We welcome you today for the first stage of Formation in the Lay Dominicans. This first year is known as “Inquiry”. For the next year you will be learning the fundamentals of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans). It is only the beginning of a lifetime of continuous learning. Fundamentally, Dominican life is centered on four “Pillars” (key characteristics of the Order that make the Dominican Order what it is): Community, Prayer, Study, and Preaching. Upon the completion of the Inquiry year, the Formation Director will present to the Chapter Council a list of Inquirers who qualify for reception into the Order. If the Chapter Council is in agreement, then the Inquirer receives the Dominican pin (usually in a reception ceremony) and begins the next phase of formation, “Candidacy”.

For one year, the Candidate attempts with the help of God and the Chapter to be formed as a Dominican. At the end of this year, the Candidate asks to make Temporary promises for three years. The new Temporary Promised is given the Dominican Scapular and the Rule and Directory of the Chapter.

The Lay Dominicans are a part of the world wide Order of Preachers, otherwise known as the Dominican Order. In some areas Dominicans are also known as “black friars” because of the black cloak and Cappus that the Friars and religious wore for travel and during Lent.

The Order had its beginnings in 1203 when St. Dominic of Guzman was sent with his bishop to arrange a marriage between the son of the king of Castile and the daughter of the Lord of the Marches. While traveling through southern France, Dominic was appalled at the major inroads a heresy known as Albigensianism was making in that part of the world, (so called because it started in the town of Albi). Albigensianism taught that all matter was evil and all spirit was good, and that the “good” God created the spirit realm while a demon god created and reined over the corporal world. This meant that all material things and pleasures had to be rejected.

The “Elect” of their society lived strictly, while everyone else could do whatever they desired , as long as they accepted all Albigensian teachings as true. They had to renounce the Catholic faith and , instead, admire and respect their Elect.

As soon as his mission was completed, and with permission, St. Dominic resolved to return to Southern France and endeavored to counteract this heresy with the preaching of the truth. It must be remembered that at this time it was not common for any priest to preach – only the Pope and bishops could preach. Dominic began to attract many men and lay people to him. The lay people at first were known as the “Militia of Christ,” and would soon be given a rule and become known as “The Order of Penitents”. This was the beginning of the “Third Order” or more commonly known today as Lay Dominicans, which is now the largest branch of the Order.

As time went by, Dominic realized that it was not just Southern France that needed the preaching of the truth, but rather the entire world. With the approval of the Holy See, Dominic began to assemble a band of well-educated men to be itinerant preachers. Eventually they were to become the Order of Friars Preachers. He dedicated the Order to preaching, winning souls for Christ. St. Dominic placed great emphasis on study. A preacher had to be educated to know what he was talking about before he got into the pulpit. Another characteristic of the Order that was even more innovative for the time was the democratic spirit of the Order. All superiors were to be elected for certain limited terms, and laws were to be made by elected delegates. It is this democratic characteristic that has allowed the Dominican Order, of all the major religious Orders, the ability to be able to reform itself from within – the Domincan Order has never split into several different Orders, as have the benedictines who are in several groups (Trappists, Cistercians, and regular Benedictines), or the Franciscans (who are Conventuals, Capuchins, and Minors), or the Carmelites (who are either Calced or Discalced).

At about the same time as St. Dominic was gathering a group of men around him to be the nucleus of the Order, he also founded a monastery of cloistered nuns in Prouille near Toulouse. Most of these were women who had been Albigensians, but who had returned to the Church and wanted to continue to serve God in some kind of Catholic religious life. Thus, the Friars, the Laity and the nuns came into being at roughly the same time.

The Dominican Order or Family is worldwide and is composed of various branches. First are the Friars. Second are the cloistered nuns, living in monasteries. Third are diocesan priests and apostolic Sisters/Brothers (Third Order Regular/Religious). Lay Dominicans are Third Order Secular, living in the secular world, not in a conventual setting.

The head of the Order is known as the Master of the Order. He has direct jurisdiction only over the Friars, Nuns, and Laity. The convents of Dominican Sisters are under Pontifical jurisdiction. Each convent has a Superior.

In the United States, there are four Dominican provinces: Eastern, Central, Southern, and Western. There are Lay Dominican Chapters located in each Dominican Province.

The units of Lay Dominicans are called Chapters. In the Southern Province, the Chapters are lead by a Moderator. The Chapter elects a Council which conducts the business of the Chapter. When necessary or desirable, a council’s decisions are presented to the entire chapter for approval or input. Following the tradition of the Friars, all the officers including the members of the Council are elected directly by the Chapter. Chapters typically meet once a month. At the provincial level, there is also a Lay Provincial Council which meets annually.

Becoming a Lay Dominican is not like joining a club, a sodality, or even a Confraternity. One is joining a Religious Order, and becomes a Dominican in the fullest sense of the term to be taken very, very seriously. Inquirers and Candidates receive a period of formation. They make public promises to live according to the Dominican spirit and the Rule and Directory of the Chapter.

LAY DOMINICANS ARE MEMBERS OF A WORLDWIDE FAMILY

The Dominican Family was founded by St. Dominic de Guzman, a Spanish priest born in Caleruega in 1170. In 1203 he organized his traveling preachers and founded the Dominican “Order of Preachers” (the meaning of the OP that you see after a Dominican’s name). Dominicans all over the world continue to draw upon the charisms of St. Dominic and are formed throughout their entire lives according to the priorities and fundamentals of the Dominican way of life. There are four principal branches of the Order, all true members of it:

The Friars: the brothers and priests who profess solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and who may be involved in a variety of ministries. All serve the primary role and ministry of the Order: preaching. Like the other branches, the men dedicate their lives to prayer, study, and community life in order to carry out the priorities of the Order, preaching and care of the poor.

The Laity: men and women from all walks of life who commit themselves through formal profession to the Dominican way of life integrated into their established life styles, sharing in the charism and priorities of the Order.

The Nuns: women who live intense lives of prayer in monasteries, profess solemn vows, and participate in the mission of the Order from their cloisters.

The Sisters: women who profess the simple vows and live active apostolic lives along with the prayer and community life that is the hallmark of Dominicans.

Binding all of these branches together is the common love for the Church and the Order, commitment to the mission of preaching, and devotion to prayer (especially the Liturgical prayers of the Hours and the Mass).

LAY DOMINICANS STRIVE TO LIVE THE CHARISM OF THE ORDER

Prayer: a faithful regimen of daily prayer: daily Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours in the morning, in the evening and before bed, personal meditation, particularly of the Scriptures, and the Rosary are essential elements of Dominican Spirituality. In addition, a yearly retreat, preferably in community, is considered essential for remaining centered and committed to the Christian and Dominican vocation.

Study: a vigorous seeking after truth, especially in Scripture, Church documents, and writings of the saints and theologians, lead the Dominican to greater truth. The principal part of the meetings of the Laity is the organized study program in which all participate and for which all prepare.

Works: a willing and cheerful fulfillment of apostolic work such as ministry to the poor, the marginalized, the unfortunate, the sick; preaching as the opportunity arises and in accord with the station in life of the lay Catholic and Dominican, the example of a joyful and moral life, readiness to enter into dialogue with the unbelievers or faith-troubled, eagerness to witness to the Good News.

Community: an empathetic eagerness to enter into the relationship of brothers and sisters in our father Dominic, to gather for support, encouragement, and appreciation of one another, to study and pray together, and to accept the obligations of belonging to a cohesive group.

LAY FRATERNITIES AND THIRD ORDERS IN THE CHURCH

When we speak about Lay Fraternities and Third Orders in the Catholic Church, we generally mean lay members of religious orders. The Dominicans, Franciscans, Benedictines, Norbertines, Carmelites, and Missionaries of Charity are all examples of

Page 5

orders in the Church who have lay branches, although each order may have a different way of referring to its lay members. (For example, in the Dominican Order, we are called lay Fraternity members, or tertiaries. In the Missionaries of Charity, lay cooperators are called coworkers. It should also be noted that some orders receive professions from those in their lay branch, as with the Dominicans, while others simply invite laity to participate fully in the living of the order’s charism without making professions.)

Lay men and women in the Fraternities of St. Dominic do not necessarily live in community with each other but practice many of the same spiritual disciplines of the religious of that order. Any Catholic in good standing may join these associations.

The Beginnings of the Fraternities of St. Dominic

In the early days of the Dominican Order, neither St. Dominic nor the early Preachers desired to have under their jurisdiction-and consequently under their responsibility-either religious or lay associations. During his life, then, St. Dominic never wrote a rule for the Fraternities. Instead, it happened that a large body of laity who were living a life of piety found themselves attracted to St. Dominic and his initiative; they grouped themselves around the rising Order of Preachers and constituted on their own a “third order.”

In 1285, the need for more firmly uniting these lay people to the Order of Preachers and its direction led the seventh Master General, Munio de Zamora (at the suggestion of Pope Honorius IV) to devise a rule known as “The Third Order of Penance of St. Dominic.” Pope Honorius IV granted this new fraternity official Church recognition on Jan. 28, 1286.

In the rule written by Munio de Zamora, some basic points are: 1) the government of the Dominican Fraternities is immediately subject to ecclesiastical authority; 2) in the spirit of St. Dominic, those in the Fraternities should be truly zealous for the Catholic faith; 3) Fraternity members visit sick members of the community and help them; 4) Fraternity members help others through their prayers.

After the Fraternities of St. Dominic got off the ground, it drew many new members. Its fraternity in Siena especially flourished. Among the list of members of that fraternity was she who would become St. Catherine of Siena. Wherever the Dominican Order spread throughout the world, the fraternity chapters spread with it.

Further Information about Dominican History

The original purpose behind the Fraternities of St. Dominic was the preaching of penance. However, over time the Fraternities began to stress the importance for lay Catholics of having strong, solid formation in their faith. The Fraternities became, and continues to be, a group that strives to know their faith and to be well-formed and competent in sharing that faith with others. Persuasive communication of Catholic truth to the secular world is perhaps the most pressing mission of the Fraternities of St. Dominic.

We should mention too that, at its conception, the Fraternities served the Church in a military capacity, defending her from opposition. Now, certainly, Third Order Dominicans do not serve militarily but instead defend the Church from error through preaching and teaching the truth about Catholicism.

St. Catherine of Siena is the patroness of the Fraternities of St. Dominic. Following her example, Dominican tertiaries have always shown special devotion to the Church. Also in imitation of their patroness, who wrote profound mystical works and emphasized the truth of Catholic teaching in all of her letters, Fraternity members labor to know well their faith and to articulate it to others with persuasion.

Several saints and blessed in the Church have been in the Fraternities, including St. Catherine of Siena, St. Rose of Lima, Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, and St. Louis de Montfort.

The Place of Study In the Ideal of St Dominic

by James A. Weisheipl, OP

The purpose of the Dominican Order is stated clearly and simply in the Constitutions:

Our Order is known from the beginning to have been specially instituted for the sake of preaching and the salvation of souls. Consequently our study must aim principally at this, that we might be useful to the souls of others.1

This statement of purpose is taken almost verbatim from the earliest extant constitutions, which goes on to say that in view of this end

the prelate is to have authority to dispense brethren in his own convent from these [constitutions] when it seems to him expedient to do so, particularly in those matters which seem to impede study or preaching or the good of souls.2

The essential means for attaining the special aim of the Order are explicitly stated in our modern constitutions as follows:

The means, established by the most holy Patriarch for reaching our goal, are: besides the three solemn vows of obedience, chastity and poverty, the regular life with its monastic observances, the solemn recitation of divine office, and the assiduous study of sacred truth.3

These means, we are told, may not be abandoned or substantially changed without changing the character of the Dominican Order, although, the vows excepted, they may be opportunely tempered (temperari) to a certain extent (aliquatenus) by the demands of the age or circumstances, provided that these four means are rendered more apt for attaining the goal of preaching and the salvation of souls. These four means, namely solemn vows, monastic life, choral office and study, are not classified as such in the Constitutions of 1228, 1238 or 1241. But no one could doubt that the four essential means are implied throughout the entire text of the primitive rule. The unique character of St. Dominic’s Order lies in the special goal of preaching plus the four essential means.

For us in the twentieth century there is no difficulty in understanding the importance of solemn vows in the Dominican Order. The counsel of Christ to leave all things and follow Him is the very cornerstone of all religious life. This surrender, confirmed by vows having special canonical effects, makes the existence of an Order possible. Similarly it is not difficult for us in the twentieth century to appreciate the importance of a common life according to a recognized rule. Without a stable rule of life regulating procedures, order and obligations, it would be impossible for men (or women) to live in religious peace. Likewise it is not difficult for twentieth century Dominicans to appreciate the value of the choral recitation of the divine office. Modern religious institutes have generally abandoned the choral recitation of the office. Twentieth century Dominicans, however, find no difficulty in accepting the ancient practice as a means of personal sanctification and of giving public glory to God. It is fitting that those who live together with one mind should pray together with one heart.

In the case of study, however, it is not so easy in the twentieth century to appreciate the place of study in the ideal’s of St. Dominic. Since the Council of Trent a great number of seminaries have been established, seminaries with a high standard of academic excellence. Today every secular priest has had the benefits of some college education, two or three years study of philosophy and four years of theology. Every religious Order and Congregation engaged in the training of priests must meet the academic standards of Rome. What, then, makes study so special in the Dominican Order? Perhaps St. Dominic merely anticipated the modern seminary. Perhaps today study does not occupy the same position in the Dominican ideal as it did in the thirteenth century when so few of the clergy were educated. Moreover, the modern standard of living, particularly in the United States, would seem to diminish the importance of study in the Dominican Order. Today the majority of the laity have had at least a high school education, and not a few are eminent scientists, scholars and writers. The facility with which learning can be acquired through the printed word has been increased by the radio, television and the silver screen. It would seem, then, that study does not occupy the same place in the Dominican ideal as it did in previous centuries.

In this brief paper I wish to clarify the precise place of study in the ideal of St. Dominic. I will not say anything about the actual status of study in the Order, or about its appreciation in this or that Province of the Order. I wish to concentrate on study, the fourth essential means of attaining the goal of the Order, as understood by St. Dominic and the brethren of the early thirteenth century. So often when a Dominican thinks of study, he thinks immediately of St. Thomas, and perhaps exclusively so. In this paper I wish to focus attention on the period preceding St. Thomas. Such a focus may help us to appreciate more fully the Dominican spirit of the Angelic Doctor.

First we will examine the historical facts; then we will try to analyze them for a better understanding of the place of study in the ideal of St. Dominic.

I 

The intellectual character of the Order stems from Dominic himself and the needs of the early thirteenth century.

The intellectual and cultural renaissance of the twelfth century were beginning to change the face of Europe by the turn of the thirteenth century, but this change was slow. Centers of learning such as Paris, Oxford, Bologna and Padua were beginning to take the place of monasteries and Cathedral schools, but these centers were small and few in number. Contact with the wealth of Arabic culture had been made in Spain, and commerce with the Greeks opened new horizons in Sicily and Venice. But only a few scholars had the opportunity of transmitting this learning to eager students. The intellectual level of the secular clergy was generally low, and it was outside the competence of monks to elevate it. In the spirit of Saints Isidore and Leander, Cassian and Pope St. Gregory the Great, monks of every sort were forbidden to study secular literature; whatever learning was encouraged in the monasteries was supposed to be limited to personal meditation on the Bible and private reading of the Fathers. Clerics, on the other hand, both secular and regular (i.e. the Canons Regular), had an obligation to acquire a modicum of learning both secular and divine in order to fulfill the functions of their office. Bishops, of course, were the official teachers of sacred truth, but there were too few bishops sufficiently learned and zealous for the apostolic office. At the beginning of the thirteenth century Pere Mandonnet has estimated, 4 there were no more than a dozen masters of theology outside the universities actually teaching sacred doctrine. It is not surprising that the Cistercian monks, the secular clergy and even the local bishops were unable to cope with the new intellectual heresies of Albigensianism, Waldensianism and Catharism, which took root in Southern France and Northern Italy.

Onto this scene came Dominic of Guzman. Born in 1170 at Caleruega in Northern Castile, he received his elementary training from a certain uncle, an archpriest. About the age of 14 Dominic was sent to the nearby city of Palencia to study the liberal arts. Bl. Jordan tells us that at that time there flourished a studium of arts in that city.5 After studying the arts Dominic enrolled in the Cathedral school at Palencia, where he “spent four years in sacred studies.”6 Dominic had a great love for books and he annotated them carefully.7 It was not easy for him to sell his books to help the poor during the famine, but his example inspired fellow theologians and even masters of theology to follow his liberality.8 As a secular priest, and later as archdeacon of Osma (1199) and a member of the Cathedral Chapter which had recently embraced the rule of Canons Regular, he pursued a life of ardent prayer and assiduous study. 9

Dominic was about 35 years old when he accompanied the learned and zealous Bishop Diego into the heretical territory of Southern France. We are told that he sat up all night in theological discussion with an Albigensian inn-keeper, a discussion which ended in the conversion of the heretic.10 Between 1205 and 1208 the itinerary of St. Dominic can be plotted with some ease because of the great number of public disputations with heretics which were notable enough to have been mentioned by various chroniclers. The next seven years of Dominic’s life, however, are obscure to the historian, but we know that the Albigensian crusade brought the heresy under complete control.

In the calm of 1215 Foulques, the learned bishop of Toulouse, appointed Dominic and his companions preachers for the diocese of Toulouse.11 It was at this time, when Dominic was 45 years old, that he and his six companions presented themselves to Alexander Stavensby, an English secular master in theology then lecturing in Toulouse. Alexander Stavensby “genere, scientia et fama preclarus,’’12 was later professor at Bologna, member of the papal household and eventually bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.13 Stavensby was thus the first teacher of the new band of preachers which received the confirmation of Pope Honorius III on December 22 of the following year. Dominic understood well the words of Proverbs: “Without knowledge even zeal is not good.” (Prov. 19:2) Henceforth university cities became the centers of his Order’s work. At the first dispersal of the friars in August, 1217, seven of the sixteen were sent to Paris, and early the following year a foundation was made at Bologna.14 In 1220 Dominic sent friars to Palencia and Montpellier to establish houses just as new universities were being founded in those cities. One of Dominic’s last official acts was to send thirteen friars to the university city of Oxford.15

Why did Dominic send his brethren to the university cities? Was it to teach in the growing universities? Obviously not. These original friars at Toulouse, Paris, Bologna, Palencia, Montpellier and Oxford were not masters in theology; hence they could not teach in any university. No, these brethren were sent to centers of learning in order to learn. “Without knowledge even zeal is not good.” Dominic was not only convinced of the importance of learning, but he made it an essential element in his new Order; he made it an essential means of the apostolate. “Study,” wrote Humbert of Romans, “is not the purpose of the Order, but it is of the greatest necessity for the aims we have mentioned, namely, preaching and working for the salvation of souls, for without study we can achieve neither.’’16

Among the early brethren there were a few with arts degrees from various centers of learning. At Paris “many excellent clerics’’17 entered the Order so that when Dominic arrived in 1219 the new priory already numbered thirty members.18 On the other hand, there were many who were uneducated (rudes). Nevertheless all were bound to “the assiduous study of sacred truth”, just as they were bound to the three vows, the common life and the choral office.

Every Dominican priory had to have a rector whose obligation it was to give theological lectures on the Sacred Scriptures to all the brethren.19 Not even the prior was exempt from attendance at these lectures. The degree of Lector in Sacred Theology is nothing more than the authorization of the Order to lecture within Dominican houses. It was not a degree from any university. Later when priories were large, a number of lectors would be assigned to a house, one friar, called the lector primarius was entrusted with supervising all teaching and deciding ail theological disputes. Thus even before the Order had any claim on the University of Paris, that is, before the Order obtained its first Master in Theology, every cleric in the Order was bound to the assiduous study of sacred truth.

The spirit of St. Dominic was understood perfectly by Jordan of Saxony, who was elected to succeed Dominic at the General Chapter of 1222. Jordan, himself a master in arts and a bachelor in theology of the University of Paris, saw clearly the importance of learning in the Order. In all of his travels and preaching he tried to recruit members from university circles.20 In 1228 Jordan brought Roland of Cremona to Paris and had him enrolled in the faculty of theology under John of St. Giles, an English master. Roland was a master in arts from Bologna and he had spent almost ten years in the study of theology before he enrolled at Paris. Jordan indeed must have had considerable influence at Paris, for Roland merely lectured on the Sentences of Peter Lombard for one year before receiving the S.T.M. This was most extraordinary. Roland of Cremona was, in fact, the first Dominican to lecture as a master at the greatest center of Christian learning. In September of the following year (1230) John of St. Giles himself entered the Order, thus giving the Dominicans two chairs at the University of Paris.

Learned men such as Jordan of Saxony, Roland of Cremona Hugh of St. Cher and John of St. Giles, were attracted to the Order because of the spirit of St. Dominic which flourished among the brethren. The primitive constitutions in force during B1. Jordan’s Generalate declare strongly: “The brethren ought to be so intent on study that by day and by night, at home or on a journey, they read or meditate on something, and endeavor to commit to memory whatever they can.’’21One day a man asked Jordan of Saxony what rule of life he followed, apparently he had never before seen the habit. To this query Jordan replied, “The rule of Friars Preachers, and this is their rule: to live virtuously, to learn and to teach (honeste vivere, discere et docere).”22Jordan went on to explain that these are the three blessings David asked of God when he said, Bonitatem et disciplinam et scientiam doce me (Ps. 118:66). Bl. Jordan’s statement of the rule, namely “to live virtuously, to learn and to teach,” is a perfect expression of the mind of St. Dominic in establishing the Order of Preaching Friars.

By the time Humbert of Romans was elected fifth Master General in 1254 the fame of the Order was widespread and the intellectual character of St. Dominic’s Order was solidly established by the growing renown of St. Albert the Great and the promising ability of St. Thomas Aquinas. Humbert of Romans, who first loved the Carthusians and who all his life cherished a strong bent toward asceticism, himself found no difficulty in ranking study as an essential means of the apostolate.23After listing eleven benefits of study Humbert says, “Who is there who knows the reputation of the Friars Preachers, who does not know that these benefits have been produced and are being produced in them from the study of letters? Consequently lovers of that Order are accustomed to be not a little zealous for study in promoting it in the Order.”24

If this is not sufficient to indicate the importance of study in the ideal of St. Dominic, two further indications should confirm the picture already presented.

First, there is the unique feature of the primitive constitutions not found in the statutes of any other religious Order at the time. By this I do not mean the organization of the laws. One anonymous author tells us that before Raymond of Peñafort’s revision (1239) the Dominican constitutions were in a state of utter confusion (que sub multa confusione antea habebantur).25 Raymond merely regrouped the ancient legislation under distinct headings. The format of Raymond’s revision resembles the constitutions of other Canonical Orders of the period. The unique feature of the Dominican constitutions, however, is that they alone made provision for study. The constitutions of Prémontré, St. Victor of Paris, St. Denis of Rheims, the Austin Canons and the Grandmontines do not say a word about study.26 Yet we know that Canons Regular, since they were clerics, did devote considerable time to study and writing. The Dominicans, unlike other Orders, made study an essential part of their rule. Study, therefore, did not have the same importance in other Canonical institutes as it did in the Order of St. Dominic. With the Dominicans learning was not a luxury, but a necessity; the pursuit of learning was not a concession, but an obligation. This new role of study in religious life was necessitated by the special end of the Order, which was the preaching of sacred doctrine.

Another interesting light is thrown upon the place of study in the Order by thirteenth century writings concerning the Order. By the middle of the thirteenth century Dominicans were very conscious of the greatness of their ideal. During the second half of the century there appeared a considerable number of literary works designed to increase devotion and to record the traditions of the Order: ut devotio amplius augeatur and ut cuncti . . . noverint sui status primordia et progressus.27 The Vitae Fratrum or Gerard of Frachet falls into this category. More important, however, are the various big bibliographical lists of illustrious men. These lists combine two aspects of the Order in describing illustrious Dominicans: sanctity and learning.28 These lists of renowned theologians are not simply historical chronicles; they are rather ascetico-scientific works intended to arouse in the reader a deeper appreciation of Dominican tradition. An example of this type of work is the treatise of Stephen of Salanhac (+1291) entitled De Quatuor in Quibus Deus Pracdicatorum Ordinem Insignivit.29 This treatise, which was completed by Bernard Gui early in the fourteenth century, is divided into four parts corresponding to the four marks by which God distinguished the Order of Preachers. The first mark is the greatness of its founder, who was Christlike; the second is the glorious title of Preacher, which is apostolic; the third mark is its illustrious progeny which illuminates the world, and fourth is the excellence and security of its rule of life. In listing the illustrious men of the Order Stephen of Salanhac first describes those who have given their lives for the faith (fratres passi pro fide), then he lists those who have been illustrious in writing and in doctrine (viri illustres in scriptis et doctrinis). Historians today are, of course, very grateful for such reliable catalogues, but medieval readers were expected to be edified by these examples of the Dominican ideal in practice.

Briefly, then, we can say that Dominic had a new conception of religious life. Its purpose was the preaching of sacred doctrine and the salvation of souls. The sublime office of preacher had never before been the goal of any Order. Preaching belonged by divine right to bishops, the authoritative teachers of sacred doctrine. Dominic was given authority to establish preaching as the goal of his Order by the universal bishop of Christendom, the Holy Father. In order to attain such a goal, Dominic took the three means he knew as a Canon Regular, namely solemn vows, regular life with its monastic observances and solemn recitation of the divine office. To these he added the new element of study; this was necessitated by the special goal of preaching. Study, therefore, was the new feature in St. Dominic’s way of life.

II 

Lest we read historical facts oblivious of the implications of such a novelty, let us try to analyze the place of study in the ideal of St. Dominic by posing a few questions.

1. What did St. Dominic and the early brethren mean by the word ‘study’? Does study mean simply reading, as one would read a newspaper, a magazine or a best-seller? The Latin verb studere means a pushing forward with effort, or a striving after something with zeal . The Latin word studium means not only ‘study’ or a place of study in the English sense, but very often it has its original sense of ‘zeal’. Therefore the reading of newspapers and magazines is not study. Neither is watching television or listening to a lecture what is meant by study. A lecture may be very helpful for acquiring new ideas or direction in thought. Real study, however, requires the quiet of one’s room or the library. The rule of silence in Dominican houses has always been called “the most holy law” and “foremost of all observances”30 because it is necessary for study as well as for prayer. Studying, therefore, is not to be confused with wide reading, spiritual reading or even with reading the Bible. Wide reading is excellent for acquiring a wide range of information. Spiritual reading is necessary for the spiritual life. Reading the Bible is essential for a Dominican. But study, real study, is the intellectual grappling with truth.

