THE APOSTOLIC LIFE: LOVING THE WORLD
(AGC Bogota 2007)
Call to Renewal
46. In this time of thanksgiving which leads us from 2006 to celebrate in 2016 the eighth centenary
of the confirmation of the Order, the Master of the Order in his “Relatio” to this general chapter
underlined that it was urgent that we should renew ourselves in the full sense of our Dominican
mission. Hearing this call, the chapter invites the brothers to consider the apostolic mission of the
Order from this point of view. With this goal the chapter, basing itself on the richness and diversity
of the preaching of the brothers everywhere in the world, emphasizes four fundamental dimensions
for our mission today.
47. Preachers are first of all people of encounter and dialogue. It is reported (Frachet, Life of the
Brethren, II, 10) that Dominic, when he walked with “German” pilgrims and wished to respond to
their spiritual needs, invited his companions to prepare themselves to speak to them of Christ
saying: “Let us kneel down and pray to understand them, so that we may be able to speak their own
language and thus preach!” Thus the elements of apostolic encounter were pointed out: to meet, to
pray, to listen, to dialogue, to search to understand the needs, and then to preach.
48. Preachers are sent on mission to love the world, following Christ, whose presence they desires
to reveal. From many sides, the world which we see today arouses great concern: conflicts, violence
done to humanity, exclusions, suffering caused by migrations, the insecurity which many
experience, new religious movements preaching exclusivity, the perverse effects of globalization,
the risks of ecological disaster, risks to the human
family stemming from politics of national security. In all of this, the members of the Dominican
Family can attest that it is the poor who are the first victims. At the same time, we are witnesses to,
and sometimes in solidarity with, the immense hope with which many work to make the world of
today and of tomorrow a home for everyone. This is, for example, what the World Social Forum
bears witness to and it is good for members of the Dominican Family to take part in it. We note also
certain positive effects of globalisation, such as the riches which the intercultural reality of our
towns from now on represent, the improvement in the conditions of life produced by science and
technology, the efforts to attain greater equality among men and women, the benefits of progress in
the means of communication. It is this world of contrasts, with its fluctuating changes which affect
us all, that we should love and retain hope for its future.
49. The preacher has the world as cloister. This is why all of us have to take responsibility for the
global mission of the Order. The very rapid change in the world today and the intensity of the
expectations that hope should be sustained constitute a “kairos” for us: in the name of the common
mission of the Order we are invited to dare to respond to the calls which lead us beyond the
frontiers of our communities and Provinces.
50. The preacher is a member of the Dominican Family. Because of this, it is with determination
that we have to develop apostolic collaboration among the brothers, the nuns, the apostolic sisters,
the laity, and other Dominican movements. The complementarity of each will give greater strength
to our witness to hope.
Spiritual Élan for Preaching
57. The Chapter provided the opportunity to become aware that certain Provinces are more fragile
than others and that all the brothers cannot be equally involved in new forms of apostolate called
forth by the new state of the world. Nevertheless we all participate in the same mission; and we
send out a call to everyone to renew together our spiritual and apostolic energy at personal and
community levels.
58. All of us regret that we cannot take on some apostolic commitments, or we acknowledge our
own unwillingness. Nevertheless, the first asset of our apostolic energy remains esteem for the
desire our brothers and sisters have for preaching the Gospel. This energy has, further, every reason
to be strengthened when we know that in the Order one fifth of the brothers are currently in
formation.
59. The return to the witnessing of the first brothers clearly shows that it was a passion for the
salvation of the men and women of their time which opened up for them the meaning of the mercy
and the quality of the compassion of Dominic. Our spiritual tradition also shows how dialogue with
God animated the apostolic vocation of the first generations. This reality of spiritual life, of
contemplation, liturgical celebration and intercession, is the surest reference point allowing us to
dare to invent new modes of meeting and preaching in the world of today.
