Collaborative Dominican
Novitiate
The Collaborative Dominican Novitiate (CDN) was established
in 1988 by 15 Dominican Congregations. We now embrace
22 Congregations.
Our purpose is to create a canonical Dominican novitiate
experience for women to promote the Dominican charism
and help shape the future of life in the Dominican family.
We live each day anchored by the four pillars of Dominican
life: Prayer, Community, Study and Ministry.
Prayer: Our prayers are personal and
communal; we join in the one voice of the Body of Christ,
and pray as individuals each with her own truth. Our prayer
lives are enhanced weekly with a day of silent reflection,
either guided by the directors or left open for each of
the novices to explore her own spiritual self and for
discernment. We begin our reflection days with Morning
Prayer and Mass with our Central Province brothers at
the Dominican Priory. We have the opportunity to experience
a diversity of prayers with our multicultural Intercommunity
Novitiate (ICN) sisters and brothers. We pray the Liturgy
of the Hours together and Mass is celebrated weekly in
our own house chapel.
We were privileged to attend a Centering Prayer Workshop
with Father Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O. followed up by a
day of instruction and practice with Fr. Jim Deegan, one
of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) Directors. Saint
Louis offers a tremendous diversity of liturgies in many
languages, cultural contexts and theological world views.
We attend Mass together, individually, and in pairs and
groups. All the novices have the opportunity for regular,
individual spiritual direction.
Community: We are blessed with a diversity
of talents and preferences. Weekly community meetings
and active interim communications help us cooperate,
support each other, work and play together and share
community meals. Our ICN Brothers and Sisters are part
of our extended Community. The OMI Brothers hosted a
Halloween Party, a cultural first for novices from Zambia,
Haiti, and Pakistan. We were honored to help our Pakistani
Loretto Novices prepare a simple rice and lentil meal
that raised more than $3000 to send home to support
Pakistani earthquake relief efforts.
As a group, we have rehabilitated our small yard, painted
and organized a new library, cleaned our alley, and
started a composting project. Our Community outings
have ranged from a boat ride along the Mississippi,
trips to Forest Park and its many museums, a Cardinals
baseball game in the old Busch Stadium, a quilt show
in Saint Charles, Saint Louis Symphony performances,
as well as visits with our many Dominican sisters in
Saint Louis. Many of the novices attended the School
of Americas demonstration at Fort Benning, Georgia with
Director, Sister Katie McGrail.
 Study:
This diverse group takes a variety of courses at Aquinas
Institute of Theology. Individual courses include:
Moral Theology, Foundations of Spirituality, Liturgy,
Grief Counseling, and the Old Testament Prophets. Sister
Joan Delaplane, OP (Adrian) generously shared her great
gifts and passion for preaching in an all day preaching
workshop for us.
The first semester ICN Program focused on self-knowledge
and awareness issues, liturgical themes and theological
reflection. Michael Crosby, OFMCap, author of several
books including, Can Religious Life be Prophetic?
was a recent speaker. The novices are unanimous in our
enthusiasm for an excellent course, The History
of Religious Life in the United States taught by
Sister Regina Siegfried, ASC. We presented our own Congregational
histories (including an appearance by Saint Catherine
of Siena, portrayed by Director, Sister Pat Hanvey),
and learned about the very diverse congregations represented
by our ICN sisters. We look forward to more class opportunities
second semester.
Ministry: The canonical
year does not focus on ministry, but we are privileged
to serve in a number of ways. We support the many outreach
and educational programs at Saint Vincent de Paul Parish
in downtown Saint Louis. Two novices participate in
a weekly discussion group at a local county prison,
preparing the women for success upon release. Two novices
team teach 6th and 7th grade religion classes at a Catholic
middle school. St Vincent’s active and essential
work feeding the homeless and poor makes kitchen cleaning
and support a demanding ministry. We all tutor in the
after-school “Learning Club” for kindergarteners
through 8th graders. Sister Flor has started a youth
group for Hispanic young people in Our Lady of Guadalupe
Parish. Sister Mary uses her musical gifts in the Pius
V Parish choir.
CDN
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