In describing the Dominican rule Jordan of Saxony said discere et docere. Discere, to learn, means to acquire a perception in the manner of a disciple learning new truths; it means to acquire truth from a teacher. The doctrine, or learning which has been thus acquired can then be taught to others. Bl. Jordan’s expression, discere et docere, as the rule of the Dominican Order corresponds perfectly to St. Thomas’ expression: contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere.31 “The highest place among religious orders,” writes St. Thomas, “is held by those which are ordained to teaching and preaching, which functions belong to and participate in the perfection of bishops.”32 Commenting upon this the older Dominican constitutions declare:

Of such type is our Order of Preachers, which from its first foundation is principally, essentially and by name ordained to teaching and preaching, to communicating to others the fruits of contemplation.33

It is clear, then, that the fruits of contemplation which are given to others in Dominican teaching and preaching are none other than those acquired by study, learning, contemplation. The three expressions, studere, discere, and contemplare, designated one and the same reality among Dominicans of the thirteenth century. That reality is the zealous, human effort by which truth is assimilated.

2. What truth, we may ask, is the object of Dominican study? Is it philosophical truth? Is it knowledge of current political affairs, literature or sports? The constitutions are very explicit about this when they declare “the assiduous study of sacred truth.” Sacred truth is the sacra doctrina of divine revelation contained in Sacred Scripture and interpreted by the Church . The prestige of a Master in Sacred Theology and a Preacher General in the thirteenth century is intelligible only in terms of the sacred doctrine which is to be given to others in the apostolate. It has been said34 that the Dominican Order has a transcendental relation to truth, that is, to sacred truth and the Absolute Truth which is God Himself. The Order of Preachers was described by Mechtilde of Magdeburg as “Ordo veritatis lucidae”,35 luminous truth because the object of its study, teaching and preaching is the sacred truth of sacred doctrine.

What, then, about the study of philosophy, the arts and current affairs? The primitive constitutions explicitly forbade the study of philosophy and the liberal arts.

The brethren are not to study the books of classical authors and philosophers, even though they glance at them briefly. They are not to pursue secular learning, not even the liberal arts, unless the Master of the Order or the General Chapter disposes otherwise in certain cases. Rather the brethren both young and old are to study only theological books.36

This legislation is taken almost verbatim from the ancient Church law governing monks.37 In the early days there was no need to study philosophy or the arts in the Order; young men entered already trained in the humanities at the university. St. Albert received his arts training at Padua, St. Thomas at Naples; they were prepared to study theology. By 1259, however, it became evident that youths entering the Order were not sufficiently trained; the new ratio studiorum of 1259 established studia philosophiae in certain provinces corresponding to the university faculty of arts. But even in these houses of philosophy students were required to attend the theology lectures of the lector primarius. In other words, the study of philosophy was considered a necessary means to theology, the study of sacred doctrine.

The principal study of every Dominican cleric in the thirteenth century was theology, even when he was assigned to a studium of logic or natural philosophy. The importance of philosophy for theology cannot be over-estimated. Since the middle of the thirteenth century the Order of Preachers has continually fostered the study of philosophy the sciences and arts — all with a view to sacred doctrine and the apostolate. “Our study,” declare the primitive constitutions, “must aim principally at this, that we might be useful to the souls of others.”

3. Upon whom, however, does this obligation to study rest? It would seem that only those who are assigned by superiors to study have the obligation, for example, students during their years of training and Fathers who are sent on to special studies. Not all Dominicans have the same inclination to study. Thus it would seem that those who can take it should take it. Further, superiors are preoccupied with details of the common good and hence would seem to be exempt from study. It is often said that once a man is elected or appointed superior, his days of study are over. Furthermore, it would seem that brethren who are engaged in the apostolate or parish work or full-time teaching in high schools are too busy to study beyond the immediate needs of class. All things considered, it would appear that only those assigned to study have the leisure or the obligation to study.

Before answering this question one historical point ought to be clarified with regard to actual preaching in the thirteenth century. Every member of the Order in the Middle Ages was technically called a ‘Preacher’, just as every Franciscan was called a ‘Minorite’. But not every Dominican was given the honor of actual preaching. Only specially qualified Fathers were given a mandatum to preach by the Prior, Provincial or General Chapter.38 A preacher thus commissioned was not to be burdened with temporal administration, nor was he to carry anything with him except necessary clothing and books.39 Sermons were also given by Masters in Sacred Theology in the university and curia, preaching was a function proper to masters in theology. But other members of the Order could only prepare themselves for the day when they too might receive the mandate to preach or become a master.

But with regard to the means chosen by St. Dominic for his way of life every Dominican, whether he be superior or subject, teacher or student, preacher or secretary, was obliged to the three solemn vows, to regular life with its monastic observances, to the solemn recitation of divine office, and to the assiduous study of sacred truth. Even the most inept cleric in the Order was bound to assiduous study according to his abilities. The obligation of choral office was not limited to those with good voices; nor was the obligation of common life restricted to the gregarious. Why, then, should we think that the obligation to study fell only on geniuses? Study, therefore, is a universal obligation in the Order as serious in intent as solemn recitation of the divine office and regular observance. In fact, historically and constitutionally study is more important, since from the very beginning of the Order the constitutions readily provided for dispensations from choir and certain observances for the sake of study.40 But they provided no dispensation from study itself.

While it is true that superiors have less time for study than their subjects, this does not relieve them of the obligation to study. In the thirteenth century, we have already noted, priors were held to attend the daily theological lecture of the rector primarius. St. Albert the Great wrote most of his commentaries on Aristotle when he was Provincial of Germany, preacher of the crusades or burdened with the episcopal office. Hugh of St. Cher prepared his monumental work on the Bible while he was an active Cardinal of the Church. Peter of Tarentaise revised his commentary on the Sentences while he was Provincial of France. Hervé Nédélec was most energetic in study and writing during his Provincialate and Generalate. Cajetan was Master General of the Order and Cardinal when he wrote his remarkable commentary on the Summa of St. Thomas. In the thirteenth century Provincials were expected to study sacred doctrine assiduously; commonly they were assigned by the General Chapter to teach theology in a studium after their term of office. There was no doubt, at least before the Reformation, that study was binding upon all Dominicans, lay-Brothers and Sisters excepted. “The brethren,” stated the constitutions, “ought to be so intent on study that by day and night, at home or on a journey, they read or meditate on something, and endeavor to commit to memory whatever they can.’’41

The medieval mind would have found it hard to comprehend the excuse that a Dominican is too busy with the apostolate to study. The argument that a preacher is too busy preaching to pray would have been just as incomprehensible. Mention has already been made of the constitution forbidding preachers to carry anything with them except clothing and books. St. Dominic himself always carried with him the Gospel according to St. Matthew and the Epistles of St. Paul.42 Jordan of Saxony listed books as the first necessity of mendicant preachers.43 The more one is engaged in preaching and the apostolate, the more one needs the light of divine truth, just as he needs the strength of prayer. In the Dominican Order no one is exempt from the assiduous study of divine truth.

The story is told of a certain friar in the early days of the Order who neglected study for the sake of long prayers and works of asceticism. Once he was discovered “the brethren often accused him of making himself useless to the Order by not studying.”44

4. How much, we may ask, should a Dominican study in order to fulfill his constitutional obligations? From what has already been said, no other answer can be given but: Always, according to the dictates of supernatural prudence. Just as we are told by Christ to “pray always and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1), so a Dominican is told by his constitutions to study always without interruption. The primitive constitutions use the expression “by day and night, at home or on a journey”. The modern constitutions express this by the word “assiduous”. The Latin word assiduus means continual, unremitting, incessant, perpetual. For a Dominican there is no time limit to the assiduous study of sacred truth.

The profundity, breadth, care and zeal of St. Albert’s study are apparent on every page of his writings. The prodigious industry of St. Thomas has never ceased to astound later generations; the clarity and precision of his style, the aptness of his quotations, the extent of his sources and the genius of his synthesis all testify to ceaseless study. Describing Cardinal Cajetan, the careful historians, Quétif and Echard, remark:

What is more amazing about Cajetan, however, is his pertinacity in the study of letters, so that no day ever passed without his having written a line whether he was alone or engaged in official duties, whether at home or on a journey, whether as cardinal or legate, free or captive, healthy or sick. This is evident if one examines the lower margin of each of his writings where the place, day, year and current activities are diligently noted. Hence, it is related, he was wont to say that he could hardly excuse from grievous sin a fellow Dominican who failed to devote at least four hours a day to study.45

This strong statement attributed to Cajetan indicates the seriousness of study in the Dominican Order. It is an obligation arising not from Holy Orders, but from the solemn vow to live according to the rule and constitutions of the Order. Contempt for study amounts to contempt of the constitutions. Neglect of study in the Order is neglect of sanctity. Every Dominican, therefore, has an obligation not binding on secular priests, monks or other religious. This is the obligation to study without ceasing.

In discussing the frequency of prayer St. Thomas distinguishes between prayer itself and the root of prayer.46 Prayer arises from the desire of charity, which desire must be within us continually either actually or habitually. Actual prayer, however cannot be continual (assiduus) because of other necessities. Similarly it can be said that for a Dominican study must be assiduous in its root, which is desire for the ideal of St. Dominic. Actual study cannot be assiduous or unremitting because of other necessities. The amount of actual study every day must be determined by the ideal of St. Dominic and daily necessities.

A learned Dominican of the last century, Fr. Alberto Guglielmotti, used to say to his novices, “A true Dominican ought to die at his desk or in the pulpit.”47 Fr. Guglielmotti himself died fittingly at his desk on September 29, 1893.

5. One final question must be asked before we have a complete picture of study in the ideal of St. Dominic. What about sanctity? The picture presented thus far seems to imply that study is more important than sanctity in the Order of Preachers. Not at all. Sanctity is the common goal of all the faithful and of all religious. Striving for sanctity is not peculiar to any one religious community or rule. The way in which one organization strives for sanctity is established in the rule and constitutions officially approved by the Church. There are many religious communities in the Church, each with its own goal to achieve and rule of life directed to that goal. Individual members attain sanctity by fidelity to the goal and the way of life. In other words, sanctity is the goal of every religious, but the manner of attaining sanctity is peculiar to a particular rule of life. Sanctity is attained by fidelity to the rule over and above the ordinary means established for all the faithful.

Sanctity for a Dominican is attained through the rule of life proper to the Order of Preachers, that is, through the goal of preaching and the four means specified in the constitutions. A Dominican, therefore, cannot progress in sanctity except through his vows, the solemn recitation of divine office, regular life with its monastic observances, and assiduous study of sacred truth.

Beginners in the Dominican way of life not uncommonly experience a conflict between the desire for prayer and the obligation of study. Sometimes there seems to be an opposition between the spiritual life and the intellectual life of an individual. Patience, perseverance, meditation and the study of theology, however, gradually unite the disparate impressions into a single ideal, the ideal seen and loved by St. Dominic himself. This ideal is so sublimely one that no aspect can be neglected without losing the whole. The ideal of St. Dominic was beautifully described by God the Father in a dialogue with St. Catherine of Siena:

Look at the ship of thy father Dominic, My beloved son: he ordered it most perfectly, wishing that his sons should apply themselves only to My honor and the salvation of souls, with the light of science, which light he laid as his principal foundation, not, however, on that account, being deprived of true and voluntary poverty, but having it also…. But for his more immediate and personal object he took the light of science in order to extirpate the errors which had arisen in his time, thus taking on him the office of My only-begotten Son, the Word.48

Learning is so important for a Dominican that he might well fear the words of the Prophet Osee: “Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt not do the office of priesthood to me.”49

 

 

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NOTES

1 Constitutiones FFr S.O.P., ed. iussu M.S. Gillet (Rome 1932), I, I, 3, 1. All translations here and elsewhere in this paper are my own, unless qxplicitly stated otherwise.

2 Constitutiones Antiquae Ordinis Fratrum Pracdicatorum (1228), Prol. ed H. Denifle in Archiv f. Lit.-u. Kirchengeschichte, I (Berlin 1885), p.

3 Const. FFr. S.O.P., ed. cit., I, I, 4, 1.

4 P. Mandonnet, Saint Dominique, l’idée, l’homme, et l’oeuvre. 2nd ed. (Paris 1987), II, p. 99.

5 Jordan of Saxony, Libellus de principiis, n. 6 (MOPH, XVI, p. 28).

6 Ibid., n. 7.

7 Acta canonizationis, n. 35 (MOPH, XVI, p. 158).

8 Ibid., n. 35 (p. 154), Jordan, Libellus, n. 10, ed cit. p. 31.

9 Anon., Vita Beati Dominici (before 1260), ed. Analecta Ord Praed. IV (1899), p. 299b.

10 Jordan, Libellus, n. 15, ed. cit., pp. 33-34, Humbert of Romans Legenda S. Dominici, n. 11 (MOPH, XVI, p. 377).

11 Jordan, Libellus, nn. 39-43, ed. cit., pp. 45-46. Cf. P. Mandonnet op. cit., II, p. 44. The official document constituting Dominic and his companions preachers in the diocese of Toulouse is published by M. H. Laurent, O.P., Monumenta Historica S.P.N. Dominici, (MOPH, XV), n. 60

12 Humbert of Romans, Legenda, n. 40, ed. cit., p. 400.

13 Conrad Eubel, O.S.B., Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, 2nd ed. (Munich 1913), I, p. 207, A. Potthast, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum (Berlin 1874), I, n. 7223/24, p. 624.

14 Jordan, Libellus, n. 51 ed. cit., p. 49-50

15 Nicholas Trivet, Annales sex regum Angliae, 1135-1307, ed. T. Hog (London: English Historical Society, 1845), p. 209. Cf. W. A. Hinnebusch O.P., The Early English Friars Preachers, (Rome: Dissertationes Historicae, XIV, 1951), pp. 1-10 and 333.

16 Humbert of Romans, De Vita Regulari, Prol., n. 12, in Opera, ed. J. J. Berthier, O.P., I (Rome 1889), D. 41

17 Acta Canonizationis, n. 26, ed. cit., p. 144.

18 Jordan, Libellus, n. 59, ed. cit., p. 53.

19 Constitutiones Antiquae, Dist. II, cap. 23, ed. cit., Archiv, I, p. 221. Cf. revised constitutions of Raymond of Peñafort, Dist. II, cap. I, ed. R. Creytens, O.P, “Les Constitutions des Freres Precheurs dans la Rédaction de s. Raymond de Peñafort (1241),” in Archioum FFr. Praed., XVIII (1948) 48. Humbert, speaking of the office of Prior, notes his obligations: “pro religone primo, et pro studio secundo, plusquam pro aliis quibuscumque zealare…. Spiritualibus quoque exercitus intra claustrum, ut sunt scholae, collationes, sermones, officium divinum, et huiusmodi, libenter interesse.” De Officiis Ordinis, cap. III, Opera, ed. cit., II, p. 202.

20 See the history of the Friars Preachers by Fr. W. A. Hinnebusch, O.P., chapter XXV, sect. 2: “Dominican Recruiting in University Circles.”

21 Constitutiones Antiquae, Dist. I, cap. 13, ed. cit., Archiv, I, p. 201. Constitutions of Raymond, Dist. II, cap. 14, ed. cit., p. 66.

22 Gerard of Frachet, Vitae Fratrum, P. III, cap. 42, 8, ed. B. M. Reichert, O.P. (MOPH, I, p. 138).

23 See Fr. Hinnebusch’s history of the Order, chapter XXV sect. 1: “Dominic’s Attitude Toward Learning.”

24 Humbert of Romans, Expositio Regulae B. Augustini, cap. 4, n. 143 in Opera, ed. cit., I, p. 435.

25 Cronica Ordinis, annotation for 1238 (MOPH, I, p. 331). See the critical study of Raymond’s revision by R. Creytens, O.P., op. cit., Archicum FFr. Praed., XVIII (1948), 5-28.

26 Edmund Martène, O.S.B., De Antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus, Antwerp 1764. The rule of St. Victor of Paris (III, pp. 252-291), St. Denis of Rheims (III, pp. 297- 302) Austin Canons (III, pp. 306- 320), Premonstratensians (III, pp. 323-336), Grandmontines (IV, pp. 308-319).

27 H. Denifle, O.P., “Queller zur Gelehrtengeschichte des Predigerordens im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert,” in Archiv f. Lit.-u. Kirchengeschichte d. Mittelalters, II (Berlin 1886), 165 248. See the letter of Bernard Gui to the Master General, Aymeric, dated 22 Dec. 1304, in which the purpose of Stephen of Salanhac’s work is stated. De Quatuor in Quibus Deus Praedicatorum Ordinem Insignivit, ed. T. Kappeli, O.P., (MOPH, XXII, p. 8).

28 P. Auer, O.S.B., Ein Neuaufgafundener Katalog der Dominikaner Schriftsteller (S. Sabinae, Dissert. Hist., II), Paris 1933, pp. 2-7.

29 Edited by T. Kappeli, O.P., in MOPH, XXII (Rome 1949).

30 Constitutiones FFr. S.O.P., IV, I, 4, 5, 1.

31 St. Thomas, Sum. Theol., II-II, q. 188, a. 6.

32 Ibid.

33 Constitutiones, ed. iussu A. V. Jandel, Prol., Decl. I, n. 13, (Paris 1872), p. 16.

34 Ernst Commer, “Die Stellung des Predigerordens in der Kirche und seine Aufgaben,” Divus Thomas, III (1916), 445-7.

35 Revelationes Gertrudianae ac Mechtildianae, II (Paris 1877), p. 528, quoted by Angelo Walz, O.P., in his San Tommaso d’Aquino, (Rome 1945), p. 92, and in his Compendium Historiae Ordinis Pracdicatorum, rev. ed. (Rome 1948), p. 28.

36 “In libris gentilium et philosophorum non studeant, etsi ad horam inspiciant. Seculares sciencias non addiscant, nec etiam artes quas liberales vocant, nisi aliquando circa aliquos magister ordinis vel capitulum generale voluerit aliter dispensare, sed tantum libros theologicos tam juvenes quam alii legant.” Constitutiones Antiquae, Dist. II, cap. 28, ed. cit., Archiv, I, p. 222.

37 Regula monachorum, c. 8 (PL 83, 877-8). Cf. Gratian, Decretum, Dist. XXXVII, in Corpus Iuris Canonici, Pars Prior: Decretum Gratiani, ed. A. Friedberg (Leipzig 1924), col. 135-140. Se the excellent article by G. G. Meersseman, O.., “In libris gentilium non studeant. L’étude des classiques interdite aux clercs au moyen age?” in Italia Medioevale e Umanistica, I (1958), 1-13.

38 Constitutiones Antiquae, Dist. II, cap. 20 and cap. 32, ed. cit., pp. 219- 220 and 224; revision of Raymond, Dist. II, cap. 12, ed. cit., pp. 63-4.

39 Constitutiones Antiquae, Dist. II, cap. 31, ed. cit., p. 223, revision of Raymond, Dist. II, cap. 13, ed. cit., p. 64.

40 Constitutiones Antiquae, Dist. II. can. 29, ed. cit., p. 223, revision of Raymond, Prol. and Dist. II, cap. 14, ea. cit., pp. 29 and 67.

41 Constitutiones Antiquae, Dist. I, cap. 13, ed. cit., p. 201; Raymond, Dist. II, cap. 14, ed. cit., p. 66.

42 Acta Canonizationis, n. 29, ed. cit., p. 147.

43 Jordan, Libellus, n. 89, ed. cit., p. 45.

44 Gerard of Frachet, Vitae Fratrum, P. IV, cap. 5, 2, ed. cit., p. 161.

45 “. . . Unde fertur dicere solitum, sodalem Praedicatorum vix se a peccato mortali excusare, qui quoto die quatuor horas studio non impenderit.” Quétif- Echard, Scriptores Ord. Praed. (Paris 1722), II, p. 16a.

46 St. Thomas, Sum. Theol., II-II, q. 88, a. 14.

47 Il Rosario — Memorie Domenicane, 1912 p. 466; 1918 p. 481 ff.

48 The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, chap. 158 (in Ital. ed. of I, Taurisano O.P., Rome 1941), trans. by Algar Thorold (Westminster, Maryland 1943), p. 298.

49 Osee 4:6 Cf. St. Thomas, In III Sent., dist. 25, q. 2, a. 1, sol. 3 ad 3.

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Reading List

Dominicana

Ch 1 (What is a Dominican?)

Ch 2 (The Four Pillars)

St. Dominic

Ch 1

Articles(available on website)

Can Dominicans Really Be Lay People?

The Dominican Difference in the World

Suggested:

Sacred Scripture

Gospel of St Matthew Ch. 1 – 16

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Introduction

Paragraphs 1 – 248

Reading List Notes

Every month you will have assigned readings in Scriptures, the Catechism, and sometimes other books to complete. It is suggested that you do some of the readings every day. You may do them as you wish. In the Appendix section there are suggested daily readings from Scriptures and the Catechism which will correspond to the Reading List for the month. Remember that the Scripture and Catechism readings are recommended and not required. Also all answers to the questions must be written and brought to the monthly meeting.

 

“Am I Saving the World Yet?”

by Br. Vincent Ferrer Bagan, OP

Being a student can be frustrating.

I recently read an article by Emily Stimpson over at Our Sunday Visitor about millennial Catholics. Citing a study suggesting that large numbers of Catholics in my generation are losing their faith, Stimpson highlights the encouraging fact that, of those who are not losing their faith, many are dedicating their lives to spreading it. She goes on to profile six of these young, faithful Catholics, and it was inspiring to read their stories.

As I read the article, I thought to myself, these people are really making a difference; they are, in a very real way, reaching out to their brothers and sisters and bringing them the beauty of the Gospel. This is exactly why I entered the Order of Preachers, but it seems a far cry from what I’m doing now. This summer, I’m spending my afternoons in Spanish class and my evenings watching a sappy (but, for that reason, quite entertaining) Spanish-language series called Destinos. In addition to study and prayer, I spend most of my time in our priory doing various things in support of our liturgical and communal life. Is the work I’m doing really helping the cause of preaching the Gospel for the salvation of souls? Is it really achieving the end that motivated me in the first place?

It is tempting for those of us who are students, or who are in some sort of training or formation program, to answer this question in the negative. We may have a theoretical understanding of how our work is ordered to our mission, but, practically speaking, the connection often seems tenuous. I propose three reasons, however, that we can and should see a deep connection between prayerful study and the goal of spreading the Gospel.

First, it is important to remember that the ultimate goal of our lives is not apostolic productivity, but union with God. If we want this union, we must spend time coming to know Him through prayer and study. These things are not useful by the world’s standards, but are indispensable to our true ultimate goal.

Second, the most effective foundation for a fruitful apostolate is a life of prayer and study as well as faithfulness to the day-to-day responsibilities that God, in His providence, has placed before us. If we do all that we can to know and love God ourselves, we will be well prepared to share the beauty of his truth and his love with others. Though careful planning and technique are certainly important in the apostolic mission, our efforts will be fruitless if they are not rooted in an abiding knowledge and love of God.

This priority is clearly evident in the following passage from Deuteronomy, which is known as the shema and is treasured by Jews and Christians alike:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise (Dt 6:4–7).

Before we speak of God to others, we must know and love him ourselves with the entirety of our being. This is not to say, of course, that we should wait until we are perfect to speak of God, but rather that the apostolate must be built on the foundation of the knowledge and love of God. Third, I offer one of our Dominican mottoes: “to contemplate and to hand on to others the fruits of contemplation.” Time spent in prayer, study, and fostering virtue provides not only the foundation, but also the content, for an effective apostolate. Especially in a time when the general currents of intellectual life and social mores run contrary to the Gospel, it is important that we be able to articulate the truths of the faith in a compelling way, from the knowledge of God acquired in prayer and study. This is precisely what we cultivate during periods of religious and academic formation, when we cannot be fully active in the work of the apostolate.

At such times we must trust in God’s providence—trust that if we are faithful in attending to the tasks and the people God has placed before us, He will use us, perhaps in ways we will never know, for the building up of his kingdom.

Questions:

Reminder: Try taking the twelve Pillars of Dominican Laity/Nine Ways of Prayer to Adoration during this year. Contemplate on these as a “way of life.”

1. Can Study as a pillar of Dominican life further my relationship with God and help deepen it? Explain.
2. Give brief thoughts on the quote: “Neglect of study in the Order is a neglect of sanctity.”

 

Dominicana: A Guidebook for Inquirers

Ch. 1 (What is a Dominican?)

1. Write a few thoughts on Saint Dominic’s life. How can you see yourself as his follower?
2. Why is correct formation so important?
3. What is the worldwide family of Order of Preachers made up of?
4. What are the three major aspects of the formation of Lay Dominicans? Explain which one will be the most challenging for you?

 

Ch. 2 (The Four Pillars)

1. How are the four pillars interconnected? Which one pillar if the foundation of the other pillars?
2. What is the principle prayer of the Order? Name another prayer that Dominicans are devoted to?
3. Describe Dominican study compared to merely acquisition of knowledge?
4. What is the connection between the Dominicans and the orthodoxy of the Church?
5. How can I increase my opportunities to Dominican Study?

The Pillars of Dominican Life:

Community Life

Community life is of key importance to all Dominicans. It is in fact, one of the pillars of Dominican life. For the members of the First, Second and Third Order Religious it means a group of men or women leading a common life according to a rule. It can be difficult when personalities clash, irritations and frustrations can create friction and tension, human failings and individualities can cause hurt, disappointments and heartaches. But, on the other hand, a community can also provide an immense source of strength.

Living in community demands sacrifice, the ability to ignore one’s own personal desires, concessions to others, maintaining quiet and calm when one desires emoting, but there are rewards – the inspiration provided by one’s brothers and sisters in St. Dominic, companionship, help and concern and, most of all, love, greatly outweigh the disadvantages.

You, as lay Dominicans, will not live in such close quarters as those who belong to the Friars, Nuns and Sisters communities, and yet a chapter is a very real community. We are members of the same family, brothers and sisters in St. Dominic, and we have a common goal, purpose and mission. The chapter is our community, the place to which we have been called to be members.

In a very real sense, we are similar to the early Christian communities to whom St. Paul wrote his letters. They did not live under the same roof either. They met occasionally – once a week as rule for the Eucharist when conditions permitted. Persecution, lack of priests and barbarian invasions would often hinder them. It might be helpful to recall some of his exhortations to those communities and apply them to ourselves.

To the Romans he wrote:

“Love one another in mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor. Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the holy ones, exercise hospitality. (Rom. 12: 10-13)”

He told the Galatians:

“Bear one another’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Gal. 6: 2)”

He urged the Philippians:

“Complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also everyone for those of others. (Phil. 2: 2 & 3)”

One of the more beautiful passage is to be found in the Letter to the Colossians:

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, which binds the rest together and makes them perfect. (Col. 3: 12-14)”

When we analyze these passages we can see that love should be the hallmark of a Christian community, a love which expresses itself in affection, giving honor, acting with humility, compassion, kindness, gentleness and patience. If conflicts arise, all should be quick to forgive. It is the kind of community that requires concessions, the giving up of personal likes and dislikes, having no axes to grind and hanging in when things do not go as the individual would like. The great reward is that it is a school of love.

