Vision Statement

Dominican Priory of St. Martin de Porres

COMMUNITY VISION STATEMENT

St. Martin de Porres priory was born from a vision among the friars of the Southern Dominican Province: "to form a new community through the process of individual and communal conversion guided by the vision of and dedicated to becoming what St. Dominic called, "The Holy Preaching."

Our Community Vision Statement, revised each September at our community retreat, states our goals as follows:

As a community of the Southern Dominican Province, we are committed to the "Holy Preaching."

We embrace the "Holy Preaching" as an apostolic way of shared life which is an essential part of our ministry to preach the Word.

With this guiding vision of the "Holy Preaching" for our time and place, we commit ourselves to be a community of friars, recognizing our diversity, yet fully committed to the pillars of the Dominican Order: prayer, study, contemplation and ministry.

Therefore we strive:

to place contemplation at the center of our shared life.
for the regular practice of faith sharing and scripture sharing.
for a simple lifestyle with sharing of goods and solidarity with the economically poor and the socially marginalized.
to ongoing personal and communal study, including regular reflection on major contemporary issues in the light of the Gospel.
for hospitality.
for ongoing evaluation of community and ministry.
to seek out and foster vocations to the priesthood and religious life and to collaborate with the Province’s program of initial formation and to actively participate in ongoing formation of the friar.
for a model of leadership that is participative, responsible and accountable.
to foster and provide a hospitable setting for a chapter of the Dominican Laity.
to make leisure and recreation an integral part of our life.
to collaborative and interfaith ministry with clergy, religious, laity and all people of good will.
to affirm and encourage the priesthood of the baptized, especially in the gift of preaching.

In the light of our Vision Statement we accept as our "COMMUNITY PROJECT": To foster, support and encourage the laity in the exercise of their baptismal gifts, especially the proclamation of the Gospel.