by Millie Foster, Still Waters Community, Fort Bend, Texas

Joy comes to mind when exploring Community. We have our individual communities, we come together as district communities and international communities.
Community is our foundation. Community can fulfill the “Five Love Languages” developed by Gary Chapman on how we give and receive love.

1. Quality time -- I look forward to my community’s monthly gatherings, seeing my friends, praying, and worshiping with them, breaking bread.
2. Words of Affirmation -- We support each other, listen to each other, and build each other up. We give each other the opportunity to assume a leadership role and speak about our faith.
3. Gifts – The gift of true friendship with others we may have never met or crossed paths with. Back to #1 - gift of quality time, love, praise, and worship. Community gives us the gift of greater understanding of our faith and values. There are too many gifts to list. What gifts have you received from your community?
4. Acts of Service – The joy of finding opportunities to serve others outside of our community and to serve our fellow members in their time of need.
5. Physical touch -- I cherish the hugs I get at our gatherings and the holding of hands as we lift up our prayer intentions and then our prayer before breaking bread.

Let’s all cherish, admire, and respect our communities. Let our communities help us to grow in spirit, faith, and love.  And the best thing, let’s GROW OUR COMMUNITIES.

​Welcome to the Spring 2024 issue of Dimension Connections. For this issue, we are focusing on the Five Dimensions – Education, Vocation, Ministry, Community and Spirituality. But first, did you ever wonder just how this newsletter comes to be?

The process begins at the Annual Meeting of the USA National Leadership Team. Members of the NLT gather in person once a year to share fellowship, assess where we are as Theresians, and set goals for the coming year. Each member of the team serves on one of two committees. Together, the committees address the Five Dimensions in ways that benefit all Theresian Communities throughout the United States.

Those of us who serve on the Spirituality and Education Committee of the NLT are tasked with producing Dimension Connections twice a year. We select a theme for each issue and then decide how best to present that theme. For this issue, we have chosen to focus on the Five Dimensions. We invited several of our sisters to write a reflection on a specific dimension. We strive to have as many of our sisters contribute content as we can.

If you have never been asked to contribute to a specific issue of Dimension Connections, please consider this your personal invitation! Your participation enriches our newsletter in so many ways. Please contact anyone in the Executive Office and they will be happy to put you in touch with me or any member of our committee (Carol Landry, Toni Hare, and Millie Foster). We welcome your ideas for future issues and would love to include your personal contribution whether it be a book review, a poem, or even a reflection on the Theresian lifestyle that we try to live every day.

So now you know how this little gem of a newsletter comes to you. Thank you for reading and let us know what you think!

​Blessings,
Melanie Hartshorn, Chair
NLT Spirituality and Education Committee, 2023-2024
Spiritual Springs Community
Fort Bend, Texas

by Mary Harnden, Luminaries, Lake Jackson, Texas 

Google says, “Vocation in a religious context is how God calls you to serve Him in the world. God calls you through Baptism and Confirmation to serve Him in a specific way of life. You can follow God's call as a single person, married person, ordained priest or a vowed religious.”

We live by Five Dimensions in the Theresian Way of Life. I will share my reflection on the Vocation Dimension. In summary, l love and feel very blessed to have the opportunity to share my passion and vocation as a physical therapist.
I was fortunate to find my calling at age 16. I was a student athlete frequently in the training room with injuries. I knew at that age I felt called to help people and I was looking into the medical field. Through lots of prayers of discernment being a Physical Therapist became my passion and I still love it 41 years later. In our practice, we provide heart to heart care and hand to hand contact. In helping one person at a time, we change the world. We have no idea the power of a smile, a hug, listening, and being the facilitator of God’s healing. I have been so fortunate to love what I do and being able to be of service to others and share God’s love.

Some would say, that is your career, but a vocation is more than a career. Through my vocation as a physical therapist God invites me to love and give myself to others. As Theresians we have many vocations: mother, wife, teacher, professor, lawyer, doctor, musician, artist, engineer, counselor to name a few. Theresians are responding to God’s call in their multiple vocations as we live out Gospel values.

