Celebrating is too often neglected in our work for Justice and Peace. It is not just a question of humanizing our commitment, but of living it out fully, of linking our action to a deep compassion at the example of Jesus who "was moved with pity for the crowds", responding to the love of God who loved us first.

The actions and efforts of all the interveners must be articulated and celebrated. We need festivities to live and to go forth as happier persons and therefore renewed in our energy to face the struggles proposed to us in the Gospel. We need to place ourselves before God and open our hearts and minds to the Spirit who turns our gaze outward to those who are broken by life.

The actions in favor of Justice and Peace not only lead to the celebration of life but help us integrate the element of celebration into our lives. There is a constant movement between action, celebration and prayer. These two elements of our Christian life cross-fertilize and transform each other. If action for Justice and Peace finds its foundational source in the relation we have with the love of God, it will also have an impact on the way in which we celebrate our faith and our hope.

Celebration, like theology, needs to be inculturated in the various cultures of the sisters and brothers who are directly involved in actions in favor of Justice and Peace and also in the different events experienced by each person. The examples of Chuck's celebrations (Workbook #4) and the research done in Coban (Workbook #4) offer us certain perspectives on this. Liturgy should be an integral part of the action espousing its pace and languages.

The Dominican family in Brazil has developed an original approach called "mutirao" (collective workshop in solidarity ) which simply reapplied the traditional element of solidarity that existed in the old Brazilian villages. The spiritual theme was that of the "Visitation" but was experienced very concretely through a workshop in a very poor village. The participants in that "mutirao" meditated on the "Visitation", and then put into practice what they had learned by visiting and helping the poor families of the village.

Celebration sometimes takes on other facets: it can be a living memory, a memorial. In this perspective celebration is a privileged moment to relive an event and to renew one's active sense of compassion. Celebration is an intense moment inviting us to re-commit ourselves to transformative action, to re-discover solidarity by remembering the strength of the Spirit, bond of communion.

Many initiatives fit into this concern. Just Act (presented in Workbook #3) suggested putting prayer intentions in each of its bulletins. The Latin-American Agenda (Workbook #3) asked that people remember the major events that left their mark in the struggle for Justice and Peace on that continent... The Liturgical Calendar suggested by the Asian Commission of Justice and Peace - Pacific, is another interesting and relatively easy tool to use (see Appendices of this Workbook) and can be largely distributed and adapted. If there are any other tools available, let us know about them so that all the brothers and sisters of the Order may benefit from them.

Celebration can have as a main goal to share the experience of different projects or actions, a sharing which is done before God, who is the common source of all the energy expressed by all.

The Justice and Peace Commission of the Brazilian Family comes together once a year. It brings together some twenty persons, some of whom have to travel more than twenty hours by bus to get to the meeting. The meeting starts off with an hour and a half celebration.

Today all the participants are seated around a map of Latin America drawn in chalk on the ground. The liturgy will proceed in four phases:

Time for the land: This is a major challenge for the continent. In order to remember the land each one is invited to take handfuls of earth in bowls prepared for this purpose, they are asked to pour some out on the part of the continent that is dear to them and to explain why. Brother E. talks about the court hearings that are taking place so the peasants can be respected in their rights. Sister V. talks about Bolivia and the Amerindians who are oppressed and rejected... Slowly the map takes on life, barren as is this exploited continent.

Time for the water: How to pass from dry earth to fertile land? How to go from this world of injustice to a more communal world where each person is given a chance to live? Each one is invited to pour out water on those areas which are synonymous with projects, struggles, confrontations: the women's movement in the shantytowns of Recife, the Justice and Peace Commission in Haiti...

Time for the light: The fight against injustice is always changing, so much so it can lead one to despair. Prophets are needed who remain awake and rooted in hope. Each one is invited to place a candle as a reminder of the prophet who inspires them in their activity (Tito, Helder Camara, Rigoberta Menchu, Pedro Casadaliga, Mateus Rocha...) and people sing.

Time for the flowers: It is good to celebrate one's successes: mobilization of the people in Santiago de l'Estero, a court case won by the Pastoral for the Land Commission in Belem... Each one plants a flower.

The celebration can be a time for praise and amazement, for thanksgiving. This dimension should never be neglected for it allows us to progress in our activities by turning us toward a hopeful horizon. Even modest successes need to be celebrated in order to keep up the energy levels of the team. Allowing ourselves to be in awe of the labor pains of creation (Rm. 8), of acts of courage, innovations, revivals, responsibility... and presenting all of this to God who empowers us in turn outward and to go beyond ourselves. Our celebrations are rooted in the "dynamics" of hope.

