Constitution

Cloister is to be observed in our convents so that our brothers may be better able to devote themselves to contemplation and study, that more intimate family life may be achieved and the faithfulness and characteristics of our religious life may be revealed.

All those things that go to make up Dominican life and order it through common discipline belong to regular observance. Chief among these are the common life, the celebration of the liturgy and private prayer,1 keeping the vows, the assiduous study of truth, and apostolic ministry. Cloister, silence, the habit and penitential exercises help us to carry out these effectively.

Regular observance, drawn from tradition by Saint Dominic, or instituted by him, regulates our way of life, supporting us in our efforts to follow Christ faithfully while enabling our apostolic life to be more effective. In order, therefore, to remain true to our vocation, we ought to cherish and wholeheartedly embrace regular observance, and live it out in practice.

Our convents should be simple and suited to their purpose, avoiding any kind of ostentation or unnecessary extras. They should be planned in such a way as not to offend either people or local customs.

Since ‘everyone ought to be involved at some time in the necessities of daily living,’2 religious poverty demands that all the brothers should be aware of their responsibility for the economic life of the convent. (see nn. 576-577).

Superiors and bursars should be careful to provide from the common purse for the genuine and reasonable needs of the brothers so that private life may be completely excluded.

Since so many people are compelled by poverty to work hard for a modest living, our brothers must give an effective collective witness by publicly working hard in the apostolate, by living frugally on what is often an uncertain income and by sharing it gladly with the more indigent.

1. In our profession, therefore, we promise God to own nothing by right of personal ownership but to hold all things in common and to use them under the direction of superiors for the common good of the Order and of the Church.
2. It follows that none of the brothers can retain as his own any goods, whether money or income from any source whatsoever, but must hand over everything to the community.
3. Neither should an accumulation of common goods be allowed to build up in the community. It would not serve the purpose of the Order nor its ministry since it would be contrary to that poverty which all individually and as members of the community have professed.

1.  Keeping in mind the words of the Lord who said, ‘Go sell what you have and give to the poor, and come, follow me,’3 we have decided to be poor both in fact and in spirit, so that while we endeavour to free people from domination by wealth and to direct them towards the things of the spirit, we ourselves may also conquer greed, imitating Christ, ‘who for our sake became poor, that by his poverty we might become rich.’412 Cor 8:9
2. This spirit of poverty urges us to put our treasure in the kingdom of God’s justice, with a lively trust in the Lord. That spirit offers release from servitude and indeed from solicitude about earthly matters, enabling us to move closer to God, to be more readily available to him, freer to speak about him fearlessly. It is being frugal with ourselves which draws us closer to the poor we are sent to evangelise. It is being generous towards our brothers and neighbours as we freely use our resources, especially for the needs of study and the ministry of salvation for the sake of the kingdom of God: ‘…enduring love will govern all matters pertaining to the fleeting necessities of life.5The Rule of St Augustine, 5

Saint Dominic and his brothers imitated the apostles who, without gold, silver or money, proclaimed the kingdom of God. Conscious of the demands of the apostolate of their time, they decided not to have any possessions, neither income nor money, but to beg their daily bread while preaching the
gospel. This was the apostolic poverty at the beginning of the Order, the spirit of which should animate us, in forms adapted to different times and places.