Letter from Master of the Order on 'The Dominican Laity and Preaching'.

As part of the lead up to the 800th anniversary of the foundation of the Order in 2016, the Master fr Bruno has written a letter to the Order on the 'Dominican Laity and Preaching'.

It is an extensive letter for all the members of the Order the Master sets out the primary purpose of all Dominicans embodied in the motto 'sent to preach the Gospel'. Fr Bruno notes that while the motto is simple it focuses our attention on what is at the heart of the service that the Church expects of the Order: to proclaim the Gospel.

Here are some helpful quotations from the letter:

"The unity of our Order is in fact given by its evangelising mission: laity, sisters and friars of the Order are members of a single family whose identity is that they were sent to preach the gospel. Or rather, we might say that the 'Dominican' identity is precisely that of a family - of a 'communion' - constituted by this organic bond between evangelisation and the contemplation of that truth that is the living Word that has come into the world, what we try to develop in the three forms of prayer, study and fraternity, each in the specific manner of his/her state in life."

"Among these Lay Dominicans, the members of these Lay Dominican Fraternities clearly have an important place, choosing as they do to commit themselves with a promise to carry out this specific participation in the mission of Christ as members of the Order. They also register their commitment to the living Word not only for the whole of their lives as baptised persons but also within the balance of the whole of their commitments and of their lives which they want to be 'preaching', serving the conversation of God with the world. At the same time, they register for the duration of the life of the Order, the need to preach the Word, always referring this preaching to the constitution of the church of Christ seeking communion and unity. As we know well, today we must reflect on the diversity at the heart of these fraternities, seeking together how we may always best accept, promote and combine this diversity , brought together in a single concrete witness of a lay life that seeks to be preaching."

"It seems to me that lay Dominicans can allow the preaching of the Order to achieve its end more fully in several ways. As in the case of the sisters and friars in the Order, the preaching of lay Dominicans is rooted in the experience of life. This is why the wealth of their specific contribution to the preaching of the Order comes from their experience of family and professional life, their experience of parenthood, their experience of life in the Church, the experience of being young in contemporary society, the particular experience of the baptised person who must testify his/her faith in the midst of a family or a group of friends whom s/he is daily bound by ties of affection but who do not share the same faith and often show no desire to share it....Moreover, they know the difficulty of witnessing the faith in a specific manner: in may places in the contemporary world, the habitual situation of a lay person brings her/him face to face with indifference, scepticism and unbelief, in a very different way from religious, and this must come to enrich the preaching of the Order as a whole. Similarly, through the activities of their professional,  family or political life, lay persons experience how the Christian demands for fraternity and truth, according to which they try to contribute to the transformation of the world, are a form of preaching essentially linked to their state, which comes to be combined with the preaching of the whole 'family of preachers.'"

For the full text of this excellent letter, click on the link:  http://www.op.org/sites/www.op.org/files/public/documents/fichier/cadore-jubilee2014-en.pdf

Master of the Order visits Dominican nuns in Drogheda, Co Louth.

The community of Dominican nuns at Siena monastery in Drogheda with fr Bruno Cadore, fr Dominic Izzo and fr Gerard Dunne (vicar of the master of the Order for the monastery)

The Master of the Dominican Order (fr Bruno Cadore OP) is currently visiting the friars of the Irish Dominican province. This formal visit, called a 'canonical visitation' is an opportunity for the head of the Order to meet with all the communities and friars of the province and to discuss how our lives as friars are being lived at this time. Fr Bruno is accompanied by a socius, or assistant, fr Dominic Izzo OP ( a friar of the Saint Joseph Province in the United States).

The Master of the Order also has responsibility for the Dominican contemplative nuns throughout the world, including the Dominican nuns at the monastery of Saint Catherine of Siena in Drogheda, County Louth. Last Thursday I was privileged to accompany fr Bruno and fr Dominic as they visited the nuns. It was a wonderful meeting with lively discussion and brought home the closeness of the contemplative nuns to the friars of the Order. The friars are heavily dependent on the prayers of the nuns for the preaching mission of the Order. May that close bond of friendship and prayer sustain us.

Master of the Order speaks about Saint Dominic

Thanks to our Dominican brothers of the Saint Joseph province in the United States for sharing this video on their 'Dominicana' blog. Here the Master of the Order, fr Bruno speaks about the grace and charism of the founder of the Order in the lives of Dominicans today.

