"To love one's vocation is to love the Church, it is to love one's institute, and to experience the community as one's own family."

~ Fraternal Life in Community    Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life & Societies of Apostolic Life

When the religious life is lived in a way that is balanced and fully engages a person’s capacity to love and to be loved, the result is joy and a family spirit. Such a spirit is healthy and provides the support needed to transform the sacrifices that come externally, from the work of the apostolate, as well as those inherent internally as each individual strives for union with God.

Christian marriage brings two individuals together to become one by vow, but each must work at becoming one in spirit. The “community life” within the human family has many expressions, but all vocations require a death to self. As religious, we look for Christ in our sisters and, through prayer, strive to reflect Him in our own person as well. By becoming one by vow with our Divine Spouse, we live our religious life constantly seeking to please Him, and by dying to ourselves we hope to resemble Him. 

Our family is a large one, with no shortage of personalities! From our older sisters we seek encouragement, and admire the wisdom they have gained from years of prayer and experience. With our peers we share the bonds made in the novitiate, and with many other sisters we have common experiences from shared mission life and apostolate. There are also our “little sisters” who look to us for support, encouragement and good example. They in turn share with us a newfound sense of zeal and energy. All of the family dynamics are present, but with the help of grace and the power of a love that does not count the cost and seeks Christ above all things.  

Each evening after dinner the sisters have an hour of community “recreation.” This time is considered sacred, and all are expected to attend unless they are exempted by a duty related to the apostolate or study. Sacred, however, does not mean somber! More than one Dominican in a room results in a certain energy level that is tangible. It is clear and audible that the sisters enjoy one another’s company! Sister Thomas Aquinas relates that on her first visit to see her sister, a postulant in the community, she was struggling with the question of her own vocation. Years of apprehension were shattered when through a door she heard peals of laughter coming from the novitiate. She knew then that in the context of all her noble desires and sense of mission, she could live this life and know joy as well.

What then prompts such a disposition? Important to any consideration of community life is the reality that the source of our bonds is the dynamic love of the Trinity. Such love expands our very being and enables our love to be personal, unpossessive and joyful.

Fraternal communion is a God-enlightened space in which to experience the hidden presence of the Risen Lord. This comes about through the mutual love of all the members of the community, a love nourished by the Word and by the Eucharist, purified in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and sustained by prayer for unity, the special gift of the Spirit to those who obediently listen to the Gospel.

~ Vita Consecrata
  Pope John Paul II