The search — for self, for wisdom, for love, for truth, for justice, for God — is strenuous and unending. We need good companions in order to persevere in it. In good company, in a community of conviction, the quest never loses its relevance, its urgency, or its savor.
Dear Friends,
The great Dominican St. Thomas Aquinas defined love as: “willing the good of one another.” God perfectly wills the good of each of us; therefore, we are to do likewise. By creating us in God’s divine image and likeness, we are created to receive God’s goodness and to share such goodness with others, for “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8).
The Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids remain steadfast in living our commitment made in baptism: to grow in the Love of God and to be Christ in the world.
We are heartbroken at the ways “the good of one another” is being disregarded in recent months, with backsliding on protections for civil and human rights as well as the climate and our planet. This is a time for steadfastness in our faith and our calling and a re-investment in our efforts to be about justice, peace, and relationship with all God’s people.
Deepening spirituality and relationships are core to our ministry at Dominican Center Marywood at Aquinas College. Our team continues to grow and evolve as we respond to the needs and the gifts that reveal themselves. How grateful we are for the fruits of the Spirit inviting us into deeper relationship with God and with a community that aspires to love, goodness, truth, and justice. Enjoy learning about our Foundations in Spirituality course in this issue of Mission & Ministry. People of Love surround you and me: family and friends, neighbors, and strangers – wrapping us in the Love of our Creator.
My heart is especially full of a sense of the largesse of Love. I recently returned from two meetings in Rome. While there I prayed at the resting place of one Pope and saw in person the announcement of a new one. It is one thing to experience the closeness of community the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids share with one another. Can you imagine that presence — almost a thousand-fold? The first meeting I attended was for the Union of International Superiors General (UISG), a gathering of the heads of women’s congregations from all over the world – 1,903 Superiors General (or Prioresses, as we would say) from every continent. Women religious are as vibrant and committed to the mission of Jesus today as the day each of their congregations was founded. The second meeting was for Dominican Sisters International Confederation (DSIC), which gathers the prioresses from 144 Dominican congregations in 109 countries representing 17,544 Sisters around the world. It is a blessing to know that we Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids are members of the worldwide Order of Preachers (OP) carrying out an 800-year mission inspired by the spirit of our founder St. Dominic de Guzmán: to preach God’s love through our lives.
Thankful for you, our companions in mission.
Megan McElroy, OP
By Stacy Spitler
Dominican Center, or DCM, embodies the Grand Rapids Dominican Sisters’ expression of welcome and invitation to share in the essential elements of Dominican Life: prayer, study, community, and service. These elements inform all our formation courses, programs, workshops, and gatherings. But today we invite you to learn more about Foundations in Spirituality.
As Amanda Dobson returns to the lead facilitator role in 2025-2026, I invited Amanda, Diane Zerfas, OP, Carmelita Switzer, OP, and Mindy Hills to a conversation.
Through their service — and that of so many others — we are blessed to offer this West Michigan-based spiritual formation resource for people of all faith traditions, or none, from around the world through in-person and online offerings.
Q: Stacy Spitler – A formation course is typically designed to foster growth and development; can you share more about this nine-month formation course at DCM?
Sr. Carmelita – John of the Cross said: ‘If you make space for God, God will come.’ That idea is a core part of Foundations: an invitation to prayer experience. Throughout, people are exposed to different ways of contemplative prayer and encouraged to build their own daily practice. Lectio
Divina is introduced at the very beginning because it helps you listen for the Spirit within. Lectio helps people notice God’s Presence and Love.
Amanda – Sister Carmelita says this course is first and foremost about prayer. For many of our participants, this is the first time they have ever been introduced to Lectio Divina or Centering Prayer. Inviting our participants to slow down, quiet themselves and listen to the voice of the Spirit within is truly transformative. It was transformative for me!
Q: Stacy – Can you share more about Foundations and the Dominican approach to Study?
Sr. Diane – What happens in Foundations starts with accepting the invitation to come inside a circle, to be open to new ways of being and becoming, and to be open to what contemplatives through the ages can teach us. DCM offers us so many study resources and ways of studying. Through this course you learn that God is your friend. We meet contemplatives who walked varied paths to learning and befriending God. This is truly a space where you can grow to trust, celebrate, and enjoy how the Spirit is working in your own, and in others’ lives. Everyone is befriending a
community of mentors, teachers, and friends.
Sr. Carmelita – Every class varies. It is as unique as the people in the class and as the contemplatives or mystics they choose to study. Participants suggest new mystics and we invite them in.
Mindy – When we talk about “study,” the head is involved; but one of the touchstones of this course is to “live the experiences” from more of a heart-centered perspective.
