What's Happening

September 19, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – “If you can see it, you can be it” reads a line from the popular children’s book, What You Can See, You Can Be by David A. Anderson. 

Sister Cheryl Liske, OP, referred to that line in her reflection during a special September 3, 2024, Mass celebrating the Feast of St. Phoebe, Deacon, at St. Catherine Chapel on the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse Campus.

For centuries, Christians have not typically seen or heard about St. Phoebe, a deacon of the early Christian Church at Cenchreae near Corinth. She was proclaimed a deacon by St. Paul in Romans 16:1-2 – yet Catholics seldom hear St. Paul’s commendation of her to the Romans.

But now, thanks to an icon of St. Phoebe, Deacon, written by Sister Cheryl and donated to the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse, visitors will be able to see St. Phoebe and remember her function as a deacon in the church at Cenchreae. The icon was blessed during the Mass celebrating her Feast Day.

Sister Cheryl’s reflection was based on the Mass readings for St. Phoebe, Romans 16:1-2 and Matthew 26:6-13, in which a woman approaches Jesus during dinner and anoints his head with expensive oil – to the condemnation of many. Through the years, Catholics have very seldom heard these readings proclaimed – in spite of St. Paul’s presentation of St. Phoebe to the Church of Rome and Jesus’ proclamation that “wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (Mt 26:13), Sister Cheryl said.

Sister Cheryl said her icon portrays St. Phoebe at the port in Corinth, “ready to set sail for Rome as Paul’s ambassador to the church there, where she will not only deliver the letter but probably read it out to people assembled in local house churches.” Just as St. Paul commends Phoebe to the Romans, he commends her to us in a special way, she added. 

During her reflection, Sister Cheryl also spoke on the use of icons throughout Christian history. After the creation of images was banned in 754, Empress Theodora restored the veneration of icons in the year 843, Sister Cheryl said.

“From then on, Christians have a unique relationship to the art of image making due to the theology of incarnation,” Sister Cheryl explained. “The belief that God took on human flesh while remaining fully God and fully human empowers Christians to image the Redeemer and saints without fear.”

Sister Cheryl was inspired years ago to create icons when she realized that Dominicans know so little of the first women in St. Dominic’s convent in Prouilhe, France. “I started a drawing of the first women of Prouilhe, and then I realized I was in way over my head if I didn’t take some classes on iconography,” she recalled.

She took an icon-painting workshop in San Antonio in 2019, learning the various techniques – even in laying down the paint layers and choosing the board. “It always moves from dark to the light,” Sister Cheryl explained. “Icon spirituality is moving from chaos to the light of the world.” 

Sister Cheryl said it takes a lot of time for her to create an icon, beginning with researching the person who is being represented. In the case of St. Phoebe, Sister Cheryl had to look into the way that upper-class women of St. Phoebe’s time dressed and how they looked. 

Through this research, icons also give form or a new form to images of God and the saints, Sister Cheryl explained. “They’re simply images that point to other things.” Although she hasn’t yet created the icon of the first women of Prouilhe, she painted various other icons: of St. Augustine, St. Monica, St. David, and now St. Phoebe. “I want to make them real so that people can relate to them,” she said.

Using the standardized symbolism of iconography, Sister Cheryl depicted St. Phoebe holding a scroll, a symbol of her call to proclaim the Word of God. “Here as a woman who not only led a house church, but she was a benefactor of St. Paul,” she said. “She was an important woman, and I think that’s important for women today to see. Being a minister in the Church is not a choice out of scarcity but it’s a choice of people with talent and expertise, called to serve God’s ministry.”

For Sister Cheryl, creating icons is a form of preaching – and it is recognized as such by iconographers. “There’s an anointing of the hands of the icon painter and a prayer to be worthy, and a prayer that the people who gaze on the icon will benefit from seeing the icon,” she said. 

“Icons expand your vision of who can represent God and saints and holiness,” she added. “I think that that’s the spirituality I’m looking towards. My way of acting is to create some icons that haven’t been seen before so people can see who God is in a different light.” 

