REFLECTIONS
Vita Apostolica
The first chapter of the Constitutions carry this title in Latin, which translates as
“the life of the apostles”. We Dominican Sisters of St Catherine are women who
continue in the world the life of the Twelve who follow Jesus. Christ is the centre.
Study as a means of discovering how to be present to our brothers and sisters.
Witness and mission.
Sr. M. Elvira Bonacorsi
(original text in Italian)
T
he Constitutions of our
Congregation begin with
the Fundamental Constitution,
conceived as a sort of introduction to the whole text, as a summary of the chapters and
themes which will be dealt with
later.
Having gone through this part,
we meet what is actually the first
chapter of the Constitutions,
and has the title: “Vita apostolica”, the same definition
which appears alongside no. 7
in the Fundamental Constitution
and comprises the contents of
the first chapter.
It is important to be aware that
this title is made up of two Latin
words, (not Italian, as some have
thought); two Latin words which
the General Chapter wished to
retain in all four of the official
languages of the Congregation.
They should not be translated,
therefore, because they would
Patient and constant study of the Scriptures moulds our hearts to become disciples
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lose the deep significance which
they have in Latin. These two
Latin words mean, the life of the
apostles, not the apostolic life,
as some are still thinking or
saying.
This clarification is absolutely
necessary, because in the text of
the Constitutions these two
words indicate all aspects of our
life. If we do not all give these
two words their true meaning,
“the life of the apostles”, misunderstandings occur, because we
are using same expression for
two different realities. This clarification is, moreover, fundamental to a better understanding that the first chapter of
the Constitutions defines the
identity of the Dominican Sisters
of St Catherine of Siena, whose
very call is to live like the apostles.
Who are we, then, the Dominican Sisters of St Catherine
of Siena? We are women who, in
today’s world, through the grace
of the charism, continue the life
of the apostles, the life of those
twelve men who were the first to
follow Jesus of Nazareth.
St Dominic, when he accepted
Moments of fraternal life and study
the grace of the charism from
the Holy Spirit, also received the
inspiration to take a model: we
can say that Dominic wanted the
communities of his brothers and
sisters to be like the first community. But this is not the first
Christian community, it is the
original community; that of the
twelve
apostles
gathered
around Jesus: “He appointed
twelve; they were to be his companions and to be sent out to
proclaim the message” (Mk
3:14).
Mother Gérine, already a Dominican because she was a
member of the Dominican Third
Order Secular when she received the grace of the Congregation’s charism, reconfirmed
this initial inspiration which St
Dominic had for the whole
Order. In fact, we came into
being as “Sisters of the Third
Order of St Dominic” and only
later were we called Dominican
Sisters of St Catherine of Siena.
So our father, St Dominic, and
our mother, Mother Gérine,
wanted us to have this identity:
that of women who continue
today the community of the
apostles gathered around Jesus
and sent out by him to preach
the Gospel.
The twelve were called by Jesus
to follow him, accepted his invitation, left everything and went
with him. Slowly they formed a
group with him at its centre, a
community which had fraternal
relationships, a community
which let itself be loved by
Jesus, which listened to and
loved Jesus both as a community and as individual persons, a
group which let itself be taught
by Jesus, which learned to live
and act according to his principles, a group which was sent to
proclaim the good news.
If we look carefully at this brief
summing up of the life of the
apostles, we find our own lives;
we too, like the twelve, are
called to follow the Lord. We did
this by leaving our families, our
work and perhaps the dreams
we had, in order to embrace
others. Coming from different
places and backgrounds, like
the twelve we find ourselves together with Jesus at the centre,
because it is he who has called
each one of us: and in going to
him we have found ourselves
neighbours, and together we
have learned to love each other
and to build our community by
our common search and the
choices we make together. And
this is how we began to live our
fraternal life in community.
With the Lord Jesus present
among us, we have learned, like
the twelve, to build up an ever
deeper relationship with him,
discovering ever more each day
his love for us, and seeking to
respond to this love. Above all,
we have learned to meet him
and listen to him, letting his
Word penetrate us; we have
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- Mission, Fraternal life in community, Study, and Prayer present and deepen these four
ways which woven together constitute the life of the apostles,
which is ours. We are not
speaking here of four observances, but of a way of living,
something that is deeper and
more all-embracing than the observance of prescriptions.
The twelve apostles, from the
day they felt themselves called
by the young Rabbi of Nazareth,
there on the shore of the lake,
learned to live, that is, in an atmosphere of prayer.
Our way of thinking and our
values are not easily or spontaneously oriented towards and
inspired by the teaching of the
Lord Jesus, so, like the twelve,
we let ourselves be taught by
him in Scripture, by a patient,
continual study of his life and
the lives of the brothers and sisters we meet daily. This is how
we live our Dominican study,
which is not aimed at intellectual knowledge but at discovering the way to be present
among our brothers and sisters,
and how to discern what means
we can use to make ourselves
understood by humanity today.
And all this is aimed at proclamation, at what we Dominicans
call “preaching”, at the mission.
We too, like those twelve, are
sent to give testimony to our
brothers and sisters that he
loves us, that he is alive and
walking with us.
The first chapter of the Constitutions is arranged like this;
number 12 begins by introducing the general life of the
apostles. The four sub-headings
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by our mother Gérine.
Let us read and study the Constitutions, going into them more
deeply, listening to them in this
spirit, so that we may enter ever
more into this LIFE, the life of
Jesus, the life of the apostles,
the life of Dominic and his first
brethren, the life of Mother
Gérine and the first sisters... my
life, your life, our life.
Sr. Elvira Bonacorsi (right) and Sr. FrançoisDominique Chacal
lived in this way, letting themselves become ever more involved in mind, heart and will,
and attaching themselves to
him ever more closely. From
then on they would share Jesus’
own way of living, Jesus’ own
life of love and total dedication
to the Father and to humanity.
They let themselves be won
over by him, to the extent that,
like him, they too gave their
lives.
But this is our life too: a life that
is Christian and charismatic, a
life that is willed and passed on
to us by our father Dominic and