T
TrueLight
Guest
Can you post a link to that article?This topic is coming up quite often around here. It confirms my belief that that many of the faithful are starving for an authentic approach to Christian spirituality and a way of ordering one’s life to God.
I started off looking for 2 things. Continued formation and a way to increase my understanding and practice of spirituality within the Catholic Church. I originally looked at Opus Dei but eventually moved away from that.
From there, I found out about lay orders and started digging. There were two groups that attracted me: The Society of Jesus and the Order of Preachers. Both have a strong intellectual tradition which interests me and I identify with the mission of both groups. As it turns out, the Jesuits do not have lay orders but they do have a group called the Ignatian Associates which function in many of the same ways. The Dominicans on the other hand, do have lay orders. From there, I looked continuously into both options and while I did waffle a bit, I kept coming back to the O.P. Following this, I found that I was moving to a new location and as it so happened, there was a Dominican Laity chapter in town.
Since prayer and contemplation was already mentioned, I would suggest to the Original Poster to study each group you are looking into and learn whatever you can about their Charism and approach to Spirituality. That may include buying books, reading articles, going to retreats put on by the orders,etc. For me, I started doing a great deal of study. I read dozens of articles, watched videos, and asked questions of anyone who would listen long enough. I made phone calls, sent e-mails, and made a general nuisance of myself until I had enough information to go forward with the beginning stages.
One thing I found interesting is that many orders started off right away with multiple parts of their family. For example, according to an article on the Dominican Laity by fr. Philbert, OP, although the Nuns were first, the OP has had three branches of the family since the early years: Friars (Religous Priests and Brothers); Sisters (Cloistered Monastic Sisters and Active Apostolic Sisters); and Laity (Lay Sisters and Lay Brothers) who are to “live within their families, neighborhoods, workplaces, and communities as a kind of leaven in the dough of society”. In addition, it is my understanding that at this time, the family is considered to have four branches with the previously named Monastic Sisters now being referred to as Contemplative Nuns and being viewed as a distinct branch from the Apostolic Sisters while of course remaining equal in dignity.
Now that I am in the very early stages of formation as a Dominican lay brother I am stocking up my library on books related to the OP. I already have enough books to last me two years of nonstop reading in addition to my study materials I am getting through the Province and my Chapter.
As an FYI, here is an example of the types of articles I was finding online. There are a surprising amount of stuff out there. I have posted a couple of these in a previous thread. but since they might be of interest to the OP, I will add them here as well.
Peace,
***** = take everything I say with a strong dose of doing your own research. It is entirely possible that I am full of rubbish!
