Skip To Main Content

Dominican Difference

The Dominican Difference is an expression of the charism of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, whose legacy lives in the daily life of Overbrook School and St. Cecilia Academy. This difference flows from the person of St. Dominic, who founded the Dominican Order in the heart of the Church for preaching and the salvation of souls.   

  • It is an academically rigorous approach to educating students in truth and charity within a nurturing community marked by grace, friendship, freedom, and confidence.  

  • It elucidates the rich harmony of faith and reason, encouraging students to contemplation of the simple splendor of reality through the pursuit of truth wherever it may be found.  

  • It emphasizes that true learning leads to wisdom and that a life of virtue grounded in friendship with Jesus Christ, who is Truth, leads to happiness, fulfillment, and joy.  

Friendship with God in turn invites us into friendship and communion with our neighbor, inspiring us to communicate His goodness and love to the world as we become more of one mind and heart in our journey toward heaven. 

What is a charism? 

A charism is a specific grace from the Holy Spirit to imitate Christ and build up the Church (cf. CCC 799); the Dominican charism, received from Saint Dominic as Founder and lived out in the members of his Order, is the grace of zealous prayer, preaching of the Word of God, and contemplative study ordered to the salvation of souls.

Saint Dominic

Born in Spain circa 1171 (d. 1221), Dominic de Guzman was a preacher of grace and truth, an apostle of the compassionate heart of Christ, and a witness to the joy of the Lord. He founded the Order of Preachers in 1216 to preach the truths of the Creed in response to the errors of the time, particularly the Albigensian heresy which rejected the material world and the Church.

Dominic’s spiritual sons and daughters assiduously study and preach Christ, Truth Himself. A man intensely devoted to the Word of God, the Eucharistic Sacrifice, and the mission of the Church, Dominic imparted to his brethren his own spirit of zeal, compassion, consolation, and love of study ordered to the salvation of souls.  

Saint Cecilia

A Roman virgin-martyr of the third century, Saint Cecilia is traditionally associated with music and the arts (a Latin antiphon reads in part, “with the organs playing, Cecilia sang to the Lord”).

Saint Cecilia Dominicans regard her as an intercessor and a model of fidelity, fortitude, and magnanimity.

divider