“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you...” (Jeremiah 1:5)

In the end, as in the beginning, it is God who forms us: through how he has made us, and through all the circumstances of our lives. Knowingly - or perhaps unknowingly - we do not always respond to this forming positively. As St Paul was told, we kick against the goad. Nevertheless, the gifts we recognise that we have and wish to use; the desires we have for ourselves, vague though they may sometimes be, are indications of what it is God sees as as: what kind of uniquely Christ-like person he wants us to be. Sculptors have said that sculpting is freeing the form within the stone or wood. We can see this happening in some of Michelangelo's unfinished sculptures, the the shape of the human body seems to be in the process of emerging from the stone. All Christian formation is akin to this: giving form to the God in whose image we are made.

As you may have already read on our website, a Dominican is formed by:

1. ✤ Liturgical and private prayer;
   

2. ✤ Study;
   

3. ✤ Community life;
   

4. ✤ the Vows we take;
   

5. ✤ and striving to convey to others what we have discovered of the Truth.
   

Becoming a Dominican is attempting to find the delicate and difficult balance between ever deepening contemplation and an outgoing and forward-looking apostolate. This becoming lasts a lifetime. The preliminaries, however, are as follows:

1. ✤ a period of getting to know the Congregation by visits, while carrying on your everyday life;
   

2. ✤ a formal application and interview;
   

3. ✤ a two year Novitiate;
   

4. ✤ three years of Vowed commitment (Temporary Profession);
   

5. ✤ perhaps a further period of Temporary Profession;
   

6. ✤ Final Vows (for life).
   
   These are the bare bones: should you wish to know more please do not hesitate to contact us: valeryop39@googlemail.com