Amanda – The beauty of how Sister Carmelita designed this course is that it is both facilitated and held in community. A dynamic community of facilitators presents on the prayer and spirituality of each spiritual giant, inviting rich discussion
questions and table shares. This helps our participants to form a community among themselves as they study, learn, and grow together. Probably the number one thing I hear our participants say after taking the course is “I found my people.” And they mean both the spiritual giants and mystics that we
study as well as the relationships that form as they study together for nine months.
Sr. Diane – DCM has a deep group of wisdom leaders who are called upon for all formation courses, programs, and workshops. In Foundations, there are different presenters and different mystics every year. This course is always evolving. We are happy to see Amanda return as a facilitator this season.
What began with a small group of Sister coordinators and facilitators has evolved over two decades. In recent years, it could be characterized as a river, ebbing and flowing, carrying people filled with energy, curiosity, and wisdom along its beautiful way. The river changes with each season, as most natural wonders do.
Q: Stacy – Can you describe the seasons of transformation for you personally and/or within the course itself?
Mindy – When Amanda and I took the course together 13 years ago, Sister Carmelita was facilitating, and Sister Diane was one of the presenters. Ours was the 2012-2013 Foundations in Spirituality class. We were a special class. Of course, every class thinks they are the most special. And they are; that is the beauty of how it is designed. We all met in that class: Sister Carmelita, Sister Diane, Amanda, and me. Truly, the Sisters were our mentors; they became friends.
Sr. Diane – This course impacts people in profound ways. Spirit is always working in our lives, as Mindy and Amanda have showed us as they progressed through Dominican Center formation to serve in their own spiritual direction practices. Today, Mindy is also director of the Center, designing experiences, welcoming participants, and inviting facilitators into the always evolving community.
Sr. Carmelita – I will speak from the role of observer. Like a bird on a branch, I get to overhear the excitement from Sisters who now participate in the class. Amanda and I worked closely together when she was a DCM apprentice and co-facilitated this course with me for three years. She took over as the pandemic hit, and we had to shift to online learning. She has grown this course beyond anything I could have done when I stepped away five years ago.
Amanda – Many of our participants go on to take the Spiritual Direction Practicum and become Spiritual Directors, but not all. Some even repeat the course! I know for me, I first took Foundations in 2007. I had very small children at home, and I was overwhelmed. I dropped out about halfway through, but there was a little seed planted in my heart. I hoped to
come back when the time was right. In 2012, I took the course again where I met Mindy. She and I went on to become Spiritual Directors together in the same cohort.
A: Mindy – Because Amanda and I did not know one another before we participated in Foundations, our intentions were aligned to let God work on us, through us, and stay open to the teachers and presenters. We are now at this place in our journeys because of them. The Spirit has transformed us; these two Sisters have helped to lead us forward and remind us both of our gifts. Now through us and our collaborative team, we are blessed to lift the legacy of this ministry of Dominican Spirituality and witness the transformation of others as their faith journeys evolve with love.
To meet the expanding needs of our Foundations in Spirituality course, we have taken a team approach to the way this class is held and taught in community. Last year Geralyn Myczkowiak, Andy Rebollar, and Kimberley Mulder – all certified spiritual directors — collaborated closely. A similar team approach is planned for this year.
Amanda – This course and the loving mentorship of Sister Carmelita truly changed my life. It is a great joy for me to be able to help facilitate this kind of transformation for others.
We were blessed by the wisdom and faith of all of the participants of our 24/25 Foundations in Spirituality study community. We share two perspectives below. Watch for more in the future.
Thomas Eggleston
When I began Foundations in Spirituality, I had a persistent understanding of a mystic as a solitary figure who enjoyed ecstatic experiences of God. I have gained a deeper knowledge of mystical experiences. One thing that surprised me greatly is the deep lives of friendship, community, and shared experiences with others that mystics through time enjoyed. The broadening of this understanding of mysticism both made me realize that the mystic is not a solitary figure and that each Christian is gifted a degree of mystical experience of the Living God.
Bridget Clark Whitney
A particular part of communal life for the mystics which I found of great interest is that of friendships. For many of the mystics in our coursework, there were some who had notable friendships which seemed to deepen their prayer life and support them...
Perhaps because of my own baggage and perhaps from our culture’s reverence for the “rugged individualist,” before this class, I imagined the work of the contemplative to be lonely work. Even as my own life experience negated that idea, I still clung to the image of the mystic life as one of loneliness. The spiritual masters we have studied have healed that image in my mind, and I now see clearly how profoundly connected life in community and friendship is to the life of the contemplative.”
