Communities With Dual Charisms

[cathoholic_anonymous]

I read somewhere that the Sister Servants of the Eternal World are based on both Dominican and Franciscan principles. Is this true? And if so, does anybody know of other communities that draw on two traditions? I'm curious, as I don't understand how this could work. My spiritual director had never heard of the idea before and said that she thought a religious order should be solidly grounded in just one historical tradition. Thoughts?

[Starets]

I've heard vaguely of communities that try to combine Benedictine and Franciscan charisms. I remember once on a vocations oriented mailinglist on egroups (bought out by yahoogroups a couple years ago). One of the participants was heading up a new community of men somewhere in the american midwest who were trying to do just that. Unfortunately, i cannot find a trace of them now.

[philosophette]

That is interesting. I know the Salesians are an offshoot of the Franciscans and we integrate the spirituality of St Francis de Sales who founded his own order... so yep... fun stuff.

[cmaD2006]

[quote name='Cathoholic Anonymous' post='1271259' date='May 11 2007, 03:07 PM']I read somewhere that the Sister Servants of the Eternal World are based on both Dominican and Franciscan principles. Is this true? And if so, does anybody know of other communities that draw on two traditions? I'm curious, as I don't understand how this could work. My spiritual director had never heard of the idea before and said that she thought a religious order should be solidly grounded in just one historical tradition. Thoughts?[/quote]

Actually I think Dominican and Franciscan makes a lot of sense ... I wished I was better at remembering facts but St. Dominic and St. Francis have a lot in common with respect to their charisms -- and they were from the same timeperiod.

So if someone could jump in that has the details (I'm remembering some of this from when I was a postulant ...).

The community that I will be entering actually doesn't draw from one particular spirituality (i.e. Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelite, Benedictine, etc). However I think they're closer to franciscan ... however they didn't mention following a Franciscan rule.

[EJames]

[quote name='Cathoholic Anonymous' post='1271259' date='May 11 2007, 10:07 AM']I read somewhere that the Sister Servants of the Eternal World are based on both Dominican and Franciscan principles. Is this true? And if so, does anybody know of other communities that draw on two traditions? I'm curious, as I don't understand how this could work. My spiritual director had never heard of the idea before and said that she thought a religious order should be solidly grounded in just one historical tradition. Thoughts?[/quote]
Yes, the Sisters of the Lamb (and Brothers) that i have pictured in the Nuns Photo Thread, are dual or united Charisms of St Dominic and St Francis. ill look for more info, and translate it for you.
Pax

[shortnun]

I think "combining" charisms makes more sense (both intellectually and practically) if they're of the same historical time period. For example, Francis and Dominic were both radical (for the time) mendicants. There are similiarities (and differences) in their spiritualities that arose simply b/c of the time they were founded. I think it would almost be more difficult to combine an "older" tradition like that of Benedict (which is also stable/monastic) with that of Francis/Dominic (mendicant/monastic). But if a founder(ess) feels moved by the Spirit to bring such charisms into conversation in a community--who am I to stop the work of God!

[cathoholic_anonymous]

Thank you for all this interesting information. I have a few questions for those who know more about this.

What happens when a community with two charisms takes a Rule? Do they adopt one of the existing rules (i.e. the Rule of St Albert or the Rule of St Benedict) and then adapt it to suit their dual charism, or do they write a totally new rule from the beginning? How do the practicalities work?

Thank you.

[the lords sheep]

The SSEW Sisters do have the combined charism. They are dominantly Franciscan (for example, they use the Franciscan insert to the Liturgy of the Hours), but they have a strong Dominican Thrust (which is manifested through their emphasis on studying and teaching).
Someone before was correct in saying their founders had similar charism (well, some aspects are similar). In the early years after their foundation, both orders spent a lot of time battling the heresies through preaching and teaching. Both orders, from their founding, value TRUTH, which is again manifested in their apostalate.

Sr. Jenny- jgirl- (who is a postulant for the SSEW Sisters) explained all this to me. I haven't heard anything recently, but last I heard, she was doing very well.

[philosophette]

[quote name='Cathoholic Anonymous' post='1272532' date='May 13 2007, 05:28 PM']Thank you for all this interesting information. I have a few questions for those who know more about this.

What happens when a community with two charisms takes a Rule? Do they adopt one of the existing rules (i.e. the Rule of St Albert or the Rule of St Benedict) and then adapt it to suit their dual charism, or do they write a totally new rule from the beginning? How do the practicalities work?

Thank you. [/quote]

They usually adapt a rule (some other thread discusses the approved rules... I think Augustine, Benedict, Carmelite... so on) and then write their own Constitutions. I think that there was some ruling that no new "rules" could be written or something like that. (I could be wrong.)

For the Salesians Don Bosco based it upon the rule of st Augustine and then looked at the Constitutions of the Rosminias for ideas about how to write his own Constitutions.

[Maggyie]

My sister is a postulant in the SSEWs I am actually going to visit her at the end of the month! On their website, [url="http://sisterservants.com/sisters.html"]http://sisterservants.com/sisters.html[/url], they have a lovely image of St. Dominic and St. Francis embracing.

[Ora et Labora]

Ohhh! What's her name?

[Gemma]

St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists, based his constitutions on many spiritualities--Salesian, Dominican, Franciscan, Carmelite. He also had an original rule given to him through the revelations calling for the establishment of the charism. As one of our nuns explained, St Paul "borrowed from everybody," which is a common practice when starting a new order.

I've always held that our proposed Cloisterites will be Salesian, Dominican, and Carmelite. There will be strong Passionist overtones, though, especially with the Friday devotions they'll have.

Blessings,
Gemma

[Ora et Labora]

Wow...I did NOT know that about St. Paul.