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Dedication of Building to the Memory
of S. Dolores Beringer, CSJ
Cincinnati, OH
The Dedication of the Sister Dolores Beringer Parish Center took place on February 11, 2005. Eight of the Cincinnati Region Sisters of St. Joseph attended. Sr. Therese Beringer, CSJ, S. Dolores’ niece was invited to be part of the ribbon cutting ceremony.
In the flyer for the dedication the Guardian Angel community recognized S. Dolores’ deep love for children and for instilling values and self-esteem in them. “I try to get them to realize what a beautiful thing it is to be alive and to see God in others.” S. Dolores taught three, sometimes four, generations of Guardian Angel families. By naming the parish center in her honor, we celebrate her tireless devotion to God’s work and the difference she made in the lives of so many.
The Center includes a gymnasium which can accommodate 1,000 people, several conference rooms and a concession stand.
A member of the parish painted a portrait of Sr. Dolores which was unveiled as part of the ceremony and later placed inside the foyer of the new center.
S. Caroline Benken, CSJ
a former student and member of the General Council of the Sisters of St. Joseph,
was asked to say a few words at the dedication.
“‘I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened
to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course
of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke in me some long dormant
craving to be mentally alive.’ –Malcom X
Back in 1936 I was a little six year old when I walked into Sr. Dolores’ classroom. One of my most treasured memories of that year was the unfolding of the mysteries of reading. I can still see the alphabet cards with their bodies of fairies and dwarfs, now known as vowels and consonants, stretched to fit in each letter. Reading was probably one of the most valuable gifts she instilled in the minds and hearts of thousands of children and a seed that made so many of us mentally alive and spiritually alive.
What better gratitude can we offer than to have us use this gift to probe the mysteries of our faith and to make contact with all of God’s creation by using it throughout our lives? With this skill alone Sister may have given us the means to become successful in whatever ways our lives took shape, but over and above that we received a gift that made the wisdom of the wisest from all over the world available to our own minds and hearts. What a great means we gained, to come to know and appreciate all of God’s creation and to learn of a love far beyond our earlier imaginations. Yes, mentally and spiritually alive!
As a Sister of St. Joseph I would like to express the gratitude of all of us for this new building which honors S. Dolores and along with her all of us have come before and after her, who in their love for God opened minds and hearts to the ways t discover all that God reveals to us and learned to celebrate it in song.”
Caroline Benken, CSJ
Posted 2-18-05