OMMUNITY was the thing that attracted me most to religious life.
Common life gives us the opportunity to live with a group of intensely
committed Christians who will support, encourage, and love us, and
expect the same in return as we serve others. Now that I’ve lived in community
for a number of years, I thought I’d share with you just what that experience is
like because it might help you make a decision about whether you are called to
religious life.
Let’s start with a definition. What is a community? What does common life
look like? I like this definition from my fellow Dominican Philip Neri Powell, O.P.:
C
Living the good life
in community
PHOTOS COURTESY OF DOMINICAN CEN TRAL PROVINCE, OPCEN TRAL.ORG
LIVING IN community
is both rewarding
and demanding.
Each member of a
religious community
will need to
compromise, adjust,
forgive, and be
forgiven, over and
over. Pictured here
are men who live in a
Dominican studium,
or house of studies,
in St. Louis.
BY FATHER DOUGLAS-ADAM GREER, O.P.
Father Douglas-Adam Greer,
O.P. is a friar of
the Dominican
Central Province (opcentral.
org). He is the
theology department chair
at Catholic Central High School
in Grand Rapids,
Michigan.
Communal life is an essential part of the Christian witness
of religious communities, and it takes constant effort.
RELIGIOUS LIFE
