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July 15, 2021, Adrian, Michigan – Adrian Dominican Sisters in ministry throughout the United States helped identify people affected by COVID-19 who could benefit from $1,000 grants issued by Catholic Extension.
Gary, the head of a household that included two other elderly adults on fixed incomes, received help in paying the three-month balance on his electric bill. Children participating in the Rosa Parks Children’s Program at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in Detroit received their own set of garden tools to help them raise and harvest vegetables to take home to their families. They also received school supplies.
Val, a single mom in Chicago who contracted the COVID-19 virus and who struggled with bills even after returning to work, received help paying her electric bill and hospital bill, and received gift cards to pay for groceries and gasoline. Two women served by the St. Kateri Center in Chicago received help in paying their bills: Paula, an iron worker in Chicago and the single mother of four children, worked sporadically and was disqualified from unemployment benefits. Tina, who cares for two grandchildren, was laid off from her work of cleaning the rooms at Palmer House in Chicago.
These individuals and their families were the beneficiaries of special grants: the Sisters on the Front Lines Grants from Catholic Extension and, for the individuals in Chicago, grants from Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA), which focused its Sisters on the Front Lines grants to families in Chicago. Catholic Extension, a member organization of FADICA, gives grants to underserved, “mission” Catholic communities in the United States to help them build up the Catholic presence.
The grants went to Adrian Dominican Sisters who minister to people on the margins and who knew individuals and families who had special financial needs as a direct result of the pandemic.
Sister Jane Zimmerman, a spiritual director at Marillac St. Vincent Family Services in Chicago, said it was a privilege to work with Val to receive the grant. “Val was overjoyed and so grateful to have received this unexpected assistance,” Sister Jane said. “As for me, the experience gave me the opportunity to reflect on our Adrian Dominican commitment to ‘walk in solidarity with people who are poor.’”
Sister JoAnn Fleischaker, OP, who worked with both Tina and Paula at the Kateri Center, said she was also grateful for the assistance from FADICA. She has been involved in the Kateri Center, a center for Native Americans in Chicago, since 2015, after ministering for 21 years in Oklahoma as part of a Dominican collaborative ministry with the Cheyenne and Arapaho.
Sister Maureen McGrath, OP, Director of the Catholic Community Center in Benton Harbor, Michigan, described Gary as the “kindest, most grateful man.” Thanks to the Sisters on the Front Lines grant, she said, “we were able to assist Gary with an electric bill which required more assistance than we could have pledged … When I told him about the Catholic Extension gift, he almost cried, he was so very grateful for the relief.”
Sister Nancyann Turner, OP, recent Program Director for the Rosa Parks Children’s Program, said the grant money was used for the Children’s Peace Garden Program. “With monies from the grant, sessions were held more often but smaller so that children could keep a social distance from each other.”
These grants – and several more – were shepherded by Sister Nancy Murray, OP. While she was sidelined during the pandemic from her formal ministry – portraying St. Catherine of Siena at parishes, schools and other organizations throughout the world. She coordinated the $1,000 grants to families served by organizations in which Adrian Dominican Sisters were involved.
Catholic Extension announced the campaign, Sisters on the Front Lines, in June 2020 as a way to serve people whose lives have been affected by COVID-19. The plan was to give grants of $1,000 to 1,000 Sisters, knowing that they would know which families needed help because of the pandemic.
Sister Nancy originally reached out to Adrian Dominican Sisters who worked with organizations that served people facing poverty or homelessness. Other Sisters who received the grants for individuals or families were Sister Theresa Mayrand, OP, Associate Director of Gianna House, Detroit, which offers resources to pregnant teenagers and to all new mothers in need; Sister Carol Weber, OP, Co-founder and Co-director of St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center, Flint, Michigan, which offers a variety of services to help people in the Flint community to become self-sustaining; and Sister Patricia Leonard, OP, Associate Director of St. Ann Place, which provides services to homeless women and men in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Sister Nancy also received a grant for an Adrian area migrant farm worker family that is suffering economically because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other Sisters receiving the grant through FADICA were Sister Joan Mary, OP, who, as a volunteer at Aquinas Literacy Center in Chicago, tutored a woman who became pregnant and went to Syria to be with her mother. The grant enabled the literacy center to purchase laptops for adult learners so that they could continue to be tutored remotely.
Sister Eunice Drazba, OP, procured a grant for an employee who had been laid off from St. Leonard’s Ministries, which helps men and women leaving the prison system to adapt successfully in the community. Sister Dorothy Dempsey, OP, received a grant for a family with a special needs child.
