A special new website has just been published. 'Orar y Pensar' (pray and contemplate) is a kind of a last gesture of Fr Baltasar Hendriks, OP (87), who worked in Latin-America for 45 years, with love and joy. The website consists of prayers and meditations in Spanish.

Fr Baltasar is well known in the Dominican Family in Latin America and the Caribbeans for his efforts at cooperation and good contacts between brothers, contemplative and apostolic sisters and lay-Dominicans. His pastoral attitude and knowledge of the tradition made him an inspirational figure. Although he returned to the Netherlands almost seventeen years ago, Fr Baltasar has been in contact with brothers and sisters over there on a daily basis, via e-mail and letters.

The website Orar y pensar (it’s not a coincidence that the abbreviation is “OP” the same as - Ordo Predicatorum), is a kind of legacy from a missionary to his Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters. The website contains prayers and meditations in Spanish, a language now closer to him than Dutch.

Readers of the Dutch website of the Dominican Family know fr Baltasar mainly from the calendar of Dominican saints which we are running thanks to him. His archives are full of liturgical, educational and inspirational texts, which will be used for the new website.

As a friendly service, Orar y pensar (www.orarypensar.org) is managed by Maria Luisa Valdez, an Argentinian born Dutch woman who met fr Baltasar when she was a contemplative sister in Argentina. Maria left the Order a long time ago and moved to The Netherlands. She works as an information specialist at the Royal Academy of the Sciences. She is married and has a son. Her friendship with fr Baltasar has lasted even after she left the religious life, as well as her relationship with the Order and the Dominican Spirituality.