Reflection on St Dominic (9)

On preparing this reflection, it struck me that all the Readings at Mass this morning, (19th Sunday of the Year, Cycle C) including the psalm, could be applied to the person of Dominic and the mission and foundation of the Order.

The first Reading from the Book of Wisdom is about trusting God and joyfully having the courage to do what God asks, enduring the dangers and hardships as well as the blessings that this work of God might entail. Dominic had a tremendous trust in God. He realised the power of the Scriptures, the word/Word of God in transforming lives and the need for preaching the truth regardless of danger and opposition from heretics. He was passionately concerned with the salvation of  all people. Dominic had this tremendous, genuine love for people – he cared deeply for them. We are told that “his heart was full of an extraordinary, almost incredible, yearning for the salvation of everyone”. ( Libellus 34)

We know he was steeped in Sacred Scripture and had the Gospel of Matthew and the letters of St Paul almost off by heart, so well did he know them and preach them. To emphasise this, one of our antiphons at the Office of Readings reads:

“Proclaim the word, convince, rebuke, encourage with patience in teaching; put up with hardship and do the work of an evangelist.”

Among many instances recorded in the life of Dominic, the story is told of St. Dominic and his companions being purposely led astray by a heretic, whom they thought was a Catholic. On enquiring of him the directions to the place where a debate was to be held with the heretics, he led them or more correctly misled them (barefoot as they were) through thorns and brambles so that their feet and ankles were covered with blood after a short time. Dominic bore all of this with unruffled patience, breaking forth joyfully at times into the divine praises and exhorting his companions to do the same. “Be of good cheer, dear brethren”, he would say, “put all your trust in God, for our sins have now been all wiped out in our blood, and the victory will surely be ours.”  The victory was theirs indeed as the heretic seeing Dominic’s marvellous endurance, and the joyful forbearance of the whole company, had a change of heart and confessed his deceit.

As the commentary in today’s Sunday Newsletter states, ‘Saints take risks, They put their hands into the hand of Jesus of Nazareth whom they believe has called them to new missions in the Church. They are open to whatever might unfold, and to its consequences. Like Abraham in the second Reading, Dominic was called to leave his homeland in Spain and follow the Lord step by step so that he was gradually called  to found monasteries in Prouilhe, Rome, Madrid and Bologna and priories in theses same places as well as Paris, - founding a preaching Order which was unique at the time, as up until then only bishops had the authority to preach.

Finally, all the instructions given in today’s Gospel, were practised by Dominic. For example we are instructed to ‘sell our possessions and give alms’. Dominic does exactly this while a student – selling his beloved books (when books were so scarce and expensive) in a time of famine so that he could buy food for the poor. Our 2^nd Antiphon over the psalms tomorrow evening reads;

“Moved by compassion and love, Dominic sold his books and possessions and gave the money to the poor.”

It is remarkable how one of our hymns in St. Dominic’s Mass, depicting the attributes of St. Dominic uses phrases from this particular Gospel passage. I refer to the passage:

 “What sort of steward, then, is faithful and wise enough for the Master to place him over his household to give them their allowance of food at the proper time.”

Dominic certainly was this faithful and wise steward of the Lord’s who responded to the promptings of the Holy Spirit his whole life long and had a profound love for Christ, a deep faith and a sure hope that entrusted the future to the love and great mercy of God.

I pray, through the intercession of St. Dominic, that all of us may be given the grace to grow ever more deeply in love with our Saviour, Jesus Christ, grow in faith, hope and love, and respond generously to the daily promptings of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God and the salvation of all people. Amen

Reflections on St Dominic (6) - The Dominican Family

Through the window of our refectory I saw how our youngest Sister has planted a variety of flowers in the shape of 800, and it is exactly what we are as we celebrate our 800 Anniversary as Dominicans. Each Sister and Brother whom God has called to our family has shaped our Order day by day by their lives.

Dominic  placed so much trust and confidence in his companions. He was profoundly a man of God, convinced that the hand of God lay upon everything and everyone. His own vocation as a preacher he discovered from being attentive to the needs of others. He was so open to listen to God speaking to him through the lives of others.

Dominic knew that those who came to join him were called by the Lord and that the Lord was speaking to them. If others were called to join Dominic in his dream then some system had to be devised which respected both the freedom of God to speak as He wishes and the freedom of each to express their understanding of what God was saying to each personally. 

Dominic’s vision, his inspiration is communicated to his brethren in such a way that it becomes the creation of all. He inspired others by sharing his vision and allowing it to take root and mature in them in such a manner that it seems to come as much from them as from him.

In his family everyone becomes a builder, everyone must share in the task of construction, and is encouraged to offer his/her own personal contribution.

Dominic never put himself in the centre, he emptied himself, and that emptiness   invites Christ to be a centre of his own life and the life of his community. 

