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July 3, 2019, Adrian, Michigan – The campuses of Siena Heights University and the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Motherhouse were a beehive of energy, joy, and community June 25-30, 2019, as 76 students and their mentors from 18 Dominican High Schools participated in the 21st Annual Dominican High Schools Preaching Conference.
“I’ve been very fortunate to meet a lot of other people and I’ve become very welcomed into this Dominican community,” said Grace Rado, a student from Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois. “I’ve found that there are a lot of other young people who are on the same path, and we’re all learning to walk in God’s light and to preach.”
That is the intention of the preaching conference, which forms students from Dominican high schools in the Dominican spirituality of preaching – not just from the pulpit, but through their lives. The conference is structured to teach students the various ways Dominicans preach – and to encourage them to take what they learn at the conference back to their schools. Participants also plan and participate in prayer services, get to know one another at meals and other social events, and discuss the day’s events each night with specially organized groups.
The students first learned to preach in the Dominican tradition through portrayals of St. Dominic by Patrick Spedale, a mentor and teacher at St. Pius X High School, Houston; St. Martin de Porres by Brother Herman Johnson, OP, of the St. Martin de Porres (Southern) Province, and St. Catherine of Siena, by Adrian Dominican Sister Nancy Murray, OP.
In later sessions, students studied the signs of the times through sessions on the social justice issues of immigration, racism, exclusion of persons with disabilities, and human trafficking. Reinforced by their review of social justice issues, participants then spent a full day learning to preach in action through service at agencies in the Adrian area.
On the last full day of the conference, students attended workshops by Dominican artists to learn how to preach through the arts. Among the presenters were Adrian Dominican Sisters Tarianne DeYonker, OP, on the labyrinth as a tool of contemplation; Sara Fairbanks, on liturgical preaching; and Luchy Sori, OP, on liturgical movement.
The closing Liturgy – celebrated with the Sisters in St. Catherine Chapel – was an exuberant experience as the students were sent off to their homes and their schools to continue their preaching.
“We have taken the time to listen to each other, to fan the fire inside each person to let God’s love shine forth like the stars in the night sky,” Sister Mary Soher, OP, an Adrian Dominican Sister and Director of the Preaching Conference, told the students. “From such a wondrous week, how do we leave each other?” She encouraged them to consider their going back to their homes and schools as another call from God. “You gave your all to come here, and I know you will do no less for those whom God loves back home.”
Each school group then came forward to announce their commitment for the coming year: from organizing creative prayer services and teaching their classmates about different types of prayer to emphasizing the four Dominican pillars of prayer, study, community, and ministry or preaching, and educating them about social justice issues.
“It has been very humbling,” said Sean Repinski, of Dominican High School in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. He said he appreciated the opportunity “to come together as a group with other Dominicans and see how they do things differently, and what we can take back to our school to enhance our preaching experience.”
Feature photo (top): Patrick Spedale portrays St. Dominic in a dramatic account of the saint’s life and his founding of the Order of Preachers.
Top, from left: Sister Mary Soher, OP, Director of the Preaching Conference, addresses the assembly. Students prepare the altar during the exuberant offertory hymn, “We Come to your Feast.”
Bottom, from left: Students from Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois, present their commitment to enhance the Dominican spirit at their school. Students from St. Agnes Academy in Houston share a laugh with Sister Joan Baustian, OP, during the ice cream social, which brought together the young preachers and their prayer partners.
November 21, 2017, Chicago – Sister Donna Markham, OP, President and CEO of Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), was one of two recipients of the Great Preacher Award from the St. Albert the Great (Central) Province of the U.S. Dominican Friars. She and Monsignor Kenneth Velo, Senior Executive of Catholic Collaboration at De Paul University in Chicago, received the award at the Provincial’s Dinner November 4 at Misericordia Heart of Mercy in Chicago.
“This year, the Provincial’s Dinner honors two preachers whose extraordinary ministries and words totally reflect the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” said Father James V. Marchionda, OP, Prior Provincial of St. Albert the Great. “Great Preacher most fittingly describes this year’s gifted and faith-filled recipients.”
A native of Chicago, Sister Donna graduated from Regina Dominican High School, an all-girls school located in Wilmette, Illinois, and founded and sponsored by the Adrian Dominican Sisters. A clinical psychologist, she holds a bachelor’s degree in fine art, philosophy, and English from Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian, as well as a master’s degree in psychology and a PhD in clinical psychology, both from the University of Detroit.
Sister Donna served as President of Southdown Institute in Toronto, a residential program that offers healing and wholeness to priests and religious facing addictions and other mental health issues. She also offered leadership to the Adrian Dominican Congregation, first on the General Council under Prioress Sister Nadine Foley, OP, from 1986 to 1992 and then as Prioress from 2004 to 2010. She went on to serve as President of the Catholic Health Partners Behavioral Health Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio, and to chair the Catholic Charities USA Board of Trustees.
In 2015, Sister Donna became the first woman to head CCUSA. Through 177 member agencies in 2,600 locations in the U.S. and its territories, CCUSA reaches out to people in need through services in housing; healthcare; employment and job training; immigrant and refugee support; advocacy; and family, children, and senior services; and leadership formation in Catholic identity for all involved in the agency’s work. In addition, CCUSA is the official domestic disaster relief agency of the U.S. Catholic Church, leading to the agency’s involvement in disaster relief for communities affected by recent hurricanes, floods, and fires.
The Provincial’s Dinner supports the formation ministry of the men entering the Dominicans through the Province, including the novitiate in Denver.
Left: Sister Donna Markham, OP, receives the Great Preacher Award from Rev. Louis S. Morrone, OP, Vicar Provincial, left, and the Very Rev. James Marchionda, OP, Prior Provincial. Right: Sister Donna Markham, OP, makes her acceptance address for the Great Preacher Award. Photos Courtesy of the Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great