Sometimes reflecting on the future of the cooperator brothers, one tries to imagine the Order without them. What would be lost would be a living reminder each day of our call to live as brothers in communion, to be that kind of fraternity which, we like to remind ourselves, was itself called a “holy preaching.” The cooperator brothers are not only a reminder that we are “not just priests. . .They make it true that the Order carries out its apostolic preaching and sacramental ministry precisely as a fraternity, as a religious brotherhood…
Dominican Friars are consecrated male religious bound together by their common religious profession, their consecration to the Word, and their commitment to the Four Pillars of the Dominican Life, namely, Prayer, Fraternal life, Study and Preaching. It is our religious profession, and not ordination, that makes us full heirs of St. Dominic’s vision and the charism of our Order. Thus, we are all brothers, brothers of our brother St. Dominic. However, our order, the Order of Preachers is clerical given that “the ministry of the word and of the sacraments of faith is a priestly function.” Although our one task is preaching for the salvation of souls, we are called to achieve this task through different ministries. Hence, amongst us are those who remain brothers known today as cooperator brothers, and then those ordained or to be ordained known as clerical friars.
The cooperator brother, through his religious consecration, is called to a profound relationship with God. He is to be a loving servant of the Word of God, pondering that Word in his heart in prayer and contemplation, witnessing to it by his humble life in compassion and charity, and sharing it with others through his preaching. We are men who having heard God’s call, freely and courageously without condition or limitation responded to come preach with Him, chaste, happy, holy, lowly, poor, obedient and often unnoticed and unacknowledged.
The cooperator brother is a prophetic witness to essential aspects of our common vocation as friar preachers. He reminds all the friars that our apostolic life, rooted in our baptism and in our religious profession, is, in the first place, our way of living together. He reminds us that we are not only to study and to preach but also to establish convents that will be real homes in which the Word is contemplated, shared and lived out in charity. He reminds us that we are not order of ‘homilists’ but order of preachers, brothers peaching as a fraternity. The brother makes an essential contribution to the particular character of our community life, strengthening it in fraternity, solidarity and tenderness. Hence, cooperator brothers are the bearers of our fraternal life since the fraternal character of our vocation is epitomised in the co-operator brother.
The unique vocation of the cooperator brother gives him the freedom and capacity to reach places and empathize with the people, especially those at the fringes, in ways that are not so easily accessible to priest brothers. Besides living out his lives in communion with other friars, the cooperator brother can preach through a variety of ministries: parish and pastoral ministries, educational ministries, health care ministries, retreat directing, facilitation of seminars and workshops, administration and management of Dominican projects, research, fund-raising, social works, and so on.
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