What's Happening

September 12, 2018, Adrian, Michigan – The Season of Creation is in full bloom at the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Motherhouse, and the Sisters welcome all who are interested to walk with us through this special season.

The Season of Creation –Sunday, September 1 through Thursday, October 4 – is a special, optional season for Christians worldwide. This season gives Christians the invitation to deepen our relationship to God, our Creator, and to appreciate and find ways to protect God’s creation.

Upcoming Season of Creation events at the Motherhouse are as follows.

• Autumn Equinox: Sister Esther Kennedy, OP, leads this celebration of Earth’s abundance and of Earth’s third seasonal turn of the year. The celebration will be from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, September 23, 2018 at Weber Center. The event is free and open to all. Registration is not required.
  
  
• “The New Cosmology: Where to from Here?” Sister Catherine Vincie, RSHM, offers this presentation from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, September 28, 2018, and from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday, September 29, 2018, at the Weber Retreat and Conference Center. Sister Catherine contrasts the biblical cosmology with the new cosmology, discusses theological implications, and explores how Christians can take these insights into their corporate prayer. The cost is $80 for commuters, $100 per person for double occupancy, and $160 for single occupancy. Registration is required. To register, visit www.webercenter.org and click on “programs” or contact Weber Center at 517-266-4000 or [email protected].

The Season of Creation also includes ongoing events. The 10:30 a.m. Mass on Sundays in St. Catherine Chapel and presided over by Father James Hug, SJ, Motherhouse Chaplain, will include a homily on various themes of the Season of Creation. The public is also welcome to Peace Prayer, held every Tuesday at 4:45 p.m. in Holy Rosary Chapel. During September, Peace Prayer will focus on themes related to the Season of Creation.

Sister Sue Schreiber, OP, will lead Meditation Walks in the Congregation’s Permaculture Gardens at 9:00 a.m. and 6:15 p.m. Thursdays, September 13, 20, and 27 and October 4. Meet at the Gaia Garden (raised garden bed) of the Permaculture Garden on the Motherhouse campus.

Elaine Johnson, Permaculture Coordinator, will conduct Golf Cart Tours of the Permaculture Gardens from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays during the Season of Creation. The tour will leave from the entrance of the Dominican Life Center on Tuesdays and from the main entrance of Weber Center on Thursdays. Reserve your space at the Dominican Life Center and Weber Center reception desks, or email Elaine at [email protected].

By Sister Mary Soher, OP

July 21, 2016, Adrian, Michigan – “The Dominican story is only kept alive by live Dominicans.” These words by Dominican scholar Edward Schillebeeckx, OP, could be heard echoing from Adrian, Michigan, the gathering site of the 18th Annual Dominican High Schools Preaching Conference. Students from 23 high schools – including two from Australia – gathered at Siena Heights University June 24-29, 2016, to discover and deepen the preacher within. 

Sister Patricia “Patty” Harvat, OP, until recently an administrator at St. Mary’s Dominican High School in New Orleans, addresses the high school preachers during the opening session of the conference.

Using the 800th Jubilee Celebration of the Order as a theme, conference attendees met Saints Dominic, Catherine of Siena (Sister Nancy Murray, OP), Martin de Porres, and Rose de Lima (Sister Xiomara Méndez-Hernández, OP); learned about the interfaith mission of the Order; and connected with Dominican family members, including Associates, Laity, Volunteers, and Young Adults, in addition to the Sisters and the friars. 

As proof of the intercultural nature of the gathering, a rosary procession was prayed in five languages – German, Spanish, Vietnamese, Polish, and Arabic – with a rosary shared by the nuns of Mary the Queen Monastery in Fatima. 

Students learned about the signs of the times by studying such social justice issues as human trafficking, domestic violence, and becoming aware of the need for respect for elders and hearing an update on the United Nations’ Agenda 2030. The students also lived out what they heard through a special service day that led to encounters with children, seniors, people suffering from economic poverty, and those regaining their homes. They also had the opportunity to improve the local land through permaculture techniques. 

During the conference, Dominican Sisters of Adrian prayed for specific students and met with them during a special ice cream social before the students hit the dance floor. Adrian Dominican Sisters also helped the students in their final day of the conference. Among the presenters teaching the students to pray through the arts were Sister Nancy Murray, OP, Moving in the Spirit; Sister Lorraine Réaume, OP, liturgical reaching; Sister Sue Schreiber, OP, water colors; Sister Maria Browne, OP, Morovian stars; Sister Aneesah McNamee, OP, origami peace cranes; and Sister Luchy Sori, OP, liturgical movements.

And what is Jubilee without a cake? The final night of the conference concluded with a banquet, complete with a cake fit for an 800-year celebration. “The Dominican tradition is something that should be celebrated,” one student commented. “To survive 800 years in a society where most things can’t even last 10 days is worth appreciating!”

Liturgical dancers encircle the altar as Father Dennis Woerter, OP, of Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois, presides over the closing liturgy.

The following morning, at the commissioning ceremony that took place during liturgy with the Adrian Dominican Sisters, the high school groups shared how they plan to continue to live the Dominican charism within their school communities in the coming academic year. 

“Before this conference, I knew I was a preacher, but I didn’t know how to be a preacher,” said Emma Bonnet of Mount St. Dominic Academy, Caldwell, New Jersey. 

“This conference was not only faith-furthering but also life-changing,” proclaimed Kate Gartrell, of St. Agnes Academy, Houston, Texas. “I now know in my heart what it means to be Dominican.”

Songiemar Garcia Curbelo, from Colegio San Antonio, Isabela, Puerto Rico, stated, “It’s a spiritual awakening, when you least expect it!”

The Dominican High Schools Preaching Conference is a program of the newly formed Dominican Youth Movement USA, the umbrella organization that connects today’s youth and young adults to the Dominican tradition of preaching and the participant’s own call to preach.

A big thank you to all the communities of Sisters and Friars who collaborated for another incredible week of sharing our charism with these young adults.