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November 4, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – Adrian Dominican Associates and Sisters welcomed two new Associates, Susan Lanstra and Timothy Goyette, on October 26, 2025. The formal Ritual for the Reception of New Adrian Dominican Associates was held in Holy Rosary Chapel on the Motherhouse Campus in Adrian.

Associates are women and men, at least 18 years of age, who feel called to live out the Dominican Charism (spirit) and who make a non-vowed commitment to associate themselves with the Adrian Dominican Congregation. While maintaining their independent lifestyle, they are invited to share in the mission, ministries, and spiritual and social activities of Sisters and Associates.

Associate Nancy Mason Bordley, Director of the Office of Dominican Charism, welcomed Adrian Dominican Associates and Sisters, family members of the new Associates, and friends. 

“Our two new Associate candidates and their mentor have spent a great deal of time preparing for this day,” Nancy said. “Each candidate has acknowledged his or her desire to make this next step, as they have spent several months discerning how they will live and promote our Dominican Charism as members of the worldwide Dominican family.”

Both Susan and Timothy came to know the Adrian Dominican Congregation through their involvement with the St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center in Flint, Michigan, and through working with Associate Steve Wolbert and Sister Carol Weber, OP, Executive Director of the Center and Co-founder with Sister Judy Blake, CSJ. The Center’s programs include a food pantry, employment preparation, a literacy center, an eye clinic, and other separate programs for women and men.

In response to the readings proclaimed during the ritual – St. Paul’s famous description of love found in his first letter to the Corinthians and Luke’s Gospel story about Jesus sending out the 72 disciples to preach – Susan offered a reflection on mission and extravagant love.

In sending out the disciples, Susan noted, Jesus said not to take anything with them, “just hope, trust, and love … Just show up. Do the work.” She also noted the changes the Dominican mission will have to undergo, given recent cutbacks like food stamps that will impact the people who rely on them. “We really have to rethink how we do things,” she said. “It’s time to step up our game. That’s the extravagant part.”

She reflected on the extravagance that she’d encountered in Las Vegas, where she heard that some of the casinos spend $150,000 to $200,000 per month on their light bill. In light of events in the past few months, she said, “We have our work cut out for us. Our hearts are full of the best and most renewable energy there is, and that’s love. It’s enough to light up Vegas and it’s even a little extravagant.” 

Sister Carol, their mentor, introduced each Associate candidate in turn. Noting that Timothy works in his family’s business in the Flint area, Goyette Mechanical, she added that he “is also a significant part of our employment preparation program,” working with the men. “Tim is really involved in changing lives and helping people gain what they need in order to live, giving meaning to them.”

Sister Carol noted that Timothy had also been “searching for meaning for quite some time.” When he attended the Associate commitment program last year for Associate Steve Wolbert, he felt the call to be an Associate as well, she said. 

In formally requesting reception as an Associate, Timothy expressed gratitude for his family and friends – 18 of whom attended the Ritual – as well as members of the Dominican family. “My decision to become part of the Dominican family has been like a seed, planted and nurtured through service and prayer, and most particularly by being part of the community of people working at and being cared for at the St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center in Flint,” he said. Becoming an Associate “is the beginning of a new faith journey, and I’m so thankful for this opportunity.” 

Sister Carol introduced Susan as an employee of Hurley Hospital in Flint, “where she helps the disadvantaged and the uninsured to obtain the help they need. Susan is very compassionate. She sees a need and immediately tries to find a way to help.” She added that Susan is also working on her Master’s in Social Work (MSW) degree, which would “bring a lot of hope and strength to our people in Flint.” Susan was also inspired to become an Associate by Steve’s commitment as an Associate, Sister Carol added.

“People ask me why … I want to become a social worker,” Susan said. “And I get the same reaction when I tell them that I’m becoming an Associate.” She spoke of the similarities between social workers and the Dominican family. “Social workers have a code of ethics and core values,” such as service, social justice, dignity, integrity, human relationships, and competence. Susan found the same core values in the Mission and Vision of the Adrian Dominican Sisters.

To conclude the ceremony, Timothy and Susan proclaimed together the Commitment Statement of Associates: “United in purpose through the Office of Dominican Charism, we Dominican Associates commit ourselves to sharing life in a communion of Gospel-driven women and men who are spiritual seekers, alive with the fire of being Dominican in service to the world … We strive to widen and deepen the impact of the Dominican Charism, which urges us forward in our desire to transform our world in partnership with the emerging reign of God.” They each received the Associate pin and a candle, symbolic of their new commitment.

For information on becoming an Adrian Dominican Associate or a partner in mission in any way, contact Associate Nancy Mason Bordley at 517-266-3534 or visit www.adriandominicans.org/MeetDominicans/Associates.

 

Caption for above feature photo: Susan Lanstra and Timothy Goyette sign their forms of commitment as Associates, while Associate Dee Joyner (left) and Sister Carol Weber, OP, look on.

