When 16-year-old Margaret "Dixie" Dugan took her friend's place on a retreat from Mount Carmel to the Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Lancaster, little did she know she was setting out for the place where she would live her consecrated life.
It was October 1958. Some 25 girls from Mount Carmel were to be readying for a retreat hosted by the Dominican Nuns of the Perpetual Rosary some two hours away.
But the football team from Mount Carmel Catholic High School was playing in a big game that weekend, and so most of the girls - including Dixie's friend - decided to withdraw from the retreat at the last minute.
Dixie's friend asked her to accompany her to the rectory at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish to tell the priest she wouldn't be making the weekend trip. When she told him her decision, the priest invited Dixie to come along instead.
She received her parents' permission and said yes. Her life was about to change.
Some 54 years later, now Sister Margaret Pius, she sits in the parlor at the monastery, separated from visitors by a half wall and a grill. She smiles as she recalls the day she first entered the monastery's doors with a handful of schoolmates and several women from her home parish.
"I often wonder if I would have found myself here if not for that retreat. What if my friend had not asked me to go with her to the rectory that day? What if Father Zimmerman hadn't asked me to come along?" she muses.
The answer comes obviously and quickly.
"I'm here because this is where God wants me to be," she said.
Sister Margaret Pius is nearing the end of the yearlong celebration of her Golden Jubilee, a year of grace that has, among other things, given her cause to reflect on her life's journey and her call to consecrated life.
Once a self-described tomboy who climbed trees and enjoyed sports, she is the oldest of the Dugan siblings. They were raised in the church by parents with a strong Catholic faith.
"Since fifth grade, I had wanted to be a religious sister; I just didn't know where," she said.
Her aunt had been a member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Dugan family lived not far from the Carmelite nuns whose monastery was in Mount Carmel before their move to Elysburg.
Praying the rosary was common in the Dugan household, and young Dixie embraced it.
"Our parish had the rosary every day at 6 p.m.," she recalled. "Every time I would get ready to go up to the church, my mother would say, 'Are you really going to church? I think you're going out to see somebody instead.' My father would tell her, 'Yes, she's going to see someone. She's going to see the Lord.' "
Sister Margaret Pius recalls days of horseback riding, swimming, dancing and watching Dick Clark's "Bandstand" as a young girl.
Then she joined in the retreat, and "it changed everything."
She participated fully in the weekend: reading the Bible, reflecting on the presentations, considering the lives of the Dominican nuns there.
"Sunday morning during the retreat, I knelt at the Communion rail," she said. "I looked up at the crucifix and said, 'Lord, where do you want me? Where am I to go? What am I to be?' I felt a sense of peacefulness. I heard an inner voice say, 'Margaret, this is where I want you - where they pray my mother's rosary.' "
Just a junior in high school, she was ready to follow God's call. She was 17 when she entered the monastery in 1959.
It took her mother quite some time to adjust to her daughter living a cloistered life that allowed monthly visits. At that time, the nuns were separated from visitors by a solid grill and Sister Margaret Pius could only kiss her parents through its bars. (Today, the monastery's parlor is fitted with a waist-high counter with a grill above it that opens, allowing for more personal interaction.)
As time passed, the Dugan family saw that their daughter and sister happy living her religious vocation. Her family has since grown to include in-laws, nieces and nephews, most of whom joined Sister Margaret Pius in her Jubilee celebration at the monastery last summer.
Life as a Dominican nun is one of structured prayer. Their cloistered life represents their separation from the world even as they pray for it every day.
They wake at 5:25 a.m., pray the Office and meditate before 6:45 a.m. Mass. After breakfast is the Office of Readings and midmorning prayer. They pray midday prayer at 11:50 a.m. before lunch and recreation (board games, reading, watching videos or recorded television programs, answering mail, playing with the two outdoor cats that live in the courtyard). They pray the Office at 3 p.m. and the rosary at 5 p.m. Evening prayer and meditation follow, with dinner at 6 p.m. After another hour of recreation, they end their day with night prayer at 8 p.m.
"God has blessed me with this life," Sister Margaret Pius said. "Not everybody is called to the cloistered life. When people say, 'What made you want to live this life? I could never do it,' I say, 'That's OK. It's not your vocation. God chose me.'"
Not long after Sister Margaret Pius entered the monastery, one of the nuns there showed her an old note, circa 1940. It was written to the Dominican nuns and sent with some money to help raise funds for the monastery.
The note read: "Will you please pray that if we have a child, that it will have a religious vocation?"
It was signed by Mr. Dugan from Mount Carmel.
(Reprinted with permission from the Catholic Witness.)
Daily Schedule
Morning Prayer 6 a.m.
Daily Mass 6:45 a.m.
Office of Reading 8:15 a.m.
Mid-Day Prayer 11:50 a.m.
Dinner followed by recreation Noon
Lectio and profound silence 1:30 to 3 p.m.
Mid-Afternoon Prayer 3 p.m.
Rosary in common, Evening Prayer and Private Prayer 4:50 to 6 p.m.
Supper followed by recreation 6 to 8 p.m.
Night Prayer 8 p.m.