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The OP after our names stands for “Order of Preachers,” the formal name of the religious order founded in 1216 by St. Dominic. As Dominicans, we preach with our lives—in both word and deed—guided by a search for truth (veritas) and a commitment to contemplate and share the fruits of our contemplation (contemplate et aliis tradere).
Our Dominican lives are shaped by the interconnecting movements of study, prayer, communal life, and ministry.
Dominic so firmly believed in the importance of study to the preaching mission that he provided a rule of “dispensation” from other responsibilities in the event they interfered with study. We are women committed to study. Through prayer and contemplation we interiorize our learnings and enter into communion with the Source of all truth. Our communal life orients us to the common good of the whole Earth community. And in ministry, our preaching takes effect.
As women of the Gospel, our preaching is also expressed in word. Read reflections on the Word of God posted by Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates on the Praedicare Blog below.
Water’s Lament By Sister Pat Benson, OP
Oh God, Creator of the Universe, You who energized the flowing forth of all that we know, Giver of the waters of life, hear the silent cry of your water through this voice.
Thank you for the process of evolution that emerged water on Earth. Thank you for the emergence of life in the waters and its crawling onto land. Thank you for emerging human consciousness and creativity. Thank you for millennia of mutually enhancing relationship with the rest of creation, our sister and brother creatures.
Now, we, your people, use our intelligence creatively but often blindly. We cause all bodies of water to cry out in anguish. We deprive people and animals of clean life-giving water. Because of our disconnected lifestyle we are complicit in this agony.
Aquifers, underground seas of pure water, once deep and full, now suffering from human plunder, become shallow. Their empty voices cry out due to our technological expertise.
Rivers and the tumbling streams that feed them, flowing clean and sparkling clear for eons, carving incredibly deep gorges or meandering in meadows, bring hydration to all creatures living near. Rivers now drained for human use along the way, raise their dry voice before they reach the sea.
Lakes, expanses of water shimmering in the sun, Frozen in the cold, sooth the spirit in a gaze. Watching civilization grow cities on their shores, and providing millions with water, lakes now raise their crusty voices polluted with chemicals, drugs, and waste debris.
Lakes, our agricultural endeavors drinking their water for growth, pay the price of our unthinking practices as excess fertilizer and pathogens flow back. Their bountiful capacity overdrawn for our wants, lakes speak with cracked voices from their dry beds, a fraction of their former selves.
Glaciers, shimmering sheer cliffs of blue-white ice, frozen for centuries, (with ice caps, 98% of Earth’s fresh water) now victims of anthropogenic global warming, calve or melt. Their voices roar as they crack and fall, or slip silently into oblivion.
Seas, salty water encircling the globe, house abundant ecosystems of life. Seas suffer as human beings deplete them of their bounty, Employ practices that harm their inhabitants, And pollute their waters with waste. Their rolling cry brushes all shores.
Creator God, help us! Help your human children emerge into new awareness of our responsibility for our “home”. Foster in us the “reverence for all” that Jesus modeled. Help us to raise our voices to protect our waters, and all who depend on them, especially those who are poor, for their own sake and for future generations.
God, Self-giving Love, Holy Mystery, You are the Source of all that is. Your creative Spirit is ever-present with us, desiring to lead and guide us. Help us open our hearts and minds to your invitations always trusting that You will show us the way.
word.op.org - International Dominican Preaching Page
Catholic Women Preach - Featuring deep spirituality and insights from women
Preach With Your Life - Video series by Adrian Dominican Sisters