I remember reading somewhere that remembrance is a form of meeting.

And so, this morning we remember Sister Cecilia and, in a sense, meet her once again.

We all remember Cecilia, or Pat as her family knows her, as a woman charged with the fullness of life. She lived life to the fullest and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the living.

Pat spent her childhood on Long Island in Port Washington and, while her journeys took her to many places, her rootedness landed her back on Long Island at the end of her life.

Cecilia, in the 50+ years of religious life always boasted of being three times a Dominican. She entered the Dominican way of life and professed vows with the Hawthorne Dominican Congregation. About 30 years after she transferred her vows to the Dominican Sisters of the Sick Poor of Ossining. Then, in 1995, when the Ossining Dominicans joined with the Newburgh and Fall River Dominicans to form a new congregation, Cecilia became a Dominican Sister of Hope. During all those years Cecilia’s love of the WORD and her ability to preach that WORD wherever she ministered, was her gift to those who knew her.

In the first years of her ministry Cecilia cared for the terminally ill at Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne, NY. For the next 30 years she learned how to stand and wait with those who would soon see the face of God. How to be with them in their suffering and to be a sign and symbol of God’s loving presence was her ministry. During this time she preached the WORD of compassion.

In 1982 she began the transfer process into the Dominican Sisters of the Sick Poor. It was at that time that she came here to Hampton Bays and worked for five years as a nurse on the staff of the Family Health Service. It was also at this time that Cecilia took a course in clinical pastoral education which, in later years, would open up yet another to her in Hampton Bays.

From there, her missionary spirit led her to explore the country of Belize. For two years she assisted a friend who was a Sister of Mercy in a clinic for the poor. Her tales of Belize were both hair-raising as well as humorous, etched with the reality that Cecilia had one of the most profound experiences of her Dominican life, walking in the shoes of the destitute poor of Belize.

From Belize, Cecilia went to Reading, Pennsylvania with her friend Mary to investigate the needs of persons infected with the AIDS virus. This ministry formalized with the founding of Rainbow Home where Cecilia ministered for four years to those afflicted with AIDS in its terminal stage. The WORD was again preached with care and tenderness.

Then, in 1995 the Founding Chapter of the newly formed congregation – the Dominican Sisters of Hope – elected Cecilia to its first leadership team. Her extroverted personality found its niche and she gloried in the travel, the meetings, the committee work, as well as the relationships with other religious women on the cutting edge of God’s WORD. During this time Cecilia seemed to waken each day with great expectation and new-found energy for the task at hand.

In 1999, when the second leadership was elected, Cecilia remained a part of it and served a second term with determination and a continued zest for preaching the WORD…in season …and out of season. She never tired of the demands of her position, but rather continued to be energized by it.

It was after this time in leadership that she took time apart and went first to Watermill and then to Florida for some Sabbath time. I am sure she has shared with many of you how alive the WORD became in her during that time of respite. She returned refreshed and ready to take on active ministry again.

It was then that Cecilia returned to Hampton Bays for the second time. This time, working for the Family Health Service in the role of pastoral care minister. She spent time bringing the WORD of healing and hope to the homebound. It was during this time that she joined the Committee of the Common Good here in St. Rosalie’s reaching out to others with the WORD of God’s justice.

Remembering is indeed a form of meeting. We each remember Cecilia in our own way, and in that way, meet her. We remember her as an insatiable reader, a fastidious dresser, a thoughtful poet—a women of deep prayer who loved her morning cup of coffee and her occasional tiramisu . We remember her as a preacher of the WORD …in season…and out of season. And, some of us remember her as a molder of Dominican life for the new millennium.

In each of our remembrances -
We meet her.
We thank her.
And we wish her deep and everlasting peace.

Veronica Miller, OP