Dominican Life
An Enlightened Faith at the Service of the World
Dominican life begins with a shared call to make the message of Jesus Christ known through the way we live. Rooted in a common life shaped by prayer, learning, and mutual support, Lay Dominicans follow the path traced by Saint Dominic, who learned to speak with God so as to speak of God to others. Study and prayer do not stand apart from action; they give depth and direction to how members serve, teach, and engage the world. From this shared life flows a broad and creative form of preaching—through conversation, education, art, digital media, and the witness of daily commitment. Supported by community, Lay Dominicans serve in parishes, accompany prisoners and the homeless, care for the sick, and stand with vulnerable people locally and internationally. Faithful to a long tradition yet attentive to the needs of today, Dominican life unites reflection and action so that the Gospel is not only spoken, but made visible and credible in the world.
Fraternal Activities
“Since its inception, our fraternity has sought to live out its Dominican vocation through concrete commitments to the most vulnerable members of our society. After the Rwandan genocide of 1994, we began initiatives to support street children in Rwanda and Burundi, in conjunction with a project set up by the Dominican friars of Canada. Subsequently, various missionary projects by members of our fraternity were added and became important causes for us, in which we are involved as volunteers and donors. We organize several fundraising activities each year to support these various projects.”
Friends of Saint Camille
Association Cigogne (Stork Association)
Foyer du monde (Home for the World)
Street Children in Rwanda
(Abadacogora – Intwari in Kigali)
“Lay Dominicans have many different ministries, each member being involved in whatever work God calls them to. Joining the lay Dominicans does not necessarily mean being involved in more ministries. Many lay Dominicans continue the Church ministries that they are already involved in, but do so with more zeal and with the support and love of the Dominican community.
Many of our members are catechists in their local parishes for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Others are involved in the catechism of children, others are readers, Eucharistic ministers, artists, musicians, psychologists and youtube preachers, the list goes on.
Jointly we host the Catholic Forum. The purpose of this forum is to facilitate growth in the Roman Catholic faith and understanding through questions, answers and mutual support. The Forum is a collaboration of Dominican Laity, Dominican friars and St. Mary’s Parish in the Archdiocese of Vancouver. Forum meetings take place on a regular basis at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Vancouver. They include a presentation from a subject matter expert, followed by questions from the audience. Meetings are filmed and uploaded to the Mysteria Lucis website.”
“The Fraternity of Saint Catherine of Siena is still very young. It now has seventeen members, twelve of whom have taken temporary vows. It meets every Sunday to celebrate Mass at Saint Dominic’s Church in Quebec City. For several months now, some of our members have been providing catechetical services for children during Mass. It is a demanding task, but one that bears fruit in the children and is already developing their taste for the life of prayer.
Three Mondays a month, the Fraternity meets at the home of one of its members. We pray the rosary, inspired by our personal prayer intentions. Then we engage in lectio divina, usually based on the Gospel for the coming Sunday. This is a wonderful opportunity to share what the mysteries of the Holy Scriptures inspire in us, the light they bring to our lives, and what we experience on a daily basis, both in joy and in sorrow. After singing the Salve Regina and the O Lumen, we end the evening with a time of fellowship over refreshments.
One Sunday a month, we have a special day. After Mass, we share a large meal, then we go to pray the midday office in the magnificent heart of the religious community at Saint Dominic’s Church. Finally, we receive instruction, which is an ideal opportunity to study, learn, discuss, and contemplate together. On this day, we take the opportunity to invite people who are intrigued by our fraternal life and eager to learn more about the life of a Dominican lay fraternity. The event is overflowing with children! From one community Sunday to the next, we alternate between a guest speaker and a member of the fraternity who presents the fruit of the personal contemplation that has inspired them in recent times.
Once a year, the women and men respectively enjoy a retreat. This opportunity for silence and teaching is good for everyone, regenerating us and preparing us to return to daily life. This year, the women’s retreat focused on prayer, while the men’s retreat focused on the theological virtues.
In the summer, we set aside a full week for vacation. Last year, we had the immense pleasure of staying at Camp Beauséjour, generously run by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in Saints-Martyrs-Canadiens. The main focus is on rest and recreation: swimming, kayaking, forest excursions, games with the children, discussions around the campfire (hot dogs included, of course!).
More spontaneously, we also organize occasional evenings of study of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. John Henry Newman. At Christmas, we also got together to make a large quantity of fruit salad jars to distribute in Quebec City to the poor and needy families.”
“We are a small fraternity made up of diverse members living primarily in the southwestern and south eastern region of Ontario (Mississauga, Brampton, Kitchener, Oakville and Kingson, ON areas) as well as one member in the Montreal area)ranging in age from our 30s to over 90 years of age. We were the first English speaking Lay Dominican fraternity in the Canadian Dominican Province and were founded in the 1970’’s in Mississauga, Ontario. We continue to come together to meet regularly in person and virtually for prayer, study and fellowship in Mississauga, ON.
We are involved in a variety.of individual ministries. Our younger working age members, are primarily involved in local parish ministries, advocacy work on social justice and local community issues, while our older members are primarily involved in prayer ministry through frequent mass attendanceand daily prayer. We all have a strong commitment to individual daily prayer, regular Mass attendance and to keeping ourselves aware of social justice issues and the effect they have on people. In an effort to increase awareness of the presence of Lay Dominicans in the Toronto Archdiocese, we recently participated in an archdiocesan gathering of various religious communities together with the Toronto Friars in the Archdiocese as well as reaching out to individual parishes to raise awareness of Lay Dominicans. While the majority of our original founding members have now passed away, our current members, continue to be inspired by their pioneering spirit and faith in opening up the Lay Dominicans to English Canada.”
“We now have 1 and 12 members have taken the final and first vows respectively. Two regular visitors are with us for more than 6 months. We are hoping that they will continue with us and take their first vow in 2026.
We meet regularly once a month, every 4th Sunday of the month from 3:30 pm at St Agnes K.Y. Tsao Catholic Church, Markham, Ontario. Our meeting is being held in bilingual of Cantonese and Mandarin. We are planning for a retreat during this year for our Dominican laity, date to be determined. We have just started to visit hospitals occasionally and hope we turn this act of love into a regular service. We have held Novena for Dominican Saint and Marian feast last year and will continue it in 2026. In the past, we celebrate the feast of St. Dominic in the evening. However, 8/8/26 is Saturday, we are planning to celebrate it in the Convent of Chinese Dominican Sisters during daytime.”