How One Woman Encourages Catholics to Live Out Their Faith Boldly: GIVEN Alumna Sister Felicity Wolf, O.P.
“Now is the time for battle, suffering and merits!” – Venerable Kolumba Białecka, O.P.
The GIVEN Institute strives to help young women discover their individual gifts and how they can be actualized in their state of life – whether as a laywoman or as a religious sister. Sr. Felicity Wolf, O.P. is one example of how the GIVEN Institute supports women on their faith journeys as they discover Christ’s personal calling. Originally a middle school and high school teacher, Sr. Felicity entered the GIVEN Forum in 2016 thinking about her goals for her Action Plan to create a workshop for Catholics in her home state to help them share their faith in communities that are hostile towards religion.
Since then, Sr. Felicity completed her Action Plan and is now in preparation for her final vows with the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception Province. She recently wrote a book
on fellow Dominican sister and martyr, Blessed Julia Rodzińska, titled, A Life Told in Psalm: Sister Julia Rodzińska’s Hope Sung in Martyrdom. As both a laywoman and religious sister, GIVEN has supported Sr. Felicity’s conviction to encourage Catholics to live out their faith boldly.
Born and raised in Oregon, Sr. Felicity graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in Philosophy and Theology and then earned her M.A. in Teaching from Christian Brothers University. She explains,
“I was discerning my call to religious life before, during,and after participation in GIVEN, as it was not obvious at first whether God wanted me to serve Him as a lay or religious woman.”
While at the 2016 GIVEN Forum, Sr. Felicity focused her Action Plan on support for Catholic adults in Oregon as she observed the cultural challenges they faced in practicing their faith. Sr. Felicity explains:
“Catholics in Oregon face a very areligious society, which brings both opportunities and challenges in witnessing to their faith, such as hostile work environments. I considered that religious freedom has historically been attacked through the Oregon courts and laws, causing a lot of fear of the repercussions for speaking up outside the home, so I especially thought that participants would benefit from knowing their legal rights and recourse to voice their beliefs.”
So, she designed a one-day Confident Catholics Workshop to help adults in the Archdiocese of Portland. The completion of her Action Plan led to an even greater actualization for Sr. Felicity – her vocation. In 2018, Sr. Felicity entered her Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception Province. After entering religious life, Sr. Felicity wrote about the life of Blessed Julia Rodzińska. Sr. Felicity describes the book:
“Praying the Psalms daily with my Sisters in the Liturgy of the Hours, I realized how much these biblical poems expressed the joys, struggles, and mundane moments of Blessed Julia’s life. I designed A Life Told in Psalm to be a prayerbook-like biography so that readers could also come to see how the Psalms voice their own life experiences.”
Sr. Felicity reflects on the continuity in her Action Plan to encourage Catholics in Oregon to publicly display their faith and her book about Blessed Julia’s persecution and martyrdom. She explains:
“A recurring theme in my life has been that ‘living out your faith confidently may be much better received than you think!’ For example, it was the concentration camp staff and prisoners, many of whom were not Catholic, who greatly respected and remembered Blessed Julia as a saint thanks to her confidently living out her faith even when religious expression was technically forbidden.”
Given the transformative experience the GIVEN Institute had on Sr. Felicity’s personal life. She shares that, “GIVEN has succeeded in its own mission: it helped me discern my personal vocation and lived out in both states of life, when I was a lay woman and now as a religious sister.” Please pray for Sr. Felicity as she prepares for her perpetual profession!