Feature photo: Paula, with one of her daughters, received a check from FADICA to help her catch up on her bills during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was identified by Sister Jo Ann Fleischaker, OP, as heading a family that needed a grant.
July 13, 2021, Adrian, Michigan – The Adrian Dominican Congregation celebrated the lives and faithful dedication of 44 Jubilarians – one Sister marking 80 years; 12 marking 75 years; 14 celebrating their Double-Diamond (70-year) Jubilee; 17 celebrating their Diamond (60-year) Jubilee; and one Sister marking her Silver (25-year) Jubilee. Together, the Jubilarians represent 3,005 years of religious life, dedicated to God, the Church, and the Adrian Dominican Congregation.
The Congregation’s formal celebration – scaled down from previous years because of the COVID-19 pandemic – involved a Memorial Mass for seven deceased Diamond Jubilarians on June 25, 2021, and the formal Jubilee Mass for the living Diamond and Silver Jubilarians on June 26, 2021.
As a sign that the Motherhouse Campus is gradually reopening, seven Jubilarians who live at the Motherhouse or in surrounding Lenawee County attended the two Masses in person. They were Sisters Rosemary (Maura Catherine) Abramovich, OP, Virginia (John Thoma) Corley, OP, Tarianne (Virginia Anne) DeYonker, OP, Carmen Joseph Dominguez, OP, Mary (Mary Ardice) Keefe, OP, and Gloria (Jonathan) Korhonen, OP, all Diamond Jubilarians, and Sister Aneesah McNamee, OP, a Silver Jubilarian.
The Sisters celebrating their 80, 75, and 70 years of religious life were honored separately by their Mission Chapters. View the complete list of the 2021 Jubilarians.
In a moving ritual during the Memorial Mass, individual Jubilarians placed a flower in a vase in front of the altar as each deceased Diamond Jubilarian’s name was proclaimed: Mary Elizabeth (Marie Jonathan) Beres, OP, Carol Ann (Mary Teresina) Dulka, OP, Michele Kopp, OP, Mary Ann Luby, OP, Theresa (Victor Mary) McCall, OP, Ann (M. Catherine) Schafer, OP, and Mary Eileen (Eileen Paul) Sullivan, OP.
During the Memorial Mass, Sisters Mary Keefe, OP, and Tarianne DeYonker, OP, reflected on the opening prayer of the Congregation’s Rite of Committal: “We bring our Sister to this holy place, this sacred ground to join with those in the communion of our Adrian Dominican Saints who have gone before us. This is a place of peace and rest, of memory, inspiration, and gratitude for all of those who have gone before us and who now lie in these circles of discipleship and friendship.”
“Reflecting on the end point of our lives can give us a healthy perspective on our life choices at difficult times and remind us of our need for one another,” Sister Mary said. “We are truly companions, called to support one another in good times and in bad times. Inspired by our Sisters who have gone before us, may we also be witnesses to the spirit of Dominic and Catherine [of Siena].”
Watch the Memorial Liturgy.
The Jubilee Liturgy on June 26 exuded a spirit of joy and celebration. Father James Hug, SJ, traced Jubilee to the Hebrew Scriptures, Leviticus 25:8-22. “Loving God, you established the original Jubilee, the Sabbath of Sabbath years, to remind us that all creation comes freely from your hand as your gift of love to your people,” he said. “Today we celebrate your love to these Jubilarians, grateful that you called them to your service.”
Prioress Patricia Siemen, OP, addresses Jubilarians near and far as she reflects on the readings for the Jubilee Mass.
Prioress Patricia Siemen, OP, addressed the Jubilarians, noting the joy of Sisters, Associates, and friends in joining them virtually in the celebration of their Jubilee. “Each of you have blessed and been blessed by so many people and places with your individual and communal ‘yes’ over these many years,” she said. “You have poured out your loving presence among the youth, those who are sick, and those who are in need of an education … You have served in foreign lands, rural areas, and inner cities, preaching a word of welcome and healing to those who experience broken relationships.”
Sister Gloria represented all of the Jubilarians – those in the chapel and those watching via live stream – in renewing her vows to Sister Patricia.
Watch the Jubilee Mass. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, where you’ll see the video on the right.
The Jubilee celebration was coordinated by the Jubilee Committee: Sister Marie Joy Finfera, OP, Chair; Sister Virginia Corley, OP; and Co-workers Krystal Baker, Jan Bourg, Jeanette Desgrange, Ashley Duke, Susan Kremski, and Jill Maria Murdy.