Lay Dominicans

We are a group of young adults who intend to be formed in the faith and/or discern in our lives the Dominican charism. We have been discerning whether the Holy Spirit is calling us to form a chapter of Lay Dominicans for almost two years now. We are pleased to announce that we are now officially a Lay Dominican Fraternity as of 3rd August 2008. The fraternity, comprising of 2 men and 5 women,  made their simple profession to the Dominican Order for the next 3 years. Since then, 3 novitiates have joined the fraternity. All glory to God!

 Who are the Lay Dominicans?>> >

 

Where and when do we meet?

We meet on the first and third Sundays of every month from 7 to 10 pm.

Venue:

St. Francisco de Capillas’ House

51 Kensington Park Road

Singapore 557285

Phone: 6282 8627

Come Join Us!

Updates 

At our next meeting on 6 Dec 2009… 

Jon will speak about one of the Signs Of The Times: Problems in modern moral thinking.

Sr. Karen will lead our Scripture study of 1 Corinthians 13-14: Love and Charisms.

Come join us!.

-15 November 2009

We did not have our regular bible study or the Summa Theologica because Fr Timothy Radcliffe came to visit. We had a good time of Q & A , followed by supper.

Q&A with Fr Timothy Radcliffe

Makan Time

-7 Nov 2009

We had our day of recollection at the Holy Spirit Church. The theme was on the 2nd coming of Christ. We had a good time of learning and reflecting.

Day of Recollection_07112009

-18 Oct 2009

Fr. David treated us to another section of the Summa, and Anna facilitated our discussion of an essay by Fr. Herbert McCabe OP, “On Obedience”.

The chapter is taken from his book “God Matters”.

-3 October 2009

Francis continued with  the next chapter of St. Catherine’s “Dialogue” and Estella facilitated our Scripture study of 1 Cor 11-12 on Women, Charisms and the Eucharist. We had an lively discussion mostly on the women of today- wearing veils and submitting to husbands.  

Come join us!

-20 September 2009

Estella presented on Priesthood and Jonathan talked about Liturgical prayers.

-6 September 2009

Francis will continue with where we left off from St. Catherine’s “Dialogue”, and Michael will facilitate bible sharing on 1 Corinthians, ch. 8-10: Food for the idols.

-23 August 2009

In our 1st session,  Francis did the “Introduction to the Dominican charism” In the 2nd session,  Fr. David continued with the Summa Theologica by St Thomas Aquinas.

 -Lay Spiritual Project

Thanks be to God for His Grace is sufficient for us! We appreciate all your prayers and participation for our Lay Spiritual Project 2009. 

 

FOUR FRIDAYS, ONE LIVING FAITH

Does juggling your responsibilities as Catholic, spouse, worker, parent and son or daughter stress you out? Do you often feel that you have to be at two or three places at the same time, or that you need multiple personalities to properly fulfill all the different roles you have?

Join Fr David Garcia OP and the Lay Dominicans for four sessions on the spirituality of the laity to find out how Jesus Christ, through his Church, invites us to a faith that helps our life in all its dimensions, and equips us with the gifts and graces we need to do all things well.

24 July : Is the split between faith and life real ?
31 July: Overcoming the split through integration
7 August: How God works for us, the skills to become human and the divine skills to be Church
14 August: How we work for God in the world and build the Church.

Event Date : Fri Jul 24, 31, Aug 7, 14, 7.30-9.30pm
Location : CANA, 55 Waterloo Street
Organised By : The Lay Dominicans
Contact : 9363-4668 (Anna)
Contact Email : LayDominicans@gmail.com
Website : http://dominicansingapore.wordpress.com/lay-dominicans/

 

 

 

-18 July 2009…

Estella went through  the lay spirituality project dry run for her part. The group managed to iron out some last minute details which needed our attention.

-5 July 2009…

We continued with our dry run for the Lay Spirituality Project. Francis presented on the Sacraments and Lydia on Charisms.  At supper, we had the most delicious prawn noodles brought by Christina and the best durians in town from Hsien Li’s garden.

-21 June 2009

Anna and Lydia kicked off the dry run for the The lay dominican Project- Four Fridays, One Living Faith. We had a nice birthday celebration for Lydia and Richard.

- 7 June 2009

Francis will present on the Dialogue of St Catherine of Siena, and Anna will facilitate our third session on 1 Corinthians: 6, 7 on Civil courts and sexual immorality.  Please bring your bibles.

-17 May 2009

1st session:  part 2 of our discussion of Fr Paul Murray’s piece on contemplation, Searching for God,

2nd session: Fr David’s presentation of the Summa.

 -1- 3 May 2009

The Lay Dominican retreat at Montfort Retreat Centre was a blast! Fr David’s talks on Virtues were well presented and thought provoking. All of us benefited from the silence and the time of reflection. We bonded as a group and left the retreat centre encouraged and with a better understanding of virtues.

 

-19 April 2009

Fr David continued with his presentation on St Thomas’  Summa.

-5 April 2009

We will meet this Sunday at 7pm.  After Vespers, we will pray the Way of the Cross, with meditations and prayers written in 2005 by Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict. The link is below. Lydia will provide printouts on Sunday  http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/documents/index_via-crucis_en.html

For our second session, Priscilla will facilitate a discussion on 1 Corinthians 3-5: The Christian Preacher, guidance in the Church, and a problem of incest.

-15 Mar 2009

Fr David continued with his presentation on Dignitas Personae and a second presentation on St Thomas’ Summa.

