Question

Good day. I hope this email finds you well. I have a question :
How is the vow of poverty practiced in the Dominican Order? What is the order’s standard on poverty? And how can the ordinary layman or civilian apply it in his or her own life. 
Many thanks Padre for this service. Like being a Blessed Raymond to our ever curious minded Catherine

The priest’s answer

Dear friend,
1. Dominicans, like all consecrated persons, take the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
However, the poverty practiced in the order of St. Dominic has its own characteristics that stem essentially from the very purpose of the Order.
Unlike monastic orders, our Order has an apostolic character and, from the beginning, our poverty has been different from that of the monks.

2. Monks, by virtue of the vow of poverty, possess nothing as individuals, but the monastery can possess indeed.
Their vocation is not apostolic. To support themselves they distribute their time between prayer and work. They live off their manual labor, which is why monasteries and abbeys have been endowed with land and possessions from the beginning.

3. The Dominicans, on the other hand, like the Franciscans, from the very beginning, not only did not want to own personally, but not even communally.
Faced with the fact that people were leaving the Catholic Church to go after heretics because the prelates lived in opulence, St. Dominic and St. Francis wanted to live like the apostles.
They lived as mendicants (i.e. out of begging, t/n) and on what people gave them as a reward for the spiritual goods they received from them. That is why they are called mendicant orders.
The last words of St. Dominic before his death were these: “My brothers and sons, here are the goods I bequeath to you: have Charity, preserve humility, and voluntarily posess poverty“.
According to Constantine of Orvieto, who witnessed what St. Dominic said from his deathbed, St. Dominic even spoke of “the curse of the Almighty and his” on those who led the Order to have temporal possessions.

4. St. Catherine of Siena echoes this last statement by referring to what the Eternal Father told her about St. Dominic: “Now look at the ship of your father Dominic, My beloved son: he ordered it most perfectly, wishing that his sons should apply themselves only to My honor and the salvation of souls, with the light of science, which light he laid as his principal foundation, not, however, on that account, being deprived of true and voluntary poverty, but having it also. And as a sign that he had it truly, and that the contrary displeased him, he left as an heirloom to his sons his curse and Mine, if they should hold any possessions, either privately or in community, as a sign that he had chosen for his spouse Queen Poverty. ” (Dialogue of Divine Providence, Ch.158, trans. by Algar Thorold. Originally published in 1907 by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., London)

5. However, in the 15th century, at the behest of Pope Sixtus IV, there was a turning point: since the fervor of Christianity had waned and, consequently, almsgiving had diminished, the Pope commanded the mendicant orders to possess goods in common for their sustenance.
Since then, both Dominicans and Franciscans have begun to own communally. Their houses, however, have always remained convents. They did not become monasteries or abbeys. This means that they had to possess only in reference to their sustenance and the needs of their ministry.

6. This is the spirit in which Dominicans are called to practice evangelical poverty today.
The chapter on poverty in their Constitutions bears witness to this.
Here is what it says:
“32,1. Therefore, by our profession we promise God that we shall possess nothing by a right of personal ownership, but that we shall have everything in common and use material things for the common good of the Order and the Church, according to the dispositions of our superiors.
32,2. Therefore, no friar may hold money or proceeds as his own property, whatever their origin, but must hand over everything to the community.
32,3. The accumulation of common goods which are not necessary for the purpose of the Order or the ministry, should not be tolerated in the community either, since they are contrary to the poverty which everyone, individually and as members of the community, has promised.

33.  Since poverty compels so many to toil for scarce sustenance, our friars should give public and effective collective witness to this, by working tirelessly in their apostolic ministry, living soberly on their often uncertain wages, and sharing their goods with those who are poorer than themselves.

34,1. The friars should not seek the novelties or comforts of life, but in everything and everywhere they should live soberly.
34,2. According to the general norms and the spirit of the Order, single provinces may determine the manner of observing poverty, taking into account the circumstances of time, place, people and the various kinds of ministry”.

7. This is also in contrast to religious congregations in which the subjects personally renounce the use of goods but not their possession. They therefore continue to possess personally, but they cannot do with their goods as they wish. They can only use them according to the will of their superiors.

8. The laity, such as those who belong to the Dominican Order as tertiaries, continue to possess and use their goods freely, without depending on anyone.
They are called, however, to live in the spirit of evangelical poverty, detached from wealth and living as soberly as possible.

Thank you very much, dear visitor from the Philippines, for what you wrote at the end of your email.
By the wish that I may be more like Blessed Raymond and you more like Saint Catherine of Siena, I bless you and willingly remember you in prayer.
Father Angelo

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