She encouraged anybody interested in taking up iconography to attend workshops because of the resulting sense of community. “There are people who talk about and do icons who have a deep spirituality, and it’s a good group to be with,” she added.
 

Caption for above photo: Sister Cheryl Liske, OP, with her icon of St. Phoebe, Deacon

September 6, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – “Women didn’t get the right to vote. Women earned the right to vote. Women fought for the right to vote and got it.”

That was one of many messages that women’s rights activist Lisa Maatz brought to the crowded Common Room of Weber Retreat and Conference Center on August 27, 2024, – the day after the 104th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, granting white women the right to vote.

Lisa’s talk on the day after Women’s Equality Day was sponsored by the Adrian Dominican Sisters Office of Racial Equity and Cultural Inclusion. Kevin Hofmann, director of the office, in his welcome, noted that “we’ve come a long way” toward women’s rights, “but we’re not done.”

Lisa’s long-time activism for women’s rights included serving as Vice President of Government Relations and Advocacy for the American Association of University Women, spearheading a campaign that ultimately led to the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. She represented women’s advocacy groups on Capitol Hill and is now a national consultant focusing on gender issues, grassroots advocacy, and nonprofit organizations.

Lisa began her advocacy when she was still in elementary school. She and her classmates discovered that, while they had no doors on their bathroom stalls, the boys did. “I’m not sure if I thought it was a gender issue, but I felt it was a fairness issue,” she recalled. After the principal rejected her personal request for stall doors, she started a petition drive which ultimately garnered 200 signatures. “We got doors two weeks later,” she recalled.

“When we think about women’s rights today, you have to remember where we’ve been and how long social change can take,” Lisa said. She noted that the fight for women’s right to vote in the United States began in 1848 with a Women’s Rights Conference in Seneca Falls, New York, but it took until 1920 for the 19th Amendment to pass. “It was a long time in the making,” she said. The suffragettes who marched in Washington, D.C., suffered for their efforts. “These women were getting stoned, getting fruit thrown on them, getting pushed and shoved as they were walking,” she said.

It took U.S. women of color 40 more years to get the vote. Still, many marched with the white women in Washington, D.C., despite being told that they couldn’t join them. “They walked anyway,” Lisa said. “Indeed, their presence was part of what made that march so momentous.”

Once the 19th Amendment was passed, the women’s movement spent “40 years in the desert … conflicted about what they should do and the next issues,” Lisa said. They agreed on only one issue: passing the Equal Rights Amendment, stating that rights should not be abridged on account of sex. 

“To this day, we don’t have an Equal Rights Amendment” due to technicalities, Lisa said. Only 35 states had ratified the 28th Amendment by 1977, but 38 were required. Virginia was the 38th state to ratify the amendment in 2020, but the deadline had passed and other states had since rescinded their ratification. “There’s a new, energetic movement to get the ERA passed,” Lisa added.

Another key issue today is the pay gap between men and women who perform approximately the same work and the even greater pay gap suffered by women of color. Lisa led a coalition that helped to bring about the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. The 2007 Supreme Court decision, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., set a 180-day statute of limitations, starting with the employer’s pay decision. The bill sets the statute of limitations to begin with each new paycheck, allowing women more time to file a complaint. 

In recent years, Lisa said, the women’s movement has expanded. “It comes down to intersectionality,” addressing the various identities of women, including gender, race, and class. “We work with any group that also cares about our issues,” she said. “If your group cares about violence against women but doesn’t take the stance I like on Title IX, I’ll still work with you.”

Lisa had final piece of advice for both women and men: “Never take voting for granted.” She cautioned that, while the vote is fairly well protected in Michigan, the Secretary of State in some states perform regular purges of voter registrations. “Check to make sure your registration is still valid.” In addition, she said, “Anything you can do to register new voters can make a difference.”

Watch the entire presentation.

 

Caption for above photo: Lisa Maatz, women's rights advocate, speaks at the podium during a presentation sponsored by the Adrian Dominican Sisters Office of Racial Equity and Cultural Inclusion.