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Prioress Elise D. García, OP, receives the Final Profession of Vows of Sister Meliza Arquillano. Also present are formal witnesses Sister Jenny Fajardo, OP, Formation Director, left, and Sister Yolanda Manapsal, OP, Chapter Prioress

April 5, 2023, Mining, Pampanga, Philippines – With great joy and a sense of celebration, Sister Meliza Arquillano, OP, professed her Final (Perpetual) Vows on March 17, 2023, to Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, in a neighborhood chapel in the barangay (neighborhood) of Mining, Pampanga, the Philippines. 

Two young friends of Sister Meliza present a basket of fruit during the Offertory.
 

Celebrating with her were the Sisters of the Our Lady of Remedies Mission Chapter, based in Pampanga; two formal witnesses: Sister Jenny Fajardo, OP, Formation Director, and Sister Maria Yolanda Manapsal, OP, Chapter Prioress; her family and friends; and people has ministered with. 

Also attending were four Adrian Dominican Sisters from the United States: Sister Elise; Sister Lorraine Réaume, OP, Vicaress and General Councilor; Sister Patricia Siemen, OP, former Prioress; and Sister Frances Nadolny, OP, former Administrator and General Councilor. Presiding at the Mass was Dominican Father Eugenio Cabillon, OP. 

Left: Sister Meliza Arquillano, OP, with her immediate family; Right: Sisters Leizel Tedria, OP, left, and Marifi Lugtu, OP, right, both temporary professed Sisters, with Sister Meliza

“Final profession for me is the beginning of a life-long commitment to God, a covenant to fully commit myself to God’s mission and to follow the footsteps of Christ, fulfilling the God-given passions of my heart,” Sister Meliza said. “The Profession of Vows Liturgy is a blessing given by God, that I received with reverence and full responsibility. It is a divine celebration that sealed my promise with God, in witness of the public – whom I will serve until my last breath.”

Sister Meliza, the youngest of four and the only daughter of German Dominguez, Sr. and Leonila Arquillano, was born in the Philippines but met the Adrian Dominican Sisters while working as a machine operator in Taiwan while attending St. Joseph the Worker parish, where Sister Victoria Changcoco, OP, ministered. Sister Meliza later befriended Sister Maribeth Manguil, OP. 

“The Sisters became good friends to us migrant workers and helped us seek a deeper meaning in our life,” Sister Meliza said. She came to know the Sisters better while helping them at the diocesan center and felt the call to religious life, entering the Congregation in 2013. 

During her formation, Sister Meliza’s ministries have included service as Assistant to the Treasurer of Dominican School of Angeles City in Mining and as pastoral minister to the Aetas, the indigenous peoples of the Philippines, as well as to other people in need of a supportive presence. 

The Rite of Profession involved a formal examination of Sister Meliza by Sister Elise as to her resolve to grow in the love of God and neighbor and to be joined to the Adrian Dominican Congregation by perpetual profession. After the formal testimony of Sister Meliza’s readiness for Final Profession by Sister Yolanda, Sister Meliza lay prostrate as the assembly sang the Litany of Saints.

Left: Sister Meliza Arquillano, OP, lies prostrate as the assembly sings the Litany of Saints; Right: Prioress Elise D. García, OP, presents the blessed profession ring to Sister Meliza Arquillano, OP, signifying her lifelong commitment to Jesus Christ as a fully professed Adrian Dominican Sister

Sister Meliza then addressed Sister Elise, vowing obedience to God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Dominic, and Sister Elise and her lawful successors, “according to the Rule of St. Augustine and the Constitution of the Sisters of St. Dominic of the Most Holy Rosary until death.” The Rite continued with the blessing and presentation of Sister Meliza’s profession ring as a sign of her fidelity to Jesus, and with the signing of the formal profession documents.

On behalf of the Dominican family and especially the Adrian Dominican Congregation, Sister Elise affirmed Sister Meliza’s perpetual profession. “We joyfully congratulate you and pray that God continues to inspire you to enter each day with a generous heart, in order to serve the call to seek truth, make peace, and reverence life,” she said. The Adrian Dominican Sisters in the assembly responded by promising Sister Meliza the “loving and grateful support of the community” and welcoming her into “the full and responsible participation in this life.”

Left: Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Congregation, calls forward Sister Meliza Arquillano, OP, for the Rite of Final Profession; Center: Father Eugene Cabillon serves as presider at the Eucharistic Liturgy for Sister Meliza Arquillano’s Final Profession; Right: Sister Yolanda Manapsal, OP, Chapter Prioress of Our Lady of Remedies Mission Chapter, testifies as to the readiness of Sister Meliza Arquillano, OP, to profess her final vows

Sister Meliza is the first Adrian Dominican Sister whose vows Sister Elise received since she took office in October 2022. “It was very touching to receive Meliza’s final profession of vows in that lovely neighborhood chapel, the pews filled with her Sisters and family,” she said. “She beautifully witnessed her desire to respond to God’s call with a great clarity of heart and joyful spirit.”

For feature photo at top: Prioress Elise D. García, OP, receives the Final Profession of Vows of Sister Meliza Arquillano. Also present are formal witnesses Sister Jenny Fajardo, OP, Formation Director, left, and Sister Yolanda Manapsal, OP, Chapter Prioress, second from right.


