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July 11, 2016, Detroit, Michigan – All are invited to a special celebration of St. Mary of Magdala, Apostle to the Apostles and Patron of the Order of Preachers, the Dominicans. The special event will take place from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 24, 2016, at St. Suzanne Our Lady Gate of Heaven Church, 9357 Westwood, Detroit. 

The formal celebration will be followed by a strolling reception among displays of Dominican ministries and the Dominican family. All are invited to bring a finger food to pass.

This year’s celebration coincides with the 800th Jubilee of the Founding of the Dominicans. St. Dominic organized the order of Friars in 1216 – years after he had founded convents of contemplative women. The Order was part of a broad reform movement which saw traces of God in the simple message of the Gospel and in the everyday lives of men and women. St. Mary of Magdala was named the official patron of the Dominicans early in the Order’s history, in 1297.

This year’s celebration – sponsored by the Dominican Center for Religious Development – will include song, prayer, and the presentation of a short, original play, “The Women Came First,” giving voice to the first women of the Dominican family. Featured in the play will be Deb Carter, Adrian Dominican Associate and Dean Emerita of the College for Professional Studies, Siena Heights University, Adrian; Trudy McSorley, Adrian Dominican Associate and retired Dean for Students at Siena Heights; and Adrian Dominican Sister Anneliese Sinnott, OP, recently retired Professor of Systematic Theology and former Dean at Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit. 

The playwright, Adrian Dominican Sister Cheryl Liske, OP, is a community organizer in the Gamaliel national network. For years, she has also been involved in researching the stories of the first Dominican women, whose lives have been largely unknown in history.

July 8, 2016, Adrian, Michigan – The Adrian Dominican Sisters have issued the following statement in the wake of recent shootings of African American citizens by police and the sniper attack on Dallas police officers.

We are deeply pained and outraged at the increase in the number of police killings of innocent African American citizens – an alarming indicator of the way Black people are being dehumanized, marginalized and devalued. We cry out with our Black brothers and sisters that #BlackLivesMatter – the epidemic killings must stop!

We also deplore the horrifying sniper killings of police officers that took place yesterday in Dallas. As Rev. Martin Luther King said, “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.” 

The race-based violence in our country is, as President Obama said, “an American issue” that confronts every one of us, individually and systemically. We pray for all victims of violence and their grieving families. And we call on all of us to engage in personal and national soul-searching on the evils of our socialization in racist systems and the steps we must take to detoxify our hearts and the heart of our nation. We may again draw on Rev. King and his Christ-inspired words for guidance: “Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

The Adrian Dominican Sisters will join at noon (CDT) today in the call for prayer issued by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawling as a way to begin “to heal wounds not create them.”