Master of the Dominican Order on the joy and challenge of new vocations

 Master of the Dominican Order - fr Bruno Cadore OP

The Dominican friars throughout the world will send delegates from the various provinces to a General Chapter in Trogir (Croatia) from July 22nd to August 8th next. It is a General Chapter of diffinitors which will spend three weeks looking at and reviewing the legislation of the Order as well as planning for the future. As part of the preparation for the General Chapter, the Master of the Order, fr Bruno Cadore OP presents to the chapter and each brother in the Order a document outlining the state of the Order at the present moment - Relatio de statu Ordinis.

It is a wide ranging document covering all aspects of Dominican life - particularly the four pillars of Dominican life - prayer, study, community and preaching. In his 'relatio', the Master writes about they joys and challenges associated with new vocations and new members of the Order. It is worth sharing with readers of this blog:

"Initial formation is a major task for the great majority of the provinces and for the Order as a whole. It is really an immense grace that we are receiving new brothers, their generosity, what it is they dream of achieving as Preachers in a world of profound change, the 'worlds' and the 'cultures' which they bring with them to the Order, as well as their calls to witness to the friendship of God with humanity and the announcing of the Gospel. All of this ought to stimulate our apostolic creativity. How are we to open with them ways for this generosity to find its full realisation, without the long but necessary years of initial formation and institutional study stifling the flame? What ought to be the specificity of formation and studies for this? What is the specific service of the Church for which we think the Order has a duty to prepare them? How can we propose to them studies which are not just those that meet the requirements for priestly ministry? How are we to deploy well the promotion of vocations (some provinces really neglect this aspect too much), without forgetting the promotion of the cooperator brother at a time in the Church when there is a call to strengthen the lay ministry of evangelisation? All of these questions occupy the many superiors and masters of formation in the Order but they ought to be carried by the friars as a whole. It is important, for example, that everyone shares a common attachment to the life in which the young are being formed. In certain places, the development of collaborations seems indispensable in order not to exhaust the energies of some brothers."

Letter of Master of the Order on 'Dominican women and evangelisation'.

As part of the ongoing preparation for the eight hundreth anniversary of the foundation of the Dominican Order in 2016, the Master of the Order fr Bruno Cadore has written an excellent letter on 'Dominican women and evangelisation'.

As he states in the letter: "As part of the Dominican family, women - nuns, apostolic sisters, Dominican lay women, and members of secular institutes - make an essential contribution to the evangelising mission of the Order." It is an excellent reflection on preaching and the dedication of Dominicans (men and women) to the centrality of the word of God. It is well worth reading and can be accessed here.

Interview with the Master of the Order - fr Bruno Cadore OP

 Master of the Dominican Order - fr Bruno Cadore OP

Some weeks ago, the Master of the Order fr Bruno Cadore OP gave an extensive radio interview to Radio Veritas. The interview is interesting because fr Bruno gives an insight into his vocation and how he came to be a Dominican and reflects also on the Dominican vocation today. The vocational aspect of the interview is well worth listening to and might resonate with those considering Dominican life at this time. fr Bruno was elected head of the Order just over a year ago at the General Chapter in Rome and will serve a nine year term

Radio Veritas is a Catholic radio station based in South Africa with a significant Dominican influence. You can listen to the interview by clicking the 'play' button in the box below.

Incorporating new vocations into the Dominican Order - a reflection.

Almost a year ago, the Dominican friars held its General chapter in Rome. That chapter elected the new Master of the Order, fr Bruno Cadore OP. Also at that chapter meeting, the outgoing Master, fr Carlos Aspiroz Costa OP gave, as is required, a 'relatio' or an account of his administration over the previous number of years. During these less hectic days of summer, I am reading the section written by fr Carlos on incorporating new vocations into the Dominican order. It is insightful because it highlights the intergenerational differences that can exist within the Order, and at the same time, if these differences are properly understood and resepected, they can be a vital sign of growth. Here is what fr Carlos said:

Today, we are faced with an obvious fact: there is a majot generational change in the Order. The incorporation of new vocations, the foundation of new provinces, the presence of the Order in new countries, our preaching in new cultures raises for us new questions, demanding new responses, new methods and new expressions.

