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6. Since vocations are a gift from God, and mindful that at times in the early years
of the Order older candidates were accepted, we exhort provinces and vicariates
to be open to consider seriously the special challenges presented by older
candidates, such as integration into community life or docility for formation. As a
way to address these needs it may be useful in particular circumstances to adapt
the novitiate program accordingly, including the possibility of interprovincial
collaboration.
Recommendation
7. We recommend to Provinces and Vicariates to appoint a promoter of vocations.
Initial Formation
8. Just as the disciples were called by Jesus to be with him before being sent forth to
preach (Cf. Mk. 3: 13-14), so too those who join the Order are to be formed as
followers of Jesus according to the spirit of St Dominic who himself walked the
Way of Christ.
9. The initial years of formation should be characterised by an ever-deepening
awareness, on the part of the brothers in formation, of the essentially contemplative
and missionary dimension of the Order’s vocation.
10. Today, this means that special care needs to be taken to ensure that all aspects of
initial formation – religious, spiritual, intellectual, pastoral, communal and personal
– flow from, and are ordered towards, an integral vision of Dominican life
and mission. Dominicans are never formed simply for their own sakes; they are
formed for the sake of preaching the Gospel to the whole world (LCO I, VI). The
missio ad gentes is, and always has been, a responsibility of the Order as a whole
(LCO 108, 1). Today more than ever, the universal nature of the Order presents
special challenges to initial formation, this “urgent and difficult task” (Damian
Byrne OP, Letter on Formation, 1991).
11. Therefore, we mention in particular the importance of the preparation of the
brethren for a more explicitly global ministry -- the need to assist those in formation
to discern the heart of their Dominican identity, the facilitation of contacts
between provinces and vicariates across linguistic boundaries, a willingness to
dialogue with those of other faiths or none, and a broadening of the brothers’
awareness and appreciation of the international character of the Order. Formators,
for their part, need to be given adequate opportunities to prepare themselves for
their task. In preparing the brethren during initial formation, formators should not
avoid the task of equipping the brothers for the concrete realities of conventual
life and ministry awaiting them on their first and subsequent assignments. Ideally,
initial formation should provide the brothers with a broad experience of the minis-
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