Committed to the Amazon
“...For we know that the whole creation groans
and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now...” (Rom 8:22)
Welcome to the Dominican Mission in Amazonia!
Webinar on Amazonia
Register today to participate in the global Dominican Family webinar on Amazonia
Join the webinar to hear first hand the stories of the Dominican women and men who live and serve in Amazonia.
9:00 a.m. Central, Saturday, December 9, 2023
Download the Advent reflections here
Reflections are posted each week.
About the Dominican Month for Peace
Since 2017, the Order has been celebrating the "Dominican Month for Peace," assigning each year a particular country where the the Dominican Family is present, for the purpose of raising awareness of issues related to justice and peace of the country. For this year, the Dominican International Commission for Justice and Peace has selected the Amazonia Region and the Master of the Order, Fr. Gerard Francisco Timoner III, OP, has approved the proposal.
Amazonia, is a massive biome and region that includes 200 million square miles and crosses the boundaries of eight nations. The plan for this year’s Dominican Month for Peace is led by the Dominican Family of Peru and includes Dominicans who serve in the entire region of Latin America and the Caribbean: lay fraternities, the Dominican youth movement, the sisters, nuns, friars, and the apostolic vicariate of Puerto Maldonado, where one of our Dominican brothers, David Martínez De Aguirre Guinea, is bishop.
Each week is focused on a different aspect of life in Amazonia and the Dominican response to a dream of Pope Francis named in his document Querida Amazonia, published after the synod on the Amazon in 2019 [?]
Week One: The cry of the land: ecology and environment
"I dream of an Amazonia that guards the overwhelming natural beauty that adorns it,
the overflowing life that fills its rivers and jungles."
Week Two: The cry of the poor: human rights and indigenous peoples
"I dream of an Amazonia that fights for the rights of the poorest, of the original peoples,
of the excluded, where their voice is heard, and their dignity is promoted.”
Week Three: A cultural dream: education
"I dream of an Amazon that preserves the cultural richness that makes it stand out,
where human beauty shines in so many different ways."
Week Four: An ecclesial dream: volunteering
"I dream of Christian communities capable of giving themselves
and becoming incarnated in the Amazonia, to the point of giving the Church
new faces with Amazonian features."
Visit this page each week of Advent and Christmas for more videos, prayers, and blog posts that will open your eyes to the life of our sisters and brothers—human and other-than-human—who call the Amazon home. Join our global Dominican Family in acts of prayer and action that are meant to be transformative for the life of the world.
News about the Dominican Family in the Amazon will be added here each week. Visit again!
Christmas greetings from Amazonia
“We celebrate this Christmas in union with our brothers and sisters in the Amazonia. In these lands we glorify God and join with the cries of the land, the cries of the poor, the promotion of an integral education and the plea to God to send us more workers to his harvest, to inspire in […]
An Ecclesial Dream: Volunteering
Contemplate “I dream of Christian communities capable of giving themselves and becoming incarnated in the Amazonia, to the point of giving the Church new faces with Amazonian features”. With the words of Pope Francis, we want to invite all of us who make up the great Dominican Family to dream and be encouraged to be […]
Cultural Dream: educational improvement in the Amazon
Contemplate Among the complexities of the Amazonian territory, we highlight the fragility of education, especially among indigenous peoples. Although education is a human right, the quality of education is poor and school dropout rates are high, especially among girls. Education evangelizes, promotes social transformation, empowering people with a holy critical sense. “A good school education […]
Second Week of Advent: Hear the Cry of the Poor
Contemplate The cry of the poor in the Amazon refers to the concerns and protests of the indigenous, rural and poor communities living in the Amazonia region of South America. These communities have been fighting for decades for the protection of their rights, the preservation of their ancestral lands and the conservation of the environment […]
Cry of the Land: Protect the Amazon, Protect our Earth
By Sister Zully Rojas Quispe Dominican Missionary of the Rosary FEDERATION OF DOMINICAN SISTERS OF PERU Why care about the Amazon? The “cry of the earth” is an expression used in the context of the papal encyclical “Laudato si’” and other ecclesiastical documents related to environmental concerns. It describes the suffering and degradation that […]
Dominican Global Months for Peace 2017-Present
2017: Solidarity with Dominicans promoting the national Peace Accord in Colombia.
2018: Support for our Dominican brothers and sisters struggling for democracy and peace through credible elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
2019: Support for our Dominican brothers and sisters in India working alongside abused and violated children, women, and indigenous people in their yearnings for peace and recognition.
2020: Support for our Dominican Sisters and Brothers in Ukraine in recognition of their work for peace and reconciliation and their commitment to assisting children traumatized by war.
2021: Support for the Dominican Family in Venezuela, where for more than two decades it people have been going through the greatest political, social and economic crisis in its history.
2022: Support for the Dominican Family n Myanmar, where a coup in February 2021, unraveled hard won efforts at democratization.
2023: Amazonia, 200 million square miles of endangered land and people, where the Dominican family serves and thrives.