St. Paul based these exhortations on the fact that all Christians were bound together as members of the one body of Christ. In our communities, our chapters, you are not only bound in that way, you are also bound together as brothers and sisters in St. Dominic, so that everything St. Paul said about those communities holds doubly true for you.

Our Rule and Particular Directory list ways, such as uniting in our common love of God and sharing it in the Eucharist and prayer in common, study, giving service to others, mutual support, tenderness toward those in pain or sorrow and a special concern for our deceased members.

This brings out the idea that the chapter, our Dominican community, should be something more than just a meeting to attend. Attendance at the meetings is tremendously important for us to develop these qualities. Another aspect is that without each member’s presence we are less than we should be or could be. We are deprived of that important element only you have to share with us. In other words, you need us, but we also need you; we need one another.

Any chapter that has been established for a number of years will have members who, because of age or infirmity, cannot come any longer to the regular meetings. They become what we call prayer members. They are important to the chapter because they pray for its growth, vitality and development. As St. Dominic recognized when he founded the cloistered nuns, their prayer was essential if the work of those out on the lines was to be fruitful. Each chapter should have some way of keeping in contact with those people who in past years contributed so much to it, whether it is an individual or a group that telephones or visits these prayer members on a regular basis.

But a sense of community means more than a concern for those who cannot come to the meetings. It also means a care and concern for those who attend. One-way of doing that is to have a portion of our meetings devoted to a sharing of the chapter’s individual’s needs, concerns, problems and sorrows and requests for prayer. Members should also share joys and special blessings and ask that all join in thanking God.

This helps members to get to know one another as brothers and sisters. Another way is community recreation which the Friars have found to be essential to their lives in community. One simple thing the Laity can do is is to share coffee and cookies (or more) at the meetings and, occasionally, a dinner to help to foster a sense of community and togetherness. All this is just as essential for community life for the Laity as it is with the Friars.

Over and above the individual chapters, there is the larger, Provincial, unit with a Provincial Promoter and a Provincial Council that meets at least once a year to bring a sense of cohesiveness to all the chapters – a sense that each chapter is part of a larger family. It is a means of sharing ideas, programs and activities. There are also national or regional meetings and the Laity, like the Friars, are a global organization, and periodically there are world meetings of Lay Dominicans. These gatherings help to make the point that all us are part of the same family, the Dominican Family – all of us, Friars, nuns, sisters and laity, are brothers and sisters in St. Dominic.

 

DE PROFUNDIS 

Psalm 130 (129)

Choir alternates beginning on the superior’s side. We will do this at the first meeting.

Superior: Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord:
Superior choir: Lord, hear my voice.

Opposite choir: Let your ears be attentive/
to the voice of my supplication.

If you, O Lord, will mark iniquities,/
Lord, who shall stand it?

For with you there is merciful forgiveness;/
And by reason of your law I have waited
for you, O Lord.

My soul has relied on his word;/
my soul has hoped in the Lord.

From the morning watch even until night,/
let Israel hope in the Lord.

Because with the Lord there is mercy,/
and with him plentiful redemption.

And he shall redeem Israel/
from all its iniquities.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,/
and let perpetual light shine upon them.

From the gate of hell,

Deliver their souls, O Lord.

O Lord, hear my prayer.

And let my cry come unto you.

All: Let us pray./ O God, the Creator and Redeemer
of all the faithful,/ give to the souls of your servants
and handmaids the remission of all sins,/ that through pious supplication/
they may obtain the pardon they have ever wished for./
Who lives and reigns with God the Father/ in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Superior: May they rest in peace.

All: Amen.

 

SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM

Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy

Second Vatican Council

SOLEMNLY PROMULGATED BY HIS HOLINESS

POPE PAUL VI

ON DECEMBER 4, 1963

Excerpt

CHAPTER IV: THE DIVINE OFFICE

83. Christ Jesus, high priest of the new and eternal covenant, taking human nature, introduced into this earthly exile that hymn which is sung throughout all ages in the halls of heaven. He joins the entire community of mankind to Himself, associating it with His own singing of this canticle of divine praise.

For he continues His priestly work through the agency of His Church, which is ceaselessly engaged in praising the Lord and interceding for the salvation of the whole world. She does this, not only by celebrating the Eucharist, but also in other ways, especially by praying the divine office.

84. By tradition going back to early Christian times, the divine office is devised so that the whole course of the day and night is made holy by the praises of God. Therefore, when this wonderful song of praise is rightly performed by priests and others who are deputed for this purpose by the Church’s ordinance, or by the faithful praying together with the priest in the approved form, then it is truly the voice of the bride addressed to her bridegroom; lt is the very prayer which Christ Himself, together with His body, addresses to the Father.

85. Hence all who render this service are not only fulfilling a duty of the Church, but also are sharing in the greatest honor of Christ’s spouse, for by offering these praises to God they are standing before God’s throne in the name of the Church their Mother.

86. Priests who are engaged in the sacred pastoral ministry will offer the praises of the hours with greater fervor the more vividly they realize that they must heed St. Paul’s exhortation: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:11). For the work in which they labor will effect nothing and bring forth no fruit except by the power of the Lord who said: “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15: 5). That is why the apostles, instituting deacons, said: “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4).

87. In order that the divine office may be better and more perfectly prayed in existing circumstances, whether by priests or by other members of the Church, the sacred Council, carrying further the restoration already so happily begun by the Apostolic See, has seen fit to decree as follows concerning the office of the Roman rite.

88. Because the purpose of the office is to sanctify the day, the traditional sequence of the hours is to be restored so that once again they may be genuinely related to the time of the day when they are prayed, as far as this may be possible. Moreover, it will be necessary to take into account the modern conditions in which daily life has to be lived, especially by those who are called to labor in apostolic works.

89. Therefore, when the office is revised, these norms are to be observed:

a) By the venerable tradition of the universal Church, Lauds as morning prayer and Vespers as evening prayer are the two hinges on which the daily office turns; hence they are to be considered as the chief hours and are to be celebrated as such.

b) Compline is to be drawn up so that it will be a suitable prayer for the end of the day.

c) The hour known as Matins, although it should retain the character of nocturnal praise when celebrated in choir, shall be adapted so that it may be recited at any hour of the day; it shall be made up of fewer psalms and longer readings.

d) The hour of Prime is to be suppressed.

e) In choir the hours of Terce, Sext, and None are to be observed. But outside choir it will be lawful to select any one of these three, according to the respective time of the day.

 

90. The divine office, because it is the public prayer of the Church, is a source of piety, and nourishment for personal prayer. And therefore priests and all others who take part in the divine office are earnestly exhorted in the Lord to attune their minds to their voices when praying it. The better to achieve this, let them take steps to improve their understanding of the liturgy and of the bible, especially of the psalms.

In revising the Roman office, its ancient and venerable treasures are to be so adapted that all those to whom they are handed on may more extensively and easily draw profit from them.

91. So that it may really be possible in practice to observe the course of the hours proposed in Art. 89, the psalms are no longer to be distributed throughout one week, but through some longer period of time.

The work of revising the Psalter, already happily begun, is to be finished as soon as possible, and is to take into account the style of Christian Latin, the liturgical use of psalms, also when sung, and the entire tradition of the Latin Church.

92. As regards the readings, the following shall be observed:

a) Readings from sacred scripture shall be arranged so that the riches of God’s word may be easily accessible in more abundant measure.

b) Readings excerpted from the works of the fathers, doctors, and ecclesiastical writers shall be better selected.

c) The accounts of martyrdom or the lives of the saints are to accord with the facts of history.

93. To whatever extent may seem desirable, the hymns are to be restored to their original form, and whatever smacks of mythology or ill accords with Christian piety is to be removed or changed. Also, as occasion may arise, let other selections from the treasury of hymns be incorporated.

94. That the day may be truly sanctified, and that the hours themselves may be recited with spiritual advantage, it is best that each of them be prayed at a time, which most closely corresponds with its true canonical time.

95. Communities obliged to choral office are bound to celebrate the office in choir every day in addition to the conventual Mass. In particular:

a) Orders of canons, of monks and of nuns, and of other regulars bound by law or constitutions to choral office must celebrate the entire office.

b) Cathedral or collegiate chapters are bound to recite those parts of the office imposed on them by general or particular law.

c) All members of the above communities who are in major orders or who are solemnly professed, except for lay brothers, are bound to recite individually those canonical hours, which they do not pray in choir.

96. Clerics not bound to office in choir, if they are in major orders, are bound to pray the entire office every day, either in common or individually, as laid down in Art. 89.

97. Appropriate instances are to be defined by the rubrics in which a liturgical service may be substituted for the divine office.

In particular cases, and for a just reason, ordinaries can dispense their subjects wholly or in part from the obligation of reciting the divine office, or may commute the obligation.

98. Members of any institute dedicated to acquiring perfection who, according to their constitutions, are to recite any parts of the divine office are thereby performing the public prayer of the Church. They too perform the public prayer of the Church who, in virtue of their constitutions, recite any short office, provided this is drawn up after the pattern of the divine office and is duly approved.

99. Since the divine office is the voice of the Church, that is of the whole mystical body publicly praising God, those clerics who are not obliged to office in choir, especially priests who live together or who assemble for any purpose, are urged to pray at least some part of the divine office in common.

All who pray the divine office, whether in choir or in common, should fulfill the task entrusted to them as perfectly as possible: this refers not only to the internal devotion of their minds but also to their external manner of celebration. It is, moreover, fitting that the office, both in choir and in common, be sung when possible.

100. Pastors of souls should see to it that the chief hours, especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on Sundays and the more solemn feasts. And the laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually.

101. In accordance with the centuries-old tradition of the Latin rite, the Latin language is to be retained by clerics in the divine office. But in individual cases the ordinary has the power of granting the use of a vernacular translation to those clerics for whom the use of Latin constitutes a grave obstacle to their praying the office properly. The vernacular version, however, must be one that is drawn up according to the provision of Art. 36.

102. The competent superior has the power to grant the use of the vernacular in the celebration of the divine office, even in choir, to nuns and to members of institutes dedicated to acquiring perfection, both men who are not clerics and women. The version, however, must be one that is approved.

103. Any cleric bound to the divine office fulfills his obligation if he prays the office in the vernacular together with a group of the faithful or with those mentioned in 52 above provided that the text of the translation is approved.

Reading List

Saint Dominic

Chapters 2 – 3

Dominicana

pp 180-187

Sacred Scripture

Gospel of St Matthew Ch. 17 – 28Acts 1:1 – 4:22

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraphs 249 – 475

Further Information:

On YouTube search for

(Introduction to Liturgy of the Hours by sbeshonerter [Catholic Under the Hood])

Go to www.nashvilledominican.org/prayer/sacramental_life_and_liturgy/Divine_Office

Read article there.

Online Liturgy of the Hours can be found at ibreviary.com and divineoffice.org. Look for lauds (morning prayer), vespers (evening prayer), and complilne (night prayer).

Just thought you might like to know… 

It is a long-standing Dominican custom to pray for our deceased brothers and sisters each evening. Derived from an ancient practice of burying the dead beneath the cloister walkway, the friars pray in the cloister, at the refectory (dinning hall) entrance. The Prior normally leads the prayer.

 

Questions

1. In light of the readings, what are some challenges in living community life that you think our chapter might face this year?

2. Share a solution to one of these challenges?

3. What is your opinion about the last full paragraph on page 24 of reading…”But a sense of community means …”

4. How does praying The Divine Office lend itself to building community in our Chapter?

How does praying The De Profundis lend itself to building community in our Chapter?

5. What metaphor was used in the video concerning the choir stalls?

Why do the Dominican Sisters on left sit while those on right stand?

Then, why do they reverse this for the next psalm?

“History of the Dominican Laity”

by Father Richard Webber, OP

In 1974, on the seventh centenary of the death of St. Thomas Aquinas, I delivered a paper entitled: “A Modern Dominican Looks at His Out-Dated Patron.” Though the title was meant to be facetious, its intent was serious: St. Thomas, not “Thomism,” is the valuable heritage of Dominicans and the model of theologians.

The publication of that talk in Challenge, however, provoked some comment. One Dominican director warned his chapter about “smart aleck, young Dominicans” who “attack” St. Thomas today and will soon, he warned, be “attacking” St. Dominic.

This present article is based upon a talk I gave to the Provincial Council of the Dominican Laity. Their acceptance of its thesis has encouraged me to prepare it for publication. But I feel that some who “read as they run” may misinterpret this article as well. Some may feel that somehow St. Dominic is “attacked,” for I must state clearly and positively that the Third Order was not founded directly by Dominic.

This opinion is not set forth in any mood of iconoclastic deprecation; I do not mean to shock anyone by playing the role of destructive critic. Truth — Veritas — is the motto of our Order; and it is a far better guide than legends, however pious. My intent is not to make the Third Order less “Dominican” but rather to show just how essentially Dominican it is. My appreciation of the Third Order has been deepened by examining its history. I present this paper to my Dominican brothers and sisters in the hope that it will also help them to deepen their love of our Order.

Beginnings 

Historians are under an obligation to discover how things really happened. This task sometimes makes them less than welcome partners. Cardinal Manning, in the 19th century, stated that, “the appeal to history is treason to the Church.” Yet in the 20th century, Hubert Jedin has written that, “without a knowledge of history, a purified love of the Church is impossible.” Welcome or not, historians must begin. And here they have developed an annoying habit. They have a compulsion to go far back in beginning their stories. John Tracy Ellis, for instance, in writing about Catholics in colonial America, began with the Emperor Constantine in A.D. 312.

Thus, it is not surprising that the “history” of the Third Order does not begin in 1285, when the Master General Munio de Zamora officially promulgated its Rule, nor back to the early years of the 13th century, when St. Dominic lived and worked. The “history” of the Third Order goes back many decades before that. To understand what the Third Order is and whence it came, we have to look at the Church of the Middle Ages and the society in which it lived.

For at least a century and a half, romantic notions of the Middle Ages have colored our perceptions of the reality of that time. Slogans such as “The Thirteenth, the Greatest of Centuries” have no place in a serious discussion. Medieval society was complex. These were not “the best of times”; many medieval men believed indeed that they were the worst times. Vincent of Beauvais, writing in the mid-13th century, declared that the end of the world must come very soon, since the world could get no more sinful than it was then.

Yet, though the picture of the Middle Ages as “the Ages of Faith” is overdrawn, it is undeniable that certain Christian attitudes and ideals were helping to shape the lives of many people and influencing society. One such idea was that of creatio (creation). This was God’s world; though men and women might be in revolt against God’s law, the idea of God informed and shaped the thinking of both saint and sinner about the world. A second attitude was that of perigrinatio (pilgrimage). Life was seen as a journey through this world of tears and sorrows to a better world beyond death. Our conduct on this journey was all-important.

A most important concept was that of ordo (order). Everything in the universe is shaped according to a divine plan. The heavens run according to God’s order; the earth, too, runs according to His plan. There is as well an order in human society and in human affairs. These various “orders” are interrelated; they mirror each other. The macrocosm, the universe, is matched by the microcosm, man. Society must exhibit this order.

How were these attitudes and concepts applied in practice? The men and women of the Middle Ages faced enormous problems in adjusting a Christian concept of life to the intractable demands of daily existence. The majority of people still lived upon the land, in an agricultural society. Villages were isolated and poor; the people were without education. The rural clergy, like the people they served, were rustic and ignorant. Leadership in this society had for centuries been the prerogative of a feudal nobility. These knights, romanticized in novels and movies as dashing, chivalric paragons of virtue, were often, in reality, a ruffianly lot: mafia-types in armor, living in drafty and unsanitary stone and timber stockades.

Problems 

In the 11th century, however, the stagnation of the early Middle Ages in its feudalistic and manorialistic ruts began to end. An “urban revolution” occurred: people began to move into rapidly developing towns; commerce and industry began to revive; new lifestyles developed; and a bourgeois middle class began to emerge. The towns challenged all the established conventions of the Middle Ages; they challenged the Church as well. People became interested in making money. The rough communalism of the early Middle Ages was challenged by a rising individualism.

Paradoxically, the greatest problem was the false assumption that this culture was a “Christian” culture. The Church was “established,” the hierarchy was rich and powerful. Yet although everyone called himself “Catholic,” the level of religious commitment was low; although the clergy were powerful, they were also largely corrupt.

The greed and ignorance of the clergy are a constant theme in the writings of the Middle Ages. Learned treatises and popular songs and stories told of the parish priest who knew only enough Latin to mumble through a Mass; of the priests who never preached; of the priests so avaricious that they would not administer the sacraments unless paid.

Besides the greed, there was also superstition. The conversion of tribes and kingdoms had often taken place by the simple command of a king or chief. The former shrines of pagan gods and goddesses had been transformed into shrines of Christian saints or of Mary. But people still visited these shrines with pagan ideas such as: “If I burn this candle for you, you must protect my crops,” or “I will make an offering in return for your assistance.” Too often the level of Christian observance was merely formal. Beneath the observance of Christian feasts and ceremonies the life was often unchristian.

Reform Movements 

But the picture is not unrelievedly dark. Throughout the Middle Ages there was a constant demand for reform. It came from all classes of society. In the 10th century the German emperors tried to reform the Church; in the 11th, the reforming movement was led by monastic groups like Cluny and later the Cistercians. In the 12th, the call and dynamism for reform came from the laity.

Changed social conditions helped to call forth this lay reform movement. Towns and cities had grown up; trade and industry had revived. A demand grew for a deepening of Christian faith. An example of this can be found in the wool-weaving trade. While weavers sat around doing their work, someone read to them, often from the Bible. Between readings the weavers began to discuss what had been read. For many it was the first time they had heard the Bible. They began to contrast what the Bible said a Christian should do with what they are doing; they contrasted what the New Testament said a preacher of the Gospel should be with how their own priests lived.

Such a movement for reform had varied effects. In some cases it led people to a deeper union with the Church, to work for reform within the body of the Church; in other cases, it led people out of the Church, to proclaim a “Gospel” that was set up against the “Church” of corruption and sin.

The lay-reform movement had no definite founders; it had no definite program, except for a return to the Gospel. This call for evangelical simplicity and values ran deep in the Middle Ages; medieval men and women had a “nostalgia for the Sermon on the Mount,” as Ronald Knox expressed it.

“Order of Penitence” 

The name generally applied to the movement at the time was “the Order of Penitence.” This “order” expressed the deep medieval concern for the order that must underlie all of human society. The members of the movement were called “penitents.” The movement cut across all borders and across all social classes. Penitents would appear in one area, then reappear in another. Orthodox or heretical, they were bitterly critical of the “establishment” in the Church: the bishops who were more concerned with politics, the lazy, greedy monks, the ignorant, grasping priests. Their cries against this kind of clergy found an echo at Rome where Pope Gregory VII had seized leadership of a reform movement that would transform the Church. The cross currents are vividly illustrated in the incident of Ramihrad, a layman of Cambrai in France. He was a “penitent” who preached against the corruption of the local clergy. He was seized and burned at the stake for heresy, in 1077, at the very time when the Pope in Rome was advocating the same thing.

The origins of the Third Order can be found in this lay reform movement, among the Penitents. The Third Order thus comes out of an unruly, pious, evangelistic, radical group, men and women unhappy with the decadence of clergy and religious, repulsed by the formalism and superstition of the merely nominal “Christians,” and deeply anxious to live a truly evangelical life.

All the reform groups of the later Middle Ages will have some connection with this movement. The Franciscan and Dominican movements will have a close relation with it. Out of this group as well will come all the heretics of the 13th century. There is thus an extraordinarily complex relation here, one that must be examined.

Third Orders 

One type of relation is exemplified in the group called the Humiliati. These lay people had dressed in a kind of “habit”; most importantly, they insisted upon their right to preach. In 1184 they were excommunicated for heresy. In 1201 Pope Innocent III reconciled a portion of this group to the Church on the basis of a distinction: those who would preach must become clerics and be ordained. They became a clerical Order of Humiliati. Those who remained as lay people would form a lay Order of Humiliati, in dependence upon the clerical Order. The lay Humiliati are the first group to be described as a “Third Order.”

Another type of relation is shown in the history of the Franciscan Order. In the past it has often been alleged that St. Francis founded a lay Order, and that out of this lay Order finally evolved, to the founder’s chagrin, a clerical order. Father Cajetan Esser, a contemporary Franciscan historian, has disproved this. Francis founded first a clerical order. The Franciscans were “from the beginning a canonical order, although certainly with novel and new features.” Francis founded an order of men that was never consciously a lay movement nor yet exclusively a clerical community, but rather a combination of the two. But this Franciscan fraternitas was profoundly influenced by the lay reform movement and had close ties with it. Around the year 1221, Francis decided to found a group of lay people associated with his original group. This was the founding of the Franciscan Third Order.

Here it is important to realize what the words “religious” and “religious order” meant in the 13th century. Profession of a particular rule and the wearing of a particular habit made one then a “religious.” Canon law of the time held that those who bound themselves “to a more difficult and holier life” are religious, contrasting them to those who lived a completely secular life. The contrast was between those who lived a “regular” life — the life of profession to a rule (regula) — and those who lived a totally secular life. In the 13th century meaning of the term, therefore, members of a “Third Order” were truly religious and their association constituted a truly religious order.

The Dominicans 

At length we come to St. Dominic Here the relation, in one sense, is simple. Dominic founded a clerical religious order. He himself was a cleric, a canon; he founded his Order on the Rule of St. Augustine, a rule for clerics; the members of this order were clerics. But the inspiration of his Order, the spirit of his order, was the same inspiration and spirit that informed the lay reform movement; the integral gospel, an apostolic spirit, and evangelical poverty. The aims of the lay reform movement were applied now to clerics.

The Dominican Order captured the spirit and the thrust of the times. It appealed to men from the middle classes of the towns and cities; it appealed to the students of the universities that had grown up with the towns. Dominicans were so visibly associated with this class of people that when Thomas Aquinas, scion of a great, noble family, wanted to join them, he was forcibly restrained from doing so for a year by his brothers. The family of Aquinas had determined that Thomas would be a Benedictine — an order worthy of nobility; they would not allow Thomas to lower himself in social status to join the Dominicans, a non-noble community.

The Dominican orientation was, from the beginning, toward the people of the towns, towards the universities. And these were the same people most affected by and interested in the “penitent” movement. From the first appearance of the Dominicans in their town, large number of laity sought theological and spiritual direction from the Friars Preachers. The Dominicans, when they went to Paris and Bologna, Cologne and Barcelona, found that the people who welcomed them were the laity, not the parish clergy. Again and again the records speak of friction with the local clergy; but always the records speak of an eager acceptance by laity who were seeking help to live a Christian life.

The relation between the Dominicans, a clerical community, and the lay reform movement is, therefore, one of mutual help. Dominicans find support and material help from the laity; the laity find among the Dominicans their spiritual directors and counselors. The origins of a Dominican “third order” can be found in the “association” of the two groups, the lay groups associating and affiliating with the friars.

“Penitents of St. Dominic” 

From 1225 onward, we begin to hear mention of the “Penitents of St. Dominic.” The depth and the extent of the association of these groups with the Order of Friars Preachers cannot always be accurately judged. It seems certain, however, that there was some kind of dependence upon local Dominican priories. Humbert of Romans gave a sermon to a group called the “Brothers of Penance,” obviously an important group of laity but not yet a “third order.” A small group of laymen entered into a close association with the Order: the “oblates.” They were laymen who gave their money and goods to the Order and lived in the convent under religious obedience.

The association of a “penitent” group with the Order is illustrated also by an incident in 1260 at Perouse. A holy hermit living in that locality — Rainier, by name — was distressed at the bitter struggle between the two factions of Guelfs and Ghibellines. Feuds and bloodshed were the results of this division. Rainier began to preach a crusade of reconciliation and attracted large crowds of people. He began a march upon the city, followed by the huge throng of people singing hymns and chanting prayers

The civil and religious authorities of the town, fearing a disturbance, diverted the crowd into smaller groups, directing one group to enter by the north gate of the city, a second to enter the south gate, and still a third group to use the west gate The groups became identified with the church nearest the respective gate In that city, henceforth they were known as the “Penitents of St. Augustine,” the “Penitents of St. Francis,” and the “Penitents of St. Dominic.”

Dominican Third Order 

In 1280 two factors operated toward some kind of regularization of this relation. First of all, by 1280, many of these lay penitent groups were drifting into heresy. From criticism of an individual priest there developed criticism of the entire sacramental system. “Why pay money to the priest, to give out the sacraments?” The question was then asked: “Why have sacraments at all? Why not be in direct contact with God, without priest or sacraments?”

The second reason was that Munio de Zamora, Master General of the Dominicans at that time, decided that an organization of some sort had to be devised for these people. Accordingly, in 1285, Munio de Zamora published a “Rule for Penitents of St. Dominic.” This is the foundation, the origin of the Third Order. 1285 is your birthday.

Early Rule 

The Rule of Munio de Zamora was in 22 chapters. In order to enter the Order of Penitents of St. Dominic (we read in one chapter) one had to have a certificate that attested to one’s moral life, good reputation, and orthodox faith. According to the Rule, postulants must acquire the zeal of Dominic for the defense and propagation of the Faith. The apostolic end of the Order was clearly stated; all penitential practices were to be directed to the apostolate. The Dominican Third Order was never conceived of as a way of making salvation easier, or subjecting one to certain customs or obligations. It was from the outset to be an apostolate in the world. The Rule of Zamora demanded that one must have settled all his debts and been reconciled to all his enemies. The habit was a white tunic and black cloak of simple material.

Approval of a majority of those who belonged to the Third Order chapter was needed for a postulant to be received. Once accepted, he was forbidden to leave, except to enter another religious order with solemn vows. In other words, one could not leave to enter another Third Order, or return to “secular life.” The ceremony of profession was a real canonical entrance into an Order. There was an obligation to recite the Divine Office, so far as possible. On Sundays and feast days from November 1 to Easter, members of the Third Order were obligated to recite the night office, Matins at 2 A.M. There were severe rules on fast and abstinence: fast every Friday and, of course, on the eve of all principal feast days; no meat was allowed except on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Members were to give up all worldliness, all banquets, revelries (the word used for “revelries” is basically the word for “wedding parties”), and dances.

Tertiaries were under obedience to their directors to such an extent that they could not leave town without his permission. There were obligations to sick members, and obligations to certain suffrage prayers.

Expulsion was possible for grave and scandalous faults. The director of the Third Order chapter was chosen by the Order and named to his office. The chapter itself elected a prior or a prioress from among its senior members.

A Second Tradition 

There has been a somewhat divergent tradition about the origin of the Third Order. This tradition holds that the Third Order evolved from the “Militia of Jesus Christ,” a group founded directly by Dominic. The tradition rests upon a statement by Raymond of Capua in the 14th century. It is the tradition that is repeated by Benedict XV in his encyclical letter of 1920 to the Third Order. But the tradition had been undermined by historical research.

