General Chapter of Bogota, 2007

The General Chapter of the Order of Preachers, held this year in Bogota, Colombia (July 17-August 8th) could probably be considered the most well kept secret of the Order! After the formal announcement at the last Chapter in Kracow in 2007, nary a word has been said about this Chapter.

Our community, along with many of the moansteries, retains the custom of the traditional prayers for the General Chapter to be recited after None (except for Sunday's and feast days) for a whole month before the Chapter. These prayers are a combination of travel prayers and prayers to the Holy Spirit for his guidance and help. One of the phrases in the closing prayer that is the delight of many is that the Holy Spirit will guide us through this "fickle life." Yes, that is an accurate translation from the Latin!

While we knew that the Chapter would be held in the summer and most likely in the few weeks leading up to the feast of St. Dominic, we really had no idea when the Chapter was being held! As the Nuns have a reputation in the Order of knowing news before the Friars we felt we were losing our edge! So, we contacted one of the Friars working in the Dominican curia who is a friend of ours and asked him the dates. How could we pray for a whole month before when we didn't know when the Chapter would be!

A few weeks later, there was still no mention on the Order's website of the Chapter or the official website so we finally got the idea that if we went to the Province of Colombia's site we would find it and indeed we did. Of course, there is not much posted now but hopefully during the days of the Chapter there will be documents, photos and music posted.

Later, we will post the Prayers Before the General Chapter.