Dominican High Schools Preaching Conference
June 24 through 29, 2023 at Siena Heights University, Adrian, Michigan
DYMUSA continued its tradition of empowering high school students to discover and deepen the preacher within themselves through prayer, study, community and interaction with members of the Dominican Family.
Action Plans by School
"We, the preachers"
Albertus Magnus High School
We, the preachers of Albertus Magnus High School, will preach with our lives by:
Offering a student reflection at our monthly masses and seasonal prayer services.
Posting an inspirational quote of the week around our school.
Focusing on a different Dominican saint each month and highlighting his/her efforts to preach the Truth.
Dominican High School
We, the preachers of Dominican High School, will preach with our lives by:
Sister Nancy Murray said she would come and perform the St. Catherine of Siena play.
Incorporating the Reach activity into our Freshmen Retreat as we talk about the pillars.
Students will write up a proposal for a Sinsinawa Service day where the students and teachers together model service to others.
Edgewood High School
We, the preachers of Edgewood High School, will preach with our lives by:
By promoting the four pillars through:
(Study) Collaborating with our school’s librarian to create a video oral history by interviewing local Dominican sisters.
(Community) Connecting with the student body by implementing Bible study & prayer into school free time.
(Justice & Preaching) We will apply the knowledge we have gained from the social justice presentations, specifically the Commission on the Status of Women by holding fundraisers and educating our school community.
Flintridge Sacred Heart
We the preachers of Flintridge Sacred Heart, will preach with our lives by
Creating a prayer garden
Established by the St. Francis of Assisi statue.
Planting vegetables (with different intentions for each produce).
Incorporating a prayer walk
Retreats (10 minute walk of praying for special intentions, reflection time)
Small groups
Listening exercises
Different exercises performed during this retreat
Listening to each other/ talking to each other with eyes closed, eye contact, no eye contact
Additions:
Lanterns
Example of singing/ dancing: Malo, Malo, Thanks Be to God
Incorporate different grades in the readings during mass
ICA Cristo Rey
We, the preachers of ICA Cristo Rey, will preach with our lives by:
Switch up our PA Prayers to include a Dominican saint of the month, cultural prayers and themed on the pillars.
Aid the Freshmen Religion Teacher in helping teach the pillars through skits and the 4 Pillars blanket activity.
Rearrange our class retreats to:
Freshmen- Community
Sophomores- Prayer
Juniors- Study
Seniors- Preaching/ Service
Also name each retreat so it is more inviting.
Marian Catholic High School
We, the preachers of Marian Catholic High School, will preach with our lives by:
Building community with each of our Springfield sister schools through quarterly meetings.
Continuing to support our Springfield sisters with acts of love.
Completing works of service in our schools and in our surrounding community.
Our Lady of the Elms
We, the preachers of Our Lady of the Elms, will preach with our lives by:
Sponsoring a school-wide day of service in which we plan to take small groups of students to various organizations where they will preach through their service.
Forming small groups of students, within and between grade levels, who will meet to discuss issues of importance to the specific group, as well as other spiritual topics. Each group will receive training on how to effectively moderate a small group.
Establishing morning prayer over the announcements, which will consist of a summary of the Gospel, a reflection, and a prayer.
Rosary High School
We, the preachers of Rosary High School, will preach with our lives by:
More music variety (focus on Dominican songs) and ways to pray (i.e. retreats and mass); Implementing music in many ways for school.
Liturgy of the hour (1-2 times at least) as a whole day activity taking place throughout classes.
Building relationships with the sisters in the area.
Increase mass participation with booklets to follow mass.
Teachings about Dominican saints through a saint of the month and going through their lives throughout the month.
Service Day once a month (service opportunity)
Connect with other Dominican schools once a month.
San Gabriel Mission
We, the preachers of San Gabriel Mission, will preach with our lives by:
Organizing a service day in order to bring classmates together and create community.
Saint presentation (role-play); having someone portray a saint in order to bring their story & person to life.
Acknowledging students with candle preaching.
School family (home groups)
Sacred Heart High School
We, the preachers of Sacred Heart High School, will preach with our lives by:
Introducing our classmates to our Dominican roots by presenting the four pillars, the lives of the Dominican saints, and, most importantly, sharing the history and presence of the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose.
Encouraging classmates to build a personal relationship ith Jesus Christ through the celebration of mass and Eucharistic adoration, celebration of the feast days of our Dominican saints, and prayer services highlighting various forms of prayer through art led by our campus ministry servant team.
Spending more time in preparation and reflection for talks using examples of the lives of Dominican saints, the four pillars, scripture and personal experiences to create a more in-depth understanding of God’s work in our lives, and being able to share that with our fellow classmates, while on retreat.
Sacred Heart-Griffin
We, the preachers of Sacred Heart-Griffin, will preach with our lives by:
We will rebuild our relationship with our Dominican Sisters of Springfield, because of the pandemic. We will create meaningful events to invite both students and sisters to get acquainted and become part of each other’s prayer and service communities.
Reestablish knowledge of the Dominican charism and history in our school to all students and staff through retreats and theology classes.
We will continue growing in our relationship with our sister schools, Marian Catholic and Rosary High School. We will plan on quarterly Zoom calls and make plans to visit each others’ schools.
St. Agnes High School
We, the preachers of St. Agnes High School, will preach with our lives by:
Interviewing Houston Dominican Sister to share about their founding, legacy & charism for Founder’s Day.
Invite a Dominican Family member(s) to a formation meeting to share about participating as Dominican associates.
Pass on the Pillar of Prayer by forming others in how to create & lead meaningful prayer services on retreat.
St. Catherine High School
We, the preachers of St. Catherine High School, will preach with our lives by:
Michael Petro said he will come and do a Catholic Schools week presentation. He will teach us about the pillars and get us up and moving.
Sister Nancy Murray said she will come and perform her St. Catherine of Siena Play to help us learn about St. Catherine, our school’s name saint.
Students will write up a proposal for our principal and president to name the Hall after a different Dominican saint.
We need more images of St. Dominic and St. Catherine around the school, and we need to celebrate our Dominican roots more.
During our weekly prayer service, we will start every one with our mission and end with the Dominican Blessing.
St. Pius X High School
We, the preachers of St. Pius X High School, will preach with our lives by:
As the Preaching Team of St. Pius X High School, we will live out the Dominican pillar of PRAYER by incorporating the use of Liturgical Movement to enrich the faith experience at our monthly liturgies.
As the Preaching Team at St. Piux X High School, we will live out the Dominican pillar of STUDY by creating opportunities for formation and discussion to further awareness of racism in our times and advocate for increased justice for victims of racism.
As the Preaching Team at St. Pius X High School, we will live out the Dominican pillar of COMMUNITY by renewing our commitment to connect without Prayer Partners from the Dominican Sisters of Houston post-Covid.
As the Preaching Team at St. Pius X High School, we will live out the Dominican pillar of PREACHING by designing and preparing new opportunities outside of monthly liturgies to proclaim the word of God to the school community.