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Bethlehem Academy,
a Catholic School in the Sinsinawa Dominican Tradition, Strives to Empower its Students and Staff to Achieve Personal, Spiritual and Academic Excellence. We Challenge ourselves to Love as Jesus Christ loved, to Lead, to Serve, to Inspire and to Seek the Truth: Veritas. The Four Pillars of Dominican Life: Prayer: Prayer is a pillar that is so essential to following Jesus Christ. Prayer, whether in private or in common leads us to a daily communion and dialogue with God. Contemplation and friendship with God is nourished in prayer. Sinsinawa Dominicans pray in many different ways. We contemplate his presence not only in our hearts but all around us. We encounter a nourishment that leads us to become children confident in the Providence and Will of the Triune God.
Ministry: The Pillar of Ministry directs us to one of the Dominican mottos, “Contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere”. That is “to contemplate and to give to others the fruits of our contemplation”. We pass on to others these fruits through the apostolate of preaching the Gospel and its values. We share Saint Dominic’s passion and desire to preach the Good News for the salvation of souls. We do this because we are truly friends of Jesus Christ and wish to share this divine friendship with all people. Sinsinawa Dominicans are committed to participating with others to build a holy and just Church and society in the United States and abroad through ministry, or service to others. Study: The pillar of study consists of an intimate search and understanding of what is truth. This “Veritas” brings about a thirst and longing for God and His Holy Will. Study is both an activity and a way of life. Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters have inherited from their founder,Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, a rich tradition of the study of theology and the Scriptures, the arts, and the social and natural sciences. The Sinsinawa Dominicans engage in a lifelong commitment to serious thought, to contemplation, and to informed action which alone can discover some solution to human suffering and help to bring about a new creation. Community: We believe that at the heart of ministry is relationship. As a matter of fact, we believe that relationship is at the heart of EVERYTHING in our lives and in the universe! Community life challenges us to grow through our shared experiences of prayer, study, and ministry. However we engage in the ministry of teaching and preaching, it is in learning to be with others that we become our best selves. Each day presents opportunities for spiritual growth and a deepening of self-knowledge, and energizes us to take an active role in the issues of Church and society. Descriptions of the 4 Dominican Pillars were developed utilizing a blog entry written by Gerard Elizondo of the Southern Dominican Province of Saint Martin De Porres (http://www.op.org/en/content/pillars-dominican-life-0) and from the website of our sponsors, the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin (https://www.sinsinawa.org/about-us/dominican-life.html) |