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March 28, 2019, Adrian, Michigan – Even during their Spring Break from the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate (CDN) and from formal studies at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, two Dominican novices did not take a break from learning. Sister Rolande Kahindo Pendeza, a Maryknoll novice, and Sister Phuong Vu, a novice of the Dominican Sisters of Peace, spent their break visiting Dominican Motherhouses in Columbus, Ohio; Springfield, Illinois; Adrian, Michigan; and Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Sisters Rolande and Phuong are nearing the end of their canonical year at the CDN, a St. Louis-based novitiate program for novices from 15 U.S. Congregations of Dominican Sisters, including the Adrian Dominican Congregation. The novices are spending the year studying Dominican life and vowed life; taking courses at Aquinas Institute of Theology; meeting weekly for input and prayer with novices from other religious communities in the area; ministering as tutors at a local Catholic school; discerning their call with their novice directors; and taking time every Friday for a day of reflection and contemplation.

In addition, the novices and the two Co-directors of the CDN, Sister Cathy Arnold, OP, Dominican Sister of Peace, and Sister Lorraine Réaume, OP, Dominican Sister of Adrian, experience community life: praying together, sharing cooking and cleaning responsibilities, and spending free time with each other. 

During their visit to Adrian, the novices took the time to speak about their experiences in the novitiate, what they are learning about the Dominican family and tradition, and their hopes for the future. They bring their own experiences and national cultures to enrich the novitiate and the Dominican family.

Sister Phuong, the oldest of five siblings – three sisters and two brothers – was born in Vietnam and came with her family in 1989 to Chicago, to live near her aunt, who sponsored them. She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and moved to Dallas, Texas, to work for telecommunications companies. She entered the Dominican Sisters of Peace in February 2016. 

“I was attracted to the Dominicans because of the focus on study,” Sister Phuong said. “As Dominicans, we share the same charism: to preach, to contemplate, and to share the fruits of contemplation.” 

Born the second of eight children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sister Rolande earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Tangaza College, a Constituency of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. She met the Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic while teaching in Dodoma, Tanzania, and entered that congregation in 2017. She is the first novice at the CDN from Maryknoll, the “first United States based Congregation of women religious founded … for foreign mission work.”

Both novices have come to appreciate the diversity of their novitiate community. “What attracted me to Maryknoll is their charism of mission, of having a missionary spirit, of crossing borders and living with people of different cultures,” Sister Rolande said. As a novice in a diverse community, “I’m understanding more – I’m living what I aspire to live, meeting people who are not from my culture. For me, that’s the missionary spirit which I’m living.”

Sister Rolande now understands community as a place where “I come with my own values and others have their own, and we bring them together to create harmony in the community. Mission is always for others, not just for myself – so for me to be well-grounded, I have to study and to share with others what I study or read or contemplate.”

Sister Phuong said she has “a lot of experience with culture and diversity, but this novitiate is helping me to live interculturally, helping me to go deeper. I should learn the culture [of others] and go to the deeper level. It’s not like you live at the surface. You have to live underneath.”

The novices’ visit to the Dominican Motherhouses also taught them that, while the congregations of Dominican Sisters have differences, they also have a commonality as part of the larger Dominican family. “I’m learning again how we are one family,” Sister Rolande said. She said she and Sister Phuong have been welcomed to all of the motherhouses as family. “This is our home,” she said. “I’m really experiencing one family by visiting these houses.”

The novices spoke enthusiastically of their Catholic school ministry and of the time they have to study, contemplate, and discern their call, but they also acknowledged challenges that they face. Sister Rolande, said her first experience of winter this year was a challenge. “So many things are different – weather, people, food,” she said. Another challenge for her is “adjusting to other people’s preferences, because they may not be mine.”

Sister Phuong said she is challenged by the requirement of speaking and studying in English, which is not her first language. “I take a lot of time” to read and study in English, she said. “We’re busy, with a lot of reading and preaching,” and with the effort to balance time for study, preaching, prayer, and other pursuits.

With the challenges and new experiences, Sisters Phuong and Rolande believe that their year at the CDN is helping them to prepare for the future – a future they face with hope and joy.

Sister Rolande said her meetings with her spiritual director and novice director in particular have helped her face her challenges. The canonical novitiate year is “a time to discern my call to mission as a Maryknoll Sister,” she said. “It makes me more excited about it.” If all goes well, she will take her first vows this year. “After vows, I will go and share with others the gifts which God has given me, especially meeting those who are on the margins, because that’s what I feel is my call.”

Sister Phuong will spend the year after her novitiate experience in active, apostolic ministry before she takes her first vows. “Next year, I hope to apply what I learned from the novitiate and then take my vows,” she said. “I hope to bring my gifts and share them with others in need.”

If you’re a single Catholic woman who feels drawn to religious life – or if you know of someone who is – you can learn more about life as an Adrian Dominican Sister by contacting the Co-Directors of Vocations: Sister Tarianne DeYonker, OP, at 517-266-3532, tdeyonker@adriandominicans.org and or Sister Mariane Fahlman, OP, at 517-266-3537, mfahlman@adriandominicansisters.org or visit our website.


Feature photo: Sisters Rolande Kahindo Pendeza, a Maryknoll novice, left, and Phuong Vu, a novice from the Dominican Sisters of Peace, visit the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse during their Spring Break.


 

 

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