News | Live Stream | Video Library
Contact Us | Employment | Donate
September 22, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – Six people formalized their connection to the Adrian Dominican Congregation on September 14, 2023, during the virtual Ritual of Reception for new Adrian Dominican Associates. The Associates and their mentors participated in the ritual through Zoom.
Adrian Dominican Associates are women and men at least 18 years of age – married, single, widowed, or divorced – who make a non-vowed commitment to partner with the Adrian Dominican Sisters. While maintaining their own lifestyle and remaining financially independent, they are invited to participate in various spiritual, social, and ministerial experiences with the Sisters and other Associates and attend congregational events.
“Our six Associate candidates and their mentors have spent a great deal of time and energy preparing for this day,” said Associate Nancy Mason Bordley, Director of the Adrian Dominican Congregation’s Office of Dominican Charism. “Each candidate has acknowledged their desire to take this next step and have discerned many ways to live and proclaim the Dominican Charism as members of the Dominican family.
Following are the new Adrian Dominican Associates. • Tom Brady was taught by Adrian Dominican Sisters at St. Denis School in Chicago. “They exemplified the whole idea of reading the signs of the times,” Tom said. “There was always a food drive.” His mentor, Sister Norine Burns, OP, spoke of how Tom followed the Sisters’ example. “Tom is a dedicated teacher in the Chicago Public Schools,” working for 30 years with children from the inner city, she said. He shows his loving presence to his wife, Catherine, and their twins, Mary Kate and Patrick, 15, and the adults he tutors at Aquinas Literacy Center. • Mark Domingo met the Adrian Dominican Sisters through his work in the Community Health Department of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals in Henderson and Las Vegas, Nevada. He oversees three wellness centers in the Las Vegas Valley. Mark said that the foundation of his Catholic faith through his upbringing in the Philippines prepared him to embark on his Dominican journey. “Mark has a great passion for serving those in need in our community,” said Sister Kathleen McGrail, OP, his mentor who also works at St. Rose. “He speaks of seeing life now through the lens of an Adrian Dominican Associate.” • Barbara Smith Henning was taught by the Adrian Dominican Sisters at Aquinas High School in Chicago and was a member of the Congregation from 1965 through 1989. Four years later, she met Leo Henning and married him in 1995. Barbara worked for more than 20 years as the Bereavement Coordinator for Hospice House of Mid-Michigan. Associate Trudy McSorley, her mentor and former Sister, noted Barbara’s hunger for the Dominican Charism. “This past year, I have found my way back home to discern how to live my life in a community that values prayer and service,” Barbara said. • Sharese Mathis was inspired to become an Adrian Dominican Associate while serving as Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Siena Heights University from July 2015 to May 2021. “I realized my personal values aligned with being a Dominican,” Sharese said. She was involved in the University’s Torch Bearers program – run by her mentor, Sister Mary Jones, OP – which teaches the Siena Heights community about the Adrian Dominican Charism. “It didn’t take me long to realize that Sharese has a Dominican heart,” Sister Mary said. “She has brought her love of the Dominican Charism to Albion College,” where she serves as Assistant Dean for Campus Life. • Jean Schlicklin-Tyler, of Ontario, is “a grateful, justice-based, forthright, enthusiastic woman” who felt called in 1978 to be an Adrian Dominican Sister and, in 1991, to leave the Congregation for her call back to the land and service to the poor, said her mentor, Sister Arlene Kosmatka, OP. Married to Godfrey, a farmer, she is the mother of two young adults and mentor to young farmers. “Having been with the Adrian Dominican Sisters earlier, I continue to share the Charism with prayer, study, mission, and community,” Jean said. “This gives me a feeling of being home.” • Jayne Marie Yenko, who lives in a remote area of Wyoming with her husband, Steve, learned about the Adrian Dominican Associates through her youngest sister, Associate Melinda Mullin. Jayne teaches online and coordinates a court-appointed, multi-disciplinary team for juvenile cases. Associates Connie Brady and Gerry Starrat mentored Jayne. Connie noted that Jayne finds community in ways such as book clubs, including one organized by Associates. “I was amazed by the people in the book clubs,” Jayne said. “I knew it was something I was missing in life.” Being an Associate will help her connect with others in a more sustained way, she said.
The Ritual for the Reception of the new Associates included music, readings, and preaching on the Beatitudes by Associate James Mallare. After the new Associates were introduced by their mentors and formally requested to be received as Adrian Dominican Associates, they signed formal documents of commitment to the Congregation and the Dominican Charism.
