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November 2, 2018, Chicago – Sherrie Ashley, a retired special education teacher and current teacher’s aide living in Manteno, Illinois, became the newest Adrian Dominican Associate during the annual Fall Chapter Assembly of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Dominican Midwest Mission Chapter, based in Chicago. The assembly was held October 27 at the Mercy Center.
The ritual included a brief introduction by Sister Norine Burns, OP, Sherrie’s mentor; Sherrie’s formal acceptance of the call to be known as an Adrian Dominican Associate; the signing of the formal documents of commitment; and Sherrie’s reception of the Adrian Dominican Associates logo.
“I am inspired but also blessed to have learned and to be learning about living simply and praying deeply; studying and preaching; and being a voice of justice, especially for those who have no voice,” Sherrie said. She added that her formation as an Adrian Dominican Associate “has affected me in all areas of my life, especially in my chosen ministries and in my paying job for men with developmental disabilities.”
In her application, Sherrie stated that she hoped, as an Adrian Dominican Associate, to receive “partnership in a community of faithful believers in Jesus and in his mission for each of us, support and guidance in deepening my own walk with Jesus.”
While familiar with the Racine Dominican Sisters, Sherrie first became aware of the Adrian Dominican Sisters when one conducted a mission appeal at her parish. She felt the call to live simply and to be compassionate to “those who are disabled, suffering, poor, or dying,” she said.
Sherrie is active at her parish, St. Joseph Catholic Church in Manteno, as a catechist, lector, and Eucharistic minister and has been training to be a hospice volunteer. She is also in discernment about becoming a chaplain. A “life-long learner, always studying and reading,” Sherrie holds two master’s degrees: in curriculum/special education and in educational leadership.
Sherrie and her husband have two adult children and two grandchildren. They also devote time and energy to a rescue for great danes, and care for the massive dogs when their owners can no longer care for them.
Associates are women and men, at least 18 years of age, who make a non-vowed commitment to share in the Mission and Vision of the Adrian Dominican Sisters. While maintaining their independent lifestyle, they participate in ministries and activities of the Adrian Dominican Sisters. For more information on becoming an Associate, contact Mary Lach, Director of Associate Life, at 517-266-3531 or [email protected]. If you are a single Catholic woman interested in religious life – or know of a young Catholic woman who is – contact Sister Tarianne DeYonker, OP, at 517-266-3532 or [email protected] or Sister Mariane Fahlman, OP, a 517-266-3537 or [email protected].
Feature photo: Sherrie Ashley, a new Associate, signs her document of commitment in front of her mentor, Sister Norine Burns, OP. Photos by Sister Jane Zimmerman, OP
November 2, 2018, Adrian, Michigan – Sisters Rose Ann Schlitt, OP, and Nancy Jurecki, OP, are members of a delegation from the U.S. Dominican family that will visit the Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena of Iraq in mid-November. Gloria Escalona, a member of a 2001 delegation and of the Dominican Laity of the St. Albert the Great Province, will round out the delegation.
The delegation was organized by the Iraq Coordinating Committee of the North American Dominican Justice Promoters, in partnership with the Dominican Sisters Conference, and is scheduled to leave on November 14.
The visit takes place more than four years since the Sisters, along with Christians and other religious minorities, fled from the Nineveh Plain on August 6 with the arrival of ISIS. Members of the Iraqi congregation returned to their hometown about a year ago to face much destruction and the challenges of rebuilding their homes and churches. A visit to Iraq that had been planned about a year ago was postponed because of the instability in Iraqi Kurdistan at the time.
“My hopes center upon our Sisters who have undergone immense trials and humiliations as they were violently uprooted from their homes, towns, and ministries by ISIS,” Sister Rose Ann said. “They lived as internal refugees in the Kurdistan region of the north for four years. Now, some have been able to return and literally try to pick up the pieces of their lives, convents, and ministries. They currently struggle at many different levels in their daily lives.”
Sister Rose Ann hopes to be Sister to them during their visit. “Although I am unable to fully understand the depth of their suffering and loss, I will try to be fully and lovingly present to them and to express our solidarity with them in their present and future challenges,” she said. Not knowing the Arabic language, Sister Rose Ann hopes to be able to communicate “through words and gestures, with the help of translation from some of the Iraqi Sisters” who are fluent in English. She is also conscious of the “mix of emotions our presence will surely stir in some, given our country’s role in the current upheaval they are experiencing.”
Sister Nancy, Chief Mission Officer for Providence Health and Services, share Sister Rose Ann’s concerns about the involvement of the U.S. in the war in Iraq. She volunteered to be part of the original delegation because of her deep, personal connections to the people of Iraq. During Desert Storm, she was influenced by a parishioner’s faithful intercessions during daily Mass for the people of Iraq “whose lives and/or quality of life was being taken from them due to the war,” by her nephew’s service during the second war, and by her personal relationship with a Sister from the congregation of St. Catherine of Iraq, with whom she lived.
Sister Nancy also struggles with her inability to understand fully the depths of the suffering of the Iraqi people, but she hopes to listen to their stories and be present to them. “Now, as much as ever, I desire to hear the stories and share the pain of remnant Christian families who are replanting their lives in the land where the Bible began,” she said. “In a sense, I will be fulfilling a desire and bearing witness to a unity that guns cannot destroy.”
Feature photo: Sisters Nancy Jurecki, OP, left, and Rose Ann Schlitt, right.