First of all, this “Militia of Jesus Christ,” even if it had been a part of the penitent movement (and we are not exactly sure whether it was or was not), had a different focus. It was for the military defense of the Church and Church members in those areas where heretics had taken over the administration of towns. In those cases the “Militia of Jesus Christ,” a “vigilante” organization, protected the property of the Church and the Catholics. The aim of the penitents, on the other hand, was ascetic and evangelical.

Secondly, we have the documents that prove that the Militia was founded by Fulques, Bishop of Toulouse, a close and intimate; friend of St. Dominic. But no document associates Dominic with its founding. It seems very probable that Raymond concluded that since Dominic’s good friend founded it, Dominic also must have some relation with it. But there is no evidence to that effect. The bishop of Toulouse is its sole founder.

Later the Dominicans did assume some responsibility for the Militia. The Militia was officially approved by Pope Gregory IX in 1233; two years later, in a letter to the Dominican Master General, the Pope instructed the Dominicans to take over the spiritual direction and guidance of the “Militia of Jesus Christ.”

Dominicans were acquainted with the work of the “Militia of Jesus Christ,” and, in northern Italy, Militia chapters were founded by Dominicans. For example, the Dominican Bartholomew of Vicence began the Militia in northern Italy. This is where the tradition arises. The picture is somewhat confused. But it is well established now that the origins of the Third Order are to be found in the “Penitent” movement and not in the “Militia of Jesus Christ.”

[The “Militia of Jesus Christ” has been revived in our own time, especially in France and attempts have been made to institute chapters in this country. The Master General of the Dominican Order was petitioned by members of this Militia to be associated with the Dominican Order but he has refused permission.]

Munio de Zamora, then, gave the Rule to the Third Order in 1285. But this action antagonized the incumbent Pope, Nicholas IV. Pope Nicholas was a former Minister General of the Franciscan Order. He had an idea of what to do with the Penitent movement: attach all the penitent groups to the Franciscan Order. Thus, he was quite unhappy with de Zamora’s action in affiliating a substantial sector of the penitent movement with the Dominicans. This, along with several other grudges which he seems to have had against Zamora, caused him in 1290 to demand that the Dominican General Chapter remove this Master General from office. The General Chapter met, and refused to remove him. In the next year, 1291 — Pope Nicholas deposed him personally. But by now the Third Order was firmly established, and survived.

Subsequent History 

Historians of the Order have noted that the subsequent history of the Third Order follows the pattern of the First Order. There is a flourishing, a decline, a reform, another flourishing, a decline, and a reform. In 1316, for instance, Pope John XXII complains in a letter that “tertiaries” and “beguines” in large numbers were falling into heresy. But then he adds, “I exclude the Dominican tertiaries whose faith and docility to the Church are irreproachable.”

By the 14th century both the Third Order and the First Order were in deep decline and seriously in need of reform. Raymond of Capua, who became Master General in 1380, complained that there were no men in the Third Order, that at least in northern Italy, it was simply a group of pious old ladies. These groups were called the Mantellata. The Mantellata would receive no young ladies, only widows of mature age. Catherine of Siena, for instance, found it difficult to break into this religious elite. Raymond criticized the Mantellata, declaring that while they may have been pious, they were much too exclusive.

While he was Master General he reformed the First Order, and approved the work of another Dominican, Friar Thomas Coffarini, to reform the Third Order. Friar Thomas began in Venice; he preached the Third Order, opened it up to men and women and to young and old. Raymond wrote to Thomas that what he was doing was especially pleasing to him because it honored the Blessed Catherine, “my mother.” An eminent co-worker of Coffarini in reviving the Third Order was John Dominici, Dominican Prior in Florence, and one of the greatest preachers of the 14th century. In 1405, in the Bull Apostolicae Sedis, Pope Innocent VII gave canonical approval to the Third Order. Vincent Ferrer in the 14th century preached the Third Order throughout France. In the 16th century the Third Order was taken by Dominican missionaries to their missions in the Orient: to Japan, to China, and to Indo-China. A great many Dominican martyrs from those regions were members of the Third Order.

But, once again, as with the First Order, there was a decline during the 17th and 18 centuries. By the time of the French Revolution, the Third Order as well as the First, were in decline. After the French Revolution the decline continued. Chapters of the Third Order in France were described as “parochial societies.” In the mid 19th century, when Father Lacordaire renewed the First Order, he asserted that the first order of business was to renew the Third Order, and by way of underlining its renewal, in a ceremony in Notre Dame Cathedral, gave the Dominican habit to four youths, in 1844.

Conclusion

The conclusions I would draw from this brief history are these:

The Third Order has its origin in the desire of the laity for a radical, evangelical style of life. The Third Order found its origin in this and, I think, finds its continued reason for existence in this.

The Third Order became associated with the Order of Preachers because it found that the Dominican apostolate and the Dominican spirit of action and contemplation, was its aim, also.

The Third Order is truly an Order, an ordo, and Tertiaries are truly religious in the medieval sense of those words and the medieval sense of these words is much more relevant to contemporary conditions than the words of modern canon law.

 

The Third Order and the First Order are bound together in what I call a “symbiotic” relation. Webster defines “symbiosis” as “the living together in more or less intimate association or close union of two dissimilar organisms”: “a mutually beneficial relationship.”

The Third Order requires a clear program of apostolic aims for full flowering and productivity.

Throughout the presentation I have referred to the Third Order. The name has now been changed; it is now “Dominican Laity.” I think that this is to say, at least, a mistranslation, since it transposes the adjective and the noun. From 1217 to 1285 the term “Dominican Laity” would have been acceptable, but the history of our Order leads me to conclude that the term should be “Lay Dominican.” You are members of the Order by historical association and conscious profession. Remember the groups led by Rainier the hermit. “You have gone in by the gate of St. Dominic.”

Reading List

Dominicana

Ch 3 (The History)

Ch 4 (Mission of the Order)

Sacred Scripture

Acts 4:23 – 21:36

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraphs 476-658

Further Information Online

Institue of Catholic Culture

Saint Dominic & The Preachers – audio presentation – www.instituteofcatholicculture.org/saint-dominic-the-preachers/

The True Story of the Inquisition – video presentation – www.instituteofcatholicculture.org/the-true-story-of-the-inquisition/

 

Dominicana: A Guidebook for Inquirers

Ch. 3 (The History)

1. What background did Saint Dominic have before founding the Order of Preachers?
2. Compare the heresy of Albigensianism to the Pagan thinking of today?
3. In Saint Dominic’s last will and testament, what does he leave his Dominican Family? Apply this to your Dominican way of life.
4. What does he remind his followers at the very end of his Testament?

 

Ch. 4 (The Mission of the Order)

1. What is the common thread of the Order’s mission that flows through all branches? What is the Mission of the Order?
2. How does the Lay Dominican play a role in the Mission of the Order?
3. Write your comments on the two videos from Institute of Catholic Culture on Saint Dominic the Preacher and The True Story of the Inquisition.

The Pillars of Dominican Life:

Liturgical Prayer

Until about thirty years ago we had what was known as the Dominican Rite. We Dominicans celebrated Mass and Divine Office differently than the rest of the Western Church. The feature that most people noticed was that we took water and wine into the chalice at the beginning of Mass rather than at the Offertory. There were many other differences too but that was the most obvious. The reason we had our own rite was that at the beginning of the Order in the 13th century, there was no one officially approved way of celebrating Mass. Every city or area in Europe had its own variation of the liturgy. The Order was the first to move its men around all over. If a Dominican was moved from Cologne to Paris to Naples, let us say – as St. Thomas Aquinas was – he had to learn a whole new way of celebrating Mass every time he moved. It got so that our men were spending about as much time re-learning how to celebrate Mass as they were in preaching or teaching. Rather early on they got the idea of having just one rite for Dominicans no matter where they went. In 1256 Blessed Humbert de Romans, the fifth Master of the Order, issued a new unified liturgy. In 1267, Pope Clement VII approved it and Dominicans held to it until recently. The reason we able to do that was that when St. Pope Pius V in 1570 imposed on the whole Church what is correctly known as the Roman Rite – not Tridentine as some call it – he exempted those rites which had been approved for over two hundred years. Remember now, the Dominican Rite was approved in 1267 – 203 years before.

Also remember, St. Pius V was a Dominican which goes to show that it pays to have one of your men in the right place at the right time. When the new rite of the liturgy was approved in the 60’s we adopted it because there were no strong reasons for holding on to our old Dominican Rite, especially since many of the features of the new rite were more similar to the old Dominican Rite than it was to the old Roman Rite. Our old Solemn Mass was even more magnificent than the Pontifical Mass celebrated by bishops. Its only problem was that it was so complicated that few of us were able to get through it without making quite a number of errors, and we had no Master of Ceremonies to keep us on the right track as the Roman Rite did. The Dominicans have always been devoted to the Liturgy, going back to St. Dominic himself who had been a Canon Regular at the Cathedral in Osma, Spain. He loved the Divine Office and celebrated Mass everyday that he could. Sometimes, of course, in his peregrinations around Europe he would be caught out in the middle of nowhere with no church around. But otherwise, he did not miss celebrating Mass or the Divine Office.

This love of the liturgy became central to Dominican life, a rich source of prayer and a powerful means of uniting ourselves to Christ. But before we go any further let us make sure that we clearly understand what the Liturgy is. It is the official worship of the Church, the Body of Christ, the People of God, offering praise and worship to God, to the Holy Trinity. It is centered in the Mass and expanded in the Divine Office or Prayer of Christians. When one joins in celebrating Mass or when he or she says the Prayer of Christians, even when saying it alone, he or she is joined to the whole Church in prayer, worship and praise.

Through the Liturgical Year, which begins with the First Sunday of Advent, we enter into the mysteries of Christ. We go through the life of Christ from the divine preparations for his coming to his birth at Christmas to the Epiphany and Baptism. We then have the beginnings of our consideration of his public life, but shortly thereafter, on Ash Wednesday, we plunge into Lent and the events leading up to his Passion and Death. Then comes Easter, the celebration of his Resurrection, Ascension into Heaven and the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the new Church. When that is over we will go back to the public life of our Lord to reflect on those three years he spent walking the dusty roads and hills of Galilee and Judea, preaching, teaching and healing.

Through the Liturgical Year, then, we come into intimate contact with Christ our Lord and re-live the mysteries that wrought our salvation, and through it we are enabled to become more like unto him. As Pere Festigire, a great French Dominican scholar, said, the liturgy is “the method authentically instituted by the Church to make souls like unto Jesus.” (Quoted in Pere Bernadot, O.P. in Dominican Spirituality, translated by Anselm Townsend, O.P., p. 87), or as Pere Bernadot himself says, “it is the most simple and certain way to become like unto Jesus Christ.” (Loc. cit., p. 91). Back in 1919, Abbot Columba Marmion published one of the great classics of our time, ‘Christ in His Mysteries’, in which he shows how wonderfully the revelation of the Gospels concerning our Lord is taken up and elaborated by the liturgy during the year and how the whole effect of the Church’s worship is to furnish motives and means for the imitation of Christ. The Liturgy, then, is another one of those marvelous resources God has made available to us to grow in holiness. What a treasure we have! Not only did St. Dominic see and appreciate this, but also Dominicans down through the years have done so. They have – and still do – see it as an effective antidote to the activity of preaching and prevents the preacher from getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of traveling from place to place and also from becoming proud if he is successful and popular. The Liturgy is a constant reminder of his mission – to preach Christ and him crucified.

For those Friars engaged in teaching, the Liturgy prevented their study and preparation for classes and lectures from becoming cold and abstract speculation. In fact, it complements what they are studying for the Liturgy celebrates the mysteries of Christ which they are endeavoring to understand. As Pere Bernadot says: “This is living dogma speaking to the heart as well as the intelligence.” (op. cit., p.92) It should be noted that the Liturgy contains the fullness of Catholic teaching in its prayers, psalms, hymns, readings from Scripture and the Fathers of the Church . And we must remember as well that every word has been approved by the highest authority in the Church. It not only inflames the heart but also nourishes the mind because, as we have said, it brings us into intimate contact with Christ and his mysteries.

This was all well and good for the Friars who were, of course, fluent in Latin, because, for hundreds of years, that was, throughout the Western Church, the only language the Liturgy was in, but how about the lay people who were not able to understand Latin? Those who could not read any language at all could recite a certain number of Our Fathers and Hail Mary’s during the day. Later on, those who could read some language could say the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But it was the same office everyday and after awhile it became boring or, at least, monotonous. There was no variety to speak of, but our Dominican Laity would loyally and devoutly keep to it.

In 1970, everything changed. The Holy Father approved the revision of the Liturgy of the Hours, mandated by the Second Vatican Council, and shortly after, in 1975, an English translation was published and the laity could recite the Liturgy of the Hours right along with the clergy and religious. As Pope Paul said in the Apostolic Constitution approving the New Office:

The Office has been drawn up and arranged in such a way that not only clergy but also religious and indeed laity may participate in it, since it is the prayer of the whole people of God.

For this reason, the General Rule for all Dominican Laity, promulgated in 1987, recommended, “the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours in union with the whole Dominican family.” Most Province Directories have a similar recommendation.

We use the word “recommends” rather than “obliges” because nothing in the Dominican Rule for any of its branches binds under the pain of sin. St. Dominic was most insistent on this. At any rate, you are fortunate to be able to join with the whole Order in reciting the Liturgy of the Hours. Look upon it as a privilege rather than an obligation, something you want to do because you get so much from it. If you have that attitude, then it will not be difficult to work in morning and/or evening prayer nearly every day anyway. Some days you cannot, so do not worry about it. The General Rule also recommends that the laity attend “as far as possible, daily Mass and Communion.” Another advantage the revised liturgy has brought is evening Mass, which makes it so much easier for people to get to Mass on a daily basis. But as the Rule recognizes this is not always possible, and for many it will be impossible all the time because of the hours of work, a long commute, family and home responsibilities and a number of other factors over which we have no control. It is, however, an ideal and a goal we should keep in mind so that someday we will be able to. I am always amazed at the number of people who do make the sacrifice to get to daily Mass. They do it because they know from their own experience that participating in the renewal of the life-giving sacrifice of Christ on the Cross gives them spiritual strength to meet the trials, difficulties and hardships of life. The Mass, along with the Prayer of Christians, are the most powerful means available to us to grow spiritually, to become more like Christ, and enter more fully into his saving mysteries. Lay Dominicans of today are far more fortunate than those of earlier times. You are able to use the same rich resources of the Liturgy the Friars have used for nearly eight centuries to grow in the Dominican life and spirit, resources St. Dominic saw were essential for us to fulfill our mission of bringing truth to the world.Page 39

 

ELEMENTSOFTHELITURGYOFTHEHOURS

Morning Prayer  Lauds  (Soon after rising)	Daytime Prayer  Terce, Sext, None  (9 A.M., Noon, 3P.M.- one hour unless obligated to all three)	Evening Prayer  Vespers  (Early evening)	Night Prayer  Compline  (Just before bedtime)	Office  Matins  (Anytime of day)
Praise of and thanks to God, worship. Old Testament revelation leading to Christ.	Commitment to following Gods will. Obedience.	Fullness of revelation in New Testament. God sent His Son.	Trust God, Darkness and sleep symbol of Paschal mystery.	While the other hours are primarily speaking to God, this time is to listen to God.
Introduction:  Stand Face Forward (Invitatory) Verse Doxology: Choral Stance Alleluia	Introduction:  Stand Face Forward (Invitatory) Verse Doxology: Choral Stance Alleluia	Introduction:  Stand Face Forward (Invitatory) Verse Doxology: Choral Stance Alleluia	Introduction:  Stand Face Forward (Invitatory) Verse Doxology: Choral Stance Alleluia	Introduction:  Stand Face Forward (Invitatory) Verse Doxology: Choral Stance Alleluia
Hymn: Stand Choral Stance	Hymn: Stand Choral Stance	Hymn: Stand Choral Stance	Hymn: Stand Choral Stance	Hymn: Stand Choral Stance
Psalmody: Sit The antiphon at the beginning may be repeated at the end. Psalm prayers are optional.	Psalmody: Sit The antiphon at the beginning may be repeated at the end. Psalm prayers are optional.	Psalmody: Sit The antiphon at the beginning may be repeated at the end. Psalm prayers are optional.	Psalmody: Sit The antiphon at the beginning may be repeated at the end. Psalm prayers are optional.	Psalmody: Sit The antiphon at the beginning may be repeated at the end. Psalm prayers are optional.
Reading: Sit (Pause for reflection)	Reading: Sit (Pause for reflection)	Reading: Sit (Pause for reflection)	Reading: Sit (Pause for reflection)	First Reading: Sit (Pause for reflection)
Reponsory	Reponsory	Reponsory	Reponsory	Reponsory
Canticle of Zechariah: Stand Choral Stance	Canticle of Mary: Stand Choral Stance	Canticle of Simeon: Stand Choral Stance	Second Reading: Sit (Pause for reflection)
Intersession: Stand (Consecrate day to God) Face Forward	Intersession: Stand (Universal concerns and for the dead) Face Forward
Our Father: Stand Face Forward	Our Father: Stand Face Forward
Final Prayer and Conclusion: Stand Face Forward	Final Prayer and Conclusion: Stand Face Forward	Final Prayer and Conclusion: Stand Face Forward	Final Prayer and Conclusion: Stand Face Forward	Final Prayer and Conclusion: Stand Face Forward

Note: Postures are used in communal celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours. Page 40

 

TERMS 

1. Antiphon: a short text, usually from scripture, as a refrain before and after a psalm, canticle in the liturgy.
2. Canticle: a lyric or song of thanksgiving not from the Psalms and composed by a famous person of the Old or New Testament.
3. Invitatory: an exhortation to praise God at the beginning of the day’s Divine Office.
4. Memorials: certain celebrations of the Saints. When the word is found in the liturgical books after the Saint’s name, these are Obligatory. When no indication occurs, the celebration is Optional.
5. Ordinary Time: the name given to the part of the liturgical year that does not fall within one of the major seasons (Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter) and does not observe any specific aspect of the Mystery of Christ.
6. Proper: those parts of the Divine Office (and the Mass) that vary according to the feast or the liturgical season and do not belong to the Ordinary of the common of the saints but rather to the particular day/feast.
7. Responsory: a meditation on a biblical reading in the Divine Office, shedding light on the passage just read.

 

Reading List

Sacred Scripture

Acts 21:37 – End

1 Thessalonians

Galatians

James

Mark 1:1 – 1:28

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraphs 659 – 829

 

Opening and Closing of Dominican Compline 

While making the sign of the cross: 

V. O God, come to my assistance 

R. O Lord, make haste to help us 

Glory be… 

Pause and make an examination of conscience

Confiteor Deo omnipotenti, et beatae Mariae semper virgini, et beato Dominico Patri nostro, et omnibus Sanctis, (et vobis fratres), quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, locutione, opere et omissione, mea culpa: precor vos orare pro me.	I confess to almighty God, to blessed Mary ever virgin, to blessed Dominic our Father, to all the saints, (and to you, my brothers and sisters), that I have sinned exceedingly by thought, word, deed and omission through my fault: I beseech you to pray for me.
Misereatur nostri omnipotens Deus, et dimittat nobis omnia peccate nostra, liberat nos ab omni opere bone et perducat nos ad vitam aeternam. Amen	May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins, deliver us from every evil, save us and Strengthen us in every good work, and lead us into everlasting life. Amen
Salve Regina, Mater misericordiae. Vita, Dulcedo et Spes nostra, salve! Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae, ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia, ergo, advocata nostra illos tuos misericordies oculos ad nos converte, et Jesum benedictum fructum ventris tui nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria,  V. Dignare me laudare te, Virgo sacrata.  R. Da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos. Alleluia!  Concéde nos fámulos tuos, quaesimus, Dómine Deus, perpétua mentis et córporis salúte gaudére et gloriósa beátæ Maríæ Vírginis intercessióne a præsénti liberári tristítia et ætérna pérfrui lætítia. Per Christum Dóminum nostrum.	Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, o most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary,  V. Make me worthy to praise you, o Sacred Virgin,  R. Give me strength against your enemies. Alleluia!  Grant us your servants, we beseech thee, O Lord, to rejoice in perpetuity of mind and health of body and, by the intercession of blessed Mary ever Virgin, free us from present sorrow and lead us to eternal joy. Trough Christ our Lord
O Lumen Ecclesiae,  Doctor veritatis,  Rosa patientiae,  Ebur castitatis,  Aquam sapientiae  propinasti gratis:  Praedicator gratiae,  nos junge beatis.  Alleluia!  V. Ora pro me, beate Pater Dominice  R. Ut digni efficamur promissionibus Christi.	O light of the Church,  Teacher of Truth,  Rose of patience,  Ivory of chastity,  You freely poured forth  the water of Wisdom:  Preacher of grace,  Unite us with the Blessed.  Alleluia!  V. Pray for us, O Holy Father Dominic,  R. That we made be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Concede, quaesimus, omnipotens Deus: ut qui peccatorum nostrorum pondere premimur, beati Dominici, Confessoris tui, Patris nostri, patrocinio sublevemur. Per Christum Dominum nostrum, Amen	Grant, we beseech thee, almighty God, that we who are weighed down by the burden of our sins, may be relieved through the patronage of blessed Dominic, your Confessor, and our Father. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

 

The Lay Dominican as a Contemplative in Modern Society

 

The sounds of progress in modern society are very hard to drown out and we need periodically to move away to a quiet place to recharge and refresh our faith in and love of God. Jesus moved away from the crowds going onto a mountain, out on the lake and into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray to His Father in Heaven. “Learn of Me” he said, so in our search for God, we must move to a quiet place to become recollected.

Dominicans are contemplatives. The majority of Lay Dominicans are busy people working in a society that is moving with an ever increasing pace. To build an interior life with God, there is not always the physical possibility of moving away to a quiet place. St. Catherine escaped from the distraction by mentally escaping to an ‘interior cell’ to be with God. Our search for God is endless; as St. Augustine says “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”

God has placed us in this world, in this present age, amongst all the distractions of modern day living. Our search for God must continue in spite of the distraction of today’s world. God, who formed us, wills that we should search for Him and long for Him throughout our lives and we will not be fully content until we reach the Kingdom of God. God has placed us where we are and He is there with us. This knowledge should help us to look inward and rest in God in the midst of a noisy world.

Contemplation is reflection, that is, thinking deeply. Contemplation of God is thinking about God and the things pertaining to His gifts to mankind.

Silence and solitude are essential for true contemplation. The Scriptures and the Psalms of the Office are the rich sources of contemplation. It is from these riches of Scripture that contemplation will lead to direct prayer with God. Contemplation will encourage detachment and to be truly united to God there must be a sense of detachment from worldly pursuits. This is a difficult achievement for people who are busy working in modern society. There is a lot of activity, noise and distraction to be in daily combat with, but a person who has a hunger to be united to God, to be absorbed in God, will set a timetable to work from, so that there will be habits formed which will allow part of each day to be given to reflection and prayer.

Prayer is the most important part of the Dominican vocation. Mass, the Sacraments, Morning and Evening Prayer and the Rosary will increase union with Christ. St. Dominic would always carry with him on his journeys, the Gospel of St. Matthew and the letters of St. Paul. Whenever they paused to rest on the journey he would read, meditate and pray and he would always ask his companions to join him and think about the Lord.

The difficulties that Lay Dominicans face when endeavouring to follow a contemplative vocation are many. Noise is everywhere. Streets are filled with the jangle of traffic. Offices and factories abound with the noise of machines. Homes are beset by the radio and the television, so that to be a contemplative in a Lay life requires a well-ordered timetable to each day and the discipline of being able to keep to a routine. A Lay Dominican does not have the help of a community to assist with keeping to a life of prayer and contemplation so this is why self-discipline is so important. A person is simply dependent on themselves and sometimes this can be lonely. Some spiritual reading each day, if only for a short period, is necessary for the Lay Dominican to achieve a contemplative spirit.

Dominican Laity cannot be slaves to the fashions and customs of today, but must learn the truth of Christ from the Scriptures and be able to present this truth to others.

The words of the Psalms used in the Office, the gift of the Eucharist and the mysteries of the Rosary are all part of the contemplative’s day. We are told Mary pondered over the words of the Angel and the words of Simeon. We, too, must ponder over these things which tell of the beauty and truth of God.

In contemplation we encounter God, and so are led into deep, private prayer with God. Without this true union with God, the Dominican cannot help others to learn about God, for no-one can give what they do not have.

LITURGICAL PRAYER 

Prayer is essential to the life of the Dominican. In the fundamental Constitution for Lay Dominicans (Montreal 1985) – (10e) states that ‘progress in the fulfilment of their inseparably contemplative and apostolic vocation, the Laity of St. Dominic have recourse to the source of liturgical prayer in union with all the Dominican family, also private prayer, meditation and the Rosary.’ Later in Item (13) of the Constitution it states ‘one of the principle sources of Dominican formation is liturgical prayer.’ 

When a Chapter of the Dominican Laity meets it is a community meeting as a part of the Dominican Order. To be united with the whole of the Dominican family a form of Morning or Evening prayer is said at each meeting. The Chapter, by participating in part of the Divine Office, becomes united with the Church and with the whole of the Dominican Order, each person being a link in the Order presenting praise and petition to God.

The Morning and Evening prayer is composed of Hymns, Psalms and Antiphons. The history of the psalms dates back to the time before the birth of Christ. They were the poems, songs and hymns of Israel. The prophets used them to express all the emotions of man in praising and petitioning God. The Psalms were shouts which expressed the joy, the love, worship, suffering, injury, faith and hope of the people of Israel. We inherited the Psalms from the Hebrew people. The Psalms are the prayers of the Chosen people. They have been used in three periods of time. Firstly, they were the songs of Israel, composed by the prophets who told the story of the people. Then they were used by our Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostles and now in this age they have been adapted for use by the people of God. From the many Psalms used before the time of Christ there was a final collection of Psalms chosen during the fourth century one hundred and fifty Psalms were divided in five books according to the type of Psalm they were in the expression of their sentiment. More than half of the Psalms chosen were attributed to King David.

The Psalms still offer to mankind the deepest, richest, source of prayer. Our Lord used the Psalms as His prayer to the Father. In the Gospel of Luke 24:44 our Lord said: “ This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms has to be fulfilled’. Throughout the New Testament we see that Christ constantly referred to the Psalms and used the hymns of praise and thanksgiving in prayer to the Father.

The early Church then followed this example of prayer, so that today the prayers of the present Liturgy used in the Mass and Divine Office are an adaptation of these ancient Psalms used by our ancestors in Faith. Mass and Morning and Evening Prayer each day are a source of richness in the spiritual life of the Tertiary. The Lay Dominican saying the Morning and Evening Prayer alone is in union with all Dominicans throughout the world, praising and thanking God and praying for the salvation of souls.