Associates share the Dominican Charism with the Sisters, as well as Co-workers at the Motherhouse and in sponsored institutions, alums of Adrian Dominican schools, benefactors, and those searching for community and spirituality in their lives.
For information on becoming an Adrian Dominican Associate, contact Nancy Mason Bordley at [email protected] or 517-266-3534. If you are a single Catholic woman interested in vowed life with the Adrian Dominican Sisters, contact [email protected] or 517-266-3532.
September 11, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – “I desire to live with you in community as I actively discern my call to vowed Dominican life.”
Those were the words of Jamie Caporizo as she declared her intention to enter the Adrian Dominican Sisters as a Candidate – the first formal step in the formation process that could ultimately lead to perpetual profession of vows with the Congregation.
Jamie was welcomed into the formation process – and into St. Catherine Chapel – on September 8, 2023, for the formal Rite of Entrance into Candidacy. The Rite was celebrated in the context of Vespers, the evening prayer of psalms observed by priests, religious, and cloistered monks and nuns.
As a symbol of her entrance, Jamie knocked on the door of St. Catherine Chapel and was admitted by Sister Tarianne DeYonker, OP, of the Vocations Team, to join the assembly of Adrian Dominican Sisters, Associates, Co-workers, and members of her family and circle of friends.
Sister Lorraine Réaume, OP, Vicaress and General Council Liaison to Vocations and Formation, reflected on a passage from Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy (1:3-14). “Jamie, like Timothy, you have come with a sincere faith from a family and life experiences that made you who you are,” she said. “You now generously bring yourself, in response to God’s call, to say, ‘Yes, I will take this step.’”
Sister Lorraine encouraged Jamie to tune into Holy Spirit FM – to the “spirit of power and love” – rather than to Ego FM. “You are joining us in that spirit of love in a very special way this day,” she said.
The brief ritual included the affirmation of Jamie’s readiness to begin Candidacy with the Adrian Dominican Sisters, provided by Sister Tarianne and Katherine Frazier, OP, members of the Vocations team who walked with Jamie during her discernment to enter the Adrian Dominican Congregation. Sister Patricia Walter, OP, Formation Director, presented Jamie with the Mission Statement of the Adrian Dominican Sisters.
“I can’t believe this day has arrived,” Jamie said. “After working for several years to plan the professions of Sisters of the Holy Cross, I can’t believe it is now time for me to focus my efforts and desires toward my own journey in religious life. I am very excited and grateful to the community and my family and friends for their support. Please pray for me.”
General Councilors Bibiana “Bless” Colasito, OP, left, and Corinne Sanders, OP, join the rest of the assembly in praying the Dominican Blessing over Jamie Caporizo.
As a candidate, Jamie will minister in the food pantry and the Dire Needs Office at the St. Mary campus of Holy Family Parish in Adrian. In addition, she will work with Sister Mary E. Jones, OP, in coordinating programs at Siena Heights University, a sponsored institution of the Adrian Dominican Sisters. Jamie’s studies this year will include Spanish, Hebrew Scripture, and the history of the Adrian Dominican Sisters.
A native of Stamford, Connecticut, and the middle of the three children of James and Sheila Caporizo, she felt an early interest in both music and religious life. Jamie holds a bachelor’s degree in music education and choral conducting from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and a master’s degree in sacred music from the University of Notre Dame.
Jamie’s first job took her back to Stamford, where she taught music for five years at her alma mater, Rippowam School. While earning her master’s degree, she worked as a liturgy intern with the Sisters of the Holy Cross and, after graduation, worked for the Sisters for five years as Director of Music and Liturgy. While discerning her call to enter the Adrian Dominican Sisters, Jamie began serving as Director of Campus Ministry and then as Senior Director of Mission and Ministry at Alvernia University in Reading, Pennsylvania, founded by the Bernadine Franciscan Sisters. She continued to feel her call to religious life with the Adrian Dominican Sisters and applied for entrance in December 2022.
“I’m always a musician because that’s how I most identify, but I’ve always kept this thread of education: teaching at a Bernadine Franciscan University, serving as a musician, still involved in planning campus ministry and training cantors,” Jamie said. She looks forward to her year as a Candidate with the Adrian Dominican Sisters.
View the recording of the Rite of Entrance below or in our video library.