Notes on the Rule of the Lay Fraternities of Saint Dominic, iii

The first part of the Rule, the Fundamental Constitution for the Dominican Laity, consists of seven paragraphs describing how those two concepts, "Dominican" and "Laity," are combined.

This point is key to understanding Lay Dominicans: We are both lay and Dominican. If we fail to be both, then we fail to live according to our Rule.

There are many ways we can fail. We can fail to be lay by thinking of ourselves as mini-monks, as members of a quasi-secret religious sect whose ways are not those of mere mortal laity. We can fail to be lay by believing that paying our dues and attending our meetings meets our duties as lay members of Christ's Church.

We can also fail to be Dominican by getting hopped up on the externals -- the culture and history and customs of the Order -- and never quite get around to sanctifying ourselves or preaching to others. We can fail to be Dominican by neglecting to form ourselves according to the vivifying spirit of St. Dominic.

We can, I bet, fail in many different ways all at once.

But there are also many different ways to succeed. If you've met one Dominican, you've met one Dominican, and the lay state doesn't impose much in the way of uniformity either. The key to success, written into the very structure of the Fundamental Constitution, is to maintain both aspects, to simply be what you say you are: a Lay Dominican.

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Notes on the Rule of the Lay Fraternities of Saint Dominic, ii

What does the Rule tell us about Lay Dominicans?

At a minimum, it tells us what someone is getting himself into when he joins the Dominican Order as a Lay Dominican. The Rule includes (n. 14) the promise Lay Dominicans make^*:

To the honour of almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of Saint Dominic, I, ___ ___, promise before you ___ ___, the President of this Fraternity/Chapter, and ___ ___, the Religious Assistant, in place of the Master of the Order of Friars Preachers, that I will live according to the Rule of the Laity of Saint Dominic [for three years] / [for my entire life].

While not a religious vow, a public promise like that (preferably made during a Mass when it's a "for my entire life" promise) is serious business.

So what's in the Rule? It's divided into three sections:

I. The Fundamental Constitution for the Dominican Laity: This section explains how Lay Dominicans combine both the lay vocation and the Dominican vocation.

II. Life of the Fraternities: This section describes what all Lay Dominicans are expected to actually do to prepare themselves to grow in their vocation.

III. Organization and Government of the Fraternities: This section defines how the Lay Fraternities (called Chapters in my Province) are governed, at the levels of individual Chapters, the Provinces, and the whole Order (national and international councils are also mentioned).

We might say, then, that a Lay Dominican is someone who has promised to live a certain kind of life that is both lay and Dominican, and that is organized and governed in a particular way. Section I tells us what it means to be both lay and Dominican. Section II tells us what that certain kind of life entails. Section III tells us how the life is organized and governed. All three facets are involved in keeping the promise of a Lay Dominican.

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*: In my Province, the nominal timeline is six months as an inquirer (we have six "postulancy" formation modules the inquirer is supposed to review with the Chapter formation director), followed by reception into the Order and one year of "novitiate" formation, followed by the temporary promise "for three years," followed by the "life" or "final" promise.

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Notes on the Rule of the Lay Fraternities of Saint Dominic, i

The current Rule of the Lay Fraternities of Saint Dominic was definitively approved by the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes on January 15, 1987. This is the fifth Rule for Lay Dominicans, with the others being approved in 1972 (on an experimental basis), 1964 (in response to Vatican II), 1923 (in response to the 1917 Code of Canon Law), and 1405 (the year formal papal approval was first obtained). The 1405 Rule is essentially the one by Munio de Zamora, OP, written in 1285 to supersede the many Rules written by and for the individual fraternities that sprang up around Dominican houses in different cities.

The official Rule is, of course, written in Latin. The story of translating this Rule into English is long and dull -- unlike the Rule itself, which is short and (in its way) surprising. The Latin text, along with some introductory material and an English translation made by "a team of Latinists of the English Province of Dominican friars," can be found here.

Since my Lay Dominican Chapter is reviewing the Rule according to a new translation (not yet on-line) -- more accurate than the one I'd promised to live according to for life several years back, less Latinate than the one the English friars produced -- I thought I'd post some comments on the Rule on my blog.

As mentioned above, the Rule itself is short, less than five pages leisurely formatted. This is consistent with the let's-get-on-with-it spirit of St. Dominic, who adopted the relatively brief Rule of St. Augustine for his new Order of Friars Preachers. In fact, without the animating spirit of St. Dominic, the Rule of his Lay Fraternities has no real life of its own. Those who promise to live according to this Rule, then, must take care that they don't substitute some other spirit -- or worse, inform their accord with no spirit at all and let it remain a dead thing.

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