Associates and Guests Hear Talk
on Dominican Spirituality
Preaching and contemplation, active ministry and prayer, community and study – these are some of the aspects of Dominican spirituality that Adrian Dominican Associates and guests heard about as Sister Rosa Monique Peña, OP, a member of the General Council, gave her presentation on the morning of Saturday, May 16. With the 125th anniversary weekend well underway after continental breakfast and Morning Prayer, the Associates and guests gathered at Weber Center to listen to the talk on Dominican Spirituality.
St. Dominic was inspired by the Gospel of Matthew and the letters of St. Paul, which he always carried with him, and “read in them the mandate to preach the Good News everywhere,” Sister Rosa Monique said. In particular, he preached against the dualistic heresies of his day that claimed that spirit was good and the material world evil, that claimed the existence of two gods, “the spiritual god of goodness and the material god of evil.”
St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers to combat this heresy and bring people back to the Catholic Church. In founding the Order, he took religious life in a new direction. Rather than living apart from the world as monastics of his day did, St. Dominic’s friars brought the Word of God to the world around them. They “do not leave the world behind, do not renounce…the difficulties of the world” but instead “embrace it,” Sister Rosa Monique said. St. Dominic modified the monastic life “to make space for preaching activities,” making the Order of Preachers an apostolic order with a “twofold lifestyle of profound prayer and intensive itinerant preaching,” she said.
Prayer and preaching (ministry) are two of the four traditional pillars of Dominican life. Another pillar is study, which is undertaken for the sake of the mission, Sister Rosa Monique said. She said St. Dominic was influenced by the story in the Gospel of Luke about two disciples who, on Easter day, encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus, told him of their sorrow and dismay over Jesus’ death and stories of his resurrection, and were rebuked by Jesus for being “slow of heart” in understanding the words of the prophets. Jesus is in effect telling his disciples to “study, research, pray; do not be content with your own opinion or with hearsay,” Sister Rosa Monique noted.
The fourth pillar of Dominican life is community, the place in which Dominicans discern “the reality at hand and the course of action to be taken by the group,” and in which individual members are strengthened and challenged for the mission.
Sister Rosa Monique added yet another important element in Dominican spirituality: joy. “Dominic was intensely happy,” she said. “He sang his way through the countryside as he walked from town to town in Spain, France and Italy” and encouraged the friars and nuns in his order also to be joyful. “Gloom is not considered a virtue in the Dominican tradition,” she said. “True joy, which springs from deep faith and hope even in the face of suffering, was one of Jesus’ centerpiece teachings.”
After lunch, the Associates and guests viewed A Living Journey, a new DVD on the history of the Adrian Dominican Sisters. They then had the opportunity to take part in three out of five tours and presentations: a tour of the Dominican Ashram, Friends of God, on the Adrian Dominican campus; a presentation on the Congregation’s Portfolio Advisory Board; a presentation on the Dominican Life Center, the residence for retired Sisters; a tour of the Historical Area in Madden Hall; and a Labyrinth Prayer.