The Hymns, Psalms and Antiphons and the Divine Office were dearly loved by St. Dominic and he constantly encouraged his Friars to pray the prayer of the Church devoutly. St. Catherine of Siena could neither read nor write. She longed to read the Psalms so that she could recite the Office. In spite of efforts to learn to read, she was unsuccessful until she begged our Lord to teach her to read if he wished her to recite the Office. Through Divine help her knowledge of the art of reading was acquired and from that time she read fluently and recited the Psalms, sometimes our Lord walking beside her as she recited them.

For the Dominican Laity to begin using Morning and Evening prayer of the Church, the language and thoughts contained in the Psalms will perhaps appear difficult. Prayer is a very personal experience with God and touches some of the deepest emotions and yearnings of a person. The formality of the Hymns, Psalms and Antiphons may, at first, present difficulties to the Lay Dominican who is new to Dominican life, but perseverance will be rewarding, for with some practice the beauty of these ancient words will become a rope to which one will be glad to hold each day and unite the person with the Order and the Church in praise of God.

One of the essentials that we have learnt from the prophets is the reverence which they had for the Laws of God and the adoration of His Majesty, God, when speaking to St. Catherine of Siena, through the means of the Dialogue said: “ I provided for you in the Law of Moses in the Old Testament, and in the holy prophets. Before the coming of My only begotten Son, the Jewish people were never without a Prophet to strengthen and lead them so that they knew that God would make them free men”. The Prophet was the instrument of God to pass God’s message to mankind before the coming of the Word, Jesus Christ. The four Prophets (called major because of the length of their writings) were Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. Twelve shorter books in the Bible were attributed to the minor Prophets – Amos, Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Naham, Habakkuk, Haggai, Zechariah, Obadiah, Malachi, Joel and Jonah. With the coming of the Word there was a new law to replace the law of the Old Testament. Through the centuries the Church has drawn upon the inspired word of God to inspire the people of God to praise God and to give homage to Him. We are indeed ‘A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God’.

In the words of St. Paul (Coloss. 3:16-17). “Let the message of Christ, in all its richness, find a home with you. Teach each other, and advise each other, in all wisdom. With gratitude in your hearts sing psalms and hymns and inspired songs to God; and never say or do anything except in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him”. When you as Dominican Laity pray the Psalms, you are voicing the Prayer of the Church, but the real heart of the prayer will be lost unless you make the words of the Psalms echo from your heart. The quality of prayer is more important than the quantity. God looks at the intentions within the mind and heart of the person. Try to keep your time for prayer free from distractions.

Further Information:

“How to Pray the Liturgy of the Hours” explained by Leon Griesback.
http://www.vimeo.com/32369383

 STRUCTURE OF MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER

Morning Prayer	Evening Prayer
Introduction	Introduction
V. Lord, open our lips R. And we shall praise your name.	V. O God, come to our aid R. O Lord, make haste to help us
Inviatory Psalm and Antiphon	Inviatory Psalm and Antiphon
Hymn	Hymn
Psalmody	Psalmody
Antiphon 1	Antiphon 1
A Morning Psalm Antiphon repeated (silent prayer)	A Psalm Antiphon repeated (silent prayer)
Antiphon 2	Antiphon 2
Old Testament Canticle Antiphon repeated (silent prayer)	A Psalm Antiphon repeated (silent prayer)
Antiphon 3	Antiphon 3
A Psalm of praise Antiphon repeated (silent prayer)	New Testament Canticle Antiphon repeated (silent prayer)
Scripture Reading (silent prayer) Short Responsory Gospel Canticle	Scripture Reading (silent prayer) Short Responsory Gospel Canticle
Benedictus antiphon Canticle of Zachariah Antiphon repeated	Magnificat Antiphon Canticle of Mary Antiphon repeated
Intercessions	Intercessions
Invocations of praise	Prayers of Intercession (final prayer are always for the faithful departed)
(Silent prayer) The Lord’s Prayer Concluding Prayer Blessing	(Silent prayer) The Lord’s Prayer Concluding Prayer Blessing

 

Questions

1. Saint Dominic gave us the “model”…carrying the Gospel of Matthew and the letters of St. Paul wherever he journeyed. What do you carry on your journey?
2. Explain how we “cannot be slaves to the fashions and customs of today”? Where do you find “quiet” for contemplative prayer?
3. We will practice Evening Prayer during Meeting Four. Write your reflections on the video “The Divine Office” by Father Jeremy Driscoll, OSB.

“The Purpose of the Dominican Laity”

by Charles R. Matesta, OP

Introduction 

Before speaking of the Purpose of the Dominican Laity it is necessary to face and lay to rest certain ideas that seem prevalent concerning the Dominican lay vocation. In particular three such ideas must be mentioned.

First, the Dominican Laity has been described as a “devotional prayer society in particular for older people.” Father Schilebeeckx described it thus in The Dominican Third Order “Old and New Style.” This idea denies the apostolic purpose of the Order.

Second, there is an idea that the Dominican Laity is a group whose nature has been determined once and for all at some point in the past, and which, consequently, can point infallibly to some document, presumably the Rule of the Dominican Laity, as a never-changing model for all things pertaining to the Dominican Laity. Yet the General Chapter of the Dominican Order, as long ago as 1958, petitioned the Master General of the Order “to establish a special commission which must make a penetrating study of the nature of the Third Order.” Obviously this indicates a less than complete understanding of the nature of the Dominican Laity as a part of the Order.

Last, there has been confusion about the place of the Dominican Laity and of all “Third Order” groups in the structure of the Church. Some would make of these people mini-religious, people who are no longer laypersons in the usual meaning of that term. This is untrue. Members of the Dominican Laity are indeed laypersons.

The fact that these ideas have been expressed and unfortunately lived, indicates the necessity of some change in the understanding of the Dominican vocation. In this paper we will examine some of these necessary changes.

The Dominican Family 

Before we can understand the Dominican lay vocation, however, we must establish the purpose of the laity in the Dominican family. If we are searching for the fundamental realities relating to things Dominican, the first place we must look is the Constitutions of the Order of Friars Preachers.

These Constitutions, insofar as they are laws, bind only the priests and brothers of the Order. Yet the Constitutions as we have them today have descended directly from the original Constitutions written by St. Dominic and the first brethren — written, that is, by those men whom the Spirit first led to conceive of, and to live, Dominican life. What they set down was their attempt to put into words a description of the life they had experienced. Accordingly, the fundamental concepts of what it means to be a Dominican will be found in this source — as well as in the writings of their descendants in the Order.

In a return to an earlier, and more intelligible, presentation of basic Dominican ideas, those who rewrote the Constitution after Vatican II began with a section titled “The Basic Constitution.” The ninth and last article in that section, in the translation produced by our Australian Province, reads:

The Dominican family comprises clerical and cooperator brothers, nuns, sisters, members of secular institutes, and fraternities of priests and lay folk.

It is obvious from the reference to “fraternities of priests and lay folk” that members of the Dominican Laity are authentic members of the family Dominican. This is the first fact to be considered in determining their purpose.

Lay Members of the Family 

It is also important to emphasize, however, that these people are LAY members of the family. The Constitutions of the Order of Friars Preachers explicitly asserts that “lay fraternities of the Order are associations of lay people (149, I). They are lay members of the people of God — laymen and laywomen — to whom the Spirit has given those qualities, or that particular combination of qualities that equal Dominican. Since the [most recent] General Chapter of the Order (1974) deleted the terms “first” “second,” and “third” as designating various divisions of the Dominican family, lay members have been called, in the United States at least, Dominican Laity.

Father Weber argues that the term ought to be “Lay Dominicans.” He argues so on the theological grounds. I agree with him on theological grounds. In recent history, however, the laity have been considered, and unfortunately have often considered themselves, second-class citizens in the Church. This was occasioned, presumably, by an inadequate view of the Church. According to this view, THE Church was composed of bishops, priests and religious. They were the first-class citizens among the People of God who are the Church. Lay people were, at best, second-class citizens. Like children, they were to be seen and not heard. They were, as more than one ecclesiastic implied, to keep their mouths shut and their pocketbooks open. Their duty was to listen and obey.

To undermine this less-than-adequate view of the Church, and of the laity in it, I prefer, at this moment in time, the term “Dominican Laity.” Perhaps I shall live long enough to see the next step, the triumph of the theological view. People will then accept without hesitation the fact that all of the baptized make up the People of God. There is only one class of citizenship — first-class. There will, of course, be a variety of tasks to be performed by the different citizens, each doing what he or she has been called by God to do.

Similarly, all Dominicans will recognize one membership in the Dominican family, though each member will perform a different function according to his or her call by God. When this longed for day arrives, we can easily adopt the term “Lay Dominican.” With this thought in mind — namely, that the Dominican Laity are truly members of the Dominican family, and specifically LAY members — it is possible to discover the purpose of the Dominican Laity as family members. In fact we can recognize three purposes, and shall call them Individual Purpose, Purpose Within the Family, and Purpose Beyond the Family — that is, purpose in the world.

Individual Purpose 

The first purpose of the Dominican Laity, the Individual Purpose, is simply to be — to be Dominicans.

To quote again from the Constitutions:

“All the groups composing the Dominican family share in its common vocation,, (141). [Dominican laypersons,] organized by a special gift of God in the apostolic spirit of St. Dominic, aim to achieve the salvation of themselves and of others, by the profession of the evangelical life according to the way of life adapted by the Order to their state of life in the world” ( 149 ) .

The Rule of the Dominican Laity spells out the meaning of “evangelical life”: it means living in the spirit of the beatitudes (see Rule, I, 3, b). The Constitution cited acknowledges that there are laymen and laywomen who have been led by the Spirit into a Dominican vocation. These people will achieve God’s gift of salvation by living “in the apostolic spirit of St. Dominic . . . professing [that is, carrying into practice] the evangelical life” adapted to their lay state.

The elements that coalesce to make Dominican Life are discussed in Father Kiesling’s article on Dominican Spirituality. Their general adaptation to lay life in our era must be the task of the Dominican Laity, who are the best judges of what lay life means. Each lay Dominican must further adapt these elements to the life situation in which God has placed him or her. From this point of view, the purpose of the Dominican Laity is fundamentally the same as that of the priests, brothers, and sisters.

Purpose Within the Family 

The second purpose of the Dominican Laity, the Purpose Within the Family, flows from the first; the Dominican Laity are truly members of the Dominican family. All members of any family have a contribution to make to all the other members of the family; indeed, one who makes no contribution to the rest of the family is a member in name only. I would focus on two contributions the Dominican Laity could make. Both might be called forms of teaching.

I would call the first contribution sharing. Let me cite examples where I see this as applicable. We are all concerned, for instance, about the question of community. What is it? how does one live it? what can community do for us? what are its limitations? People were living community before anyone thought of religious life as we know it. The natural family was meant to be a community. I am sure that the average married Dominican layperson knows far more about what living community means that some religious will ever know. Living community is now so second-nature to the married laity that they have all but forgotten how they put it together. Their memories can be jogged, however. In honest dialogue with them, the rest of the Dominican family may learn more about community than from reading dozens of books on the subject.

Or, take the business of prayer. The priests and religious members of the family have no monopoly on prayer. The Spirit seems to be leading more and more laypeople into deep prayer. Conceivably they can teach priests and sisters of the Order to pray better, more personally, especially us of the older generation whose prayer has often been formal and sometimes mechanical.

There is a second teaching function that members of the Dominican Laity can fulfill within the family, and this I consider even more important. They can help the rest of the family to be “honest.”

There are problems in our world and among the people who make up our world. All those problems have answers in God’s plan. We do not yet know the whole of God’s plan; however, some of those problems do have answers that can be identified now. But how can priests or sisters, who are not lay people living in the world, know that they are addressing the real problems of the world? As I keep protesting to the laity I know, I have not been a layman for nearly forty years. No matter how much I think I know about this world and people’s problems, no matter how concerned I may be about helping them solve those problems, the only way I can really know is to have people tell me what it is all about “out there.”

The Master General, in his 1975 Christmas letter to the Order, said much the same thing. After commenting on the spirit of dialogue he saw developing among the priests, brothers, and sisters in the family, he continued:

Until now I have rarely encountered a deep cooperation of the brothers and sisters with the members of the lay confraternities of St. Dominic, who ought to be, faced with the world as it is, an irreplaceable help and inspiration. Without them are we able to give to the world of today the new spirit which it needs and which can be found only in the Gospel of Christ? (I.D.I. No. 14 — 22/XII/75)

It is the Master of the Order himself who says that the members of the Dominican Laity are an irreplaceable help, that they are the people “faced with the world as it is.”

If their help is irreplaceable, then somehow or other we of the Order are being less than honest if we are not utilizing that help. We are in danger of giving answers to questions that people are not asking, and then concluding that the problem is theirs because they ignore us. Unless we are in constant dialogue with those who are in contact with the world as it is we are in danger of offering solutions to non-problems and missing the real problems.

Examples that come to mind (for which we blame others, not ourselves, naturally) are the concerns expressed by some people, priests among them — over communion in the hand, or sisters’ attire. Jesus said nothing about either. Christians who are concerned about what Jesus taught could not care less about those presumed problems. But these Christians are very much concerned about applying Christ’s principles of justice and charity to the poverty-stricken of the world, to the black and Chicano family newly arrived in the neighborhood. Priests and religious cannot be “honest” — that is, they cannot fulfill the mission God gave the Order in the world — without contact with people who are grappling with the problems posed by the Gospel as it must be lived in the world. The lay members of the Dominican family through their deep love for the family, will be the first to help us identify these problems.

I would mention yet another way in which the Dominican Laity’s love for the family can help to keep the rest of the family honest. They can critique the family’s endeavors — not only those of the priests of the Order but, mutatis mutandis (as we used to say), those of the brothers and sisters as well. How do I know, for example, that my preaching really reaches people? am I actually saying it so that the people I address can understand? do my words give them a reason for the faith in them? do they give a valid course of action? do I move people to action? Or am I only a “sounding brass and tinkling cymbal?” There are other difficulties besides those of recognizing problems or giving Scriptural answers.

Techniques have been available and used successfully for some time to give helpful feed-back to preachers. Either as a chapter or smaller group project, the Dominican Laity could use these techniques to supply valuable suggestions to their brothers in the Order. Those in teaching, parish, hospital, or any other ministry could benefit equally from similar criticism. We will all be more effective ministers through the help of criticism given us within the ambit of a loving family.

Purpose Beyond the Family 

The third purpose I recognize for the Dominican Laity, the Purpose Beyond the Family or purpose in the world follows also from the fact that the Dominican Laity are truly family members. To return to the Basic Constitution of the Dominican Order, the very first article quotes from the letter of Pope Honorius III to St. Dominic and his first brethren:

“You have given yourselves to the proclamation of the Word of God, preaching the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the world.”

In another place the Constitutions state:

“Lay Fraternities of the Order . . . aim to achieve the salvation of themselves and of others by the profession of the evangelical life according to the way of life adapted by the Order for their state of life in the world” (#149, 1).

Since, for a Dominican, the salvation of others means the “proclamation of the Word of God . . . throughout the world” it follows that the Dominican Laity must share this purpose by reason of membership in the Dominican family.

At various times in history the laity have fulfilled different functions among God’s people. But in one way or another the Dominican Laity must be engaged in the proclamation of God’s Word, at the very least by living it. I believe — and I am not alone in this — that verbal proclamation also belongs to the Dominican Laity. As Father Kiesling suggests, members of the Dominican Laity can share their insights about their faith with others, teach CCD courses, participate in such apostolic activities as Marriage Encounter. All these involve verbal proclamation, as does participation in dialogue homilies.

The unique element in Dominican life and spirituality which St. Dominic enjoined upon his Order is study. Members of the Dominican Laity should know and be able to explain to others at least the fundamentals of Christianity, “to give a reason for the hope that is in them,” as St. Peter put it (1 Pet. 3:15). St. Catherine of Siena did this in her time. Men among the Dominican Laity are doing it in our time by entering the diaconate programs in many dioceses. Women are offering themselves for the various ministries at last opening to them within the Church, such as leaders of religious education programs, leaders and members of liturgy teams, parish visitors. Dominican laywomen ought to be among the first to acquire competencies that can be developed into full ministries among God’s people. Many of them have already acquired such competencies.

There is no area of life or activity in which members of the Dominican Laity should not be engaged. They should bring the principles of Christ to bear upon the unchristian and even inhuman conditions that exist in many of the social, industrial, and political institutions of the world. What might be accomplished, for instance, by dedicated, competent members of the Dominican Laity in the political life of a city, state, or nation? It is the work of the laity to think through and determine how best they can influence political life.

As all these activities develop according to the specific talents of those people to whom God gives Dominican vocations, the apostolic goal of the Order will be achieved more fully than it can be if only priests, brothers, and sisters are thought to have Dominican vocations and to be the apostolic members of the Order. It is important to note, too, that the Dominican Laity carry out these activities as apostolic Christian lay persons. In these activities they are not simply helpers of the other members of the Order but have been called by God at baptism to these tasks.

However, lay members of the Dominican family can and should be enlisted by the other parts of the Dominican family to assist them in their apostolates. As Father Schillebeeckx pointed out several years ago:

The fact is that priests in many cases are carrying on an apostolate which, the longer it is maintained, the more proper priestly work is relegated to the background. These forms of the apostolate could be better entrusted to the laity… Thus the fathers would have a complement of their own priestly apostolate in the world, made more fruitful by the Third Order itself. Hence Third Order life is a special case of apostolic cooperation of laymen and priests. What is special in this case is that there is operative an apostolic cooperation of laymen with the priestly apostolate of a distinct religious Order. (The Dominican Third Order “Old and New Style”)

The cooperation of which Father Schillebeeckx speaks is also possible between members of the Dominican Laity and sisters’ communities. But whether this cooperation be between priests and laypeople, or sisters and laypeople, its modes must be thought out and worked out by each Province and Community, and even each local community.

Conclusion 

In this article I have attempted to penetrate the purpose of the Dominican Laity. I have relied for basic premises on the principles enumerated in the Constitutions of the Order of Friars Preachers. The Dominican Laity must not only understand its purpose in the Order but also continually adapt that purpose to the present era. The whole Order is engaged in this work of exploration, realizing that each generation must do it anew for the era in which it lives. Such a task is never easy. It is made more difficult by the various ways in which the lay members of the Dominican family have been looked upon, and have looked upon themselves, during the history of the Order.

Yet in God’s plan there is a purpose for the Order’s existence. The Dominican Laity, as true members of the Dominican family, share in that purpose. Present and future members of the Dominican Laity are urged to reflect upon the ideas presented here and penetrate ever more deeply into the vocation to which God has called them. Each Dominican, of whatever branch of the family, must do that; another cannot assume such a responsibility for any of us, nor should we expect another to do so.

Called & Gifted

Review Apostolates from Ch 2 and we will begin the Called and Gifted program from the Sienna Institute. This program will help us discern, develop, and use the charisms or spiritual gifts given to us by God. Inquirers will be instructed about how to take the inventory, using the answer sheet and then take the inventory home. Inquirers will return the completed inventory at the next meeting for scoring and discussion about possible Apostolates.

Reading List

Dominicana

Chapters 5 & 7

Saint Dominic

Chapter 4

Sacred Scripture

Mark 1:29 – 15:47

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraphs 830 – 1009

Reading List for February (Retreat month)

Sacred Scripture

Mark 16

1 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 1 – 11

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraphs 1010 – 1209

Dominicana: A Guidebook for Inquirers

Ch. 5 (Structure of the Order)

1. Discuss this important quote from the reading: “Never act out of rivalry or conceit; rather let all parties think humbly of others as superior to themselves, each of you looking to others interest rather than his own.”
2. What cripples good government in a Chapter?
3. What is different in the structures of Apostolic Sisters?
4. Who is the current Master of the Order of Preachers?

 

Ch. 7 (Laity in the Order)

1. Col. 3-17, “Whatever you do in word or work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Explain how this applies to Catholic Dominican Laity?
2. Describe a little of the author’s ideas about Christian husbands and wives and their obligation to God.
3. When the moral issues of society go against the teachings of the Church, what is our role as Dominicans?
4. What are available as aids for lay persons devoted to an apostolate?

The Pillars of Dominican Life:

Loyalty to the Church

Total obedience to the Church and its magisterium must be in the heart of every Dominican. It was for this very reason St. Dominic founded the Order. After witnessing the devastating consequences of the Albigensian heresy, St. Dominic realized that Friars must be formed to preach the Truth. The Truth is Jesus, and Jesus is the Church and its teachings. Loyalty to the Church and its magisterium has been a hallmark of the Dominican Order from the beginning. There is tradition that Pope Innocent III saw in a dream the Basilica of St. John Lateran collapsing but two men were holding it up. To understand the significance of this dream you must remember that the Lateran, and not St. Peter’s, is the cathedral of Rome and of the world. As such, it symbolizes the universal Church, so what the Pope saw was the Catholic Church collapsing. Shortly afterwards he met St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic for the first time and he recognized them as the two men he had seen in his dream holding up the Church. As you know from the life of St. Dominic, the first thing he did, after he had worked out plans for founding the Order, was to go to the Pope to get approval for it.

His sons were to continue in the same spirit of submission to the authority of the Church. St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, humbly submitted his writings to the judgment of the Holy See. St. Catherine of Siena was so firmly convinced of the authority of the Church and infallibility of the Pope, that she referred to the Holy Father as “sweet Christ on earth”.

Down through our long history we have been extraordinarily loyal to the Holy See, submitting ourselves to its magisterium. Only a tiny few have been exceptions to that general rule. In fact, the official theologian to the Pope, the Master of the Sacred Palace, is always a Dominican and has been since the time of St. Dominic who was the first to hold that office.

That same loyalty holds true for the Dominican Laity. Every Dominican can take pride in the words of Pope John XXII. In the year 1316 he lamented that tertiaries and beguines in large numbers were falling into heresy. But he went on to say, “I exclude the Dominican Tertiaries whose faith and docility to the Church are irreproachable”. This is just common sense on our part. After all, we have the clear words of our Lord:

And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matt. 16: 18 and 19)

Thus we have His guarantee that the gates of the netherworld or hell would not prevail against it. This means that falsehood could never breach its walls. Satan, the father of lies, is the source of all falsehood and loves to so wit among us poor mortals. We have our Lord’s assurance that there is one place it cannot be sown and that is the Roman Catholic Church. We know that in it we shall always find the truth. It just stands to reason that an Order dedicated to the truth, as ours is, will be completely loyal to the Church for it is the only source of divine truth in this world. The world will try to tell you differently, but the world will pass away, Jesus and His Word will not. While we must accept the teachings of the Church, we do not have to overlook or deny the sins of its members, condone the failings of its clergy, or accept the erroneous opinions of certain “modern” theologians. Everyone seems to have an “expert” opinion and they’ll try to prove it to you by touting their years of research and many degrees. But if their “expert opinion” differs from the teaching of the Church, you can be absolutely sure that the Church is right they are wrong. Jesus said; “No slave is greater than his master” (John 13:16).

A good way to understand the meaning of the word “magisterium” can be found in what are called the Loci Theologici (Theological Places) proposed in the sixteenth century by Melchoir Cano, the great Spanish Dominican theologian. After Scripture, of course, at the top of the list are apostolic traditions, the defined dogmas of the Church, defined either by Ecumenical Councils in concert with the Pope or by the Pope alone speaking “ex cathedra,” which is rare. (Only two come to mind, the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of our Blessed Mother). Next come teachings of Ecumenical Councils in concert with the Pope, as for example, Vatican II. Next are statements of the Popes in bulls, apostolic constitutions and the like. Then comes the teachings the Church Fathers, and the common opinions of theologians, not necessarily unanimous, but an overwhelming majority of them are. All of these put together make up what is the teaching of the Church, which is called the magisterium.

It is this body of doctrine that we have to accept as what we must believe if we have good sense. All this can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church which is a summary of authentic Catholic teaching, approved by the Pope. Next to The Holy Bible, The Catechism should be your most beloved book. It will provide you with the Truth, making your position as a Catholic clear. Hopefully, this will serve to reduce the number of what are known as “cafeteria Catholics.” We use the word “cafeteria” because these Catholics are something like the diners in a cafeteria who pick and choose whatever they like to eat, leaving what does not appeal to them at the serving tables. In much the same way, this kind of Catholic picks and chooses whatever doctrines from the truths taught by the Church that he or she likes, denying or ignoring the rest. This approach is not only arrogant but also illogical. Illogical because, at least implicitly, it denies the infallibility of the Pope but assumes that they are infallible in that they are able to choose what is true and what is not. As someone has said, there are as many popes as there are cafeteria Catholics.

Not only are they illogical, but very often they are contradictory. Let me give you an example of what I mean. There are people who will deny that there is a hell. But if there is no hell, why would we need to have a redeemer? In one fell swoop these people wipe the need for Christ, his incarnation, his suffering, death and resurrection. It makes you wonder, if these people are correct, why God would go to the trouble of going through all the pain and suffering that he did. More importantly, Jesus Himself tells us there is a hell, and Jesus is always right.

You could go on right down the line and find one inconsistency, one fallacy after another. For many of these people it is due to a sheer ignorance of their religion. For others, it’s a desire to be “politically correct” or thought of as “open-minded”. Some want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to be Catholic but do not want to accept everything it believes and teaches. But it does not work that way. Either you buy the whole package or you end up with nothing. If you buy it, you have truth, divine truth guaranteed, not based on human opinion, likes or dislikes, but on every word of Christ. This error is so widespread and unfortunately there is no interest or desire to learn the truth. It would seem reasonable for them to say, “Well, if the Church teaches this, there must be a reason,” and then make an honest effort to find out what the reason is. This is why all Dominicans should be eager to know their faith and know it thoroughly. Certainly, it is one powerful reason why study is one of the pillars of Dominican life. It sheds light on what a beautiful and precious gift we have in the Church, one we should treasure. This is why loyalty to Church is one of the pillars of Dominican life.

Penance

Back in 1285, the seventh Master of the Order, Munio de Zamora, issued the first rule for lay Dominicans. It was called “The Rule of the Third Order of Penance of St. Dominic.” In the revision of it in 1923 it was entitled “The Rule of the Brothers and Sisters of the Secular Third Order of St. Dominic,” but its opening words speak of “The Third Order of Penance of St. Dominic.” In the latest revision in 1987, the word “Penance” is dropped from the title and is given only passing mention in the text itself. The title of the new Rule is “The Rule of the Lay Communities of St. Dominic, commonly known as the Dominican Third Order.” This represents quite a change in the tone and spirit of the Rule as well as in the purpose of the Third Order itself. Originally, the Third Order was an outgrowth, as you may know, of groups of lay people in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries known as Penitents. They practiced severe penances, such as fasting, self-scourging, the wearing of hair shirts, chains and the like. These practices sound rather repugnant to our ears and we may wonder why they were so popular. We read the lives of the saints and are amazed at the severity of the penances they inflicted upon themselves. We may even think that we should imitate them, and, in a way, we should. To understand what I mean, we must keep in mind that penance is so closely connected with prayer that it cannot, and should not, be separated from it, but we do not have to go to the extremes St. Dominic and many of his followers went to. In the first place, it is hard for us to imagine how extraordinarily difficult every day living was for the average person in the middle Ages. In the wintertime, particularly, the diet was completely monotonous. There was no way they could preserve meat, for example. French and Italian cuisines were undreamed of. There was no pasta, no potatoes, rice, tomatoes or a great many other vegetables that are staples nowadays. Few spices were available and they were dearly expensive. There was gruel, root vegetables like turnips and rutabagas, and, of course, bread but not much else. At best, the people were undernourished, even the wealthy.

