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Welcome from the editor
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Dominican Liturgical Calendar (April - June)
- A message from Brother John Steilberg, Provincial Promoter
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Governance: report from the Governance Committee, provincial dues notice, and a note from the president on meeting minutes
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Prayer and Preaching: A reflection from one of our high school members, and a new book release
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Dominicana: a reflection on The Mixed Life
- Chapter updates
- Important news and links, including a notice of death and an invitation from the friars
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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Saint Dominic,
Welcome to this first edition of Veritas, the new quarterly newsletter for the Dominican Laity of the Central Province. Many thanks to Mrs. Sharon Huizenga, OP, who single-handedly kept Challenge running despite all its challenges! This e-newsletter will, we hope, be a tool for communication across the whole province; but more than that, we hope for it to be an extension of our preaching ministry that will impact many souls and expand the family of St. Dominic.
At the moment, the Veritas team consists of three people:
Yours truly, Mrs. Rebecca W. Martin, OP, will be serving as the editor/committee chair. In the rest of my life, I edit full-time for Our Sunday Visitor (trade books), sing alto at Saint Joseph Shrine in Detroit, and live in south-east Michigan with my husband Carl and our three cats. I've been a member of the Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati Chapter in Ann Arbor, MI, since 2018; God (and the council) willing, I'll be taking my final promises this year.
Ms. Renee Valenzuela, OP, assists with content generation, interfaces with the various other provincial committees on which she serves, and communicates updates and changes with us.
Mrs. Mary E. Giltner, OP, senior acquisitions editor for Our Sunday Visitor (trade books), will serve as managing editor for the publication, collecting content, copy editing, and proofreading the final product.
Provincial President Mrs. Gwendolin Weinberger, OP, also attends our meetings to provide guidance and support.
We have dreams and goals for the future, so stay tuned, pray for us, and prayerfully consider assisting or becoming part of the Veritas editorial team! Feel free to reach out to me any time with ideas, questions, comments, or typo corrections — there will always be some.
Mrs. Rebecca W. Martin, OP
editor@layopcentral.org
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Governance Committee Report
Ms. Renee Valenzuela, OP
Governance Committee Chair
Provincial Vice President
I would like to get started by introducing the members of our Governance Committee. We have Dr. Sebastian Mahfood from the St. Louis, MO, chapter; Mrs. Rachel Meyer from the Los Alamos, NM, group; Mrs. Lisa Shoemaker from the Carmel, IN, group; and me, Ms. Renee Valenzuela from the Cedaredge, CO, chapter. We meet every month via Zoom to put together procedural documents that will form our Province’s Particular Directory. This will eventually become our main source for governing the Central Province.
Recently, we’ve issued interim guidance for conducting elections at both the provincial and chapter levels and fillable PDF forms for recording official election results. We’re presently working on a document that will provide guidance for starting new groups in areas where there are none. We’re also looking at aligning our official terms and titles more with the language used in the Rule and General Declarations. Consistency is a good thing. All in all, we’re a really busy committee, and we have tons of work to do. Ultimately, we’ll address the current officer roles and their duties, our Bylaws, the Provincial Guidelines, and make all of the provincial forms fillable PDFs. All of these parts form the Particular Directory. Pray for us as we continue this work. We sure do need it!
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Provincial Dues Notice
Mr. Tom Weber, OP
Provincial Treasurer
treasurer@layopcentral.org
We are still collecting our annual provincial membership dues, which finance our operating budget and support the worldwide Lay Dominican Office in Santa Sabina, Rome, and the International Council of Lay Dominican Fraternities.
Dominican Family members in good standing:
- Receive the spiritual benefits of indulgences and general blessings which apply to members;
- Attend meetings, unless excused;
- Have completed Initiate formation studies, been received into the Order, and are in continuing studies;
- Live by the Lay Dominican Rule and Guidelines of the Central Province once promised; and
- Pay annual provincial dues of $33 for individual or $43 for husband/wife/sibling members.
If in financial difficulty, please pay what you can—even $5 helps. Make checks payable to LAY DOMINICANS. Active members, please pay provincial dues to your chapter treasurer. Inactive members, please mail your checks to: Lay Dominicans, PO Box 208, Williamston, MI, 48895-0208.
Thank you for your prompt response. Treasurers, please collect your members’ dues and, if possible, convert your payment to a single check. Please also include a list of your members with physical and e-mail addresses. That information updates our database and is never used for any other purpose. Thank you for reminding your members of their important responsibility of paying provincial dues. Please know your follow-through is vitally important.
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The Mixed Life
Mr. Hiromi Konishi, OP
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati Chapter
Ann Arbor, MI
St. Thomas Aquinas, drawing on the Gospel story of Mary and Martha, says that life is fittingly and adequately divided into active and contemplative. He further explains that the contemplative life is more excellent and meritorious than the active life, because the love of God is more meritorious than the love of our neighbor.
Does the active life hinder the meritorious life? St. Thomas explains that it is not possible to devote yourself to Divine contemplation when you are busy with external actions. At the same time, the active life can quiet and direct the internal passions of the soul, so it can help with the contemplative life.