“This year in the Foundations in Spirituality class has been more than just a course — it has felt like a quiet unfolding, a turning inward, and at times, a letting go. What began as a schedule of readings and reflections slowly transformed into a pilgrimage of the heart. As I look back, I realize that what I’ve learned isn’t just intellectual or even theological, but something far more intimate and embodied. If I had to sum up what I’m carrying forward from this journey, it would be this: every word, a prayer; every journey, a pilgrimage; every action, a ceremony; every place, a shrine. That simple yet powerful truth has reoriented how I move through the world.
Throughout the class, certain themes kept rising to the surface like gentle waves: simplicity, sacred presence, interconnectedness, surrender, and the divine hidden in the ordinary. These weren’t just ideas to consider; they became invitations to live differently. One theme that especially moved me was the concept of desert spirituality — the idea of going off to the desert to pray, to be stripped down to essentials, to meet God in the silence and barrenness. It wasn’t about escape, but an encounter.
This class introduced me to prayer not as something confined to words or times of day, but as a way of life. I was especially drawn to silent prayer and contemplative walks — practices that reflect both Franciscan and desert traditions. In silence, I found a surprising richness. The absence of words created space for presence.
Jessica Bowen, Promoter of Justice
By Marcia Good
I pray for the world to find me in its own wise way. I pray to be wanted and needed by those I have learned to love And those I must learn to love.
When I was ten, we moved away from family to a new state, a small town, and we became strangers in a strange land. We had funny accents. We had homemade clothes. We were not easily included or accepted. I wanted to belong. An awareness arose from this lonely, stressful time. Not being invited, I realized the importance of inviting. Not being included, I realized the importance of including. Not belonging, I realized the importance of belonging. My prayers at this young age were simple. “Help me find a friend. Help me know how to be a friend to others.”
“I pray for the world to find me in its own wise way.” The wise world found me. God found me; not by providing a friend right away, as I had requested; but found me as I walked through this loneliness. This is where I found solace and a growing awareness or deepness of how I wanted to be.
Rambling is still my default form of prayer. Some might say I don’t pray at all as I usually don’t form words or intentions. But to me, it is the opposite; I feel like I never stop praying! When I walk, I often pause my steps and stay in a spot to think of others or to sit with a problem. Then I walk some more. The intention I carry is, be aware with my senses.
I listen. I look. I rejoice in small things. God speaks to me so strongly with this kind of rambling awareness. Song phrases will bubble up. A memory of a friend who I have not spoken to in a long time. An opportunity that awaits my decision may present itself.
I find myself accompanied by a strong sense of gratitude with each step I take.
I realize now these walks of the last 60 plus years are a form of contemplation. The awareness I practice there sticks with me throughout the day. I may be somewhere, and my heart gets zinged with something. I try to pay attention, then follow its path.
I see prayer as invitation. As God reaching out, inviting me to take notice, to take part, and if able, to immerse, to dwell.
Marcia Good is a Dominican Associate and gifted musician. She also loves poems. The stanza at the beginning of her essay is from David Whyte’s “Prayer for an Invitation”. Her essay comes with an open invitation to find and read the rest of David Whyte’s poem. May you, may each of us, pray for the world to find us in its own wise way.
Our celebrants are contemplative, hope-filled disciples committed to the Word of God and the Holy Preaching. They live with a passion for Truth and Justice following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Their lives are a testimony to the Pillars of Dominican Life and Mission: Prayer. Community. Study. Service.
Join us in celebrating the faithful service of these Jubilarians.
Nathalie Meyer, OP, 70 Years
Grand Rapids Dominicans methodically work to blend our gifts and talents to make a difference wherever we are sent.
Mary Lucille Janowiak, OP, 70 Years
“God creates the World by empowering the World to make itself,” wrote Elizabeth A. Johnson, CSJ. How will we use our God-given empowerment so that all creation may thrive?
Therese Rodriguez, OP, 70 Years
God’s faithfulness and love have given me the energy to serve with joy throughout these seventy years. I thank God, my family, and my Dominican Sisters.
Rena Ruddy, OP, 70 Years
Blessed and happy has been my religious life. I give heartfelt thanks to God, my community, family, and friends.
Emilia Atencio, OP, 70 Years
“Blessed be God who refused me not my prayers nor His kindness.”
~ Psalm 66:20
Angelina Gonzales, OP, 70 Years
“I give You thanks, O Lord, with all my heart.”
~ Psalm 111
Eva Silva, OP, 60 Years
Love and grace have carried me through these years since. I swim in the ocean of gratitude.
Carmen Rostar, OP, 60 Years
“Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of everlasting life.” ~ John 6:67-69.
Lucia Zapata, OP, 60 Years
I reflect on the words of Pope Francis, “In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future will bring.”
Elizabeth Amman, OP, 50 Years
“How can I make a return to the Lord for all the good God has done for me?”
Barbara Reid, OP, 50 Years
“All I have seen teaches me to trust God for all I have not seen.”
