Being Dominican Sister Mary Genevieve O’Rourke has enjoyed a wide range of ministries during her years as a New Zealand Dominican sister. However, one quite short involvement which is especially interesting since it involved various members of the Dominican Family concerns Genevieve’s participation in the Dominican Preaching team between 2003 and 2008. I asked Genevieve if she would reflect on this particular time in her life. How did you become part of the Preaching Team? In 2003, I joined in with Peter Murnane, Joan Hardiman, Judith Crimmins and Mike Kelly to be part of a new venture – the Dominican Family Preaching Team which at one point also included Helen Ryan OP from the Eastern Australian Sisters’ Province. Peter Murnane had been very keen to have others join him in a preaching Mission. The goal of this Team was to respond to requests from parishes within New Zealand to run retreats or mini missions. Our Retreat-giving Team was to include a range of Dominican members – lay, religious and priestly. What previous experiences encouraged you to agree to participate in this new ministry? Formerly, as part of the parish team in “Star of the Sea” parish in Howick (1985-1997), I had run a variety of ministries which included organising prayer groups and preparing people for the Rites of Christian Initiation. When invited to be part of the Dominican preaching team, my life-time reflection and prayer on the daily Readings of the church’s calendar encouraged me to consider this new challenge.
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