Celebration can also be a time for asking forgiveness for those things that were not done, for the excessive aggressiveness or hatred that may have overcome us, for the lack of respect of our adversaries... We need not accumulate useless guilt for it only leads to discouragement, and the younger ones among us may take this too much to heart. Reconciliation, which is akin to compassion, can play a central role in the manner in which we celebrate. We should not insist on a vague, utopian view of unity without conflict (false peace) but rather on a unity that is based on inclusiveness, on taking everyone into account, on conversion of life-styles and mentalities...

The liturgical seasons of the Catholic Church can also be used to develop among the Dominican Family members as well as among all Christians, an awareness of the need to be involved in Justice and Peace in order to be fully disciples of Christ. The season of Advent invites us to reflect on our behavior with respect to those who are little and poor, like the child in the manger, and to reflect on the meaning of the Incarnation whereby we are called to love the world, creation, humanity, ecology ... The season of Lent is more favorable for the deepening of faith as a struggle to bring about solidarity with those who suffer.

On the road to Easter, Lent is a time for conversion, to act with justice and to share what we have with those in need. Maybe it is the time when each community should take stock of its mutual injustices and the inequalities that exist among its members, and to commit itself to change things for the better. It can also be the time to become aware of the distance (or of our indifference) we have put between ourselves and those who suffer and to seek out new ways to be close to others and to truly welcome them.

The Christian tradition invites us to support these actions by praying, fasting and almsgiving. These practices can be rediscovered and inculturated... We might want to read Isaiah 58:6 together: "Is this not the sort of fast that pleases me -- it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks -- to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and beak every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry, and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe the one you see to be naked and not turn from your own kin?"

The human dimension of celebration, already experienced in the liturgy can especially be felt in times of festivities, in times of conviviality. This dimension is very important to bring team members together, to get to know what is happening, to help set aside negative impressions... but also to symbolize the happiness that is possible when one commits oneself to bring about justice and peace. To be happy with others is a very powerful way of sensitizing people to Justice and Peace and of witnessing the power of the Gospel.

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At the end of these five Workbooks

Here we are concluding with the last Workbook of this series on Justice and Peace. We hope that what we have published might have helped you in your work and in your reflection on this fundamental dimension of Dominican religious life.

Within the various chapters of these five workbooks, we invited you to react and to send us documents of your own making. Be kind to us... send all of your writings to one of the members of the International Commission of Justice and Peace so that we can have the whole Dominican Family benefit from them. We will thus be able to be more and more faithful to the charism of our Order: compassion.

We have tried to gather together a great number of experiences of our sisters and brothers but we were not able to include everything (there are no summarized files) and we have surely forgotten to mention achievements of great value. Forgive us the things we might have forgotten... and point them out to us. We will try to send out the maximum amount of information through the network of Justice and Peace Promoters.

Dominican life is an attempt to follow Christ. We are invited to follow Jesus as he meets with the victims and those who are broken by life, as we follow him in the desert, as he preaches, as he goes to visit his friends, as he hangs on the cross and to run toward the empty tomb before going to Galilee where he awaits us. Justice and Peace is one of the ways to be part of this journey.

Our Order insists on the following of Jesus which allows us to bring the Good News to all those who are worn out by life, to all those who are excluded from happiness: " The Lord Yahweh has given me a disciple's tongue. So that I may know how to reply to the wearied, he provides me with speech. " (Is 50:4-5)

Having chosen, through our religious profession to live in community, we feel that our individual witnessing is insufficient. Together, we will radiate the charity of Christ, by witnessing our solidarity with all those who suffer. We have an enormous amount of work ahead of us to do both in the Order and in the world.

May the Virgin Mary and Saint Dominic help us.

" As Christians, we will live this solidarity between ourselves as a solidarity in Christ, a solidarity with the cause of Christ as if it were the cause of God's justice, which is the cause of the poor. It is precisely in recognizing the cause of the poor as God's cause that we can cross through the crisis of disillusionment and deception in regard to the poor. This is a very noble ideal and it would be an illusion to believe that we could reach it without a long personal struggle that will see us through the different phases, living through crises, dark nights, difficulties and challenges. The important thing is to recognize that we are part of a process. We will always have to continue our journey. We must always remain open to new developments. There are no short-cuts. Moreover, we are not the only ones to pass this way. Some will precede us and we may have difficulty in understanding them. Others will only be beginning to progress toward maturity in this field. We must appreciate their progress, their need to fight more and to grow spiritually. There is no room here for accusations and recriminations. What we all need is encouragement, help and mutual understanding in the way the Spirit works in us and through us." (Albert NOLAN, Service of the Poor and Spirituality )

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