By Barbara Kelley, OP
ADRIAN, Mich.— The Adrian Dominican Sisters formally received Sister Jamie Caporizo as a novice August 10 during a special ritual held in the context of Vespers.
Sister Jamie began her two years as a novice later that month, traveling to Chicago to participate in the Inter-Congregational Collaborative Novitiate (ICCN). During this year, Sister Jamie and novices from other congregations of Catholic sisters will live in community and focus on the elements of religious life, such as prayer, theological study at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, formal weekly meetings with other novices, and spiritual direction. Each novice will also learn about the spirituality of her own congregation.
“I’m grateful for all the opportunities for growth that I’ve been given this year,” Sister Jamie said. As a candidate, she learned more about the congregation through various experiences, including visiting ministries from Adrian and Flint, Mich., to the Dominican Republic.
“Each of our sisters and our associates has varied gifts and varied talents, and yet at the heart of it all was our mission,” she said.
Sister Jamie, a native of Stamford, began her formal discernment process with the Adrian Dominican Sisters a year ago with her entrance as a Candidate. After earning a bachelor’s degree in music education and choral conducting from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, she taught music at her alma mater, Rippowam School in Stamford.
While earning her master’s degree in sacred music from the University of Notre Dame, Sister Jamie served as a liturgy intern with the Sisters of the Holy Cross. She continued working for the sisters for five years as Director of Music and Liturgy. While discerning her call to enter the Adrian Dominican Sisters, she began a new ministry at Alvernia University in Reading, Penn., first as a campus minister and then as Senior Director of Mission and Ministry.
Sister Patricia Walter, OP, Sister Jamie’s mentor and Dominican Charism Formator, welcomed the assembly to the Rite of Reception and affirmed Sister Jamie’s readiness to begin the next step of her initial formation.
“From the very first week, she has said ‘we’ when talking about this congregation and offered her considerable gifts to us,” Sister Patricia noted. “She has wholeheartedly embraced community life with sisters in Siena House and here on campus. She has warm-heartedly responded to needs on a variety of places, ministering creatively and effectively.”
Sister Patricia Harvat, OP, in her reflection during the service, agreed.
“You are ready, Jamie, for God to write the next chapter in your life,” she said. “The margins are clean and space open for the unfolding words of love, mercy, and hope. Your desire to continue this Dominican journey is bold.”
During the Rite of Reception, Prioress Elise D. García, OP, formally examined Sister Jamie on her desire to be “received into the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Adrian as a Novice, and to experience more fully our way of life in faithful observance of our Rule and Constitution.”
Sister Jamie received a copy of the congregation’s Constitution with the instruction to study and reflect upon the document as she continues to discern her call to religious life. She was also presented with and clothed in a preaching garment, with the words of Sister Elise: “Receive this garment, sign of your desire to preach God’s word.”
The Adrian Dominican Sisters encourage single Catholic women, ages 19 to 35, to consider whether God is calling them to vowed Dominican life. To learn more, visit www.adriandominicans.org.
