Answering God's Call
Sister says God’s plan leads us to happiness

By Tim Puet
Catholic Times Reporter

“God has a mission for each of us that leads to happiness,” said Sister John Paul Maher, OP, principal of Worthington St. Michael School. She found that mission in the discovery of her vocation to religious life.

“After graduating from Franciscan University of Steubenville, I knew I was being called to some kind of life that incorporated supporting the mission of the Church, but I wasn’t sure what the next step would be,” said Sister John Paul, a member of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. Sisters from her congregation have taught at the school since being invited to come to the Diocese of Columbus by Bishop Frederick Campbell in 2011. The congregation was founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1997.

“As I learned about the Dominican Sisters of Mary’s commitment to respond to Pope St. John Paul II’s call for a New Evangelization and through prayer, I realized God was calling me to religious life in their community,” she said. “Looking back, I realize that the community had not even been founded when I first began praying to be open to God’s will for my life, even if it involved a religious vocation. It was all in God’s providence to answer prayers in His way and in His time.” 

Sister John Paul made her final vows as a Dominican Sister of Mary in 2008 and came to Worthington in 2015.

“What I love most about St. Michael’s is the wonderful students and a school community that is supportive of our mission of educating and forming students in virtue,” she said. “Parents are appreciative of our approach to educating the whole child.

“The most lasting gift we can give our students is the opportunity for them to see, as I did, that God has a plan for each one of them that will lead to their happiness and that living virtuously will allow them to find that happiness and pass it on to others.”

Sister John Paul is one of five members of her community at St. Michael. Besides their work at the school, they support the Church in the diocese through prayer and by attending events such as the Sacred Heart Congress, the Catholic Women’s Conference and the Marian Dinner for young women considering a vocation to the religious life. The sisters also have been guests on St. Gabriel Catholic Radio and have given talks in which they shared their Education in Virtue approach to living as a disciple of Christ.

Until recently, Worthington was the congregation’s only Ohio location. This year, four Dominican Sisters of Mary began teaching at St. Michael School in Findlay, about 80 miles northwest of Columbus. The congregation has more than 150 sisters from 34 states, as well as Canada, with an average age of 32. It has outgrown its original motherhouse in Ann Arbor and in 2019 opened a priory near Austin, Texas. 

The sisters also are expanding an online presence and looking at other new ways of sharing the Gospel, which can be found on their Lumen Ecclesiae digital site at goledigital.org. The site includes podcasts, videos, live streaming and a learning portal, with an emphasis on sharing God’s loving plan for salvation, or the kerygma, at goledigital.org/kerygma.

“We have nothing but gratitude for the people who have supported us in the years we’ve been at St. Michael,” Sister John Paul said. “We’re thrilled at the growth and focus on evangelization happening in the diocese, encouraged by Bishop (Robert) Brennan.” 

The Dominican Sisters of Mary offer vocation discernment retreats three times a year. To learn more or to talk with a sister about discernment, visit www.sistersofmary.org or email vocations@sistersofmary.org.