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\"><![CDATA[\n\/* Style Definitions *\/\nspan.prnews_span\n{\nfont-size:8pt;\nfont-family:\"Arial\";\ncolor:black;\n}\na.prnews_a\n{\ncolor:blue;\n}\nli.prnews_li\n{\nfont-size:8pt;\nfont-family:\"Arial\";\ncolor:black;\n}\np.prnews_p\n{\nfont-size:0.62em;\nfont-family:\"Arial\";\ncolor:black;\nmargin:0in;\n}\n]]><\/style>\n<div class=\"xn-content\">\n<p\/>\n<p><span class=\"xn-location\">COLUMBUS, Ohio<\/span>, <span class=\"xn-chron\">Nov. 11, 2016<\/span> \/PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE\/ &#8212; Catholic Sisters today look very different from women who became sisters 40 years ago. And it has nothing to do with whether or not they wear a habit. <\/p>\n<p>Photo &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/photos.prnewswire.com\/prnh\/20161111\/438431\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/photos.prnewswire.com\/prnh\/20161111\/438431<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Photo &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/photos.prnewswire.com\/prnh\/20161111\/438432\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/photos.prnewswire.com\/prnh\/20161111\/438432<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Photo &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/photos.prnewswire.com\/prnh\/20161111\/438433\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/photos.prnewswire.com\/prnh\/20161111\/438433<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>As we celebrate National Vocation Awareness Week, the Dominican Sisters of Peace are a good example of what is different about sisters today.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Before becoming a Dominican, Sister <span class=\"xn-person\">Ana Gonzalez<\/span>, 36, spent 10 years as a public relations representative for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in <span class=\"xn-location\">El Paso, Texas<\/span>, the world&#8217;s largest multicultural border community.\u00a0 She came to the US from <span class=\"xn-location\">Mexico City<\/span> when she was ten years old. <\/p>\n<p>Sister <span class=\"xn-person\">Margaret Uche<\/span>, 51, grew up in a Catholic family in <span class=\"xn-location\">Nigeria<\/span> and attended a convent school there for a short time. She came to <span class=\"xn-location\">the United States<\/span> 34 years ago to go to college in <span class=\"xn-location\">Minnesota<\/span> and transferred to <span class=\"xn-org\">California State University-Dominguez Hills<\/span>, where she received a degree in biology. <\/p>\n<p>Both women represent a new cultural diversity in religious life. <\/p>\n<p>Sister Ana and Sister Margaret both said their decision to enter the congregation came after a long period of self-examination. Both left busy secular careers because they felt something missing in their lives, which they believe they have found in the Dominican way of life. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I had my master&#8217;s degree, was turning 30 and had been working for 10 years and was a workaholic, but felt empty inside,&#8221; Sister Ana said. &#8220;I felt defined by what I was doing, not who I was. I began questioning my spirituality.\u00a0 As I searched, the question of entering the religious life began to surface. I hadn&#8217;t considered it before, but recalled my interaction with talented, educated, dynamic Dominican Sisters of Peace. I could feel something in me being stirred that was blossoming and life-giving.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ana said one of the biggest difficulties she had to overcome in connection with her lifestyle change was the opposition of her father. &#8220;My mother always wanted me to get an education first and become a professional, but my father felt a woman&#8217;s role should be that of a wife and mother,&#8221; she said. &#8220;He has come to respect my choice, though he may not understand it. He says he just wants me to be happy. My mother was concerned at first that I would be lonely, but now that she has seen how I interact with the other sisters, she knows that won&#8217;t be a problem. I found a lot of joy and laughter with the sisters,&#8221; Sister Ana said. &#8220;They encouraged me to grow.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Sr. Margaret is a native of <span class=\"xn-location\">Nigeria<\/span> who studied nursing at the <span class=\"xn-org\">University of Houston<\/span>. &#8220;Nigerian culture believes a woman should not live alone at home, but I didn&#8217;t think marriage was the right thing for me,&#8221; Sister Margaret said. \u00a0&#8220;My relatives in <span class=\"xn-location\">Nigeria<\/span> were very concerned, and one of them told me she said she spoke to a wise man who said I should consider praying about my vocation. \u00a0I followed that advice, and my mind and heart began to open.\u00a0 As I met the Dominican Sisters of Peace, I became touched by their love and compassion and felt, &#8216;This is it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Both my parents are deceased, but I think they would be very happy and supportive of my decision if they were alive today. I have a brother in <span class=\"xn-location\">Texas<\/span> and one in <span class=\"xn-location\">Nigeria<\/span>, plus four sisters in <span class=\"xn-location\">Nigeria<\/span>, and they&#8217;re also pleased about it. <\/p>\n<p>Women entering religious life today reflect a more complex story and a growing cultural diversity among US Catholics, Sr. Ana and Sr. Margaret and good examples of the trend.<\/p>\n<p>National Vocations Awareness Week, sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops&#8217; (USCCB) Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, is designed to help promote vocation awareness and to encourage young people to ask the question: &#8220;To what vocation in life is God calling me?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"xn-content\">\n<p \/>\n<p><span class=\"xn-location\">COLUMBUS, Ohio<\/span>, <span class=\"xn-chron\">Nov. 11, 2016<\/span> \/PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE\/ &#8212; Catholic Sisters today look very different from women who became sisters 40 years ago. And it has nothing to do with whether or not they wear a habit. <\/p>\n<p>Photo &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/photos.prnewswire.com\/prnh\/20161111\/438431\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/photos.prnewswire.com\/prnh\/20161111\/438431<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Photo &#8211; &lt;a href=&quot;http:\/\/photos.prnewswire.com\/prnh\/20161111\/438432&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interes-humano"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hispanicprwire.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}