DOMINICAN CONSECRATED LIFE.

The Dominican friar follows the rule of St. Augustine in his religious life expresses the precepts of live in the motto "one soul and one heart in God". therefore, by our consecration, we embrace and commit ourselves to live the life that Christ lived. This life is characterized by love in unity and communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and infinite love for men.

 

As Dominicans, we do not have any personal possession, everything we have is held in common, and we receive what we need from the common fund. Our Dominican life should be nothing less them the full living out of our baptism.

 

The charism of Dominic is related to the preaching to the Word of God to all are willing to listen the message of Jesus Christ. Moreover, the preaching to the individual friar derives from the heart of this community through which we seek to participate fully in the mystic body of Christ.

 

The friars detached explicitly only the vow of obedience, although that of poverty and chastity are not excluded. The Dominican friars profess obedience to the Master of the Order and his successors according to our Constitutions (LCO) by which the unity and spirit and mission of the Order is maintained. By the vow of obedience, we want to imitate Christ, who was obedient and submitted to the will of the Father until death. Under this vow, we obey our superiors and in the same way we are subject to the Roman Pontiff.

 

Saint Dominic was a chaste man who welcomed all men with charity and compassion in his heart. That is why the vow of chastity expresses our willingness to be free to consecrate ourselves totally for the sake of building the kingdom of heaven. With this vow, we unify our hearts and surrender ourselves entirely to the care of the Church. Chastity is a manifestation of love, it liberates our spirit and purifies our heart.

 

The vow of poverty helps the friars to consecrated on the supreme good of heaven and conform us to Christ. Evangelical poverty unites us to the poor and helps us to be detached from the things of the world. The Dominican friar promises in his profession to keep nothing for himself, and what he receives for his work is used for the good of the community, the Order and the Church.

 

Regular observance includes all those basic elements that constitute Dominican life and that help the friars in the following of Christ and in their apostolic life. These are: the common life, the celebration of the liturgy, private prayer, the fulfillment of the vows, the contemplative and assiduous study of the truth and preaching the mystery of the word, both in its written and spoken forms.

 

The cloister, the silence, the habit and the works of penance help the friar to engaged in contemplation and study. The interior life and the fruits of preaching presuppose a constant conversion of the heart and mind in a process of encounter, friendship and communion. All these elements, Dominic understood, as necessary for the fulfillment of the Order´s mission.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Libro de las Constituciones y Ordenaciones de la Orden de Predicadores. Málaga – Madrid, 1999 (en español)