SISTERS
COURTESY OF RENEW INTERNATIONAL
The best decision I ever made BY
S i s t e r Te r r y Rickard, O.P., president and executive director of RENEW International, is a Dominican Sister of Blauvelt, New York. A national speaker and author, her newest book is Live Lent! Cycle B, published by RENEW International.
SISTER TERRY RICKARD, O.P.
SISTER TERRY Rickard, O.P. meets with young people during a RENEW International visit to El Salvador.
I realized that volunteering for a few years in church service was not enough. God was asking me to radically give over my life.
T
HE POET MARY OLIVER poses this question in one of her works: “Tell me. What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” This question haunted me throughout my adolescence and into my young adult years. It continues to challenge me as I walk with God as a Catholic sister. I chose to be a Dominican sister at a time when many of my peers rejected the institutional church and didn’t consider a vocation as a sister, brother, or priest a viable option. Many thought I was crazy. For me it’s been the hardest yet best decision I’ve ever made.
Just ordinary I was brought up in a middle-class family in the suburbs of New York City, the fifth of six children. My parents were committed Catholics who sent me to Catho116 | VISION 2019 | VocationNetwork.org
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