We came from everywhere: 56 of us, from Spain, Toulouse, France, the Provinces of Italy, Germany, England, Poland, Portugal, Ireland, and the Rosary Province. Novices of Europe, yes, but so much more: a gathering of people from around the world who were in Europe for their initial formation. The specifics do not really matter. The point is that we were there together. The Order is international. As our Master, fr. Gerard reminded us: it began as such, it has always been such, and, God willing, it will be forever.
This is perhaps the first fruit I would identify in this encounter. We were all different in every way, diverse in every sense of the word, but above all differences, beyond all the difficulties of language and culture, we shared something: we were Dominicans. There was something that united us, made visible in the habit, the Salve, the Lumen, and countless other things, but it was also so much more. We shared a vocation, a calling to be part of the project of the man who, more than 800 years ago, was born in that very same village. We were all, or at least striving to be, sons of Saint Dominic.
There is a lot to be said about this encounter, but I will try to keep it brief. In those six days, we were asked to do something that we were already doing and, in a sense, will be doing for the rest of our lives: we were invited to get to know Saint Dominic and his Order. And we did this in many ways.
We learned from the lectures of fr. Vivian on elemental themes of Dominican spirituality: mobility, study, and fraternity. Fr. Vivian reminded us to cultivate the virtues necessary for mobility, to be ready to answer the Order’s needs, to be free to go where the mission requires. This mobility is beyond simple physical movement. It is also intellectual and compassionate, a readiness to go out to others for the salvation of souls.
He encouraged us to live lives devoted to study, since study is central to the Order, but never for its own sake, and always for the fruit and benefit of souls. He showed that we are asked to be more than academics, more than great knowers. We are asked to live intellectual lives, wise lives, to internalise and deepen knowledge, not merely gather it, and to “eat the book,” converting our studious efforts into the contemplation whose fruits we can share.
He spoke to us of fraternity, of how it is central to our lives, and how we should always strive to nurture it and remain in constant recalibration, balancing the distinct elements that compose our way of life. Our fraternity is more than just cohabitation. It is essential to our vocation and, in a sense, a sign of our mutual consecration to God in the family of Saint Dominic. And so our fraternity must always be human, because we are human beings; Christian, because we are baptised; Dominican, because we profess under this rule of life. We must strive to live life in the way we agreed and promised God and each other that we would live.
Sor Teresa, from the Monastery of Saint Dominic in Caleruega, explained it beautifully in her talk. We are called to live naturally, reconciled and happy with our own humanity, for it is because we have a name that we can be called. We are called to live in accordance with Truth, devoted to Truth, because love for it beckons us to share it. This way of life is our greatest gift and our greatest responsibility and, in the words our Master invited us to memorise, forma vitae iam est in actu praedicatio.
We learned from each other in the informal talks, in the presentations of the provinces and of the different figures of model — and diverse — Dominican lives, and in the small groups where we were challenged to share our impressions and ideas, building upon each other’s experiences and insights to reach a deeper understanding of what it is to be like Saint Dominic and to be part of his Order.
We learned from the places that speak to us of Saint Dominic: Caleruega, Silos, and Osma. These are all sites whose history is connected to Saint Dominic and, because of him, to us. From them, I could draw two major conclusions.
The first is that Saint Dominic is inseparable from his history, and that the when, where, and how he lived are essential in understanding him and his mission. He was a man of his time, attentive to the needs and problems that surrounded him, moved by the suffering he saw. He is fixed in that time, yet his response to it reaches every age and every place: preach the Word. We are also a fruit of our time and, therefore, are and must be deeply tied to it. However, our mission and purpose remain the same as those of this man from Spain who went around preaching Truth. “The Gospel will never run out of fashion” — of this we can rest easy.
The second conclusion is that these places, for us Dominicans, are important and interesting not because of their physical presence, but because of what they teach us about our founder. The fact that in Osma he began his consecration to God and developed the deep personal relationship with Him and the deep contemplative life which fuelled the rest of his years, and whose fruits he so generously gave, is more important than the stones, wood, or paths that he stepped upon. It is the living example of his life, preserved in his Order, that guides us, more than the memory of his physical presence.
Above all, we learned in prayer: worshipping God, giving thanks for His works in Saint Dominic and his sons, listening to the Word we hope to preach, and celebrating with the brothers and with our sisters, who so generously welcomed us to their chapel for Lauds, Mass, and Vespers. We are thankful to our sisters for their presence, especially during the Mass presided over by the Master of the Order, which reminded us that we have joined, in every sense of the word, a family — one with whom we share a founder and a life: the Dominican life.
— fr. Miguel Lencastre, OP
