What's Happening

July 9, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – The Adrian Dominican Sisters and other congregations of women religious in Michigan and Indiana have launched a billboard campaign to share the Gospel message of love and care for others.

In Lenawee County, five billboards placed by the Adrian Dominican Sisters simply read, “Love is kind. – 1 Corinthians 13:4.” This message aligns with the Adrian Dominican Congregation’s commitment to help build the beloved community in which everyone is cared for, absent of poverty, hunger, and hate. 

The Congregation issued a public statement on April 7, 2025, urging all people to help build a beloved community among the American people in the face of the many dehumanizing executive actions and decisions of the Trump Administration. In the statement, the Adrian Dominican leadership prayed that “the goodwill characteristic of the American people of all faith traditions will call us to kinder, more compassionate, respectful, and generous ways of being good, caring neighbors to one another – and to all the other beautifully diverse peoples of the world’s nations, neighbors in our common Earth home.”

The billboards are located at U.S. 12 and Miller Road, U.S. 12 and Matthews Highway, M-50 and Matthews Highway, U.S. 223 and Sandy Beach Road, and U.S. 223 and Humphrey Highway.

Five other congregations are placing billboards with messages urging care and concern for people and planet, displayed in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, Michigan, and South Bend, Mishawaka, and Plymouth, Indiana. Participating congregations are Grand Rapids Dominican Sisters and Sisters of St. Joseph in Michigan and Sisters of the Holy Cross, Poor Handmaids, and Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in Indiana.

The leaders of the congregations collaborating on the billboard initiative are members of the regional coalition of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). The association of more than 1,260 leaders of Catholic women’s religious congregations serves to further the mission of the Gospel by serving as a corporate voice for the most vulnerable and by promoting dialogue and collaboration among religious congregations and society. To that end, LCWR released “A Response from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious to These Times” in January 2025.  
 

June 20, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – Weber Retreat and Conference Center’s annual in-person Retreat on the Mystics focuses on St. Francis de Sales and medieval Dominican mystic Meister Eckhart. The retreat begins at 6:00 p.m. Sunday, July 27, 2025, and concludes at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, July 30, 2025.

The Bishop of Geneva and the “Doctor of Divine Love,” St. Francis de Sales taught people how to find God in their daily lives. His book, Introduction to the Devout Life, has been a common-sense inspiration for Christians for the past 400 years. Retreatants will learn more about St. Francis de Sales from Father Michael Newman, OSFS, a priest of the Order of St. Francis de Sales; he is the Assistant Provincial of the Toledo-Detroit Province of the Oblates and pastor of Holy Family Parish in Adrian.

Dr. Anastasia Wendlinder, PhD, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, delves into Meister Eckhart’s multi-faceted writings and explores his relevancy today. 

The cost is $180 for commuters, $280 per person double occupancy, and $380 single occupancy. This includes all meals for those staying at Weber Center and lunch for commuters. Registration is required. Visit www.webercenter.org and click on “programs,” call 517-266-4000, or email [email protected]. Limited scholarships are available.

Weber Center is on the campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse, Adrian, Michigan. On East Siena Heights Drive, turn into the driveway between Adrian Rea Literacy Center and the solar panel-covered carport. Follow the signs to Weber Center. For information, call the Weber Center at 517-266-4000.