The houses were most uncomfortable. When you visit restored peasant homes and palaces in Europe you might conclude that the peasants lived better than their lords. The peasants’ cottages were small but with large fireplaces so that they could at least keep warm. Palaces had fireplaces too, but they were big stone buildings and even with the use of tapestries on the walls they were unable to keep out the freezing cold. Monasteries did not even have fireplaces. The author was told by a Spanish Dominican who had done his studies in Avila, Spain, that the stones out of which the monastery was built were always moist. He said that on winter days he could reach out of bed in the morning and touch the walls and they were covered with a thin sheet of ice. In situations like that, what are you going to do for penance? Their whole way of life sounds like a penance to us. But they took it for granted. The result was that they had to find some way of depriving themselves of even what little they had according to our standards. It was those practices they adopted that sound so dreadful to us.

In evaluating the role of penance in our lives, we must keep in mind that those people of the Middle Ages were starting from their life situation and so must we. What would be penance for them would be agony for us. But what would be severe for us would be sheer luxury for them.

Nonetheless, our practices of penance must come from the same three principles that motivated them. The first of these is that, as in all religions that emphasize contemplation, we must bring under control our love of pleasure and comfort if real serenity of mind is to be achieved. This is essential for contemplation, which as we as Dominicans are committed to, as we saw in our chapter on contemplation. The second principle is that original and actual sin are facts of the human condition. We find it difficult to free ourselves from sin and achieve that inner harmony God intended us to have when he created us. We can do this only by disciplining our appetites and subjecting them to the governance of reason enlightened by faith. The third principle that guided the medieval folk and should also guide us is a desire to identify ourselves with Christ and Him crucified. We want to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow in his footsteps, and we cannot do this if we put our own pleasure and comfort first.

Another factor that must be taken into consideration is the lack of consciousness of sin in our times, in our culture. In 1973, Dr. Karl Menniger of the famous Menniger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, published a book called “Whatever Became Of Sin?” in which he decried the loss of a sense of responsibility for our words and actions. It is always someone or something else’s fault – not ours. This attitude of society affects us and our awareness of our own sinfulness. Even though we may not be in mortal sin (please god that He keeps us from that), when we read about the saints like St. Dominic who frequently bemoaned the fact that they were such great sinners, we may wonder how they could honestly say that. The answer lies in their clear and keen realization that their response of love to the love God has shown them is totally inadequate. They can see that they have received so much from him and they are giving back so little. Any flaw, any failing, any imperfection that interferes or gets in the way of our response to the love of God is a horrid thing, a thing to be deeply regretted and grieved over. That holds as true for us as it did for them. We can, then, say with St. Dominic, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.” On the practical level we must begin with a clear realization that while we may not commit big sins, we do commit smaller ones or, as they are called, venial sins. As our Lord told us, “Even the just man falls seven times a day.” Over and above this, our response to God’s love is so often feeble and lukewarm. All of these interfere with our love of God so we despise them and yearn to be free of them. We will not be, of course, until we get to heaven, but while we are here on earth we can do penance for them.

Penance can do two things for us. First, as we have said, its discipline will help us to develop those virtues that are so necessary to our inner serenity. Secondly, it can serve as reparation for our sins. Ideally, the expression of this sorrow that we choose will accomplish both purposes of penance. Besides being acts of reparation for our sinfulness, they will also help us to grow in one or more of the virtues. For example, one penance may be to pray a Rosary for someone we hurt. That Rosary can be an act of reparation, but also used to grow in the virtue of charity. Although we may not exercise the same penances as St. Dominic did, we should, however, be motivated by the same principles that motivated them, namely, our desire to foster contemplation by mastering our love of pleasure and comfort; the development of those virtues that free us from our sinful impulses; and thirdly, our desire to take up our cross and follow Christ.

We should not overlook, either, those crosses that present themselves without our willing or desiring them, such things as illness, the debility of advancing years, heartaches, hurts inflicted on us by others and so forth. Accepting them, as crosses to bear with Christ can be most fruitful penances.

Penance, then, should be an integral part of our lives as Dominicans. It is especially our heritage as lay Dominicans. As the new Rule says, one of the sources from which you draw strength to grow in your vocation is “conversion of heart and penance according to the spirit of the Gospel.” (II, 10, e) In this sense, we are still members of the Third Order of Penance of St. Dominic.

Poverty

St. Dominic emphasized the need for poverty for his Order of Preachers. He differed, however, from his contemporary, St. Francis of Assisi, in his reasons for it. For St. Francis, poverty was an ideal, a way of life, a value to be lived. In his poetic fancy, he sang of “Lady Poverty” It was an end in itself too, doing this makes us more Christ like.

For St. Dominic, it was a means to an end his Order should use if it’s preaching was to have an impact. As a canon regular in the Cathedral of Osma he had taken a vow of poverty which was a sharing of common property and living off the generosity of the laity. When he came to Southern France to begin his ministry of preaching he saw how the perfect of the Albigensians could exert their tremendous influence, not only by the austerity of their lives but by their poverty, depending entirely on the alms of their faithful followers. This was not difficult where most of the people were friendly. St. Dominic realized that if his preachers were to have any effect they would have to be just as poor.

For this reason, he urged the Cisterians who had been sent to preach against the heresy to take off their splendid garb and get off their fine horses, dress simply and walk among the people. The Cisterians did this willingly because they were men of a simple life used to living poorly. (Since they were sent officially as papal legates they thought they had to take on the splendor that papal legates commonly used in those days). Dominic himself lived in great poverty and required his little band of preachers to live the same way.

As the Order spread throughout Western Europe Dominic continued to hold to that principle, but as time was to show it was excessive in its application. Its severity had to be mitigated. It was St. Thomas Aquinas who laid down the realistic purposes and limits of religious poverty. Members of religious orders must take a vow of poverty, for religious life would be impossible without it. Now, the question arises: what about the laity? Are they required to take a vow of poverty and to own nothing? That would be unrealistic, particularly if there were families involved. They have to work for a living, buy food and clothing, provide shelter and furniture and, of course, they have to pay taxes. Does this mean that poverty, which is so essential to the Order, plays no role in their lives? Of course, not.

There is such a thing as what the Catechism calls “poverty of the heart.” The basis for all voluntary poverty is to be found in the First Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Pay special attention to those words “poor in spirit.” Our Lord is not requiring material poverty or penury. Rather, he is asking for a spirit of detachment from worldly goods. As the New Catechism says:

The precept of detachment from riches is obligatory for entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. (no. 2544)

It goes on to explain:

All Christ’s faithful are to direct their affections rightly, lest they be hindered in their pursuit of perfect charity by the use of worldly things and by an adherence to riches which is contrary to the spirit of evangelical poverty. (no. 2545)

Thus even rich people can cultivate a spirit of poverty, although it is more difficult for them than it is for those of modest means. A wealthy woman, a Lay Dominican, once told me that she could feel the tug of her wealth and she had to resist it firmly. She could drive any make of car she wanted, even the most expensive, but she chose to drive a small Ford until it wore out. She could afford a mink coat but she bought only cloth ones. Her husband’s position required a certain amount of luxury and elegance, but she resisted becoming attached to them.

On the other hand, just because people are poor does not mean that they have the spirit of poverty. They can avariciously long for material things, covet the riches of others and be attached to possessions they may not have but want. The great Dominican theologian, Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange summed it up in these words:

Voluntary poverty can be practiced either in the midst of the abundance of worldly good, when the spirit is not attached to them, or in destitution when one bears it generously for love of God (Three Ages of the Interior Life, Vol. II, page 141)

He urges us to keep in mind the words of our Lord:

O you of little faith? So do not worry and say “What are we to eat? Or What are we to drink? or “What are we to wear? All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil. (Matt. 6: 30b-34)

Thus, poverty of the spirit is closely connected with confidence and trust in God. As Father Garrigou-Lagrange says:

Voluntary poverty and confidence in God go hand in hand; the more detached a man is from earthly goods, the more he desires those of heaven; and the less he relies on human helps, the more he place his confidence in God’s help. Thus confidence in God is the soul of holy poverty. All Christians should have the spirit of this counsel. (ibidem. pages143-44)

Another benefit of the spirit of poverty is that it makes us more like unto Christ. St. Dominic recognized this value because he was convinced that anyone who preaches Christ should imitate him as much as possible. Christ, as we know, became poor for our sakes. He could have chosen to come as an earthly prince, dressed in fine clothes and living in a splendid palace with dozens of servants at his beck and call. Rather he chose to come as a poor man – not a destitute one. The trade of a carpenter was an honorable one and those who plied it could live reasonably well by their standards. Of course, there were times when people could not afford to have work done and the Holy Family had to be concerned about where the next meal was coming from. A good example of this combination of poverty and trust in God was during the flight into Egypt. The angel had appeared to Joseph in a dream and ordered him:

Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him. (Matt. 2:13)

Nothing was said about where he was to go in Egypt or how he was going to make a living to support his wife and her child. The message was “just go.” Joseph, without question, got up, packed their sparse belongings and set out. They had nothing but their confidence in God to take with them. Apparently it was enough because after the death of Herod about two years later, they were able to return to Nazareth where Joseph was able to resume his trade as carpenter. If God treats people as much as he loved the Holy Family in this way, we can expect no better. We must imitate them and trust in God to keep his promise to see to it that we will have enough to live on.

The spirit of detachment and voluntary poverty will also make it possible for us to fulfill the command to give of our superfluity to the poor. In this, we imitate Christ who had a concern for the poor and even worked a miracle to feed them in their need. The Church from the beginning has shown its love and care for the widows, orphans and the sick. In time religious orders were founded that dedicated themselves to these needs, but the laity have always been active in assisting or financing these corporal works of mercy. Our Dominican Laity should also be involved in these works, as, indeed, they have. As we read down through the lives of our Dominican lay saints we can see that every one of them has reached out to care for the underprivileged. St. Rose of Lima is a good example. She is, in fact, considered to be the founder of social services in the Americas.

All of this involves simplicity of life style, of detachment from this world’s goods, as desirable as they may be and a deep trust in God’s providence and love for us. It is in this way that the Dominican Laity can participate in the spirit of voluntary poverty that St. Dominic felt was so essential to the work of his Order. We should strive to live a life of modesty, as our Particular Directory calls for, both interior and exterior. We must practice the frequent giving of alms, for that is dear to Our Lord’s heart. This doesn’t mean, of course, that you forego saving for your children’s education. Jesus wants us to be responsible in our duties. But how many houses, cars, computers or clothes do you really need? In addition to the gift of providing for your family, give them the gift of your example of trusting in Divine Providence. All we have to do, really, is to make our own the words of the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and seek nothing more.

 

“Offer ItUp”

by Charles Shonk, OP

“Offer it up!” It’s not an expression we hear much anymore, but for a long time it was a commonplace among Irish grandmothers, much to the chagrin, perhaps, of their less stalwart progeny. It’s a distinctively Catholic saying—certain Protestants might almost call it heretical—and yet Catholics themselves are less and less able to understand, much less appreciate, its meaning. To most, it’s simply an exhortation to stoic resignation, a pious way of saying, “Stop complaining,” “Do your duty,” or “Accept your lot in life.” As such, it seems a somewhat ungracious response to another’s suffering, a poor substitute for sympathy. If we dig a little deeper, though, this old chestnut turns out to be a nexus of deep theological truths and, accordingly, a maxim of great spiritual profit.

To see how this is so, we have to go back to the Cross and, specifically, to the Atonement. Though a word of simple, English derivation, “At-one-ment” names an unfathomable mystery: the incredible fact that Jesus reconciled us to God by suffering for our sins. We accept this on faith, of course, but, having accepted it, we naturally want to know, as much as we can, why. Why did God have to become man, suffer, and die? Wasn’t there some other way?

St. Anselm called this sort of wonder fides quaerens intellectum (“faith seeking understanding”), and, in his short dialogue, Cur Deus Homo (“Why God Became Man”), he left us a profound theological meditation on the questions just mentioned. In a nutshell, he argues the following: (1) justice demands that mankind should make satisfaction to God for the havoc and disorder of sin; (2) man, a finite creature wounded by the consequences of his own transgression, is incapable of making such satisfaction; (3) God can make satisfaction on our behalf, but only by himself becoming a man, capable of suffering; (4) in doing this, God is true both to his infinite justice, since he pays the price for sin, and to his infinite mercy, since—marvelously—he accomplishes for man what man neither deserves nor could accomplish on his own.

Now, the word “satisfaction” may seem a bit strange or technical here, but it is really a very ordinary idea. We use it all the time, not only in more formal or legal contexts, but also in our everyday personal relationships. If we infringe on another’s rights or offend a friend, we not only want to apologize or pay back what we owe; we also want to make up for the hurt we have caused by doing something more. That “something more” is satisfaction.

Notice that satisfaction is not the same as punishment. In fact, the two are mutually exclusive. Whereas, by definition, punishment is endured unwillingly, satisfaction is willingly made, and it is the more willing the more it is animated by love. Moreover, while it is possible to make satisfaction on behalf of someone else, a person can only be punished for his own sins, i.e., if he is actually guilty. Anselm himself makes this distinction, and it is important to understand it, because otherwise we might slip into a “substitutionary” theory of atonement, according to which God punished Jesus in our place. This would be troubling on many levels, not least because it seems to make God unjust.

The question remains, however, was there some other way? Did Jesus have to become man, suffer, and die? Anselm seems to answer in the affirmative, but St. Thomas Aquinas, like most theologians before and after him, answers negatively. In fact, St. Thomas says that, just as, if someone commits a purely personal offense against any one of us, we can, mercifully and without injustice, simply forgive him without demanding reparation, so God, without any prejudice to his own infinite justice, could have simply forgiven, or dismissed, the sin of mankind without requiring any satisfaction.

Now, on the one hand, this is comforting because it safeguards the gratuity of the Incarnation and Atonement: God did not have to become man, suffer, and die; he did so out of love. But on the other hand, it might trouble us because, if God could have simply dismissed our sins, why didn’t he? Why did he choose the “hard way”? St. Thomas gives many reasons, but I would like to highlight just one: God required satisfaction for sin because doing so was more merciful.

This sounds counterintuitive, but it really makes wonderful sense; and we can see why by drawing an analogy. Just as, when we have really offended someone we love, we are all the more tormented if he or she refuses to allow us to make reparation in some way, so God does in fact act more mercifully by allowing us to make satisfaction for our sins, than he would by simply dismissing them. And he gives us this ability, this dignity, through the Incarnation, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Christ, whose life we share through the gift of the Holy Spirit, our sacrifices and sufferings are no longer a “dead loss,” but, borne out of love for God and neighbor, they actually participate in the infinite value of the God-man’s satisfying sacrifice of love.

Yes, though our own acts of love may be small, we can truly “offer them up” to God, confident that he will accept them as really, not just nominally, imbued with the love of his own Son. And, like little children on their dad’s birthday, we can take all the more delight in giving our Father gifts when we know that all we have to give comes from him.

Reading List

Dominicana

Chapters 10 – 11

Saint Dominic

Chapter 5

Articles: (available on website)

Loving the Church

by Cardinal Schönborn

Sacred Scripture

2 Corinthians 12 – 13

Romans

Ephesians

Colossians

Philemon 1 – 3

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraphs 1210 – 1484

Questions

1. How would you explain to a Protestant the “freedom” of your loyalty to the Catholic Church?
2. Give some examples of penance that we may use today.
3. What is the real meaning of poverty for a Lay Dominican today?
4. Give one thought about the article: “Offer It Up”.

The Dominican Soul

by M.M. Philipon, OP; translated by Cajeatan Kelly, OP

A Dominican Soul is a soul of light whose rapt gaze dwells in the inaccessible splendor wherein God conceals Himself. It lives with Him by faith, is in the company of the Three Divine Persons, a true child of God, adopted through grace into the very Family of the Trinity. The invisible world becomes familiar to it; it pursues its way on earth in intimacy with Christ, the Blessed Mother and the saints. It perceives everything in the radiance of God.

But it does not jealously guard its faith for itself. It longs to bear the torch of faith everywhere on land and sea, in every country, to the ends of the earth. This soul belongs to that race of apostles who have been prophetically designated by the Church from their earliest days as champions of the faith and true lights of the world: “pugiles fidei et vera mundi lumina.” We have here the key to the whole Dominican vocation: to live, defend and propagate the faith in the atmosphere of the Church. The Dominican soul, looking beyond the activity of secondary causes, judges men and things only in the light of God.

To realize this sublime mission, the Dominican soul must be a soul of silence. According to the traditional axiom, the word of the Preacher must flow from a soul of silence: Silentium, pater Praedicatorum. A Dominican soul which does not love long hours of solitude and recollection deceives itself about the spiritual fruits of its action. It must mix with the crowd to act, but it must know how to separate itself from it for thought and prayer. St. Dominic was a man of tremendous silence. St. Thomas Aquinas’ fellow-pupils called him the “dumb ox of Sicily.” Piere Lacordaire prepared his brilliant conferences for Notre Dame in Paris with long vigils of reflection and intimate union with God. The spiritual depth of a soul is measured by its capacity for silence.

A Dominican soul is a virginal soul, detached from all evil. It dwells in complete union with God. All our Dominican saints carry a lily in their hands. They are virgins, pure, free from inordinate affections. They walk in the midst of people in accord with St. Dominic’s deathbed admonition—in the conquering raiment of their translucent purity. Purity is a characteristic note of the Order of light and truth.

A Dominican soul in its sublimest activity is a contemplative soul. It dwells on the heights in the unalloyed splendor of God. Its gaze becomes identified through the light of the Word with the wisdom of God. Solitude, penance, prayer, a life of study, of silence, of action, all contribute to the formation of a sense of the divine reality, of the “one thing necessary” from which nothing, absolutely nothing, should distract it, much less deter it. Its purpose is to direct everything straight to God as quickly and as completely as possible. Its existence among men should be nothing else than a prolonged gaze of love toward God alone. It is in contemplative silence that a Dominican soul finds the fullness of God.

The Dominican soul is a soul of prayer and praise. The spirit of prayer is the normal climate, the completely divine atmosphere in which the contemplative soul breathes. It sees nothing but God. No matter how distracting surrounding creatures become, it rises above them, invulnerable to their empty fascination, impervious to their tempting and seductive appeal. But it does hear their cries of distress, their desperate pleas; then, silent with profound compassion, it turns, suppliant, toward the God of all light and goodness, to obtain the truth which sets men free and the pardon which brings salvation. Following the example of St. Dominic, whose loud cries used to startle the brethren at night, the ardent and apostolic prayer of the Dominican soul must become a redemptive cry, accompanied, as was that of Jesus at Gethsemani, by tears and a sweat of blood. Here lies hidden the real secret of the many fruitful lives of our missionaries, of our contemplative nuns, of the many Dominican vocations in the cloister and in the world, silent and crucified, but infinitely powerful in behalf of Christ’s Mystical Body. Dominican prayer, the daughter of redemptive charity, is lifted toward the God of the Order night and day. O, Lord, what is to become of these poor sinners? Following the example of Christ Crucified, a Dominican soul saves more souls by its contemplative and co-redeeming prayer than by words or by dint of action. All our saints were people of continual prayer and immolation. Prayer was the allpowerful lever which helped them lift the universe to God.

But in Dominican prayer, the first place belongs to praise. “Praise God, exalt Him, bless Him and preach Him everywhere,”—this is the purpose of the Order and its unique ambition: laudare, benedicere, praedicare. The Dominican soul is theocentric; in every thing it aims at the primacy of God:

• the primacy of the First Cause in all the attainments of our spiritual lives
• the primacy of honor and of effective direction for theological wisdom over the study of profane sciences
• the primacy of choral life, of the Opus Dei, in the hierarchy of monastic observances and among our means of sanctification
• the primacy of the Word of God over human rhetoric in an office of preaching which must always be essentially evangelical and supernatural
• the primacy of God in all things

The Dominican soul finds its joy in proclaiming and singing the supreme grandeur of Him alone Who is.

A Dominican soul is an apostolic soul which is hindered by nothing when the glory of God and the spiritual good of souls is at stake. The vows of religion, monastic observances, study, prayer and community life all converge to give the Dominican life the maximum of apostolic efficacy. Setting aside secondary tasks and material preoccupations, the Friar Preacher dedicates himself wholly and directly to the salvation of souls, following the example of the first Apostles who left behind absorbing economic cares to consecrate themselves to “prayer and the Word of God.” Whatever is doctrinal is ours; when the faith is endangered, the Dominican soul is aroused and enters the fray for Christ. Not without reason did St. Peter and St. Paul appear to St. Dominic. In the history of the Church, the redemptive mission of the Order is a prolongation of the vocation of those two great Apostles of Christ: announcing to all men the Gospel of salvation. All the means of spreading divine Truth must become ours: press, radio, films, television. The Order is present in full vigor at these command posts of the human universe, to pursue its mission of truth. A Dominican soul is not regimented, it is not disturbed by progress, nor does it find new techniques disconcerting; rather, it marshals these into the service of the liberating truth which is Love. So it is that the Order through the centuries has preserved its youth and its creative spirit, ready to answer redemption’s every appeal.

The Dominican soul is strong, with the very power of God. Because it is certain of the redemptive power of the Cross, it has the initiative in the midst of a confused and despairing world to undertake great enterprises, the genius to create institutions capable of adapting themselves to meet the demands of an ecclesiastical apostolate which is constantly being renewed and adjusted. With faith and tenacity, it relentlessly perseveres in its works of salvation. “The desperate hours are the hours of God,” and often, in a moment, Providence miraculously intervenes and saves all. The Dominican soul advances in the midst of the difficulties of life, serene and confident, buoyed up by the Immutable Force of God.

While engaged in the difficult combats of the Church Militant, the Dominican soul remains joyful. “The religion of thy Father Dominic,” said God to St. Catherine of Siena, “is joyful and lightsome.” Above the trials of redemption, joy pervades the Dominican soul, the inadmissible joy of God. The secret of this Dominican joy lies in the peaceful certitude that God is infinitely happy in the society of the Three Divine Persons, even if men refuse to know Him and receive Him. At the summit of the souls of the saints, joy always flourished together with an unalterable peace. God is God, and what possible difference can anything else make? The joy of a soul is measured by its love. The Apostles went away joyful because they had been judged worthy to suffer for Christ, Whom they loved above everything else. On the roads of Languedoc, the sharper the rocks became, the more St. Dominic sang. Raised up by the same spirit of heroic strength fortified with love, the Dominican soul remains fixed in an ever-singing joy.

The Dominican soul is a daughter of the Church, always ready to obey the Pope and the directives of the hierarchy and to place itself at the service of the Mystical Body of Christ. It cherishes the memory of the symbolic vision of Pope Innocent III, who perceived St. Dominic supporting the columns of the Church of the Lateran, the mother-church of Catholicism. “Thou art Peter and upon this rock, I will build my Church.” “Whoever hears you, hears me; whoever spurns you, spurns me,” the Lord Jesus had forcefully asserted. The Dominican soul does not hesitate. He who hears the Pope, hears Christ; the authority of God speaks through the bishops and all religious superiors. St. Catherine of Siena called the Pope the “gentle Christ of this earth.” Her filial docility toward the hierarchy made her to an eminent degree a true daughter of the Church and defender of the Papacy. Thus she became after her death the secondary patron of Rome and by her protection shelters Catholic Action throughout the world. A Dominican soul lives and dies for the Church of Christ.

The Dominican soul is an imitator of the Word, singularly solicitous for the glory of the Father, eager to work for the redemption of the world, for the “consummation of all men in the unity” of the Trinity. It is modeled, in all its interior acts, on the intimate sentiments of the Soul of Christ, the adorer of the Father and the Savior of souls. Now the Word fulfills a twofold function:

• within the Trinity, He is the divine light, ‘Lumen de Lumine,’ the Image and Splendor of the Father
• outside, as the Incarnate Word, He lives as the Revealer par excellence of the Father and of all the mysteries of God Similarly, the Dominican soul which receives by reason of its vocation the “office of the Word,” dwells within itself, in a profound, living contemplation of the pure Light of God, keeping itself continually before the face of the Father, while by its apostolic activity, it becomes manifestive of the Divine Truth; it walks on earth among men like a mirror of God.

A Dominican soul is divine with no desire but God: to know Him, love Him, serve Him and to spend eternity with Him in order to exalt Him ceaselessly. Everything is simple in the life of a Dominican soul faithful to its divine vocation. It is not overcome by pitiful sights, nor by complicating details; it clearly sees:

• only one horizon: God
• only one motive power: Love
• only one end: forming the whole Christ as ordained to the City of God

Everything else fades from its sight. Nothing, apart from God, is worthy of its attention. It realizes the ideal of St. Dominic: ‘To speak only with God or about God,’ cum Deo vel de Deo. Dominican saints have hewed to this line of divine conduct: “My daughter, think of Me,” God commanded St. Catherine of Siena, “and for My part, I shall think of thee.” And at the twilight of his life of immense labor for Christ, St. Thomas Aquinas wished for no other reward but God: Nothing save THEE. Nisi TE. This is the fundamental attitude of every Dominican soul. GOD, GOD, GOD.

Finally, the Dominican soul is a Marian soul. The Preface of the feast of St. Dominic places in high relief the wonders of the spiritual fecundity attained through this intimate friendship with Mary. Under the constant guidance of Mary, our holy Father renewed the apostolic form of life in the Church, launched intrepid champions of the faith into the world, and won thousands of souls for Christ. When dying, he left as his legacy to the Church, the Rosary wherein his religious family might find the proper form for its devotion to Mary. Where is the Dominican who does not dream of living and dying with the Rosary in his or her hand? It is a universal law of the economy of salvation: the more devoted a soul is to Mary, the more Christian it is. It is equally true to say that the more devoted a soul is to Mary, the more Dominican it is.