60. We also have the good fortune of living with brothers. From them we find support and
encouragement when necessary. They are also given to us as people with whom we can talk about
the joys and anxieties of the mission. With them we discover again that, when God sends us to
preach, he calls us with confidence to engage all of our humanity in the apostolic encounter. Thus
community life is, and should more deeply become, the place where our identity as preachers is
rooted in a spirituality of the Incarnation.
Hearing and Meeting the Needs of Hope
64. Stimulated by a spirituality of the Incarnation, concern for the humanity of each person is at the
heart of our way of following and proclaiming Christ. In a world where human beings are often
forgotten, isolated and despised, witnessing to hope often means, first of all, helping people
discover how much they are fundamentally equal and that, on this basis, they have the right to be
different. This also means contributing to the taking down of the walls that are put up between
individuals, groups and social statuses, so that the “gathering” of which the prophet speaks may be
established (cf. Isaiah 60).
65. The Order today is, moreover, witness to the fact that persons and societies suffer from
situations of structural humiliation (for example, human trafficking and forced labour,
marginalization of indigenous peoples, but many others as well). Our tradition encourages us to
support respect for people’s rights, taking the diversity of cultural contexts into account. It is an
invitation for us to make real today links which, in the 16th century, the brothers wanted to establish
between the confrontation with injustice, solidarity with victims,
theological reflection, and the proclamation of the Gospel. This way of proceeding constitutes a
method for our meeting with human realities.
66. For us preachers, to witness to hope is our way of contributing to the building up of a Church
which may truly be a sign of gathering and of communion, a place of dialogue and fraternity. Thus,
as brother Damian Byrne liked to say, our charism reminds the Church of its task of preaching, and
this is for us an invitation to learn our own frailties in this domain.
67. With Dominic, who dreamed of meeting the “Cumans”, we are aware that our mission must
always carry us further. Indeed, a priority of our Order is to meet with those who are far from the
faith, and this concern must stimulate our apostolic creativity and our boldness in explicitly
announcing the Gospel of Jesus
Christ.
68. Many Provinces, for example, have tried out new kinds of preaching through the media and the
new technologies of information and communication. These are, without doubt, means of meeting
different audiences, often far removed from the Church, of promoting new kinds of exchange
between people, and thus of discovering new languages for the preaching of the Gospel. Exchange
of experiences and developing collaboration are surely a creative stimulus for the Order’s
preaching.
Choose to dialogue
78. The preaching of the Order is thus characterized by certain convictions: promotion of freedom,
the search for truth, a willingness to dialogue, trust in intelligence, attention to the humanity of each
person, hope in communion, respect for each person’s quest for truth. We ourselves are searching
for the truth, experiencing uncertainty and sometimes awkwardness in establishing dialogue
between ourselves and with others. We believe, however, that these convictions about preaching
give us the mission to encourage by dialogue a world of hope and compassion, to promote the
values of the Gospel, and to contribute to revealing the presence of God to human beings.
79. Now, today, certain changes which affect cultures and societies risk drawing “fracture lines” (an
expression of brother Pierre Claverie) in the world, in contradiction with the convictions which
animate our preaching. This is why in the renewal of our apostolic life, particular attention must be
paid to the following
realities: migration, inter-religious confrontations, the deviation of certain new religious
movements, certain difficulties of ecumenical dialogue, anxiety of the youth for their future, new
forms of poverty, ecological threats, increasing fundamentalism, attacks on human life. As
preachers we wish, in spite of the gravity of these realities, to promote dialogue in these areas.
Involving Oneself in the Universal Mission of the Order
86. Each Brother by his religious profession is involved in the whole mission of the Order. This is
why this General Chapter has insisted many times, in the name of this mission, on establishing
collaborations between Provinces while respecting subsidiarity, on the necessity for Provinces to
make brothers available for projects other than their own, and on the urgency of opening new
foundations or of consolidating entities which are still weak. These collaborations should be carried
out as far as possible within the Dominican Family, in particular with Dominican Volunteers
International and the International Dominican Youth Movement.
97. Thus the Chapter of Bogota wishes to mark out a path where each brother is invited to
contribute to the vitality of preaching in the world of our time.