Dear brothers, sisters and
friends,
Since January 6, 2019 we have been here in Saint Louis to begin our second half of our program.
It was after a one month Christmas break in which we went back to our
respective communities. It was another great time to reconnect to our
communities and we happened to all go to our mother houses.
Upon arrival
here in our CDN community, we immediately entered into our busy program in the
middle of a very cold winter: pursuing our studies at Aquinas Institute, even
though we only each took one class because we have more studies in the
house. We continue with our ministry of learning and helping the young girls
during their religion class at Marian Middle School.
Every Wednesday we have
been having our Inter-Congregational Novitiate on different topics. Next week we
will have a quite intense week on Psycho/Sexual Development. We have also been having some reflections and
discussion on Religious life special topics with our dear Sister Elyse OP.
Among the classes we are having in the house with our directors is the story
and life of Saint Dominic. It is a good opportunity for us to learn about
Dominican Spirituality. The book which has served us for our study so far is entitled
Saint Dominic: The Story of a Preaching Friar
by Donald J. Goergen OP. Allow us to
share with you some of our simple insights and outstanding points which stayed
with us in these Dominican Life seminars.
In our discussions, we took one chapter after another, and these are the
questions which led us.
What attracted or challenged you in this
chapter? What did you resist and why? What questions did this chapter evoke in
you? Answer for you? How does this reading affect your discernment of Dominican
Religious Life?
In our study
and discussions we learned about how the Order started, expanded and the
Dominican spirituality portrayed by the life and history of Saint Dominic.
However, we came to understand that the Dominican way of life is deeply rooted
in the Gospel itself and not in Saint Dominic. In his simplicity he just wanted
to be seen as one of the brethren, a simple itinerant and contemplative
preacher. He was able to be both deeply contemplative and deeply active. He was
a man of prayer with a mission, a contemplative mission. It was a call for us
to evaluate how we are able to balance our interior and exterior life, our busy
active schedule and our prayer life, and how do we allow our contemplation which
boils inside us to boil over?
In this article, we cannot go
without mentioning our resistance to mendicancy as lived by Saint Dominic. We
had a long conversation on mendicancy and how it is still lived in some ways and
not necessarily like during Saint Dominic’s time. We came to the realization that
many of our congregations depend on donations from people of good will and that
may be our form of mendicancy today.
‘’Mendicancy
and voluntary poverty were at the heart of Dominic’s evangelical strategy.’’ He told his brethren, ‘’ Have charity, preserve humility and possess voluntary
poverty.’’
The above
statement from Saint Dominic answered some questions on our previous discussion
in relation to material poverty. The question was how do we really live poverty
when we seem to have what we need? Our response is to make choices for
simplicity, despite knowing that we have much. In addition to that, we came to a
clearer understanding of our ministry of preaching. We are not an order of
homilists but an order of preachers. Preaching is broader, as it involves our
witness of living the gospel values by our deeds. Giving homilies is just one part of it. This
can be understood as the using of words when necessary.
All in all, we
need to remember that DOMINIC WAS AN ASCETIC WHO ENJOYED HIS WINE; we are also
having time to enjoy our 'wine' here despite our busy schedule. Time has not
been on our side, it has been our greatest enemy but we have been managing it. This
winter season though very cold, we are not missing its beauty. We celebrate
birthdays for a full week for those who want it! We create time for games, without
forgetting our free and special cooking!
Dear sisters,
brothers, and friends, our knowledge and understanding about Dominican
spirituality may still be limited in various ways. As always, we count on your support and help
as we continue learning and growing as Dominicans.