Thus the Dominican life is a harmonious synthesis which the great light of God illumines. Everything proceeds from faith and is ordered to His glory. Fixed in God by love, the Dominican soul lives for this alone: united with Christ in each of its acts, through Him, with Him and in Him, it thinks only of glorifying the Father by continual adoration and of saving souls who will glorify Him eternally. It lives in the Church, through the Church, for the Church, in a spirit of brotherhood with all men, eager to communicate to them the Truth which is achieved in Love. Everything is light in a Dominican soul, but a light which revolves on love. It meditates frequently on the memorable words of St. Dominic to a cleric who was astonished at the power of his apostolic preaching: My son, I have studied in the book of charity more than in any other; love teaches all. Redeeming and illuminating charity is the key to Dominican life. Not the love of knowledge, but the knowledge of love. The Dominican soul is another Word which spirates love. Its favorite book is the Gospel, in which the Eternal Word speaks. From that divine Light, under the gentle influence of the same Spirit of Love, all the virtues diffuse themselves in the Dominican soul. Among these virtues, three shine forth brilliantly in the luminous raiment of faith: the cross, purity, love; the cross which raises us above the earth, purity which frees us from all that is not God, love which fixes us in Him. This is the harmonious synthesis of the ideal Dominican: the purity of a virgin, the light of a doctor, and the soul of a martyr.

When evening comes, the Virgin of the “Salve” is there to gather the soul of the faithful servant under her mantle. Initiated for all eternity into the splendors of the beatific vision, which supplant the obscurities of faith, with Him, through Him, and in Him, together with all the angels and saints, the Dominican soul in unison with the Spirit of Love, chants the glory of the Father unto eternity. Used with permission of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph.

Reading List

Dominicana

Ch 12 (Formation Ahead)

Ch 13 (Preaching the Word)

Articles: (available on website)

On the Disputatio

Sacred Scripture

Philemon 4 – End

Luke 1 – 16

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraphs 1485 – 1761

Dominicana: A Guidebook for Inquirers

Ch. 12 (Formation Ahead)

1. What does it mean to discern a Dominican vocation?
2. Why is it important to be up-to-date with current issues?
3. What is the importance of the relationship between study and preaching?
4. Describe the four levels of formation.

 

Ch. 13 (Preaching the Word)

1. How does laity preaching differ from clerical preaching?
2. The General Chapter of Bologna (1998) states “Lay men and women offer a unique vision of preaching.” What does this mean to you?
3. After watching “Ignite Your Torch (2011)”, what are your thoughts about our responsibility to preach the Truth?
4. Write a short paragraph beginning with Your name is a Dominican Soul because…

The Pillars of Dominican Life:

Veritas — Truth

Every major religious order can sum up its mission and spirit in a word or two. For the Benedictines it is the Opus Dei, the celebration of the Divine Office, or Christian Prayer, as they are calling it these days. For the Franciscans, it is Poverty. The Jesuits have as their motto “Ad majorem gloriam Dei,” “To the greater glory of God,” which expresses their ideal of service to the Church. For the Dominicans, it is “Veritas” or “Truth,” which sums up in one word our thirst for the divine truth of the faith as revealed through Christ. If you look in the dictionary you will find that truth is defined as the quality of being in accordance with experience, facts or reality. There is in it always the element of objectivity; it is never completely subjective. This twofold character of truth is brought out by St. Thomas Aquinas’ definition: “truth is a correspondence of mind and thing.” In other words, we have truth when what is in our minds is in accord with the objective reality.

The Greeks began this search for truth around 600 B.C. and Western culture has been looking for it ever since, all too often with indifferent success. This is what we might call human truth, or that which we can know only with the human intellect. When Dominicans use the word, however, we mean divine Truth. The ultimate objective reality is God himself. Thus, we can have truth only when what is in our minds corresponds to what is in God’s. This ultimate Truth is totally and perfectly expressed in the eternal generation from the Father of the Word, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. As St. John tells us:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. (John 1: 1)

He goes on to say:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1: 14)

As he himself testified before Pontius Pilate:

For this was I born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. (John 18: 37:b)

At the Last Supper Jesus told Thomas and all of us:

I am the way, the truth and the life. (John 14: 16)

Christ, then, is Truth Incarnate. Then he added:

No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14: 6b)

And the reason is, as St. John once again tells us:

The Word was the true light that enlightens all people. (John 1: 9)

Or as he himself said:

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8: 12)

This light that shines forth from Truth Incarnate, the Word made flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the revelation he made to us for as he told us:

The one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world. (John 8: 26b)

Then he went on to say:

If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples and you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8: 31b-32)

This light of truth is not harsh, glaring, or cold but a warm, luminous, loving one for, after all, the God who is truth is also love. (v. I John 4: 8a) As St. Paul said in his great hymn on love:

Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. (I Cor. 13:6)

In another place he said:

Living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body’s growth and builds itself up in love. (Eph. 4: 15 & 16)

Here it is obvious he is speaking about the building up of the Body of Christ, the Church. In his first letter to Timothy he is more explicit:

You should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth. (I Tim. 3: 15)

The Church, as we know, is the guardian of the truth revealed to us by Christ, preserving it intact from error and yet adapting that truth to meet new problems, questions and situations as they arise. Going through a long list of Bible verses can be tedious, but, in this case, it will serve to bring out the multi-faceted riches and beauty of the Truth to which the Dominican Order devotes itself. First of all, Truth as the Divine Being, the Word of God, is the object of our worship and contemplation. Secondly, as the revelation of Christ, it is the subject of our study and object of our apostolic work. Thirdly, we, as Dominicans, will be completely loyal to the magisterium of the Church, the pillar and foundation of truth. From these elements we can conclude that the quest for truth should colour, shape and mould every aspect of our lives. It has been well said that the love of divine truth is the soul of Dominican spirituality.

An important element to keep in mind is that it is impossible to separate love and truth because we must love what we see as good and divine truth is the highest good, for it is God himself. Our study should be done out of love so that we can come to a greater knowledge of the loving revelation of God to us. Our sharing of the truths we have learned and contemplated should be done out of love for those who walk in darkness and the shadow of death. Here, of course, we have the shining example of St. Dominic who dedicated himself and his Order to the proclamation of the truth.

From the very beginning of his work with the Albigensian heresy in Southern France, he recognized that knowing and preaching the truth was essential if heresy and false doctrines were to be overcome. There are certainly plenty of those in our day. While every age has thought of itself as being the worst of times, it is safe to say that our own can stack up with the most abysmal. To be sure there is an abundance of knowledge about all sorts of things but there is little understanding of what it is all about, of whom we are, of where we are going, of the purpose of life. What is needed most of all today, as it was in St. Dominic’s time, is a greater knowledge of the truth, particularly divine truth, the revelation of God through Jesus Christ. This holds true for every branch of the Order, friars, nuns, sisters and laity. The friars have as their mission preaching and teaching, writing learned articles and books, and using the media to spread the truth. It the Fathers and Brothers, but for the spread of the truth. The Dominican Sisters have as their work teaching in our schools and carrying on the many ministries they fulfill so capably. But, perhaps more effective and certainly more far-reaching, is the call of the laity to bring the truth into the workplace, the market place, our schools, neighbour-hoods, into every nook and cranny of society. This is something that only the laity can do. This does not require great learning. One does not need a Doctorate in Sacred Theology, or even a Master of Divinity degree to fulfill this calling. We must never forget that one of the most eloquent and effective proclaimers of divine truth was a laywoman who could not read or write – St. Catherine of Siena. It was she, or the Father speaking through her, who said about our holy father, Dominic:

But for his more proper object [Dominic] took the light of learning in order to stamp out the errors that were rising up at that time. He took up the task of the Word, my only begotten Son. Clearly he appeared as an apostle in the world, with such truth and light did he sow my word, dispelling the darkness and giving light. He was a light that I offered the world through Mary and sent into the mystic body of holy Church as an uprooter of heresies. Why did I say “through Mary”? Because Mary gave him the habit – a task my goodness entrusted to her. (Dialogue, no. 158)

One final note, the Dominican Order did not officially choose Truth as its motto until the last century, but it was a term commonly used long before that. Louis of Bavaria, who was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1314 to 1347, said, “The Order of Preachers is the Order of Truth which it defends with equal fearlessness and freedom.” And, of course, Pope Honorius III, in his second bull of confirmation of the Order issued in 1216, called us the “Champions of the Faith and true lights of the world, “ which recalls Christ’s words, “You are the light of the world. “ It is the light that shines forth from Truth.

Just thought you might like to know… 

KISSING THE SCAPULAR

The scapular is the apron-like part of the Dominican habit. It is a very ancient as a part of monastic garb, being mentioned in chapter 15 of the Rule of Benedict as an item worn for manual labor. Originally short, it was lengthened in the early middle ages and sometimes connected by strips at the sides to make it cross shaped, as can been seen in the example of the famous Carthusian habit to the right. Originally not worn in choir, it had became a part of the choir habit for monks, hermits, and canons regular by the 1100s. We Dominicans wear it because we are in origin canons regular, having been approved as such in our foundation bull of Pope Honorius III in 1216.

It is the only part of our habit that is formally blessed at the profession of first vows. Older legendaries claimed that the scapular was added to our habit many years after the foundation because of a apparition of the Blessed Virgin to Bl. Reginald of Orleans during a serious illness, she saying “behold the habit of your Order.” This story does not indicate that the Virgin was adding the scapular to the original canons’ habit of the order. As canons regular, we already had the scapular–although the late legend interpreters did not know this. Thus the unfounded story. When Our Lady showed him the scapular, it was already part of the full habit of the Order he was to enter after being healed.

The practice of kissing the scapular is customary and was never a part of our legislation in a formal way. It was, and is, the custom in many provinces to kiss the scapular in choir after making a minor mistake in singing or reading, or when having to go around another friar to get to one’s stall. But this was not universal custom. In some provinces (cf. Caeremoniale, n. 797, f.n. 1) it seems that the practice was to touch the ground with a finger, or at least (for the less able) to try to do so. I have never seen that done, but in all the provinces I have visited, including my own, the practice of kissing the scapular in choir is very much alive.

Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P. http://dominican-liturgy.blogspot.com/

SCAPULAR PRAYER 

We fly to be under your defense, O Holy Mother of God, for our prayers you do not despise in our necessity, but from all peril you continually free us, O Glorious and Blessed Virgin Mary. Amen.

 

PREACHING

You probably have been wondering when we would ever get around to talking about preaching. Your thinking may have been: if there is anything that is a pillar of Dominican life it would be preaching, and you would be completely correct. That is why it has been left until last. All the other pillars we have talked about exist to support and uphold preaching. In fact, it might more accurately be called the capstone of Dominican life, for it ties all the others together and with them forms the structure of Dominican life. Without it, they would merely be a series of decorative columns with no particular reason for existing outside of being beautiful.

You may be further wondering and saying to yourself: I can see how the Friars of the First Order can be preachers. They can get into the pulpit and preach the Word of God. I can even see how the nuns of the Second Order can be involved in preaching because they pray for the success of the Friars’ preaching, and without prayer we can do nothing, as St. Dominic saw so clearly. I can also see how the Sisters of the Third Order Religious can, in a broad sense anyway, be called preachers because they are teachers, run hospitals and do all sorts of works for the Church so competently and fruitfully. But can I as a layperson be a preacher and yet I belong to the Order of Preachers? How can I preach?

It is true that in English, preaching means pulpit oratory, but St. Dominic did not name his Order in English, but in Latin – Ordo Praedicatores – meaning those who are engaged in “praedicatio.” If you look in a Latin dictionary you will find that “praedicatio” means “making known” or “proclamation.” This has a much broader, much wider meaning than mere pulpit oratory. It would include writing and teaching, areas in which Dominicans in all branches of the Order have always excelled.

In this sense of proclamation or making known, lay Dominicans have a far broader range of activities available to fulfill their vocation than do the Friars, Nuns or Sisters. It would most certainly include the sharing of their faith by parents to their children, by teaching in Catholic schools or CCD classes for public school children. These are the obvious ones. But there are many more. But to find out how past Dominicans have utilitized the means they had available let us take a look at our Third Order Dominican saints as a starter. St Catherine of Siena endeavored to bring Christian principles into the innumerable conflicts between the various city-states of Italy and settle their disputes and she was quite successful at it. She was also successful at convincing the Pope to return to Rome and be truly the bishop of the Eternal City, a rather basic Christian principle. St Rose of Lima was devoted to her family which had fallen on hard times and used her talents to grow flowers and do fancy needlework to support her parents. She also cared for the sick, poor and oppressed of the city of Lima to the extent that she is known as the founder of social justice in the New World. But it was all done very simply and humbly. There were no social workers, no complicated forms to fill out. It was done on the basis of need out of love. St. Lorenzo Ruiz was a catechist who left his home, family and friends in the Philippines to go to Japan with the Friars to help them bring the people of that country to the Faith. In doing so, he gave his life as a martyr to witness for the Faith. Joined with him are the forty or more lay Dominican martyrs in the Far East. There is no more eloquent way of proclaiming, making known the truth of the Catholic Faith than giving your life for your beliefs, your faith.

But let us face it. It is quite likely that none of you are ever going to be called upon to give your lives for the Faith. You are not going to be able to settle disputes between city-states of Italy, because they do not exist any more and the Pope does spend a good part of his time in Rome. You may indeed have to support your parents through whatever talents you may have and you may be able to help the poor and afflicted in various ways, but you will not have to be pioneers in this field. But, this does not exhaust the possibilities for your contributions to the life of the Church. It seems to me that Internet is now providing all of us Dominicans, but especially you as Lay Dominicans, a marvelous opportunity to reach the world and inject truth in the numerous discussions that go on it. This a medium for our modern times. Another one is the example of living your faith fully and completely. More people are drawn to the Church by the example of Catholics than by any other reason. This is why the early Church grew so quickly. The pagans saw Catholics leading good moral lives, showing concern for one another, caring for each other, especially those who were poor and in trouble, such as widows and orphans. They used to say, “See the Christians; see how they love one another.” Certainly they were willing to die for their faith, but more importantly they lived it, which can be much harder in the long haul. St. Dominic saw the tremendous value of example as a essential quality of preaching. When the Cistercian monks arrived with their abbot dressed in full panoply, robed in rich materials with full pomp and circumstance he told them to get down off their horses, throw away their fancy clothes and appear as poor men. The Cistercians actually lived very austere lives but they felt they, as Papal legates, had to put on all this show to impress the heretics but St. Dominic knew that just the opposite was true. He then insisted that his sons and daughters should give this same example by their lives of poverty and austerity. This will hold true for you, as his sons and daughters. But what does it means for you as lay Dominicans? First of all, it seems to me, is that you are going to have to resist the subtle, insidious allures of materialism that surround us on every side. They provide us with all kinds of clever rationalizations for embracing their alluring temptations. This all of us must do, As Dominicans we must live as simply as we can. This, as St. Dominic saw, was essential for us if we were to give good example to others. Of course, the virtues we live by, our charity, our gentleness, our concern for and understanding of others are also important, as is our willingness to accept the unkindness, the thoughtlessness, the cruelty of those we work and live with. Nothing will win others more than our living our Christian lives, no matter how difficult it may be at times.

Another way of preaching that you as Lay Dominicans can do, is the sharing of your faith with others. You are going to run into people, as I am sure you do all the time, who have a false and twisted idea of what Catholics believe and they will challenge you. In these circumstances we should always follow St. Peter’s advice: Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence. (I Peter 3: 16b- 17a) But to do this effectively you really have to know your religion thoroughly. There are so many false ideas out there about what the Catholic Church teaches, about the Scriptures and about morals.

When they say, Catholics worship Mary, how are you going to respond? When they present all kinds of false ideas about the Bible, how are you going to answer them? When they approve of abortion or contraception and condemn the Church for its positions on these matters, how are you going to reply to their arguments? There are answers and it is incumbent on you, as Lay Dominicans, to know them. This is where study comes in and why it is so necessary for Dominicans.

Admittedly, none of these are spectacular or glamorous ways of preaching, but they are most effective ways. You may not seem to have been effective and you may think you have failed to make any impression at all and, of course, you may not have. But you never know how God is going to use what you say and how you say it. We must keep in mind that rarely is one person responsible for the conversion of another. The process of conversion is something like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. People along the way slip in a piece or two until finally the puzzle is complete but the picture is not finished until every single piece is in place. God may be asking you to put in a few pieces but they are necessary. You will not know that, however, until the Last Judgement when you will see the whole picture, completed and perfect. That is, perhaps, the only way that any of us are going to be able to see the results of our preaching. Not even St. Dominic as he lay dying, knew that his work of preaching would continue long after his death. Little could he dream then that 768 years later it would still be going strong, still attracting men and women to its ideal. And so it is that each of us in our own way of bringing truth to the world share in his mission of praedicatio, of proclaiming the revealed Word of God to others. What a privilege we have, what a rich blessing from God is ours, that he has chosen us to share in this ministry, to be the children of Dominic. Let us thank God that he called us to be Dominicans. Let us pray that we will be faithful to our vocation. Let each one of us take seriously the charge of St. Paul:

Proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching. But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship, perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry. (II Timothy 3: 2-5)

If we do this, then we can say with him:

I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance. (II Timothy 3: 7 & 8)

READING-CHANNEL OF TRUTH From Spiritual Powerhouse

Truth is at the Very Heart of Real Dominicanism. A Dominican not interested in the truth would be even more an anomaly than a maestro not interested in music or a mother not interested in children. He simply would not make sense. All his training, all his traditions, all his life would be contradicted. Now a Dominican Tertiary is as much a Dominican as a Dominican religious and truth means as much to the one as it does to the other, or at least it should. The Tertiary may not have professional interest in truth as, lets say, the theologian, yet he has as great a need for the truth, in some cases even greater becouse he can more easily be taken in by error than his religious brother.

One of the great problems of our day is the fact that the channels whereby the truth, the word of God, should reach our people are being gradually closed to them. One of the great tragedies of our day is that the people do not know it, or if they do, they either don’t care or don’t know what to do about it. Great and international news cartels deliberately “slant” the news to suit selfish local or national prejudices and thereby blackout truth usually in the name of strange and devious ideologies. Radio commentators make the most outrageous statements and millions of Catholic who should know better nod (the word is apt) their heads in tacit and placid approval. The truth of Jesus Christ is not so much attacked as it is ignored. It is almost as if He had never spoken, had never lived. The fact that over 75,000,000 of our people profess no belief whatsoever in the supernatural is a fairly good indication of where we are drifting.

In the face of all this organized and unorganized opposition to truth how is the Dominican Tertiary going to meet it? The following is merely a partial answer to this question treating just one phase (that of reading) of a problem that is complex and many-sided.

Dominican Spiritual Reading 

One of the Tertiary’s first obligations is to become imbued with the spirit of the Order. Therefore, it is his duty to learn the history and tradition of his Order as well as the lives of the Dominican saints. A logical starting point would seem to be a good life of the Father and founder, St. Dominic, and for this perhaps nothing more appropriate could be suggested than the small but fascinating Life of St Dominic by the late Father Bede Jarrett, O.P. This is easy reading and catches some of the spirit of the Order it founder. Then there is the study, St. Dominic, Servant, but Friend by Sister M. Assumpta O’Hanlon, O.P. The Tertiary will also want to become acquainted with St Dominic’s most famous son, and intellectual and spiritual giant, Thomas Aquinas. For this purpose he might read St. Thomas Aquinas by G. K. Chesterton or the lively the Man from Rocca Sicca by Father Reginald Coffrey, O.P.

If the Tertiary be a woman she should make a special of the lives of the women Dominican saints, notably those of Third Order, St. Catharine of Siena and St. Rose of Lima. Very little has been written in English on St. Rose although two juvenile works (Angels of the Andes by Mary Fabyan Windeatt and Rose of the Americas by Sara Maynard) have appeared and are worth reading even by adults. Fortunately there is no such scarcity of literature in regard to St. Catherine of Siena. There comes to mind such books as The Mission of St. Catherine by Martin S. Gillet, O.P. Catherine of Siena by Sigrid Undset. Saint Catherine of Siena by Alice Curtayne, St. Catherine of Siena by Jorgensen and the rare but invaluable Life by her confessor and spiritual director, Blessed Raymond of Capua. For a short sketch of all The Dominican saints (Including the recently Canonized St. Margaret of Hungary), The Tertiary might read Dominican Saints by the Dominican Novices.

There is also a vast field of what might be called general Dominican literature written by (and sometimes about) Dominicans. A few might be mentioned: Treatise on the Spiritual life by St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Dominic and his work by P’ere Mandonnet, O.P., all the works of Fr. Reginald Garriguo-Lagrange, O.P., with special mention being given to his well-known Christian perfection and contemplation. Fr. Garriguo-Lagrange’s works are excellent although that they are by means easy reading, especially for those who have had no philosophical or theological background. Other works are The Gospel of Jesus Christ by P’ere Lagrange, O.P., the late lamented biblical genius; all the spiritual works of Father Bede Jarrett, O.P., to mention just a few, meditations for layfolk, Our Lady of Lourdes, The House of Gold, and The Space of Life between; likewise the spiritual writings of such other English Dominicans a Reginald Buckler, O.P., who wrote The Perfection of Man Charity; Vincent McNabb, O.P. who wrote The Craft of Prayer, The Craft of Suffering and many other, an the talented Gerald Vann, O.P., who wrote among others Eve and the Gryphon, The Divine Pity and The Heart of Man.

Dominican Life, by R.D. Joret, O.P., is a book written especially for Tertiaries and one that all Tertiaries should read. Another splendid work is The Spirit Of St. Dominic by Humbert Clerissac, O.P. For those deeply interested in the liturgy there are Hymns of the Dominican Missal and the Breviary by Aquinas Brynes, O.P., Who has also recently written the life of one of our little known tertiaries, The life of Margaret Meto’la.

To mention just a few others there are: The life of Christ by Pe’re Didon, O.P., St. Thomas Aquinas Meditations and God Cares for You, both edited by E.C. McEniry, O.P., the classic Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, Blessed Jordan of Saxony’s letters of Spiritual Direction translated by Norbert F. Georges, O.P., The Way of the Blessed Christ by Father Kienberger, O.P., Our Lady of Fatima by Archbishop Finbar Ryan, O.P., and the Marian classic (Written incidentally by a Tertiary priest) True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary by Saint Louis de Montfort.

Thomistic Reading 

Many Tertiaries, of course will want to go into the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. This can be a life-time occupation and study. The Laity has been given invaluable help in this matter by courses and lectures inaugurated in various parts of this country for this purpose. Most of these courses, presented to layfolk in the non-technical language that they can grasp, have been based on the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas. The Entire Summa Theologica can now be obtained in English. A book that has been practically universally used has been the marvelous Companion to the Summa, A four volume masterpiece by the late Fr. Walter Farrell, O.P. This work is just what it’s title claims to be, a companion and not a substitute for the Summa, at the same time being a splendid Synthesis of St. Thomas classic work. Striking figures and example make it comparatively easy for the lay reader to grasp some of the more difficult ideas. Another book that might prove most helpful to the Tertiary is The Basic Works of St. Thomas Aquinas edited by Anton Pegis. This two volume work of several thousand pages contains substantial parts of the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. The Holy Name society National Headquarters, N.Y. C., has a series Theology for laymen which would be ideal for the study club purposes.

The Tertiary pursuing Thomistic studies will not find the road easy, nevertheless his hard work will be well repayed in obtaining a solid grasp in Catholic doctrine.

General Background and Social Reading 

It goes without saying that Tertiaries should have much more than a passing or casual acquaintance with Sacred Scripture, particularly the New Testament. Christ, His words and His doctrine must become a part of the Tertiary’s very life. This can be accomplished in part by a daily reading of the Sacred Scripture as Well as through and intelligent use of Missal wherein so much of the Scripture is to be found. The Imitation of Christ should be familiar to the Tertiary. Both the Scripture and the Imitation can be used quite effectively as helps in meditation.

Other non-Dominican spiritual writers should be given careful consideration, for example, the works of father Edward Lee, C.S.Sp., Abbot Marmion O.S.B., Pe’re plus S.J., Caryll Houselander, Hubert van Zeller, O.S.B., no tot mention the classic spiritual writers such as St. Augustine, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and St. Francis de sales, to cite a few.

Nor should the great social, historical and economic writers of our day be neglected. we are living in a day of great transition, not to say upheaval. The writers of men like Dawson, Belloc and Chesterton, should not only be read but might well be taken as texts for study groups and discussion clubs. They have a message for our day that is largely being overlooked, much to our shame and disadvantage. They deserve a careful hearing and Dominican Tertiaries should be among the first to face squarely the truths they have to offer, however bitter the dose. That great Dominican, Father Vincent McNabb, O.P., has, in his social writings, a message for our time that rings stronger and truer as our world drifts more and more surely into chaos. Perhaps a good work of Father McNabb’s to begin with would be Old principles and the New Order.

In this field of the social order Dominican Tertiaries should be keenly alive to the pronouncements of the Holy see and should literally snap them up as quickly as they are delivered. The Morning after any important Papal pronouncements the full text has been appearing in The New York Times and frequently in The Herald Tribune. There should be such a demand for copies of these issues that newspaper publishers all over the country would immediately see the advantage (even financial) of printing these important, epoch-making pronouncements in full. Whether it be a Encyclical Letter or merely an important talk, all Catholics, and particularly all Tertiaries, should be alert to the one voice in our world that speaks truth fearlessly and unashamedly and, at the same time, command a world-wide hearing.

Questions

1. Give your thoughts on Louis of Bavaria’s comments about the Order of Preachers.

2. Write any questions you have on “The Rule and Directory for Lay Dominicans of the Province of Saint Martin de Porres”.

Reading List

Saint Dominic

Chapter 6

Sacred Scripture

Luke 17 – End

1 Timothy

Titus

1 Peter

2 Peter

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraphs 1762 – 2051

Poems of St Catherine of Sienna

CONSUMED IN GRACE

I first saw God when I was a child, six years of age.
the cheeks of the sun were pale before Him,
and the earth acted as a shy
girl, like me.

Divine light entered my heart from His love
that did never fully wane,

though indeed, dear, I can understand how a person’s
faith can at time flicker,

for what is the mind to do
with something that becomes the mind’s ruin:
a God that consumes us
in His grace.

I have seen what you want;
it is there,

a Beloved of infinite
tenderness.

CONSECRATED

All has been consecretad.
The creatures in the forest know this,

The earth does, the seas do, the clouds know
as does the heart full of
love.

Strange a priest would rob us of this
knowledge

and then empower himself
with the ability

to make holy what
already was

THE SANCTUARY

It could be said that God’s foot is so vast
That this entire earth is but a
field on His
toe,

and all the forests in this world
came from the same root of just
a single hair
of His.

What then is not a sanctuary?
Where can I not kneel
and pray at a shrine
made holy by His
presence?

ETERNAL TRINITY

Eternal Trinity,
Godhead,
mystery deep as the sea,
you could give me no greater gift
than the gift of
yourself.

For you are a fire ever burning and never consumed,
which itself consumes all the selfish love
that fills my being.

Yes, you are a fire that takes away the coldness,
illuminates the mind with its light,
and causes me to know your
truth.

And I know that
you are beauty and wisdom itself.

The food of angels,
you gave yourself to man
in the fire of your
love.

