DOMINICAN
SPIRITUALITY
2. Spirituality
Spirituality An unfortunate, ambiguous word, frequently misinterpreted…
• is wider than religion, not a sub product of it.
• not exclusive of religions, but of humans’ “religious experience”.
• it reaches the deepest and most integral side of the human
being, his “being and acting”:
-the distinguishing trait of the individual’s (personality),
-the religious family’s tradition and culture (history),
. Not related with just the “mystical”, the intimism; or the opposite to the
“material”, the “social”, as if they were two poles: positive-negative, of
human reality. Or the visible or invisible, that we can touch and see, and
the mysterious and magic; the natural and the supernatural, the present
and the life… supernatural.
Religion is just a form among many others in which spirituality may be expressed.
3. Spirituality (1)
•It
could be said that spirituality is a kind of disposition or a hallmark
that distinguishes the individual’s, religious group’s or the community’s
way of being and acting, as distinct from the others: their testimony.
•All
spiritualities are a way, the proposal of an itinerary, in which one
may follow the exigencies of an ideal previously accepted, like, for
example, to follow the Lord and serve one’s neighbor.
•The spirituality of a religious family is thus “a way of integral walking in
life”, conveyed into a style of life and an actualized commitment.
4. Christian Spirituality (2)
Way of life of those who follow Jesus, the Christ:
in his manner of relating and experiencing God, as
Father, “Abbá”, (mystical experience). It shows
confidence, self giving, tenderness.
And also in his relationships with other persons
(prophetical experience). It shows itself in His
“Preaching”.
Orientation of one’s own whole life in function of the
project of the Spirit of Jesus.
5. Dominican spirituality (1)
Strictly speaking we have only one model –”paradigm”
[paradidomi]- of Christian Spirituality, Jesus of Nazareth, “supreme
norm of any kind of religious life” (Vat. II, VR, n.2)
The Dominican Spirituality cannot, therefore,be “norma absoluta”, it
cannot be definitely defined, for it is still “under construction”. (E.
Schillebeecks, OP). It is determined also by our behavior “here and
now”, in our time, in our culture.
We are Christians who look to St. Dominic’s charism for inspiration,
trying to reflect it and give testimony of it in our way of following
Jesus.
To know the medieval context is one of the important aspects to
understand the Order of Preachers… (Marie Dominique Chenu, OP)
6. Dominican Spirituality (2)
Way of life of those who :
living the Christian Spirituality,
center their life on Jesus’ fidelity to his Father’s Word,
as entrusted by the Spirit to Dominic and his brothers and
sisters:
• to keep it alive, and
• let it be known to all, so that
• they will know the Gospel and be converted to the Lord.
The fundamental element is the “Sancta praedicatio” (Holy
Preaching), the announcement of the Kingdom of God, the Word
calling to conversion.
7. WORD
1. Word – Idea 2. Word – Event 3. Word – Encounter
“Explanatory (Verbum) “Revealing” (Dhavar) “Creative” (Logos)
The human being: The human being: The human being:
Knows things, he separates Understands the meaning of Feels himself questioned, enters
them. things and events, beyond their into relationship with an
appearances. “other” : “I” and “You”.
He appropriates and acquires Acquires wisdom,, is a motive Acquires life, he gets out of
power over them. for faith. himself to go towards the other
(“ex-ists”).;.
He is not personally affected, He is personally affected in his Experiences a new sentiment,
he does not feel changed. vision/s and conviction/s, and, perhaps, a new being.
generates security, confidence.
Example: that the water is Example: Theophany (teos - Example: “I love you”. It is the
H2O: fainw) on Mount Sinai: language of
Science Signs Love.
8. Main elements of the Dominican Spirituality
1. Community same:
Faith
Vocation
Community Ideal
Objectives
respect:
Personality of all members of the community as they are…
(Act. 4, 32-34)
2. Study Seeking God’s light, source of the study of the Dominican Family:
Attentive to the requirements of truth,
The faithful tradition of the Church,
In dialogue and openness with our contemporaries,
Faithful in our responsibility of acquiring a sound formation, to
better evangelize our fellow men/women
At the service of the Church and our world.
9. Main elements… (2)
3. Contemplation Letting ourselves be questioned by God and by life:
In our own life: personal dialogue, failures and successes…
In the sufferings of all persons: “compassion”…
In secret and community prayer, liturgy and “lectio divina”.
In our preparation as preachers of His word, for the mission
3. Contemplation entrusted to us [“study”= “caritas”].
In our collaboration with His grace and mercy.
In our fidelity to the carisma , the charism entrusted to us by His
Spirit, etc.
