September 10, 2019, Adrian, Michigan — Suzanne Duquet — a former student of the Adrian Dominican Sisters at St. Suzanne Elementary School and Bishop Borgess High School in Detroit and at Siena Heights College — recently formalized her long-time connection to the Congregation when she was accepted as an Associate. The Ritual of Acceptance took place September 4, 2019, in St. Catherine Chapel.
In opening the Ritual, Associate Mary Lach, Director of Associate Life, noted Suzanne’s past connections to the Adrian Dominican Sisters. “You will continue to deepen the bonds between you and the Congregation,” she told Suzanne. “May we all deepen our bonds as we journey together.”
Associate Trudy McSorley, her mentor along with Sister Betty Flaherty, OP, introduced Suzanne. “Not unlike many young girls at the time, she dreamed of becoming one of those happy, young, and spirited Sisters,” Trudy said of Suzanne.
The journey led her to Siena Heights College, now University, where she met Sister Betty and served for years as her administrative assistant, Trudy said. They have remained friends over the past 40 years. Sister Betty described Suzanne as a “model for women who carry Christ in their hearts and lives.”
While serving as teacher and principal at Boysville of Michigan, Suzanne met her husband, Michael. Together they raised three children. She retired after working with special needs children at Pinckney (Michigan) Public Schools for 25 years.
Suzanne is active at her parish, Holy Spirit in Brighton, Michigan, serving as an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist, a lector, and a member of the St. Joseph Guild. Her involvement in charitable activities includes serving as a trustee on the Board of Directors of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Livingston County, Michigan.
“You are indeed a faithful witness to the Gospel,” Trudy told Suzanne. “You do the preaching mission in your daily ministry. It is a blessing and a grace to have you be known as an Associate of the Adrian Dominican Sisters.”
For her part, Suzanne expressed her gratitude to her parents, her Catholic education, her long-time relationship with the Adrian Dominican Sisters, her friend Sister Betty, and her husband Michael. She said she desires to “share my faith through prayer and good works” and hopes to support the Mission of the Adrian Dominican Sisters.
The Ritual of Acceptance continued with Suzanne and her mentors signing the Agreement of Association, a formal document expressing her willingness to enter into a relationship with the Adrian Dominican Sisters. Trudy then presented her with the Associate Life logo.
Associates are women and men – married or single – at least 18 years of age and committed to sharing the Mission and Vision of the Adrian Dominican Sisters. While maintaining their independent lifestyles, Associates share in the Sisters’ mission and vision and participate in Congregational, spiritual, and social events with the Sisters.
For more information on becoming an Associate, contact Mary Lach, Director of Associate Life, at 517-266-3531 or mlach@adriandominicans.org. If you are a single Catholic woman interested in vowed religious life – or know of a young Catholic woman who is – contact Sister Tarianne DeYonker, OP, at 517-266-3532 or tdeyonker@adriandominicans.org or Sister Mariane Fahlman, OP, a 517-266-3537 or mfahlman@adriandominicans.org.
Feature photo: Associate Suzanne Duquet, right, with Sister Betty Flaherty, OP, her long-time friend
July 3, 2019, Adrian, Michigan – The campuses of Siena Heights University and the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Motherhouse were a beehive of energy, joy, and community June 25-30, 2019, as 76 students and their mentors from 18 Dominican High Schools participated in the 21st Annual Dominican High Schools Preaching Conference.
“I’ve been very fortunate to meet a lot of other people and I’ve become very welcomed into this Dominican community,” said Grace Rado, a student from Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois. “I’ve found that there are a lot of other young people who are on the same path, and we’re all learning to walk in God’s light and to preach.”
That is the intention of the preaching conference, which forms students from Dominican high schools in the Dominican spirituality of preaching – not just from the pulpit, but through their lives. The conference is structured to teach students the various ways Dominicans preach – and to encourage them to take what they learn at the conference back to their schools. Participants also plan and participate in prayer services, get to know one another at meals and other social events, and discuss the day’s events each night with specially organized groups.
The students first learned to preach in the Dominican tradition through portrayals of St. Dominic by Patrick Spedale, a mentor and teacher at St. Pius X High School, Houston; St. Martin de Porres by Brother Herman Johnson, OP, of the St. Martin de Porres (Southern) Province, and St. Catherine of Siena, by Adrian Dominican Sister Nancy Murray, OP.
In later sessions, students studied the signs of the times through sessions on the social justice issues of immigration, racism, exclusion of persons with disabilities, and human trafficking. Reinforced by their review of social justice issues, participants then spent a full day learning to preach in action through service at agencies in the Adrian area.
On the last full day of the conference, students attended workshops by Dominican artists to learn how to preach through the arts. Among the presenters were Adrian Dominican Sisters Tarianne DeYonker, OP, on the labyrinth as a tool of contemplation; Sara Fairbanks, on liturgical preaching; and Luchy Sori, OP, on liturgical movement.
The closing Liturgy – celebrated with the Sisters in St. Catherine Chapel – was an exuberant experience as the students were sent off to their homes and their schools to continue their preaching.
“We have taken the time to listen to each other, to fan the fire inside each person to let God’s love shine forth like the stars in the night sky,” Sister Mary Soher, OP, an Adrian Dominican Sister and Director of the Preaching Conference, told the students. “From such a wondrous week, how do we leave each other?” She encouraged them to consider their going back to their homes and schools as another call from God. “You gave your all to come here, and I know you will do no less for those whom God loves back home.”
Each school group then came forward to announce their commitment for the coming year: from organizing creative prayer services and teaching their classmates about different types of prayer to emphasizing the four Dominican pillars of prayer, study, community, and ministry or preaching, and educating them about social justice issues.
“It has been very humbling,” said Sean Repinski, of Dominican High School in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. He said he appreciated the opportunity “to come together as a group with other Dominicans and see how they do things differently, and what we can take back to our school to enhance our preaching experience.”
Feature photo (top): Patrick Spedale portrays St. Dominic in a dramatic account of the saint’s life and his founding of the Order of Preachers.
Top, from left: Sister Mary Soher, OP, Director of the Preaching Conference, addresses the assembly. Students prepare the altar during the exuberant offertory hymn, “We Come to your Feast.”
Bottom, from left: Students from Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois, present their commitment to enhance the Dominican spirit at their school. Students from St. Agnes Academy in Houston share a laugh with Sister Joan Baustian, OP, during the ice cream social, which brought together the young preachers and their prayer partners.