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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.
Saturday, March 30, 2024 Mark 16:1-7
And so it is that women were the first to witness that Jesus was raised. Women who had followed Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem. Women who stood by him at the foot of the cross through his passion and death. Women who waited for his body to be taken down to see where he was laid. Women who rose early the next morning and set out when the sun had risen to anoint his body.
The scandal of Jesus’ death by the shame and disgrace of crucifixion is matched by the scandal of women being commissioned to testify to his resurrection.
The young man in the tomb, dressed in a white robe, said to the women, “Go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee, there you will see him, just as he told you.”
The words “just as he told you” suggest that Mary Magdalene, Mary, and Salome were also at the Mount of Olives with Jesus and his disciples two days earlier. It was then, right after the Last Supper, that Jesus told his disciples, “After I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”
They were there, along with the disciples, being told those words. Don’t you think it’s likely that, right before this, they were also there at the Last Supper? Can you imagine any meal served in those days without women?
As our Church prepares for the second session of the Synod Assembly this fall, a key question pressing from around the world concerns the role of women in our Church. As we gather in conversation circles and submit our thoughts and input on this synodal journey, we can say that from Mary’s “yes” to being our Theotokos to Mary Magdalene’s being commissioned as the Apostle to the Apostles, women have been central to the Divine plan of incarnate Love.
A very large stone was rolled away from the tomb, making it possible for the women to enter and be commissioned to share the astonishing resurrection news. Perhaps on this synodal journey a very large stone will be rolled away from our beloved Church doors, making it possible for all the People of God to enter, fully functioning, as a discipleship of equals.1
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1 I’m grateful to Thea Bowman, FSPA, for her understanding of what it means to enter the Church as a “fully functioning” Black Catholic woman, and to Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza for her feminist theology of liberation, Discipleship of Equals.
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