It's 10:30 on Sunday night and I'm wiped out.
The last couple weeks have been very tiring and stressful, and last week was the worst of the two, between the ticked-off religious ragers and studying for tests this weekend for class...I haven't been able to sleep well. Then I survived the weekend (although there goes my GPA!), and got through the marathon hours of classwork. On Saturday I was in class between 8 am to 7 pm, meaning my dog was alone for about 12 hours, but she's done very well. And today, we began at 8, Mass was beautiful, beautiful, beautiful (I may need to switch parishes...that one is just HOME to me!), and our class ended at about 4. Then I rushed home to feed the dog and walk her, before rushing off to work to teach Confirmation tonight.
It's been a very long day. Very long. Very long.
But something is happening in our corner of the world. At lunch, there was a lull in conversation, and something made me blurt out, "Does anyone know if there is a Third Order Dominican community anywhere around here?"
One of my classmates looked up and said no, he'd looked into it. There is one local Dominican priest, but let's just say his theology would not stand up to that of the Church's. And unfortunately, if we were to call a legitimate community and ask for a Dominican priest, his is the name that would be given.
As it turns out, a few others in class are drawn to the Dominican charism and spirituality as well. As is our Professor, who was looking into this in his own are (he doesn't live locally).
I don't know where this is going, but there seems to be a bunch of lay Dominicans without a home in this area, and none of this seems conincidental.
Must pray and discern. Personally, I've felt very drawn to the Dominican charism for a long time and I hadn't really considered a secular order...until today, actually. And now it suddenly seems like a good idea. I have no idea why. Yes, I know about third orders, but they never appealed to me before, so I don't understand this sudden change in attitude as well as the discovery that this idea has been occurring to others as well.
Could it be.....the Holy Spirit? Hmmmm.
But I'm not going to worry about it, because I need to go to bed. Although if a dog appears to me tonight holding a torch in his mouth....
5 comments:
Lay fraternities, that is.
Theocoid ~ Um, yeah...that's the wacky one. Unfortunately that corner is not known for...uh...authentic Catholicism. (I was trying to put it more delicately in my post...)
Maybe you're called to an Order's charism, just not a group at this time. For various reasons it hasn't been possible for me to join a Lay Carmelite group, 'though I've kept the Rule for about 8 yrs.
Theocoid ~ I have deleted your comment with the local Dominican info just because I don't want it to show up with associated names in search engines (with my disparaging remarks. Let others discern for themselves. But thank you for your efforts.
It's not personal to you! :-)
Dominican! A girl after my own heart!
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