Preaching Conferences

Each year, students and faculty members from Saint Dominic Academy attend the annual Dominican High Schools Preaching Conference held at Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan.  In 2013, SDA was one of twenty-four Catholic high schools from across the United States and Puerto Rico to attend the annual conference. 

The Dominican High Schools Preaching Conference gives students the opportunity to meet new friends and learn about being a follower of Saint Dominic.  The conference empowers high school students to discover and deepen the preacher within themselves through the ways of Dominican life: Prayer, Study, Community and Interaction with members of the Dominican family.  The conference also taught the lives of the Dominican saints.

According to the conference website (www.domlife.org) : “Dominicans share their faith by preaching. We preach through words, arts, music and action. We preach not only by what we say and how we live, but also by who we are. Dominicans have been practicing the art of preaching for over 800 years with their founder St. Dominic.”

The goal of the conference was to assist participants in recognizing how they preach in their own daily lives, so they could then empower others to preach.

Each day of the conference guest speakers offered programs focused on a particular theme, which included: “Preaching in the Dominican Tradition,”  “Preaching the Signs of Our Times,” “Dominican Preaching In Action, ” “ Preaching Through the Creative Arts, ” and “Our Call to Preach the Good News”.

Juniors Shannon Hester of Bayonne and Melissa Mercado of Jersey City along with faculty members Mahalia Armea and Joan Simon were participants at the conference.  According to Armea, SDA Religion teacher, “This was my second year attending the conference and I enjoyed it. I have learned what it is to be a Dominican.  I suggest that other teachers go to this conference so that they will truly understand what it means to teach in a Dominican school.”    

Also in attendance was junior Brittany Angrosina of Bayonne who had this to say, “Throughout the week I spent at the conference, I learned what it means to be a true Dominican preacher. I learned a lot about Saint Dominic and the Dominican Tradition. My eyes were opened to how important it is for SDA as a Dominican Community to give back to society. As President of the Dominican Youth in Action Club, I hope to share everything I learned from the conference with the other club members, and get them excited to become more active in our community activities.”