Based on these facts, it seems we should spend all of our time on the contemplative life, rather than the active life. Not so fast! Pope St. Gregory says, “Without the contemplative life, it is possible to enter the heavenly kingdom, provided one omit not the good actions we are able to do. But, we cannot enter therein without the active life, if we neglect to do the good we can do.”
So which is more important for us?
St. Thomas says the contemplative life is better than just the active life. However, the best is the “mixed life”: that is, to share the fruit of the contemplative life with others through the active life.
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An Education in Prayer
Tom Jacobs
Fenwick High School
Oak Park, IL
Joining the Fenwick High School chapter of Lay Dominicans has been an education in prayer. Here are a few examples.
- Humility: “Wrap yourselves in humility to be servants of each other” (1 Pt 5:5). My “preaching” today isn’t about direct appeal, words of instruction, and the like. It’s more about love, acceptance, forgiveness, and even seeking forgiveness.
- Better overall behavior toward others: “Guard against foul talk; let your words be for the improvement of others, as occasion offers, and do good to your listeners, otherwise you will only be grieving the Holy Spirit of God” (Eph 4:29). Meditating on and contemplating Scripture is the best way to learn!
- A softer heart: “Holy Spirit, come into my heart; draw it to Thee by Thy power, O my God, and grant me charity with filial fear. … Jesus, love, Jesus, love” (St. Catherine of Siena). Dominicans like St. Catherine have modeled the Sacred Heart of Jesus in their preaching.
- And right thinking: “Think of God’s mercy, my brothers, and worship him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God” (Rom 12:1). Wow. I just love this verse.
I am thankful for my fellow Friars and the opportunity to praise, to bless, and to preach with them.
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Mr. James Pomeroy, OP
Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Chapter
St. Louis, MO
My new book, Living as Long as I Can as Well as I Can, demonstrates that, despite the challenges of a medical condition, living a life of faith built around the cardinal and theological virtues leads to happiness and communion with our Creator. The book shows how Catholic health care providers can be essential to promoting living well. The chapters include information on our fascination with death; what Scripture reveals about eternal life; the place of miracles; the nature of virtuous living; and how we make informed decisions about our lives. I hope that what I have written is helpful not only to health care providers, but also to anyone who has been diagnosed with a serious illness and to their families.
To learn more, visit enroutebooksandmedia.com/living/.
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Blessed Sacrament Parish in Madison, Wisconsin, home of the Blessed Sacrament Chapter of Dominican Laity, celebrated the 100th anniversary of its first Mass on Sunday, February 13, 2022. Bishop Donald Hying, bishop of Madison, and Fr. James Marchionda, OP, Prior Provincial of the Central Province of Dominicans, were present, as well as representatives from the Sisiniwa Dominicans.
Photo: Bishop Donald Hying and Fr. James Marchionda, OP with the members of the Lay Dominicans at Blessed Sacrament Chapter. Courtesy of Mrs. Cathy Lins, OP.
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Mrs. Mary Lee Odders, OP
Queen of the Rosary Chapter
Milwaukee, WI
From December 2021 to February 2022, our chapter met virtually during the resurgence of the Covid-19 variant. Providing a spiritual focus to our reconnecting as well as our meeting, we begin with a question in homage to Fr. Matt Walsh, OP, a beloved past provincial promoter of the Dominican Laity: “How has God been working in your life since we last met?”
Our community prayed Saturday Morning Prayer from the Third Week in Advent through the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time. We recommend our chapter study book, Saint Catherine of Siena: Mystic of Fire and Preacher of Freedom, by Fr. Paul Murray, OP, which was divided into sections and facilitated by members in rotation who led the discussion.
Signed Christmas cards were sent to our inactive members, and Christmas and Easter remembrances were sent to our cloistered Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary (at whose religious house we meet when in-person) and to Amigos for Christ, our chapter apostolate.
Sister Rebecca, our former chapter member and current postulant at the cloistered Dominican monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, New Jersey, wrote us to share her joy.
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.
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Requiescat in Pace
After a somewhat lengthy illness, Mr. Paul Moore, OP, moderator of the Blessed Sacrament Chapter in Farmington Hills, MI, passed into eternal life on February 16, 2022. A wake was held on March 8, with a Dominican Vigil Service. His funeral Mass was celebrated on March 9 at Corpus Christi Catholic Church, Detroit; there was also a Mass offered at the Monastery of the Blessed Sacrament in Farmington Hills on March 9 for the eternal repose of his soul.
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You're Invited...
...to an assembly held by the friars this August in Chicago. The Master of the Order, Father Gerard Timoner III, OP, will be present and will celebrate the Mass for solemn profession of our brothers.
Thursday, August 11
Mass of Solemn Profession
10:00 AM CST
St. Vincent Ferrer Church
River Forest, IL
Reception following
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Veritas Editorial Team
Mrs. Rebecca Martin, OP — Editor
Mrs. Mary E. Giltner, OP — Managing Editor
Ms. Renee Valenzuela, OP
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