DPT Despite Distance

St. Agnes Academy (SAA) is a Catholic school founded by Dominican Sisters in 1905. As part of St. Agnes’ mission, SAA has a school organization called the Dominican Preaching Team (DPT). The job of DPT is to plan retreats for the various grade levels of St. Agnes, to unite the school community, and to help students grow in their faith. While DPT does a remarkable job at this, they are used to conducting business in a world without a pandemic. Like the rest of the world, DPT has had to adjust to a new virtual format while still working to complete all of its goals. 
 
In order to complete the ambitious goals DPT has set out to achieve, all the members of DPT had a virtual Zoom retreat at the end of the summer in order to grow closer as a group and to begin planning for how to unite the SAA community despite the virtual limitations. Since then, DPT has been hard at work with regular meetings in order to be as interactive and useful to the community as possible. Along with planning wonderful retreats that will happen in person in the future, DPT has been working to ensure that students stay connected, even when not in person. 
 
DPT has been doing Faith on Fridays, a time for students to gather and discuss scripture around a theme together. In addition, they are beginning to host Campus Ministry meetings, a time for many students, including those who are not members of DPT, to bond in small groups and discern ways to live more faithful lives. On top of all this, they hosted a virtual service for all of the SAA student body on the same day there would have normally been in-person Mass of the Holy Spirit. 
 
One Dominican Preaching Team member, Malia Palmer, has seen how the organization has been very active despite the hard situation.
 
“DPT has been working within the SAA community throughout all of remote learning,” Malia said. “One of the first things I did as a member was coordinate an online prayer service in the aftermath of the George Floyd shooting. Being able to work with my peers and teachers to do something for the community, even through a pandemic and even in the summer shows the dedication DPT has to the SAA community. Programs like Faith on Fridays, and the coordination of the all-virtual Liturgy of the Holy Spirit demonstrate DPT’s commitment to leading and uniting our community.” 
 
St. Agnes’ Dominican Preaching Team is a wonderful organization that will work hard to bring St. Agnes together no matter what. Pandemic or not, DPT has done good in the SAA community and will continue to do everything they can to help students live happier, more faithful lives.