A high priest forever

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For 18 January 2011, Tuesday of 2nd week, based on Hebrews 6:10-20

For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we want each one of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. Human beings, of course, swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all dispute. In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.


Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

About Mary Ann Wiesemann-Mills, O.P.

Mary Ann is a member of the Sisters of Peace.
She was an elementary school teacher for 20 years, serving in schools located in both Akron and in Denver, CO. She received training as a retreat/spiritual director at the Jesuit Renewal Center in Milford, OH and continues to serve as both a spiritual director and retreat preacher as time allows.

As associate pastor for seven years at St. Joseph Parish in Mantua, OH, she shared full preaching responsibilities with the pastor.
From 1989-2001, she served as Vocation/Formation Director for her congregation.

Mary Ann graduated from Aquinas Institute of Theology in May, 1997 with a Doctor of Ministry in Preaching and since that time has served as the Promoter of the Charism for the Akron Dominicans.
For five years she was a faculty member for the Aquinas Summer Preaching Institute and now serves as Adjunct Professor of Homiletics at St. Mary Seminary in Cleveland, OH.

Mary Ann is a member of the Academy of Homiletics and is past President of the Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics, which is a branch of the Academy.

July 1, 2001, Mary Ann elected to the Leadership Team of the Sisters of St. Dominic of Akron, OH, which has now joined with six other congregations to become the Dominican Sisters of Peace.

January 17, 2004, she was elected Prioress of the congregation to complete the term of Sister Elizabeth Ann Schaefer, OP who died December 23, 2003; this term ends June 30, 2005.

March 29, 2005 Mary Ann was elected Prioress of the congregation for the next four years, term beginning July 2, 2005 and ending June 30, 2009.