October 10, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – About 47 people – Adrian Dominican Associates and a few Sisters – attended the first in-person Associate Life retreat in years at Weber Retreat and Conference Center. 

Adrian Dominican Associates are women and men at least 18 years of age who make a non-vowed commitment to partner with the Adrian Dominican Sisters and to live out their call to the Dominican Charism. While maintaining their own lifestyles and financial independence, they participate in various spiritual, social, and ministerial experiences with the Sisters. 

The retreat focused on the new cosmology – or the new understanding of the universe – and the Dominican Charism. Prioress Elise D. García, OP, broke open the theme on the evening of October 4, 2024, as she welcomed the Associates and spoke of how her spirituality has been shaped by insights from the new cosmology. The vastness of the universe “expands the horizons of my inner landscape, my spiritual landscape,” she said. 

These insights have caused writers and theologians since the late 20th Century to “revisit assumptions derived from a 300-year-old view of the universe as a static, hierarchically organized universe,” Sister Elise said. Many people now, she said, have come to see the “deep interconnectedness of all life and understanding our place in the universe as a self-aware, conscious species.” 

The Dominican Charism “deeply grounds us into the search [for truth] and into what we’re learning,” Sister Elise said. “We take this learning from study and we integrate it into our prayer, into our hearts, into our Spirit-filled acts. All of those elements of the Dominican Charism fit well with the new cosmology.”  

The Dominican Charism was again the focus on Saturday, October 5, when the retreat participants gathered for a reflection by Associate Nancy Mason Bordley, Director of the Adrian Dominican Sisters Office of Dominican Charism. She compared the Dominican family to a family kitchen or dining room table. 

“There’s room for everyone,” Nancy said, adding that this Dominican table is held up by the four Dominican values – or pillars – of study, community, prayer, and ministry. “I like to think of the four legs holding up and supporting the holy preaching,” a distinct call of members of the Dominican family. “We preach from the pulpit of our lives. We use our individual gifts to meet the needs of the world around us.”

Nancy also emphasized the wider role of Dominicans as followers of Jesus. “As Dominicans, we’re people of Christ’s table,” she said. “Christ’s table is open, inclusive, uniting, invitational, and always diverse. Making room at the table is an ongoing mission for all people of God.”

Finally, Nancy issued a challenge to the participants to take up their individual roles in the Dominican family while facing the changes that will take place in the future – for both the Dominican Sisters and the Associates. “Each person in this room has received a very specific and sacred call from God,” she said. “Each of us is called to the charism and to promote our beautiful Dominican future.”

The afternoon session included a discussion by Patricia Siemen, OP, on the call of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ General Chapter 2022 Spiritualty Enactment to attend to “the evolutionary awakening of human consciousness.” Scientific studies show that humanity is a species with self-conscious awareness, she said. “Some quantum physicists say now that the fundamental reality of the universe may indeed be consciousness – a consciousness that is embedded in matter and energy.”

Sister Patricia said that keeping this consciousness alive requires “a daily practice of silence, of engagement in contemplative practice and a mindfulness practice that helps us to stay in touch.” 

This consciousness has shifted her spirituality and understanding of God, who is present in this transformational consciousness. “Acknowledging the presence of a God who moves before us and yet the call to an ever-loving consciousness is the one thing that seems certain,” Sister Patricia said. “It’s the call of our soul to awaken to the sense of Holy Mystery, whose desire is to call us into ever-deepening relationship.” 

Esther Kennedy, OP, followed up with a presentation on mindfulness and the transformation of human consciousness. She described her own journey toward consciousness and mindfulness, which began when, as a chaplain at County Hospital in Chicago, she realized that she needed to come to grips with the suffering she witnessed in patients and their families. The only book on suffering that she could find was a handbook written by Buddha for his followers. “It was an opening to consciousness in how to deal with my life and to find my place in it,” she said. 

Pointing to the great need for the transformation of human consciousness and the practice of mindfulness, Sister Esther quoted Eckhart Tolle, author of “The Power of Now: “The transformation of human consciousness is no longer a luxury… but a necessity if humankind is not to destroy itself. At the present time, the dysfunction of the old consciousness and the arising of the new are both accelerating.”

Sister Esther pointed with hope to the “millions of small groups” who gather in service to the world through their transformed consciousness. While the world situation is awful in places of war and strife, “there are millions of people right now in service who are waking up to the goodness inside.”

The final day of the retreat offered the Associates one final time to gather and to share their insights from the weekend. The Associates concluded their time together by attending Mass at St. Catherine Chapel with the Motherhouse community.

For information on becoming an Adrian Dominican Associate, contact Associate Nancy Mason Bordley at 517-266-3534 or [email protected].  

 

Caption for above photo: Participants in the Associate Life Retreat take time out for a group photo.