 

PRAYER OF ST CATHERINE

I see that you have endowed your vicar
by nature
with a fearless heart;
so I humbly, imploringly beg you
to pour the light beyond nature
into the eye of his understanding.
For unless this light,
acquired through pure affection for virtue,
is joined with it,
a heart such as his tends to be proud.

Today again let every selfish love be cut away
from those enemies of yours
and from the vicar
and from us all,
so that we may be able to forgive those enemies
when you bend their hardness.

For them, that they may humble themselves
and obey this lord of ours,
I offer you my life
from this moment
and for whenever you wish me to lay it down
for your glory.

REST IN PRAYER

The sun hears the fields talking about effort
and the sun
smiles,
and whispers to
me,
“Why don’t the fields just rest, for
I am willing to do everything
to help them
grow?”
Rest, my dears, in
prayer.

Reading List

Dominicana

Ch 8 (Notable Dominicans)

Ch 9 (Art and Iconography)

Sacred Scripture

Hebrews

2 Timothy

Jude

John 1 – 7

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraphs 2052 – 2345

 

Dominican Art 

 

Further Information Online

www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/dominic.html 

www.op-stjoseph.org/blog/fra_angelico/ 

www.opne.org/art.htm

www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/christian/cat/

 

Dominicana: A Guidebook for Inquirers

Ch. 8 (Notable Dominicans)

Ch. 9 (Art and Iconography)

Write a one page summary of these chapters.

The Pillars of Dominican Life:

Meditation andContemplative Prayer

Union with God is the goal of the spiritual life. This union with God will, in turn, enrich and perfect our “active” life (preaching, teaching, giving alms, etc.) thereby making it more effective and enabling it to bear more fruit. That is why contemplative prayer and meditation is essential in the life of a Dominican. Our “active” life is really a sharing of the fruits of our study, meditating and contemplative life. The “active” life or “outward” life flows from the fullness of the “study and prayer” life, or “inward” life. You can be sure that without study or union with God, your active life will not grow and flourish to the fullness of the capability God intended. St. Catherine of Siena reminds us; “If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire”. Meditation and contemplation help us to accomplish this goal.

First, meditation uses the mind and imagination to stir the heart to Christ. For example, you’re pondering scripture and use your imagination to put yourself in the scene. You think about it, analyze it, reflect on it, and use your emotions to get fully involved. Let’s say you’re meditating on John 11:1 where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. You might imagine that you’re one of the crowd watching the dramatic event. Think about what that would be like to be there and see Jesus perform that miracle. You would be amazed and awed and filled with wonder and joy. Your thoughts, imagination and emotions would be fully engaged. That experience of mediation will draw your heart closer to Jesus. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains meditation this way: “Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in Lectio Divina or the rosary. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with Him” (which is contemplation, as we shall see later).

One method of meditation that seems to fit in with the Dominican tradition is nearly as old as the Church. It is called Lectio Divina, or in English “divine” or “sacred reading”. This goes back to the Fathers of the Desert in the 300’s and it was a method used by our holy father, St. Dominic. In fact, St. Dominic always carried with him the Gospel of St. Matthew and the Epistles of St. Paul. This is noted as the eighth of his nine ways of prayer. We are told that he would sit down to read. Sitting there he would open up some book before him, usually the Scriptures or Fathers of the Church. He would begin with the sign of the cross and then start reading. He would pause from time to time to reflect on the words before him, often expressing his response to what he was reading with a conversation with God, using physical gestures and reactions of his heart.

This is a most effective way to meditate for Dominicans, both religious and lay. Whenever possible, it’s best to meditate while sitting before the Blessed Sacrament. In this way you will not only be meditating on the Word of God, but also absorbing His Grace at the same time. This will bring your meditative prayer to a much deeper understanding of the Truth. When you are unable to go to Church, choose a quiet place in your home where you can go to every day. Get into a comfortable physical position, one in which aching knees or a sore back will not interfere with your prayer. Then, quiet yourselves both exteriorly and interiorly, or, in other words, we should serene our souls. Then we pick up the Scriptures, let us say, and turn to some passage that appeals to us and begin to read. When we are struck with some words we linger over them, reflect prayerfully on them letting our hearts be moved to acts of love, flowing into resolutions to live more fully the truths we have been reflecting upon. Then when we have exhausted the meaning of that particular passage we move on to the next and continue the process for as long as we can or want to. As a starter, the eighth chapter of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans is recommended. Another great passage is the thirteenth chapter of St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, the hymn to love. The entire letter to the Ephesians is marvelous for it is filled with so many beautiful thoughts that we can reflect upon and be moved to love God more.

Another book of the New Testament that we should appreciate more is the first letter of St. Peter. It is marvelous and provides so much material for prayerful reflection. Psalm 104 is one of the richest of all the psalms for not only prayerful but joyful reflection. There are other books besides the Bible that can be most helpful, such as Thomas a Kempis “The Imitation of Christ”. But at first it is best to stick to the Scriptures. There is enough material for meditation in them to last a lifetime. They also have the benefit of being the Word of God. Through them, God speaks to us.

One thing is certain. You are going to have bad days when nothing seems to go right. You sit there and look at the passage and nothing comes. Your mind is blank, or you are off in a maze of distractions. You might even fall asleep. But do not worry about it. You want to love God and you are trying. God loves you for the effort as poor as it may seem. This reminds us of a story about St. Teresa of Avila, who was such a down to earth person. She kept falling asleep in meditation and this worried her. She felt she was failing in a most important spiritual exercise. But she resolved it when the thought came to her, “God loves me just as much when I am asleep as when I am awake” and she never worried again.

Despite the bad days you may have which may discourage you, do not give up the effort. Eventually, you will find that its rewards are well worth any effort you put out.

We have gone into this at some length because of the importance of meditation in our spiritual lives. You are urged to try to get in some meditation or Lectio Divina sometime during the day. This may involve taking a close look at your priorities and asking, for example, how much time are you spending in watching television, which is a great consumer of time for so many people. Or how much time do we spend in reading books or magazines that are basically fluff. We might ask ourselves: could some of that time be spent in an activity that will have everlasting benefits for our immortal souls, make us more pleasing to God, and which will bring us closer to Jesus.

Our second form of prayer is contemplation. Contemplation differs from meditation in that contemplation is not an activity of the mind reflecting on ideas. In contemplative prayer, the mind is beholding a mystery and simply gazes at Jesus. Remember when you were a child and you would go outside on a warm summer’s night and gaze up at the stars. You would behold the vast array and the beauty of the stars. You weren’t thinking or analyzing it, but simply wrapped up in it all. That’s what contemplative prayer is like except instead of gazing at the stars, you gaze at Jesus. In this form of prayer our focus is on Jesus rather than the scene in scripture. It moves us closer to Him. It would be something like this; when we were meditating on the scene of Jesus raising Lazarus we were taking in the whole scene and thinking about it and reacting to it. Well think about that same person in the crowd who, after witnessing this scene, has his heart drawn to Jesus and he walks up close to Him and just gazes at Him face to face. He’s not thinking about Lazarus or anyone else right now. He just walks right up to Jesus and gazes. And Jesus gazes back. That’s contemplation. It’s a step closer. It’s more intimate. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains it this way: “Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus. “I look at him and he looks at me”: this is what a certain peasant of Ars used to say to his holy cure about his prayer before the tabernacle. This focus on Jesus is a renunciation of self. His gaze purifies our heart; the light of the countenance of Jesus illumines the eyes of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of his truth and his compassion for all men. Contemplation also turns its gaze on the mysteries of the life of Christ. Thus it learns the interior knowledge of our Lord, the more to love Him and follow Him”.

St. Thomas Aquinas notes the importance of contemplative prayer and the transforming effect it has on our active life:

“The work of the active life is twofold. One proceeds from the fullness of contemplation, such as teaching and preaching…And this work is more excellent than simple contemplation. For even as it is better to enlighten than merely to shine, so is it better to give to others the fruits of one’s contemplation than merely to contemplate. The other work of the active life consists entirely in outward occupation, for instance, almsgiving, receiving guests, and the like, which are less excellent that the works of contemplation, except in cases of necessity…Accordingly, the highest place in religious orders is held by those which are directed to teaching and preaching, which, moreover, are nearest to the episcopal perfection”. (Summa Theologiae, IIa,-IIe,q.188,art.6)

A good way to practice contemplative prayer is to first quiet yourself and serene your soul. Then gaze at a picture of Jesus, perhaps the Sacred Heart, and behold His beauty and mercy. The best way, though, is to gaze at the crucifix. Fix your eyes and heart on Jesus and behold His wounds and sufferings. Become “wrapped up” in His sacrifice and the intense love He has for you. Gaze lovingly at Him on the cross. It’s just you and Him and nobody else. When you gaze at Jesus with love and humility, you can be sure He will gaze at you and transform your soul.

It is also important to note that there are two forms of contemplative prayer, “acquired” and “infused”. Acquired contemplation is what we’ve been speaking about here. It originates from our efforts. Infused contemplation is a higher form and is given to the soul by God, usually after years of meditative and acquired contemplative prayer, and many purifications of the soul. We can only experience infused contemplation if God wills that for us. It is purely a gift. But we can, as we mentioned, dispose our soul to receiving this gift by consistently engaging in meditative prayer and acquired contemplative prayer; and, of course, living an obedient life and humble life according to the scriptures and the Holy Catholic Church. St. Catherine of Siena speaks of infused contemplative prayer this way:

“We have in us a natural light which the Creator has given us to distinguish good from evil. It is proper then that we should use this natural light…But to know God well and to know ourselves, it is necessary that this natural, but imperfect light, be joined to the supernatural, perfect light, which is infused into our souls with grace…”(Letters, 301)

Consistency and commitment to contemplative prayer are vital to its progress. Set aside some time each day to enter into this essential aspect of Dominican life.

Lectio Divina:

Praying the Scriptures

Lectio divina is a form of prayer that has a long history in the Church, and is especially associated with the monastic and religious life. It is a way of prayerful reading, where our hearts and minds are open to God. The main text for lectio divina is the Bible.

SO WHY SHOULD WE READ THE BIBLE? 

We believe that the Bible is much more than a book of nice stories. We believe that the Bible contains religious truths, truths about God. So these are not just stories, but a very important way in which God speaks to us. It is the word of God. But the word of God is not just some text on a page. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us:

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 

What the passage is saying is that the word of God has the power to change us and speaks to us now, here, today.

Reading the Bible is an important part of our growth in the Christian life. Reading it in a prayerful way will change us. But if we want this to happen, we must learn some particular skills, ways of reading and listening. We need to be able to listen for the still, small voice of God. Through gentle listening we become aware of the presence of God in the Scriptures.

HOW DO WE DO LECTIO DIVINA? 

Traditionally, lectio divina was seen simply as a very slow; deliberate reading of the Bible so that the words could be learned off by heart. The idea was that if a monk knew texts of the Scripture off by heart, he could take these words with him in his mind and heart wherever he went. Particular passages would also come into his mind in particular situations, and so the words would be his constant companion. Thus the words were an important part of the monk’s relationship with God.

These days, people tend to think of 4 stages of lectio divina:

LECTIO: We read the text. But not as we would read a newspaper or normal book. We read slowly.

MEDITIATIO: When we are reading a passage, slowly and attentively, we may find a part that is particularly attractive, some words or a word that grabs us. We should stop and think about it for while. We can repeat it a few times in our mind for a few minutes.

ORATIO: This is when we speak to God, responding to that part of the passage that has attracted us. In other words, we make our own response to God’s invitation.

CONTEMPLATIO: I think the best way of describing this is that we just remain quiet and still for a few moments after having spoken to God in prayer.

SOME THOUGHTS: 

1. Remember that prayer is God’s gift. We cannot just use methods and think that God will do things for us. God works in our lives through his grace. We are not in control. Lectio divina is simply a way for helping us be attentive, and to create space and time in which God can speak to us through the Bible. Sometimes lectio divina may make us ‘feel’ good, but more often we won’t notice any difference. Prayer is not just about feeling good, but about allowing God to transform us, and helping us to love him and others. God works on us in ways that we cannot know.
2. Always start by making the sign of the cross, then say a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to help you, and end with a prayer of thanksgiving.

 

HOW DO WE CHOOSE SUITABLE PASSAGES FOR LECTIO DIVINA? 

One of the potential problems of lectio divina comes with selecting suitable Biblical texts. At one level, there is nothing wrong with using our favorite passages of the Bible, using lectio divina as a way of exploring their riches, and allowing God to speak to us through them. But we must be careful that we don’t just stick to those passages that we like or choose ourselves. This is because we can get into the situation where we start to choose what we want God to be saying to us – a ‘pick your own’ approach. We need to find a way of choosing texts that is less subjective.

As Catholics, we believe that the Bible is God’s gift to the Church, to a believing community. The fact that we are part of that community and not just an individual alone with God is important. Our interpretation of the Bible must be carried out within the Church. One of the best ways of choosing the texts for lectio divina is to use the texts that the Church gives us in the lectionary. We may want to make it part of our daily prayer to spend time in lectio divina with the Gospel of the day. Or we may even prefer to take the readings for the following Sunday, and go back to them several times. Either way, this means we are open to allowing the text that is given to speak to us, to give us a message that comforts, stirs, disturbs us.

WHAT RESOURCES ARE AVAILABLE TO HELP WITH LECTIO DIVINA? 

Scripture can be used from the readings of the day.

There are also many books available, and two in particular are really worth reading:

• David Foster OSB. Reading with God: Lectio Divina. Published: Continuum, 2005. – This is a superb book by a Monk of Downside Abbey in England. It is well written and clear, but not overly complicated.
• Mariano Magrassi OSB. Praying the Bible: introduction to Lectio Divina. Published: Liturgical Press, 1998. – This is a little ‘heavier’ than Foster’s book, but is a fine book by the late Archbishop of Bari, Italy

 

SOME TIPS:

• There are many websites about lectio divina, but few that give well written, in depth accounts. Be discerning! It can easily get to the point with prayer that we spend far more time reading about it than doing it. Once we know the basics, we just have to try, and persevere.
• For some people it might help to be guided by one who has some experience of lectio divina. Such a person may also be able to provide help by suggesting particular passages that might help reflect on particular questions or problems that life poses.

If you are unsure where to start, and don’t want to launch into the cycle of daily readings, any one of the following passages might help:

• Genesis 2:4-9
• Matthew 15:32-39
• Isaiah 55:6-9
• Matthew 7:7-11 1
• John 4:7-16

The Practice of Lectio Divina

Tradition of Lectio Divina 

Statement of Goals: 

An introduction to the tradition of lectio divina which formed the basis of St. Dominic’s spiritual formation as a canon at Osma and which became part of the spirituality of the Order. Also, to explain lectio divina in such a way that the ordinary lay Dominican might see in it a technique of reading and praying the scriptures daily in a way compatible with any walk of life in the modern world.

Presentation: 

Lectio Divina is a Latin phrase which in its literal translation means Sacred Reading. The word sacred means, in this context, primarily the sacred scriptures, but can also apply to the writings of the Fathers of the Church and some would even extend it to the writings of other more contemporary theologians and spiritual writers. In its classical usage, sacred means scripture and the writings of the Fathers.

The word reading in this context must be understood in the sense of the word in the ancient and early medieval world, i.e., a text which was read aloud and heard. The two senses involved were that of speech and hearing. This is important to understand because in the more modern sense the word reading refers to silent activity which is carried on with the eyes looking at a page of text. In the more ancient sense, reading was verbal and was heard with the ears. One could, therefore, either be looking at a page of text or speaking it from memory.

Taken together the words sacred reading in the tradition of Christian spirituality refer to the prayerful, meditative reading of the sacred text. It is a simple concept really. One must be quiet and have the scriptures before one. After quieting oneself down exteriorly and interiorly, one simply begins to read the sacred text. When something strikes you, one simply lingers over that line or phrase or word and repeats it over and over again, ideally committing it to memory. When one becomes distracted with some other thoughts, simply by returning to the sacred text prayer moves on again until something strikes us and we linger and pause again over it. The image used by some ancient authors to explain lectio divina is that of the normal process of eating food. Just as you take a bite of your food and chew it so that it will come apart and make it possible for you to swallow it and thereby be nourished by it, so with the word of God: You must chew it so that you can swallow it and be sustained by it. As you chew, your mind thinks about it, ruminates on the text, not in any formal intellectual way, but simply by being open to the meaning of the text and being open to what God may wish to say to you in this particular word at this particular moment.

When one “does” lectio divina for 20 or 30 minutes (the early monks and nuns spent several hours each day “doing” lectio) and one goes about the ordinary demands of daily life, the conviction and hope of the one so praying is that these sacred words will come back to one from time to time and become the basis for a life of greater remembrance of God through the ordinary working day.

It was this idea of prayer which was the basis of St. Dominic’s training and which he communicated to his followers and which the laity learned at the instruction of the brethren in the early days of the order. The nuns too were thoroughly trained in this practice of prayer. Other forms of prayer: the divine office, devotions , mental prayer, were all related to lectio, in that concentration on the Word of God in the sacred text was the crucial element for all forms of Dominican prayer, for Dominicans have been from the beginning, a people of the Word. Lectio Divina is simply one form of praying that word.

Reading List

Sacred Scripture

John 8 – 21

1 John

2 John

3 John

Revelations 1 – 4

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraphs 2346 – 2622

Questions

Write a one page summary of these readings.

The Pillars of Dominican Life:

Devotion to the BlessedVirgin Mary

A deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary has always been a hallmark of our Order, one of its pillars, you might say. It began with St. Dominic himself who was especially devoted to her and used to pray for long periods before her altar. We are told that he would pray one Hail Mary after another, and as he did so he would genuflect at each one. He also joyously accepted the change in religious garb that Our Lady had given to Blessed Reginald. Before that time, St. Dominic and his first companions had worn the clothing of the canons regular, which he had been when he was in Osma. It consisted of a white robe or tunic and a surplice. After Blessed Reginald had decided to join the Order he fell deathly ill. St. Dominic prayed fervently for his recovery. Shortly after, our Blessed Mother along with St. Cecilia and St. Catherine of Alexandria, both virgin martyrs of the early Church, appeared to him and anointed him with a heavenly perfume. She then showed him a long white scapular and told him it was to be a part of the Dominican habit. He was completely cured and was clothed in the new habit by St. Dominic himself. Ever since then the scapular has been the essential part of the Dominican habit and is specially blessed. The Lay Dominican receives a smaller version of this scapular, which is given at reception.

Another devotion to Mary that is precious to Dominicans is the singing of the Salve Regina after night prayer. The singing of this beautiful hymn was started by Blessed Jordan of Saxony who would later succeed St. Dominic as Master of the Order. As he himself tells it in his little book “On the Beginnings of the Order of Preachers” one of the brothers in the house at Bologna, where St. Dominic died and is buried, was plagued by a most savage demon who almost drove him mad and created all kinds of disturbance in the house. Blessed Jordan then decided that they should sing the Salve Regina after Compline or Night Prayer. The brother was freed from his tribulation so the practice spread to the rest of the Province and from there to the entire Order and it is still our practice today. Then Blessed Jordan goes on to say:

“A dependable religious once told me that he had often seen in spirit, while the brethren were singing, “Turn then, most Gracious Advocate,” the mother of the Lord prostrating herself in the presence of her Son and praying for the safety of the whole Order. The memory of this ought to be preserved, so that when the brethren read of it, they will be inspired to an even greater devotion in their praises of the Virgin.”

Every Dominican saint and blessed has had a tender and loving devotion to our Blessed Mother. St. Louis De Montfort, a Third Order Dominican and author of True Devotion to Mary, has this to say about Our Lady:

“The more we honor the Blessed Virgin, the more we honor Jesus Christ, because we honor Mary only that we may the more perfectly honor Jesus, since we go to her only as the way by which we are to find the end we are seeking, which is Jesus”.

St. Louis De Montfort goes on to say:

“When Mary holds you up, you do not fall; when she protects you, you need not fear; when she leads you, you do not tire, when she is favorable to you, you arrive at the harbor of safety”.

It is understandable, then, that we Dominicans can and should feel that our Blessed Mother has a special affection for our Order, for devotion to her is a basic characteristic of it and has been from the very beginning. The Friars make their vows to Mary. The Laity make their promises to Mary, saying at profession: To the honour of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Blessed Dominic; and so on. The crowning glory of Dominican devotion to our Blessed Mother is the Rosary, the greatest and most widely used popular devotion in the Church. When you pray the Rosary you are praying the sacred scriptures. At the same time you are contemplating, with Mary, the life of Jesus. Through the ages, the Rosary has been known as “the weapon”. Saint Pope Pius V, a Dominican, knew the power of the Rosary. He did much to popularize it by attributing to the Rosary the victory of the Christian fleet over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto, perhaps the most crucial naval battle of all time. During the battle he asked the Rosary Confraternity of Rome to be constantly reciting the Rosary in our church of the Minerva while he himself was saying it in his private chapel. Afterwards, he established the feast of Our Lady of Victory, which later on became the feast of the Holy Rosary. The importance of the Rosary in the life of a Dominican cannot be overemphasized. It is held in such a high regard that through our Particular Directory, we are required to fast on the Vigil of the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. There are only two other days that we, as Dominicans, are required to fast (in addition to the Church requirements) and they are the Vigil of St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena.

Even though the Rosary as we have it today was developed over a long period of time, we can say in a very real sense that St. Dominic was responsible for it because it was he who established the tradition from which it came. As Father Benedict Ashley, O.P. in his book, “The Dominicans” says:

His devotion to the Blessed Virgin established in the Order the tradition that eventually took a popular from in the holy rosary. (p. 12)

On the wall of the Sistine Chapel there is that magnificent mural by Michelangelo called the Last Judgment and most of you have seen at least pictures of it. Depicted in the mural is a man leaning over holding out a Rosary and, two men who are falling into hell, have grabbed it and are being pulled up into heaven. That was the expression of Michelangelo’s belief in the power of the Rosary in one of the world’s great masterpieces of art. There is a rumor that this author cannot confirm that Michelangelo was a Dominican layman. We do know his brother was a Dominican Friar, and he had done, as a beginner in the art of sculpture, an angel on the tomb of St. Dominic in Bologna. Whether a Dominican lay man or not, he was convinced of the power of the Rosary to save souls. We as Dominicans are firmly convinced of that today. Let each one of us, then, use the Rosary as a means of drawing us closer to Christ, through Mary, by contemplating Jesus’ sacred mysteries, which wrought our salvation.

Suggested reading: True Devotion to Mary, by St. Louis De Montfort

 

 

 The Dominican Method of the Rosary

Below is the Dominican from of saying the Rosary from the pdf “The Rosary: A Short History of Its Origins” by William A. Hinnebush, OP. Click on the title to download the pdf from the St. Joseph provincial website.

 

V. Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.	V. Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
R. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.	R. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventruis tui, Jesus.
V. Thou, O Lord, will open my lips.	V. Domine, labia mea aperies.
R. And my mouth will proclaim your praise.	R. Et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam.
V. Incline unto my aid, O God.	V. Deus in adiutorium meum intende.
R. O Lord, make haste to help me.	R. Domine ad adiuvandum me festina.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.	Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Alleluia. (During Lent—Praised be to thee, O Lord, King of Eternal Glory.)	Alleluia. (During Lent – Laus tibi Domine, Rex aeternae gloriae.)
The Five ______ Mysteries, the First _____ Mystery, the _____.
Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.	Pater Noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amount women, and blessed is the fruit of they womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen. (10 times)	Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen. (10 times)
Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.	Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
At the end of the fifth decade:
Hail Holy Queen, Mother of mercy, hail, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve: to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O merciful, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! Amen.	Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae, vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae. Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria. Amen.
V. Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us.	V. Ora pro nobis, Regina Sacratissimi Rosarii.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.	R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.
V. May the Divine Assistance remain always with us.	V. Divinum auxillium maneat semper nobiscum.
R. Amen.	R. Amen.
V. May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God, rest in peace.	V. Fidelium animae per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace.
R. Amen.	R. Amen.
Let us pray:	Oremus:
O God, whose only begotten Son by His life, death and resurrection has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life: grant, we beseech Thee, that, meditating on these mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.	Deus, cuius Unigenitus per vitam, mortem et resurrectionem suam nobis salutis aeternae praemia comparavit, concede, quaesumus: ut haec mysteria sacratissimo beatae Mariae Virginis Rosario recolentes, et imitemur quod continent, et quod promittunt assequamur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

 

 

Reading List

Sacred Scripture

Revelations 5 – End

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraphs 2623 – 2865

 

Just thought you might like to know… 

THE ORIGIN OF THE SALVE REGINA 

The Virgin Mother of all love both cherishes with a very special affection and watches over this Order which she has founded, while the devil – who is jealous of everything that is good, and who hesitated not to tempt the Lord of all – assailed our brethren in Bologna and Paris. As superiors bore witness, he threatened one with a burning furnace which seemed about to fall upon him, he would suddenly embrace another under the guise of a woman, to this one he appeared like an ass with horns, to another he offered fiery serpents, others he abused with scurrilous words, so much so that at last some of the brethren had to keep guard while the rest slept: some lost their reason, others were horribly tormented.

Having recourse to their singular protectress, Mary most holy, they made it a rule to have a solemn procession, after Compline, while singing the “Salve Regina” with its proper prayer. At once the phantoms were put to flight, those who had been tormented were left in peace, two who had gone mad were restored to their wits and from that time all went well with them. How pleasing their procession was to God and his holy Mother was shown by the piety of the people, the way they thronged to our churches, the devotion of the clergy who came to assist at it, the tears and sighs of devotion, and the visions accorded.

A holy and honest woman dwelling in Marseilles, but a Lombard by race, who loved God and our Order well, one evening was caught up in ecstasy in the church during the singing of the

Salve, and saw four things deserving

of being ever remembered and prized. She observed the Queen of mercy perform four actions in keeping with the four sentiments of the antiphon. First of all, as the brethren sang the words “‘Our life, our sweetness, and our hope,’ she saw the blessed Virgin graciously return their salutation. As the anthem was continued, at the words ‘Turn then, 0 gracious advocate,’ she observed her fall on her knees before her Son and make intercession for them. At the phrase ‘Thine eyes of mercy towards us,’ she looked at them with a most gracious and happy smile; lastly, as they sang, ‘After this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus, 0 clement, 0 holy, 0 sweet Virgin Mary,’ she saw her clasp her Son as a child, and hold Him out to each in turn.

FROM: Lives of the Brethren

Please watch this video and write some special insights on the Blessed Virgin Mary to be shared at the meeting. This is Father Mitch Pacwa talking with Father Peter John Cameron, OP on EWTN about his new book entitled Mysteries of the Virgin Mary, Living Our Lady’s Graces. Here’s where to find the video:

http://3optn.com/?q=multimedia/video/ewtn-live-mysteries-virgin-mary 

Questions

Write a one page summary of these readings and video.