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 19, 2024, Caleruega, Spain – Four Adrian Dominican Sisters were among 48 Dominican Sisters from throughout the world who spent a week in St. Dominic de Guzman’s birthplace, Caleruega, Spain, sponsored by the Dominican Sisters International Confederation (DSIC).

The Sisters participating in the program were finally professed for less than 20 years. DSIC was established to enhance the communication and collaboration of apostolic Dominican Sisters throughout the world. Adrian Dominican Sister Patricia Siemen, OP, also attended as a member of the DSIC Coordinating Council

Other Adrian Dominican Sisters who attended were Katherine Frazier, OP, Executive Director of Dominican Youth Movement USA, Xiomara Mendez-Hernandez, OP, Executive Director of the Dominican Sisters Conference, and Salvacion “Salve” Valenzuela, OP, and Alma Zapanta, OP, Co-directors of the Dominicans in Bodø, Norway, Mission. 

“It was a spiritual Dominican pilgrimage … where all and each of us represented our congregations and each of us was a manifestation of the larger Dominican Charism, said Sister Xiomara.

Sister Pat said the gathering was a response to one of the priorities set by the Dominican Prioresses throughout the world during a 2022 online DSIC meeting: to focus on younger Dominican Sisters. The purpose of the gathering was to “bring a representative group together to build relationships, to explore our call as women preachers in light of the times, and to experience a global Dominican Sisterhood within the five continents where we have Dominican Sisters,” Sister Pat explained.

The program involved talks by Barbara Reid, OP (Grand Rapids, Michigan), on women prophets in Scripture and the prophetic call of consecrated women; Ana Francisca Vergara, OP (Colombia), on theological study and contemplation in the service of our preaching; and Sabine Schratz, OP (Cabra Dominicans, Ireland), on the history of communities of apostolic women.

The participants also visited various areas that were central to the life of St. Dominic: from his birthplace in Caleruega, the well where he was baptized, and his family’s watchtower to the neighboring Benedictine monastery where Blessed Jane’s dream about St. Dominic was interpreted, and the cathedral in Osma. While she was pregnant with Dominic, Blessed Jane dreamed that she gave birth to a dog that carried a lit torch around the world, signifying St. Dominic’s mission of preaching the Word of God. 

The tour was coordinated by Pilar del Barrio, OP, representing Europe on the DSIC Coordinating Council.

During the last two days, Sisters met in continental and language groups to discuss “what they can do to build up Dominican Sisters International so as to complete God’s dream for us as we move into a future committed to being women preachers,” Sister Pat said. She was pleased by the engagement of the Sisters and the quality of the presentations. The participants strongly recommended that this assembly be repeated for other younger Sisters, she said.

In reflecting on the experience, the Adrian Dominican participants spoke of being moved by the connection to St. Dominic and to one another – and by their hopes for the future.

“Visiting the birthplace of our founder, St. Dominic, was an incredibly moving experience,” Sisters Alma and Salve wrote in a joint reflection. “From the well to the tower, and our travels to the Silos and the Cathedral of Osma, we felt an incredible connection to our roots.”

Sisters Alma and Salve were especially moved by Sister Ana Francisca’s presentation on study. “We consecrated women are entrusted with the demanding task of infusing our lives with the spiritual and contemplative aspects of study,” they wrote. “Study is not a personal endeavor – rather communal and powerfully meant so to evangelize one another in the community and transform all members into evangelizers.” Read the entire reflection by Sisters Alma and Salve. 

Sister Alma is one of five Sisters elected to represent the group of younger Sisters during the DSIC assembly in Rome in May 2025. They will present the fruits of the discussions in Caleruega.

“We have started the creation of the document, how we see ourselves into the future,” Sister Xiomara explained. “I see a great movement toward collaboration and radical inclusion and a sense of globalizing our mission with a preferential option for relationship.” Sister Xiomara has been invited to attend the May assembly as a liturgist.

Sister Katherine said one of the highlights for her “was the opportunity to see the place where Dominic was born and where he knew his family of origin, to hear the stories of his mother Juana and his father and his brothers – and to do so when I was surrounded by all of these Sisters from all over the world. In a way, I was learning about his family surrounded by my chosen family.”

Sister Katherine appreciated the “unexpected gift” of being invited to attend the assembly in Caleruega. This gift has given her hope and the feeling of connection. “There was a sense of strengthening bonds to the international aspect of the Dominican Order – broadening horizons,” she said. She came away appreciating “how amazing the work that our Sisters are doing all over the world and the ways that they’re meeting the needs in their particular context. What a gift to be able to witness that!”

 

Caption for above photo: Nearly 50 Dominican Sisters finally professed for less than 20 years participated in the DSIC gathering in Caleruega, Spain.