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Hodgeman County native professes first vows Sister Gemma Marie, the former Michelle Dixon, professed first vows with the Sisters of Life before the Most Reverend William E. Lori, bishop of Bridgeport, at St. Frances de Chantal Church, Bronx, N.Y., on Aug. 6. Sister Gemma, the daughter of Mike and L’Jean Dixon, is a native of Hodgeman County. She is a former parishioner of St. Mary’s Parish, and a graduate of Hanston High School. She received a bachelor of science degree in nursing from Newman University in 1997 and worked at Via-Christi - St. Francis in Wichita for five years. Sister Gemma shared the following about her call to a religious vocation. "I was very happy working as a nurse and doing volunteer work after college, but I still had a yearning for something more. I remembered being on missionary trips in college. It was really in giving of myself that I was able to find the greatest meaning in my life. I personally experienced that God can’t be outdone in generosity. "Why the Sisters of Life? The question that kept pulling my heartstrings was, ‘What could be more important than the protection of human life? Without life, we cannot enjoy all the other goods of life.’" The Sisters of Life is a contemplative-active religious community founded by John Cardinal O’Connor, archbishop of New York, on June 1, 1991. Through prayer and apostolic works, the Sisters are consecrated for the protection and enhancement of the sacredness of all human life – beginning with the infant in the womb and extending to all those vulnerable to the threat of euthanasia. The community has grown from a community of eight women to 47 and now includes five convents. Sister Gemma has been missioned to archive the treasures of conferences from Cardinal O’Connor who died in 2000. The community is publishing these conferences in book form so that new members "can really get to know the heart of our founder and the gift of the charism given him by the Holy Spirit."
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Ellinwood native
receives conferral of Tonsure John Rickert received conferral of Tonsure in the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter at St. Francis of Assisi Church, Lincoln, Neb., on Sept. 17. The Most Reverend James Timlin, bishop emeritus of Scranton, presided at the rite. Tonsure is the sacred rite preparatory to minor orders by which a layman becomes a cleric. The bishop cuts a small lock of hair in front, back and on each side of the candidate’s head in the shape of a cross. The bishop then invests the tonsured with a surplice. John Rickert, the son of Larry and Lorraine Rickert, is a native of St. Joseph Parish, Ellinwood. He graduated from St. Joseph’s School and Ellinwood High School. He received his bachelor of arts degree in Mathematics and Classics from the University of Dallas, Irving, Tex., in 1990, and his master’s and doctororal degrees in Mathematics at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., in 1992 and 1995, respectively. He worked as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Dallas from 1996 to 1998, and as an actuarial analyst for Watson Wyatt Worldwide in Dallas from 1998 to 2004. Rickert shared the following about his call to a religious vocation. "I felt called to a religious vocation in grade school initially. (I found encouragement) from my family, a number of very good priests I have known, and especially Father James Kelly, who was our parish priest when I was young. What attracted me to study for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter? I became very attached to the Traditional Mass while living in Dallas, where the Fraternity has an apostolate. I attended the Mass there for about three years before coming to the seminary." The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter was canonically established by Pope John Paul II in 1988 to meet the liturgical and pastoral needs of those who are attached to the Traditional Latin liturgy. Rickert is in his second year of formation at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, Denton, Neb. This is the seminary for English-speaking candidates, primarily for the Fraternity’s North American District.
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