4. Preaching Our life must be, first of all, a “Gospel” –euaggelion- , a gift, a
good news for the others:
Through our own dedication to the total evangelization
with the Word of God,
With all the means available, forms, places and resources,
Keeping in mind the “new venues of evangelization”
Preaching 10. Main elements… (3)
Its objective is to transform our human history into
a history of salvation. No area of history is alien to its mission:
embraces all human realities, to transform them according to
evangelical criteria…
A liberating preaching: “ from life and for life.
In as much as possible, it is a collective task, we also preach “as a
community”
Involves a humble attitude of hoping for and welcoming the
richness that comes from the others.
Coherence of life: to live what we preach…
Preaching for us is to live in communion, in solidarity and
reconciliation
11. Characteristics of the O.P. Spirituality
Prophetic, “critical” One foot on the positive aspects of tradition, the other
on the prophetic renovation…
Expression of the interior “Talk with God or about God”…
life
Dialogical Open to the “truth” of others; not authoritarian or
arrogant...
Ready to listening to God Therefore, based on the habit of prayer and external-
and to the people internal contemplation: life, people, nature, events…
Talks about God, From experience, and not only from theological
previously contemplated investigations.
Keeps silence, to allow Listen to the other, without considering own word as
12. Some Present Challenges to Spirituality OP
Our life of poverty and Simplicity of life
preaching at the New vision of social reality and the Reign of
frontiers, the barriers of God, seeing them through the eyes of the
our world… poor…
The needs of the whole Order are the concern
of every member.
Itinerancy Spatial concept, readiness to travel…
But also other ways: social, cultural, economic,
ideological…
It must inform all our attempts to pursue the
four priorities of the Order: a) preaching, b)
justice and peace, c) evangelization of/in
cultures, d) “media” of communication.
13. Some present Challenges… (2)
Dialogue The Incarnate Lord is, once more, our “paradigm”:
Jesus never spoke down to people, but always with them” (AGC,
Caleruega, 2010???).
Dialogue as “a way of life”, demanding openness, humility and a
readiness to adapt in our search for truth.
Willingness to share our own convictions and beliefs, as well as
our own faith, with others.
In a process of mutual enrichment, even through discussion when
necessary (counter-cultural preaching)….
14. Dominican Spirituality - Summary
Following of Jesus Including his absolute confidence in the Father, and in
communion with the others, especially with the “poor”
and the sinners.
Communitarian apostolic centered on prayer, community life, study and preaching.
life
Sensitivity towards the Attention to the signs of the times, openness to new
new charisms, and
Maintain democratic and flexible structures that do
not “close de door”. (E. Schillebeecks,OP)
15. Dominican Mystics [About prayer]
S. Albert the “When we pray, we should close the door, that is to say, the door of our
Great senses, so that our mind can be free from all phantasies or images… We do
not reach contemplation through our thoughts or imaginations, but through
a pure heart and a mind free from all preoccupations and anxieties”.
S. Catherine of Heard Jesus say: “Contemplate me in the depth of your heart”
Siena
Saint Thomas • “When I go to the encounter with myself, I find in my intimacy Another
Aquinas who is not I, and nevertheless, is the foundation of my own identity…”
• “God is in us as he is in every created thing. We belong to him more than to
ourselves. It would be more appropriate to say that God contains us than
saying that we have God in our interior”
16. Dominican Mystics (Prayer)
Meister “God is closer to me than I myself. Thus He is close to the wood and the
Eckhart,OP stone. Only that they do not know it”.
“God is very close to us, and we very far from Him. He dwells in the centre
of our soul, and we in the surface. He is our relative, and we treat Him as a
stranger”.
What He makes in our spirit “is similar to the work of an artist who carves a
wooden or ivory statue; he does not introduce the statue in the wood, he
barely trims out the bark that kept its figure hidden or covered; he does not
add anything to the wood, on the contrary, it takes something from it, digs
into its thickness, removes the superfluous until he brings to light what was
hidden underneath”.
17. Dominican Mystics (Prayer)
Meister Eckhart,
O.P.
“God is in, we are out. God is at home, we are abroad…
God leads the just through narrow
paths to the highway that they may come out into the
open”.
“If a man were in an ecstasy, as St Paul was, and knew that
some sick man needed him to give him a bit of soup, I should
think it far better if you would abandon your ecstasy out of
love and show greater love in caring for the other in his need”.
18. Dominican Mystics (Prayer )
St. Dominic: “His heart”, we are told, “would be
pierced with compunction, and he
would blush at himself and say,
sometimes laudly enough for it to be
heard, the words from the Gospel, “Lord,
be merciful to me, a sinner”.
(Nine Ways of Prayer)
St Dominic: “He gave the day to his neighbours,
and the night to God”
