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FRIARS OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS MASS OF THE JULY 29
Very dear Capitular Fathers,
Dominican Brothers and Sisters here congregated,
Families of the Dominican brothers who will receive their priestly unction today,
Friends of the Order that are sharing this day with us. General Chapter number 285 is taking place these days in Bogotá. Another one was held here in 1965, too, just when the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican had finished. In that occasion, our capitulars looked for adapting the Order to the teachings of the Council that wanted to open up to a world in urgent need of God. Today, 42 years later, our capitular brothers are meeting again in Saint Dominic Priory in Bogotá, at the beginning of this third millennium and when the fifth Latin American Episcopal council in Aparecida has just finished . We are sure that the Holy Spirit is going to illuminate you, dear capitular brothers, to guide you and to shed illumination to the Order for the next three years of service to the Church. As a Dominican Province in Colombia, we feel happy and much honored of having you as our guests and particularly as people in charge of leading our Order around the world with our Lord Jesus Christ Gospel. Our Provincial Father wanted the priestly ordinations of these eight brothers to be carried out within the framework of this General Chapter. Undoubtedly it is an event that fills the whole Church, the Order -especially these young candidates-, their families and the Colombian Dominican Family, with spiritual joy. We should thank the Lord because He is splendid with us and He is our guide in the mission specially entrusted to us. Congratulations to the families of these friars. You, dear families, are privileged. You have received the Lord's blessings in your children who are being offered to the Lord today and consecrated to the service of the Church. How nice it is that the families renew more and more every day in our Lord and the Virgin Mary’s love, celebrating and participating of the Sunday Sacrament, praying the Rosary in order to be able to live in God’s love! We should thank these families that give encouragement to all of us: Dominican friars, contemplative religious sisters, sisters who work in the apostolic life, Dominican lay people, to strengthen the work with families. They are the nest of life and faith; it is where the vocation seeds for a Christian life, for the priesthood and for the Dominican life, are picked up. A generous work with families has been carried out, applied with the security that by means of their evangelization, we will have children, young and adult people, mature, able to answer the Lord's call for the world evangelization. Today, when we ordain eight new presbyters to the service of the Church, I would like to share with you, sisters and brothers, the message of the Lord in the Gospel that we have just listened. Jesus has pronounced Isaiah’s words 'The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord’ Jesus said that prophecy was completed in him. We know that Jesus Christ, anointed by the Spirit, always lived his mission on behalf of the poor, to the service of them, giving them all, specially his own life. In this gospel, we find the ideal and the pattern for Christian men who want to live as visionary pupils of Jesus Christ. We, who belong to the Dominican Family, particularly know that, in the XIII century, Saint Dominic of Guzmán also took Isaiah’s words and made them life in his existence. Saint Dominic was the great prophet of the XII century that fundamentally committed with Lord in the experience of the Gospel. Dominic of Guzmán as a prophet, understood that being a prophet means to be a man of God. To be a close friend of Him, the friend of the Lord that can discern the events of life and is able to take the Gospel to the world. When Dominic founded the Order, he wanted for his friars, nuns, nuns of active life and lay people to live the prophetic vision. We are all prophets and we have to make the Lord grow. Along the history of our Order, our brothers and sisters have lived the Dominican prophetism intensely. Let us remember recently discovered America, the missionary action of Antonio of Montesino and his partners; Brother Bartolomé de Las Casas’; brother Luis Bertrán’s who took the mission in the Colombian Caribbean Coast. Being aware of their prophetism, they lived their Dominican life intensely in the contemplation of the mystery of God, in fervent prayer, in generous devotion and, in a special way, in service to the poor. Also in the work for the liberation of those who felt oppressed. How beautiful the history of Dominican brothers and sisters in Latin America! Not to rest in our laurels of the past but today, in this third millennium, let us assume again, with happiness, the Dominican prophetism. Certainly our prophetism will bring consequences that will be occasionally difficult for ourselves: all types of percussions. But, how good to know that, with the effort of all of us, we can make Dominic of Guzmán today be present in the experience of intimate love to Jesus Christ and, naturally, to apostolic work! Today we have the temptation of the secularism. The secularism also penetrates our Dominican life and it is necessary that the future Dominican generations return to Saint Dominic charisma and discover that only the personal union with Jesus Christ is the source of the apostolic fecundity in this world with urgent need of Jesus. That’s why analyzing Saint Domingo's life, we should discover his natural view of the mystery of God. It was then, when contemplating, he could intercede for the men of his time ‘What would be the sinners’ fate? My Lord, mercy. What would be the sinners’ fate? It is in prayer when he meditated about what he should do to be able to accomplish his apostolic work and to motivate his friars so that they completed the mission the Lord had entrusted them. Mercy requires to be accompanied by a big effort from all of us so that we can consolidate human coexistence where those that dominate others can understand Jesus' demand in the Gospel, giving opportunity to all. Let us understand, brothers and sisters that the evangelization process always implies the integral human condition and, particularly, authentic liberation as the only way for a new social order prompted by the grace of our Lord. We are called to be on the side of the poor, accompanying them in their needs and helping them to do well. Our job as evangelists should always have political incidence in those sceneries where social changes are being negotiated. That is our commitment today. Celebrating this ordinations day , we renew all our commitments in the Dominican Order to continue being prophets in the Dominican way and to work hard to change this world of injustice into a world where there is equity for all, where there is fraternity and where we get peace but with social justice. We place ourselves into the hands of the Our Lady of the Rosary, our father Saint Dominic, Saint Luis Bertrán, so that all of us, heirs of Saint Dominic will be today, and always, prophets in this third millennium. Amen |
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Capítulo General 2007 - ORDEN DE PREDICADORES |