The generation that was contemporary with the Second Vatican Council and who wanted to put it into practice immediately is now faced with having to accept and hear the questions of those who were born or grew up after the Council. The experience of the immediate post-coucil period is totally foreign to them; many of their parents have not even transmitted the faith to them. They cannot count on a vital "oral tradition" concerning the appropriateness of the renewal. These friars, our brothers, are questioning today those who preceded them on the road to Dominican life, just as the previous generation questioned their older brothers. Each generational change offers its own lights and shadows, joys and sorrows, hopes and anxieties. The Order requires the sense of freedom, the missionary zeal, creativity and commitment to mature in the field of justice and peace characteristic of a generation which has given so much to the Church. At the same time, many of our younger friars are expressing the necessity today of a certain visibility, faithfulness to the history and tradition of the Order, and the need for a sense of belonging experienced through a fraternal life in community which celebrates its faith in the liturgy etc. 

If we really believe that every brother who makes profession (in the Order) inserts his life and history into the life and history of the Order, this means that "the brother", in a sense, will never be the same and analogously neither will "the Order" be the same for having taken him under her wing.

Master of the Order visits student house at Saint Saviour's, Dublin

 Our student brothers with the Master of the Order (click on photo to enlarge)

Front row left to right: Darragh McNally OP, Brian Doyle OP, Ronan Connolly OP, Bruno Cadore OP, Denis Murphy OP, Stephen Jones OP, David McGovern OP

Middle row left to right: James Cassidy OP, Eoin Casey OP, Maurice Colgan OP, Colm Mannion OP, Matthew Martinez OP, Conor McDonough OP

Back row left to right: Patrick Desmond OP, Damian Polly OP, Luuk Jansen OP

 The Master of the Order, fr Bruno Cadore OP, is making an informal visit to some of the communities in the Irish Dominican province. His brief itinerary sees him visiting both formation communities of the province in Dublin and Cork, as well as a short visit to the Dominican contemplative nuns in Drogheda. Today, he had an opportunity to meet with the student brothers of the province and the community as well. The picture shows our student brothers pose for a photograph with the fr Bruno today.

Advent Message from Master of the Order

The following message is from fr Bruno Cadore, the newly elected Master of the Order, to all the members of the Dominican Order worldwide, as we enter into the season of Advent:

Dear Sisters, dear brothers,

 

A great many of you in these last few weeks have shown your solidarity for the sisters and brothers of Iraq, who are struggling, together with their fellow citizens, with the recent resurgence of violence that has once more struck the Christian communities of this country. These displays of fraternity that unite us are a strong and precious support for Iraq’s communities. And through them, we also express our solidarity with the whole population of the country that is oppressed by this violence.

 

In these days when we are about to begin our celebration of the season of Advent, it is with a renewed vigour that we should affirm once more our hope in the arrival of Him who comes to dwell among us and so bring Peace. Several months ago, at the time of another of these terrible outbreaks of violence, a young survivor declared that nothing, not even the death that had just occurred, should make us renounce love. In the face of violence, he thus witnessed to the only true strength and dignity of man.

 

To unite us with all those in the world who hold this hope, and in communion with all the oppressed Christian communities today, in particular those of Iraq, I suggest that you make the First Sunday of Advent a time of prayer for peace, in your conventual Churches and your communities. This time could last for the whole of Advent, and give rise to a moment of prayer together with the Dominican Family.

 

May the Lord of Peace fill the world with his justice and give the grace of peace in abundance!

 

Interview with Master of the Order - fr Bruno CADORE

A chance to see the first 'official' interview with the new Master of the Order, fr Bruno Cadore OP.

Scenes from General Chapter - Election of Master of the Order

The scenes in the video include the announcement of the new Master of the Order, along with fr Bruno prostrating himself before the brethren and making the profession of faith. Keep up to date with the General Chapter of the Dominican Order by visiting their website www.curia.op.org/roma2010/

Profile of fr Bruno Cadore OP - Master General

Elected yesterday, our new Master General, fr Bruno Cadoré was born in 1954 in Le Creusot, a town in the Bourgogne region of France, between Lyon and Dijon. After becoming a medical doctor, he entered the novitiate of the Dominican province of France in 1979 and made profession in September 1980. He was ordained priest in Lille exactly six years later and was immediately made master of students. Fr Bruno held several positions of responsibility in the province of France and he was coming to the conclusion of his second term as prior provincial of the same province when he was elected Master of the Order. His area of academic interest is bioethics and he received his doctorate in moral theology in 1992. He was director of the Medical Ethics Centre of the Catholic Institute of Lille before becoming provincial of the province of France.