Thorned Heart

Book excerpt: A Time to Grow, the third volume of the history of the Racine Dominican Sisters, tells the congregation's story from 1901 to 1964. After briefly recapturing the tumultuous development of the community while headed by Mother Hyacintha Oberbrunner from after the death of Mother Thomasina Ginker until the election of Sister Emily Acker in 1901, the book chronicles the period leading up to the Second Vatican Council and the changes already being set in motion before the congregational elections of 1964. Illustrations depict the lives of ordinary sisters as they struggled to observe the many regulations and customs handed down from a previous monastic era while carrying out their teaching ministry.