Sister Melissa Blankestyn

Sister Priscilla R. Torres is a first year novice from the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin.  Priscilla was born and raised in Big Spring, Texas.   She earned a B.A. in Psychology from Southwest Texas State  University in San Marcos, Texas.  Prior to entering, Priscilla worked 10 years for the State of Texas under the Texas Workforce Commission. 

During this time, she worked in three areas; a local Workforce Office, Communities in Schools of Texas and The Workforce Information System of Texas (TWIST).  Priscilla was a member of St. Albert the Great Catholic Church in the Austin, Texas, Diocese.  She served as an adult volunteer for the High School youth group.  Priscilla came to know the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa through a vocation retreat in San Antonio, Texas.  She was impressed by their gift of joy and their individuality.  She was also impressed with their oneness as a community of holy and faithful women. During this canonical year she is interested in deepening her relationship with God.

Sister Lystra Long is a second-year novice from the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Lystra first came into contact with the Dominicans of Sinsinawa by responding to an advertisement for a women’s retreat in the local Catholic newspaper.  Through the Holy Spirit she felt called to attend the retreat and was impressed with what was shared on Dominican life and about the joyful and diverse sisters from Sinsinawa.

Lystra has a B.A. degree in Theology and was previously employed as a Library Assistant at the Regional Seminary Library in Trinidad.  She has worked in youth ministry and as a confirmation teacher.  Lystra’s hobbies are reading, dancing, movies and sports.  A few of her goals this canonical year are to deepen her relationship with God, integration of study and to be life-giving in community.

Sister Christine E. Walcott is a first year novice from the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin.  Christine is Trinidadian born, the mother of two adult children, Kurt and Kamille, and has five grand-children.  She worked for twenty-one years as an elementary teacher at a private school.  She also worked as a volunteer remedial teacher at a correctional institute for teenage girls in Trinidad.  

Christine obtained a Certificate in Religion and in her desire to become a lay missionary, began to pursue the degree in Theology which she has almost completed.  Christine is a certified Lay Minister and has been involved in various parish ministries: catechesis, children’s liturgy, youth ministry, parish youth coordinator, choir (guitar accompaniment), lector and training of lectors.  She has preached not only in Trinidad but in a few other Caribbean islands and also at the Congregation’s Chapter in Chicago in 2006.  Christine first met a Sinsinawa Dominican Sister in 1976 and in 2003 was invited by that same sister to join.  After one year of deliberation she responded affirmatively to the invitation and entered the House of Discernment in January 2004.  Christine’s goal for this canonical year is to deepen her spirituality and also to integrate the fruits of her contemplation within the areas of community, study, ministry, and human development.