Constitution

The convent of formation should have everything required for formation, so that with due care for the demands of training, the candidates will be introduced gradually to the conditions of the real life which eventually they must lead.

The master is to oversee the spiritual life and discipline of those in his charge, as is required by the integral training of those in formation. However, brothers in formation have the freedom to approach other priests for spiritual direction of a more personal kind.

Those in charge of formation should be well chosen and carefully trained. While several can cooperate in the work of formation, there is to be one brother who ensures the harmonisation of the whole of formation.

To benefit fully from our formation, the candidate needs the following: physical health, psychological maturity corresponding to his age, ability to live with others, a sound Christian life, aptitude, the right intention and the free will to give himself to God and the Church in the Dominican way of life.

The purpose of formation is to introduce the beginners gradually to the full life and apostolate proper to the Order as laid down by our laws, and the Ratio Formationis Generalis.

The associations attached to the Order for the renewal of Christian life among the People of God, see to the spiritual welfare of the faithful, and at the same time offer collaboration to the Order in some particular apostolate. (see Appendix n. 4).

1. Lay fraternities of the Order are associations of lay people drawn together by a special gift of God in the apostolic spirit of St Dominic, ‘to seek their own salvation and that of others.’ They do this by professing the evangelical way of life, adapted by the Order to their secular status and duly approved.
2. There are also to be fraternities of priests who endeavour to inform their life and ministry with the spirit of St Dominic.

Members of secular institutes affiliated to the Order profess the evangelical counsels in secular society in accordance with the spirit of St Dominic.

Imbued with the spirit and zeal of St Dominic, the sisters witness to the gospel through word and action. They are closely united with the brothers in building up the People of God.

Saint Dominic intended the nuns of the Order to dedicate themselves wholly, in the contemplative religious life, to that communion with God which nourishes the apostolic life of the brothers and of the other branches of the Dominican family, the nuns providing a witness of prayer, silence and penance.