Dominican Life and Mission

It is the vocation and the charism of the Order of Preachers from the beginning to work for the “salvation of souls” by preaching, to proclaim the Gospel. The love for preaching is the hallmark of all the branches of our Order, commonly called Dominicans.

Today we are discovering more and more the importance of its family dimension where women and men, lay people and clerics, can be united to collaborate in the evangelical mission, belonging to communities where they are equal, respectful of differences but united by faith. Our efforts to grow as a family are themselves real aspects of our preaching. Thus Dominican preaching is not clerical all brachings of the Dominican family preaches.

Our life aids in the mission of preaching. There are four essential elements to Dominican life: prayer, study, regular observance (community), and the preaching ministry. The community bears witness to the Gospel we preach and teach, together with prayer and study, becomes a vital source of our preaching ministry.

Elements of Dominican Life

Dominicans do not have any special method of prayer but follow Dominic, whose prayer is “always simple, always ecclesial”. fr Bede Jarrett OP once said that if prayer is regimented and “reduced to hard and fast rules”, then “all adventure is gone, all the personal touches, and all the contemplation. We are too worried and harassed to think of God.” Consequently, Dominican prayer is simple and has as its goal “the contemplation of divine truth, and personal conversation and friendship with God” (LCO 66 § I).

Dominican Communities

Saint Augustine states that “the chief motivation of your sharing life together is to live harmoniously in the house and to have one heart and one soul seeking God.” This Brotherhood is supported when we share the work of our brothers, and when we meet to discuss matters of importance. Learning from our elders, who pass on the wisdom and traditions of the Order of Preachers, as well as their own knowledge and experience, we discover the connection between the quality of our life and the quality of our witness to the world. These periods of common study, conversation, and recreation serve as a reminder of our common mission. “The friars, of one mind through obedience, and bonded by a higher love, thanks to chastity, more closely dependent on each other, thanks to poverty, ought, first of all, to build in their own convent the Church of God, which by their efforts they must spread throughout the world” (LCO, 3).

Dominican preaching is not clerical! It is both apostolic and contemplative, arriving from communal life, study and prayer, it is expressed and animated when the whole Dominican Family engages the world through our preaching ministries which take on many forms for the salvation of souls. We must not forget the first group of Dominican preachers were the contemplative nuns. Thus, all members of the Order of Preachers, participate in Dominican preaching, which is the heart of every Dominican vocation, regardless of the branch within the Dominican family. Dominican priests are not “Dominican preaching” and it does not require a priest for Dominican preaching to be effective.

We first distinguish what type of preaching we are talking about. However, “The Word of God is expressed in every possible way including parish apostolate and missions, retreat preaching, occasional lectures, addresses at religious conferences, street preaching, teaching, writing (especially books), through art (especially film, television, and theatre), and by exploiting the advantages offered by the Internet and other advances of the digital age, without ever sacrificing the indispensable role of personal presence by which communication becomes true communion” (Peter John Cameron, OP).

From an international perspective and according to the various branches of the Order of Preachers, all members of the Dominican family preach, which is their very call to be Dominican. Pulpit preaching for Dominican priests is a requirement of Canon Law 756-759, for a liturgical setting, for example, the Mass, he is there to deliver a sermon or homily. It is only one of many expressions of Dominican preaching and is not better than any other expression of Dominican preaching. Paraphrasing the following, “The Dominican preaching is prophetic, its message is rooted in a lived experience, animated by the life of study and prayer, that move both preachers and hearers of the word of God, for humankind's salvation.” (Fr. Jude Siciliano, OP).

This devotion to assiduous study “nourishes contemplation and fosters with a lucid fidelity the living of the evangelical counsels [because] the very perseverance it demands and its difficulty make it a form of asceticism. Being an essential part of our life, it is an excellent religious observance” (LCO 83). Therefore, from the beginning of the Order, St Dominic introduced study “as an indispensable means to every apostolic activity” in place of the customary manual labour undertaken by monks.