Associate Barbara Gordon, 25 years
The Dominicans were, and are, the light showing me the way home. I’ve spent countless hours studying, reading, attending workshops and classes, and learning contemplative prayer. These habits are now infused in my day-to-day life and make my life joyful at age 90. I feel I’m a Dominican.
Associate Michael Wood, 25 years
“Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” ~ Matthew 25:40.
I feel I am called to be a servant and live out the Gospel more in deeds than in words and that’s why the scriptural quote has so much meaning for me. Prayer, contemplation, and introspection have been transformative, inviting me to continue growth in my faith.
The Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids embrace our Dominican charism of Veritas (“Truth”) which compels us to search for and preach truth as it impacts the lives of people and planet—to be a voice that focuses attention on the cry of Earth and the cry of the poor.
How do we continue engaging? How do we live our discipleship, which calls us to a commitment to Justice and Peace? How do we keep honoring one another by offering hope with our presence and preaching?
We remind ourselves to pray about, study, contemplate, and dialogue in community about social justice issues; that is, issues core to the gospel. It is in this way that we seek Truth, by listening for God’s voice in our hearts about matters of the world and all creation.
As we continue transforming and healing the ecological landscape on Marywood Campus, watch for more opportunities for transformative experiences through our Mary’s Woods, Prairie, and Gardens initiative.
To help us in this endeavor, we welcome Jessica Eimer Bowen as Justice Promoter. With her leadership, we will continue to care for Creation, preach Justice, and advocate for systemic changes related to racism, immigration, and climate justice.
From Jack’s days at Catholic Central to their time as Aquinas College students, the Kirkwoods and the Sisters have long been a big part of each other’s lives.
But above all, it was the Sisters’ commitment to issues of social justice and their leadership in the Grand Rapids community that compelled Jack and Rita to include them in their trust.
With the Sisters we felt such kindness and peacefulness. They continue to inspire and educate on social justice, and they act on their beliefs.
We felt aligned, and they became part of our life.
Jack & Rita Kirkwood
Let’s build a legacy of faith and justice, truth and peace.
Become a part of the Veritas Society when you make a bequest to the Sisters, whether from your will, trust, or other estate plans.
Let’s build a legacy together!
Members of the Veritas Society receive:
• Important updates from the Sisters
• Invitations to special events
• A small gift of gratitude
Take the first step by talking with your advisor about how to align your plans with what is most important to you.
For questions about a bequest gift to Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids or GR Dominican Sisters Foundation, contact:
Alyssa Morillo Scheidt Director of Mission Advancement 616.514.3110 amorilloscheidt@grdominicans.org
Through grantmaking, the Grand Rapids Dominican Sisters Foundation is making sure the work of building a better world never ceases.
Grantees serve women and girls, immigrants and refugees, and people escaping family violence and human trafficking. They provide legal, educational, spiritual, artistic, and holistic services and support to people across this community.
Foundation grantmaking bolsters efforts that mirror Sisters’ ministries past and present: care of Earth, education, alleviating poverty, peace and justice efforts, health care, and spiritual formation—and more!
Together with our friends and supporters, we put our faith in action by facilitating the work of those on the forefront today, serving God’s people just as Sisters have always done.
Last year we focused on the urgent needs of unhoused individuals and families in our community and we continue to celebrate our 2024 grantees: Well House and AYA Youth Collective, both here in Grand Rapids, and Emmaus House in Saginaw.
Join us in lifting up all of these partners in mission! Visit their websites, attend their events, learn all you can about their work and share what you learn with your friends, family, and neighbors.
To learn how you can support future grantmaking for mission, contact Alyssa at 616.514.3110 or amorilloscheidt@grdominicans.org
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The Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids are a community of vowed women religious and Associates who follow the Catholic traditions of St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena. Since 1877 we have been praising, blessing, and preaching God’s love through all we do.
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Mission & Ministry Editorial Team
• Megan McElroy, OP – Prioress
• Danny Lynn – Art Director
• Stacy Spitler – Editor/Contributor
• Alyssa Morillo Scheidt, Contributor All photos are from the Archives of the Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids (DSGR) unless otherwise noted.
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“For our part, we want to be a small leaven of unity, communion, and fraternity within the world.”
Pope Leo’s words to Catholics, to people the world over, during his inauguration mass, may well be a unity prayer that calls us together the way Jesus envisioned.
We Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids celebrate the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first Pope from the United States of America. We are grateful for his YES to this call to serve the Church and the world at this time.
Pope Leo’s lifetime experiences as a missionary in Peru, parish pastor in Chicago, prior general of the Augustinian Order, and bishop have prepared him well for what lies ahead in the years of his pontificate.
~ Megan McElroy, OP, Prioress