“ASSOCIATION OF LAY COMMUNITIES OF THE MISSIONARY DOMINICAN OF THE ROSARY”
Our origin
The lay communities have their origin in the “Santa Rosa” province. They were groups of people who participated by reflecting, studying, and praying as pastoral agents along with the sisters of the religious communities of the province.
In 1994 the Provincial Father of the Dominican Order in Peru made an open call for a national encounter of lay groups to promote work through fraternities.
In the encounter, sisters and teachers from diverse Dominican schools participated, among them, there were those from the Santa Rosa province.
Lay men and women, mainly those who were part of the pastoral personnel of the schools, formed the first fraternity called “Fraternidad Véritas” in the Colegio de Jesus. At the same time, parents from Family Catechism formed their “Group of reflection.”
Concurrently, in their mission locations, the sisters made a call to the formation of fraternities in Namora Cajamarca, San Juan de Lurigancho, Piura, Talara, Sayán, Lambayeque, San Ignacio, Huacho, Ayacucho.
Later on, these groups were called MDR Lay Communties being part of the pastoral project of the province.
In 2010 the sisters of MDR proposed the composition of the Association of MDR Lay Communities, which would be ruled by their own statutes.
WHO WE ARE?
- We are associated Christian lay communities that assume Spirituality and Charisma of MDR Sisters. We specify our faith and life in the biweekly communitarian meetings.
- We try to strengthen our faith through pray, reflection, personal and communitarian study and annual retreat.
- Each community is accompanied by an MDR Sister having fraternal and horizontal relationships.
- We are organized provincially and in each community, assuming a coordination service according to our statutes with the possibility of renewing them every three years.
The existing positions according to our statutes are:
Provincial level: a Coordinator, a Vice coordinator, a Secretary, a Treasurer, a Chairperson, a Religious Advisor and a Lay Advisor.
Community level: a Coordinator, Secretary, a Treasurer and a Religious Advisor
There is a formation process that includes three stages:
- First stage, Initiation: it is the time where participants are integrated into knowing what to be a lay person means though the study of Apostolic Exhortation Christifidelis Laici (Document of Vatican Council II).
- Second stage, Formation: intermediate stage where people study and get familiar with the Bible, some important Church, Congregation, and Association documents.
- Third stage, Commitment: stage of deep study. In a special ceremony we publicly commit ourselves to live our faith from MDR Charisma and Spirituality. Generally, this commitment is renewed during annual encounters. In addition, we assume other pastoral and civil society commitments.
WHAT DO WE DO?
We develop apostolic work in the locations where we are present. We focus on daily work on schools, churches, hospitals, civil society organizations, neighborhoods and pastoral projects in our provinces. We work on promoting and dignifying women, prophetic and liberating education
Human Rights – JPIC and youth pastoral.
We provide support by accompaniment in Bellavista boarding school (Jaen – Cajamarca)
There is an annual meeting and an assembly of representatives from each MDR Lay community.
We participate in formative activities such as meetings, workshops, courses, celebrations and biblical and socio-economic political reflections.
Order Jubilees:
- Order’s 800 years.
- 400 years since Saint Rose of Lima’s sanctification
- 50 years since Saint Martin de Porres’ canonization
- 100 years of our congregation’s foundation
Dominican Theological encounters:
In 1998 in Cochabamba Bolivia the reflection topic was “How to elaborate our spirituality as Dominican women today?”
In 1999 in Quito, Ecuador the topic was: “Women and peoples’ mystic facing globalization”. “La Predicación de las mujeres en un context de exclusion, muerte y sueños” (Marcos 14, 5-13)
Ecumenical Encounter of Theologist of Lima promoted by Instituto Bartolome de las Casas.
We have participated in the Latin-American seminary “Charisma and Laity” hold in Chile in 2011.
We participate active and consciously in calls that promote life defense, such as: Ni una menos, against corruption and environment defense, among many others.
We also participate in courses delivered by our congregation, Instituto Bartolome de las Casas, CEAS, CONFER, network against human trafficking, churches, lay communities and teachers teams.
