by Tony Rossi
What would inspire a woman to dedicate her life to a religious vocation?
More than 60 years ago, Sister Ave Clark was drawn to the Amityville Dominican Sisters because of a love for God and acts of kindness. She still remembers some of the people who guided her to that vocation, one being her first grade teacher, Sister Loretta Marie. “I was always a child that would watch and take in how people treated one another, and she was extra kind to people,” Sister Ave recalled during an interview about her book “Hold on to Love … with Graces Galore.”
At age 16, Sister Ave worked at St. Joseph’s Camp, run by the Amityville Dominican Sisters.
As the sisters handed out food trays to the student workers in the cafeteria, one of them heard Sister Ave’s friend lament that she ripped a blouse she loved. This sister told the girl to bring her the blouse so she could mend it.
“The next day,” Sister Ave noted, “(this Sister) brings the blouse back, and she hands it to the girl. I’m next to my friend, and our eyes got real big. It was not only mended. It was washed and ironed. We’re saying, ‘Thank you,’ and her simple reply to us was, ‘Oh, I just love making people happy.’ Those were the moments in my life I wanted to be part of the happiness of that Sister, who happened to be an Amityville Dominican.”
Through her work leading Heart to Heart Ministry, Sister Ave provides compassionate, spiritual, and practical care for those marginalized, victimized, and suffering.
She also brings happiness to others through her everyday interactions. However, as Sister Ave has been a Dominican for more than 60 years, she also realizes that age can affect our experience of happiness and sometimes requires an adjustment in perspective.
Her friend, Sister Pat Hanvey, writes in “Hold on to Love” that she was healthy all her life, until she wasn’t. Doctors, and tests, and rehab became Sister Pat’s new normal.
Sister Ave described Sister Pat as “the most loving, joyous person you’d ever want to meet.” Through her health challenges, Sister Ave recalled Sister Pat viewing life through a different lens — asking “what does it mean to adapt, to accept, and to let go of many of the things that you love to do and [walk] a little bit more slowly,” but still give.
“I remember my dad, when he was going into the golden years, he said, ‘Oh boy, those golden years, wait till you get to them!’ ” Sister Ave added. “I understand what he’s saying now because there’s a lot of changes that happen. So you need a mindset that (says), ‘let me choose life for where I am; let me choose life for how I can be now; let me choose to listen more to God’s way for me.’ ”
Tony Rossi is the Director of Communications for The Christophers, a nonprofit Catholic organization based in New York City.