Dominican Spirituality & Carmelite Sprituality

[ChristmasKnight]

Suppose you had to give a “nut shell” answer to someone who asked about the differences between Dominican spirituality and Carmelite spirituality. What would your most simplistic response be?

 

[Dempsey1919]

I don’t know about Carmelite spirituality but I can tell you about Dominican spirituality.

The Four Pillars of Dominican life are:

• Prayer
• Study
• Community
• Apostolate

Prayer is one of the most important aspects of the Dominican brand of spirituality, with the Rosary being the most well known of all Dominican prayers. I would say the Rosary is a very important part of Dominican history and spirituality.

Study forms an extremely important part of Dominican life. If you don’t like to study, do not become a Dominican. As the Order of Preachers, Dominicans must be experts theologians, and to that end, they spend a great deal of their time reading works such as the Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas. Learning is perhaps the most prominent aspect of Dominican spirituality.

Obviously community occupies an important role in Dominican life because members of the Order live together and pray together.

Apostolate basically means the ministry or work you do for Christ. The major Dominican ministry is Preaching. They are the Order of Preachers, and spend a great deal of their time teaching and defending the faith.

Dominican spirituality is very scholastic. If you love learning, reading, writing, and defending or teaching the faith then the Dominican life would be perfect for you.

 

[drforjc]

“In a nutshell,” as you say, the charism of the Carmelite Order (both Discalced and Ancient Observance, really) is contemplative prayer.
Carmelite spirituality seeks union with God in prayer. It also prays for the entire Church and priests in particular (see Therese of Lisieux).
Carmel likes to think of itself as the “praying heart” of the Church.

 

[ChristmasKnight]

Two responses…and both very helpful.

(Sorry for the whole “nutshell” thing…I just didn’t want to burden anyone with spending too much time explaining details to a novice).

Thanks for taking the time to give me the info…it is appreciated.