News | Live Stream | Video Library
Contact Us | Employment | Donate
September 18, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – Art lovers can be inspired and instructed as they explore an exhibit of artwork in various media by local artists and members of the Adrian Center for the Arts (ACA) at INAI, an art gallery adjacent to Weber Retreat and Conference Center.
This exhibit, "ACA at INAI," is open from Friday, October 6, 2023, through Sunday, January 28, 2024, with an artists’ reception from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Sunday, October 22, 2023. INAI is open daily from 9:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m. or call 517-266-4090 for an appointment.
Pi Benio, Director of Programming for the ACA, said the exhibit includes paintings, drawings, clay work, metals, glass, printmaking, and fiber art. “It’s a pretty good range of everything we have as a studio,” she said. The ACA offers classes on those media and will soon expand its offerings to include sculpture and hot glass. About 100 members benefit from the organization; residents have established studios in the ACA complex.
“I’m really excited to collaborate with INAI” on the exhibit, Pi said. “We’ve partnered in a variety of ways in terms of supporting each other’s programming. INAI will have an opening, and we’ll have an opening at the same time” to attract people to both sites. Pi often helps Sister Suzanne Schreiber, OP, the INAI Coordinator, with the installation of art exhibits.
An art professor at Adrian College for 36 years, Pi brought art therapy to the Adrian Girls Training School, a state-run institution for girls who were recommended to it by the juvenile court. “I thought it would be a really great art center,” Pi said. When Michigan closed the school, and after she retired, Pi was part of the group establishing the ACA at the school’s site. The parent organization is the Lenawee Council for the Visual Arts.
“Art is about every feeling a human can have,” Pi said. “Art lets you express what you feel.” She noted that art is an essential outlet and safe way to express anger or other emotions. In addition, art benefits people who view it. “People who go to art shows might be connecting with a feeling, experience, or a place,” she said. “There are a variety of ways that art can reach people.”
Weber Center is on the campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse, Adrian, Michigan. Traveling east on Siena Heights Drive, pass the Adrian Rea Literacy Center and turn left just before the solar panel-covered parking lot. Follow the signs to Weber Center. For information, call the Weber Center at 517-266-4000.
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.