Dominican - 2

In our series of living in community, we viewed The Dominican cloistered community yesterday and will wrap up that model today. This is certainly not an exhaustive presentation of them. WE can learn from this model in that focus is so dramatic and consistent that the bonds of that community are very strong. Something that our family units can benefit by.

The work of the Dominican Nun is one thing. This lifelong, love-filled job begun in the novitiate and continued from the moment of final vows until death, is one thing only—to be clothed, mind, heart and soul with Christ her Love; to do His Will and allow Him to do His Will in her and through her for the good of souls. Her principal tool is her Vow of Obedience; her love is that hand that wields it.

“For me, to live is Christ—to show forth daily in charity and humility His own earthly round of prayer, labor, obedience unto death. This is not to be abject and weak; it is to be subject and strong, as He was subject to His own creatures.

“To live is Christ. To live His selfless, sacrificial life to the hilt, the only way in which it can be lived; to give Him room to live in me as He wishes, without opposing or obstructing His plan; to make His plan—which is the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls—my own one plan, and to live out my life for that same end for which He in His turn was consumed, even to death on a cross.
“This is to be strong and tranquil, to possess true joy—not passing pleasure, but full and lasting joy, because it is His and it is He.

“Here is the key to an understanding of my Dominican way of life; to live is Christ. And if a moment is ever reached in which it ceases to be Christ and narrows down to self, then from that moment it ceases to be a life at all; it becomes a rather pointless existence.

“Whoever lives with me has God as his possession!” These striking words of St. Augustine sum up the heart of one of the essential monastic observances of Dominican life-fraternal life in communion, striving to be of one mind and heart in God. This communion is possible only when it finds its source at the heart of Trinitarian communion.

“We have not arrived at heaven, we are still on the way, and because each one of us brings to the monastery the frailty of our personal wounds and sins such a life of communion is not easy. It calls for reconciliation when we have offended each other. It asks us to be patient with each other in our failures and weaknesses. It demands that we live the Gospel imperative to “love one another as I have loved you.”

“This dynamic life of love is for the world a witness to the reconciliation of all things in Christ preached by our brethren. In this way, a Dominican monastery becomes a holy preaching-”a city set on a hill that cannot be hid.”

Our next post on "living in community" will be succint thoughts by Montana Gary, that you will emjoy and be inspired byl.