 |
| Saint Catherine Receiving the Stigmata |
The pragmatic spirituality of the women who founded Dominican congregations in England and the United States grew out of the penitential spirituality of the Dominican mystics of central Europe. Following in the footsteps of Saint Catherine and the other great Dominican Saints, they fasted and practiced penance. But gradually they came to realize that rather than inflicting suffering upon themselves in order to follow Jesus Christ and his Blessed Mother more closely, they could offer up the very real suffering of daily life. Through sickness, poverty, humiliation, mockery, persecution and abandonment, they found the love of God, and the Dominican way of life, gave them the strength to persevere for the sake of spreading the Gospel and building the kingdom. Love of the Blessed Mother helped them to be gentle, compassionate and wise as they brought to birth numerous institutions and placed them under the protection of the Blessed Mother or one of the Dominican mystics. Dominican women in England were among those responsible for reviving the Catholic faith after the dissolution of the monasteries and centuries of oppression, while Dominican women in the United States were missionaries teaching the faith to natives and immigrants from many countries. The slowness of communication made it necessary for them to break away and establish new foundations, leaving them cut off from their own homelands. Their lives were spent in the practical work of building and administering convents, schools and hospitals, but Dominican liturgy and community sustained them They negotiated with parish priests, local bishops and community leaders to purchase land and recruit women to join them in mission.
