Dominican sister to lead Advent parish mission

Friday, Nov. 14, 2025

WEST HAVEN — An upcoming parish mission at Saint Mary Catholic Church will echo the theme of the Jubilee Year while focusing particularly on Advent. The theme “Advent Journey of Hope” will be examined over the three evenings in talks by Sister Joseph Andrew Bogdanowicz, OP, one of the four founders of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.

This will be the third parish mission on this theme at St. Mary’s in the Jubilee Year. In February, Fr. Thomas Czeck, OFM Conv. led a parish mission focused on hope in the incarnation. In September, Anne O’Donnell, a member of the Father Kolbe Missionaries of the Immaculata, spoke about hope within Marian spirituality.

The overall theme of the upcoming parish mission is “Pilgrims of Hope: Hope in the Incarnation.” The titles of the talks that Sr. Joseph will give are “Hope is the last thing ever lost,” based on an Italian proverb; “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore,” based on a  William Faulkner quote; and “Pray, Hope and Do Not Worry” from a quote by Saint Padre Pio.

“The way that I am dealing with hope, the virtue of hope, besides explaining it and giving many examples, really will be on pilgrimage to the main basilicas in Rome that are highly indulged for this year,” Sr. Joseph said. “So, it will be a virtual – by way of our parish mission – a [virtual] visit to the basilicas in Rome that are always highlighted during Jubilee years.” 

“I’m excited about it because I think a lot of people can’t go to Rome during this Jubilee year, and so it’s kind of a way of doing that,” she said. 

Sr. Joseph said she would like participants to leave the mission with a deeper understanding of the theological virtue of hope and “more opening in their own hearts towards this virtue, which is essential in living a good life in our world.” 

Sr. Joseph Andrew is one of the founding sisters of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, Mich. Their mission is to share God’s message of faith and the joy of religious life with the modern world through education, vocation promotion and the media. She has been widely published in Catholic journals and leads retreats across North America and Austria and has been a guest on EWTN, The Oprah Winfrey Show, NPR, CBS, and Fox & Friends. She lectures on topics related to religious life and theology, speaking at youth conferences, parishes, to university students, religious women, priests and seminarians.

 Sr. Joseph served as the Dominican Sisters of Mary’s vocations director for 25 years. In that role she has traveled extensively giving talks, writes for various Catholic publications and leads retreats for students, parishes, priests and seminarians. She also has written and compiled two volumes of And Mary’s ‘Yes’ Continues – books about religious life today.  

During the retreat at St. Mary’s, each of Sr. Joseph’s presentations will be followed by Adoration.

The parish mission is “a great kickoff for the Advent season and to begin to get excited about the coming of Christ and the journey towards that in the next four weeks,’’ said Donna Masek, a St. Mary parishioner who is helping organize the mission.

WHAT: Advent Journey of Hope Parish Mission

WHEN: Monday-Wednesday, Dec. 1-3, 6 -7:30 p.m. each night

WHERE: St. Mary Catholic Church, 4050 South 3900 West, West Haven

Free and open to all. For information, email miutah.stmary@gmail.com or call 801-621-7961.