Dominican Mission

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Peggy Ryan, OP and Maura McCarthy, PBVM were privileged to work with the Native people of the Americas until 2010

This is the month that the United States celebrates Columbus Day.  As Dominicans, 2011 is the year we are celebrating our anniversary of arriving in the Americas.  500 years ago, our Dominican brothers arrived from Spain to share God’s word through our charism of preaching and teaching.  The first Dominicans that arrived in the Americas have much to teach us about how to live boldly.  Upon their arrival in what today is The Dominican Republic, these friars immediately began to preach against the treatments of the Native peoples.  They boldly employed uncharted new theologies which claimed the dignity of all persons.  Each human being reflects the face of God.

I feel privileged to have been a small part of a huge movement all over the Americas that continues to this day to carry out the mission of first friars in the Americas.  I know my understanding and experience of God has been deepened and nurtured by the native peoples of Bolivia with whom I had the privilege to live and work.  I continue to pray that my forerunners instill in me an openness and willingness to participate in new truths as they unfold around me. 

What new way of thinking or new theology are you hearing today?       
Peggy Ryan, OP
Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin

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