Our community’s name is Luminaries. I love the image it reflects of people with lights of Christ inside them, glowing with love and compassion for others. Sometimes our light is super bright with joy and encouragement or a shining light of God’s love as an active listener. At other times we need the Paschal light shared to reignite the fire of the Holy Spirit seen at the Easter Vigil when they light the Easter Candle and we share the light with each other. In our community, I feel so close to God with the circle of love, the dialogue or sharing, and learning and the prayers and support we feel as we gather. Yes, we share our spirituality and are educated in community, and through our experience we minister to each other through our vocation. We are all called most deeply to share God’s love through service in our unique vocations. We have a special opportunity this September to share our gift of Theresians at our International Gathering in Houston. Go out and witness the gift of Theresians in your vocation, your church, your family and friends, and the strangers you meet at the grocery line. I pray we are blessed by your efforts with abundance of attendance to the International Gathering.

by Sharon Sproat, Journey Community, Austin, Texas

Way back in 1986, I felt the first calling to Ministry as a Eucharistic Minister of Holy Communion and for the past 38 years have been blessed to serve in that capacity in three different cities. That Ministry was not my first calling; I have sung in various choirs and choral groups including liturgical, contemporary, classical, and barbershop over my lifetime starting in elementary school. While some may not be classified as “ministry,” each provided a way to bring joy to others, be it spiritual, emotional, or physical. Music is what speaks to my soul. It is sometimes difficult to read the bible without a song popping up in my head.

When I became a Theresian 15 years ago after moving to Austin, Texas, I was looking for spiritual growth. Little did I know how being a part of Journey Community would begin a new shaping of my spiritual life. I had never met a group of women who were so faith filled. There was always some program or book that was asking “what more can you do?” One year I decided for Lent that instead of giving up something I would go outside my comfort zone to do service work. I chose a homeless community called Community First! Village, a village (at that time) of over 200 tiny homes, trailers, and RV’s. I worked in the convenience market on the property that allowed the residents to have access to food and cigarettes. The village has grown to nearly 500 homes in support of the homeless. I volunteered for two years until the pandemic struck and we were unable to serve during that time.

As always, when God closes one door, He opens another. I began my journey as a lector both on Sundays and weekdays. I also began singing with the Austin Diocesan Choir which sang for the Chrism Mass, Transitional Diaconate, Permanent Diaconate and Priestly Ordination Masses.

And then seven years ago, our Deacon asked me to join the RCIA Team (now known as OCIA) and be a sponsor. That ministry has continued, and I am humbled to have acquired three Godsons and one Goddaughter and have also sponsored three other women.

My latest ministry came unexpectedly three years ago when the pastor recommended me to be one of his seven sisters. This ministry, Seven Sisters Apostolate, is a group of seven women each taking one day of the week to pray a holy hour solely for our pastor. I struggled to pray a holy ten minutes (!) but when I asked the pastor why he recommended me, he simply said, “You’re an intercessor.” And so began another ministry.
I never know what God is going to call me to next…but with the love and support of my Theresian sisters, I pray I can continue to say “Yes!”

by Toni Hare, Agape Garden Community, Lafayette, Louisiana

As a forty-two-year veteran in the field of education, I have always been a proponent of life-long learning. As a Catholic, I believe also in the importance of living a life which is reflective, discovering the lessons presented to us each day, the decisions made and perhaps, the consequences of our wrong choices. St. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” I propose to you that to confidently know the truth, the purity, the graciousness of the life which has been given to us by our Creator, we must be exposed to quality Christian writings, Scripture, and the deposit of faith. The Theresian experience offers opportunities to develop an informed conscience and allows women to live out their fullest potential. On the Theresian International website the definition of the Education dimension is a “continual formation leading to spiritual maturity.”

“An upright and true moral conscience is formed by education and by assimilating the Word of God and the teaching of the Church. It is supported by the gifts of the Holy Spirit and helped by the advice of wise people.” (CCC 1799-1800) When I was a Religion Administrator of a Catholic elementary school, I would tell my students that each of them had a puzzle piece in their heart which showed God’s love in a special way, given only to them. As a child of God, it was their responsibility to show others their puzzle piece by the way they acted and treated others. Only then, when their puzzle piece was joined to those of others, could the world see the entire beauty and love of God.

“When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child.” (1 Corinthians 13:11) In the chaos and challenges of life today, a childhood vision of faith would not serve women well. My mother Flossie taught me that it is the woman in the home who teaches love. Women carry the responsibility of teaching their children and loved ones the love and mercy of God. To do this properly, faith formation must continue into adulthood. The Theresian community is a perfect avenue for women to continue to develop a mature and informed knowledge of faith and to share their life lessons, their puzzle piece, in an intimate and profound way. Theresian communities that avail themselves of the wealth of good Christian and Catholic literature, prolific authors such as Scott Hahn, Richard Rohr, Bishop Robert Barron or the numerous Scripture studies available in text or video, allow their members to grow in their faith and knowledge, sharing experiences and lessons of life. Whatever is true to one is valuable to another. In this way, Theresians can live their motto, “Women in support of women, reaching out with Christian values.”