RBWords - Volume 20 - Number 11: November 2007
Something to Think About
– When St. Dominic began the process of establishing the Dominican Order, he started with a convent of contemplative nuns (ca. 1206). This was the only form of organized religious life practically available for women at the time. Nevertheless this branch of Dominican life flourished and continued. There is still a monastery of contemplative Dominican nuns on the original site (Prouilhe, France)! A bit of math will reveal that 800 years have passed. The Dominican Order is in the process of a 10 year celebration of this 800th jubilee of its founding (the Friars in 1216). The Dominican Laity and Apostolic Dominican sisters came along later but are no less members for that fact!).
I have just returned from the island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago where I preached a retreat for some cloistered Dominican contemplative nuns. There are a number of monasteries in the United States. I am most familiar with the one in Lufkin, TX, which is two hours from my hometown of Natchitoches, LA. However, I have visited several others, including the one in Farmington Hills, MI, where I preached a retreat this past September.
Given the explicit charism of preaching, one might ask how the cloistered contemplative nuns “earn their keep” so to speak. Our utilitarian/pragmatic/empirical/individualist culture finds their vocation strange and certainly “counter/cultural.” However, it seems to me that “their voice goes out through all the earth.” If we believe in God and in the power of prayer, how can we question a vocation that seeks both intensely? I think of the line from the “Sermon on the Mount,” “Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.” (Matt. 6:28) Their life of prayer and their very existence preach boldly. IT\'S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.
It Has Been Said
“May God the Father bless us! May God the Son redeem us! May the Holy Spirit enlighten us and give us eyes to see with, ears to hear with, and hands to do the work of God with; feet to walk with and a mouth to proclaim the Good News of God with; and the angel of peace to watch over us until at last, by our Lord\'s gift, we come to the kingdom. AMEN.
Medieval Dominican Blessing.