-1 Mar 2009

We met on Sunday for our first meeting in Lent.  Francis prepared a Lent reflection for our first session. We used St Catherine de’ Ricci’s (she was a Third Order Dominican) Verses of the Passion of Christ:  http://www.saintmichaelarchangel.com/StCathRicci.htm 

The 2nd session was on Scripture and Peter facilitated a discussion on 1st Corinthians, chapters 1- 2 with an overview.

-15 Feb 2009

Our meeting began with vespers as usual at 7pm, followed by Fr David’s presentation on Dignitas Personae and a second presentation on St Thomas’ Summa.

 - 1 Feb 2009

Franncis presented the Dialogue of St Catherine while Lydia concluded our study on the book of Acts.

-18 Jan 2009

1st session:

Francis presented the eighth session from the Dialogue of St Catherine

2nd session:

Karen facilitated our Scripture session on Acts 21-24: Journey to Jerusalem and imprisonment. The group had lively discussion regarding the conscience.

At supper we celebrated the birthdays of 3 of our fraternity members. Food and fellowship was excellent.

-15 Jan 2009

The Dominican friary in Singapore was named after St. Francisco Fernandez de Capillas who was proclaimed Protomartyr (First Martyr) of China on 16 September 1748 by Pope Benedict XIV. We celebrated the feast of the Friary and of our Lay Fraternity with Vespers at 7pm on Thursday, 15 Jan 09, followed by dinner.  

-4 Jan 2009…

1st session

Fr David presented on Dignitas Personae (Part I). Dignitas Personae is the latest instruction on certain bioethical questions by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

2nd session

Fr David will also present the last session from part 1 of the Summa on angels.

Both sessions were heavy but very thought provoking indeed. 

-21 Dec

Vy kindly opened his house for Movie Nite cum Christmas party at 7pm. We began with Vespers (Advent version) then ate dinner while we watched the movie. We had some good exchange of comments and discussion after the movie. The evening ended with gift exchange and Compline. We all had a great time.  

-8 Dec

 Our Day of Recollection

Date: 8 Dec 2008.

Time: 9am – 6pm.

Venue: Church of the Holy Spirit.

Theme: Lay Spirituality.

All praise and glory be to God!

The lay Dominicans had our day of recollection which began with Lauds and mass, followed by 2 excellent talks by Fr David on lay spirituality-The split between life and faith. After lunch, we had 2 hours of meditation, followed by a time of sharing by the fraternity members. Each member was given 10 minutes each to share about our lives in relation to our faith. The sharing was candid yet sincere and we got to know each other  better. Our day of recollection ended with vespers. Feedback from the members who attended were very good. All were edified and had many good things to say about our day of recollection.

Previously at our Lay Dominican meeting:

-16 Nov 2008

1st Session :

Vy presented on the Signs of the Times – the Credit Crisis. He gave us the background of the financial system to help us understand how the crisis came about. The challenge was then for Catholics and in particular, our lay dominican group to have the courage to hold on God’s values and stand firm in such trying times.   

2nd Session :

Fr David continued with the Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas. He dealt with the topic on creation.

-2 Nov 2008

1st session:

Lydia presented on Tears, from the The Dialogue by St Catherine of Siena.

According to The Dialogue, St Catherine begged God for the knowledge of the reasons and fruits of tears, and God opened the eye of her intellect and showed her 5 kinds of tears.

1. Imperfect tears caused by fear
2. Tears of damnation-tears of wicked men
3. Tears of repentance
4. Tears of those who have arrived at the perfect love of their neighbour, loving God without any regard whatsoever for themselves.
5. Tears,which are linked to the 4th, are tears of sweetness, let fall with great peace.

Also mentioned were the Tears of fire, and the differences of these tears. For further reading, please read the ”The Dialogue” on the segment of tears, page 72.

2nd session:

Estella facilitated a very lively discussion on the our study of Acts of the Apostles, chapters 15 – 20. The style Estella chose was thematic and the theme on missions was the highlight. The main portions of scripture for discussion were on Chapter 17:16- 34 (on the approach that St Paul used when presenting the resurrection of Christ to the Areopagus, the tribunal at Athens) and on Chapter 20:18-35 (St Paul’s parting words to the elders of the church from Ephesus).

At the end of the session, we were all encouraged to imitate St Paul and do all we can, within our circumstances and a clear conscience, to bring Christ to others.   

Have a blessed week ahead.

-19 Oct 2008

1st session:

Lydia facilitated on Anthony Fisher’s “Be Good At What You Are” – St Catherine of Siena’s Theology of the Laity. What an interesting and lively discussion we had, with the focus on cultivating virtues and lay spirituality. It was aptly pointed out that we are to ‘be good at what we ARE’, not just be good at what we do. Therein lies the difference between just striving for excellence and success in life and seeking to cultivate virtues so that we are equipped to be good at what we are. According to St Catherine, cultivating virtues is “directed very personally to weaknesses and strengths of character of each individual.” More than this, virtues are for St Catherine, attributes of vocation. St Catherine’s theology of the laity is a spirituality for the workplace. We are called to be good not just in our personalities but in our particular roles. To a soldier, be a brave one. To a judge, be a just and merciful judge. To a merchant, be honest. 

For those interested to know more, do read further the following link.

stcatherinestheologyofthelaity 

2nd Session:

Fr David continued with The Summa Theologica by St Thomas Aquinas. Last night was on Angels. The session was very enlightening and we had many more questions after that!

Just a note:

We had our fraternity meeting before our Friends of St Dominic joined us at vespers. Our prior shared a quote from Ven. John Henry Newman – perspective for lay spirituality. I thought it appropriate for us to mull over it as we start off a brand new week.

“God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission — I may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments. Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me — still He knows what He is about.”

Have a blessed week ahead.