When Dominic had only sixteen brothers, he sent them to Paris, Spain and Rome. In human eyes it seemed that he was tearing down what he had laboriously built, destroying the Order he had just founded. But he had the supernatural prudence that comes from the Holy Spirit ‘Seed rots when it is hoarded, bears fruit when it is sown.’  Dominicans were for the Church. Our lives are shaped by the Church’s needs.

The following quotation from Becoming Human by Jean Vainer is relevant here: 

A place of mediation is that place where we are and can search for truth together, where we find healing for our hearts that are incapable of relating to others in a healthy way, where we can learn not to be locked up in our own needs and desires, but welcome others as they are, accept that they are important and have value. The place of mediation helps us to discover that we are part of something much bigger, that together we can do something beautiful.

Our awareness that we are loved and accepted by our God, that truth is what allows us to be preachers of God’s Mercy and Compassion. And we first learn it in our communities and then share it with the whole world.

When fr.Bruno our Master last week was in Krakow on the WYD, he was asked the question: What do Dominicans have to preach today for the Youth? He answered that we first need to listen to them and after, to preach and to share with them our experience of life. To think together, how to build a better world today - not individual world but a world where we can BE together.  Church – He  said - is our common home 

Reflections on St Dominic - a man of prayer

We sing the following antiphon at Lauds on the feast of St Dominic: “Dominic prayed, prayed without ceasing, prayed both night and day.”  Dominic as we know is the founder of a preaching Order but the most striking characteristics, highlighted in the process of canonisation and in Blessed Jordan’s account of the beginnings of the Order, the Libellus, describe Dominic, first and foremost, as a man of prayer – prayer was the source from which his preaching flowed.  Dominic preached by his way of life long before he founded his Order and even while devoting himself to preaching the Gospel throughout Europe he continued his practice of unceasing prayer.  It comes as no great surprise then that ten years before he gathered together his friars preachers he had already gathered, in the monastery of Blessed Mary of Prouilhe, a group of women converts whom he associated with his ‘holy preaching’ by their prayer and penance.  Throughout the eight hundred years of the Order’s existence down to the present day Dominican contemplative nuns have been associated with the preaching of their brothers and sisters who ‘preach the name of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the world.’

“Imitation of Blessed Dominic as he imitated Christ” is the ideal set before us Dominican Nuns in our Constitutions and we are urged to perpetuate his “fervour and spirit of prayer” by harmoniously ordering our whole life to preserving the continual remembrance  of God while striving to have the same mind as Christ Jesus.  Dominic’s unceasing prayer led him to have the same mind as Christ – fruit of the gift of the Holy Spirit - Blessed Jordan says that Master Dominic always communed with God and the angels even while living in this mortal flesh.  This unceasing communing with God flowed from his study of sacred truth especially the Holy Scriptures – he always carried with him the Gospel of Matthew and the Epistles of St Paul and knew them by heart.  Blessed Jordan tells us that Dominic was “adept at keeping God’s Word” for he “warmly accepted the Lord’s commands” and “welcomed the voice of his Lover with loyalty and pleasure” – Jordan uses the lovely image of comparing Dominic’s memory to a “kind of barn for storing God’s Word” but he did not just hold on to it for himself - no it bore fruit in his way of life – “his external behaviour and actions broadcast publicly the treasure that lay hidden in his holy breast.”

Dominic “haunted the church by day and by night, devoting himself ceaselessly to prayer – weeping and interceding on behalf of sinners, the afflicted and oppressed whose distress he bore in the inmost shrine of his compassion.”  His special prayer was for the gift of true charity which would enable him to “spend himself utterly in winning souls” in imitation of the Lord Jesus who offered himself entirely for our salvation.  Frequently on his travels he would suggest to his brothers that they would think about the Saviour and Fra Angelico, one of the early friars, frequently depicted Dominic at the foot of the Cross – the book of the art of love - meditating on the sufferings of the Saviour.   Just as Dominic’s apostolic zeal sprang from his contemplation of the Cross so too we the nuns of the Order invited take our place with Mary and Dominic at the foot of the Cross, embrace the Cross in our daily lives and unceasingly beg for God’s mercy for ourselves and the whole world.

In his recent Apostolic Constitution to Contemplative women, Pope Francis tells us that our prayer and contemplation is chiefly “nourished by the ‘scandalous beauty’ of the Cross” and says that the Church counts on the life of prayer and self-sacrifice in bringing the Good news to the men and women of our time. 

As we celebrate this Jubilee Year of the Order and that of Diving Mercy, may our holy Father St Dominic intercede for us that we may remain faithful to our life of prayer and self-sacrifice in the heart of the Order and of the Church in the midst of our modern world.

Preparing for the Feast of St Dominic during this Jubilee Year

It is our custom to have a novena of prayer each year in preparation for the feast of our father Dominic - in recent years this consists of a short reflection on some aspect of St Dominic's life followed by the following beatiful antiphon to St Dominic before Vespers each evening:

O Wonderful hope which you gave to those who wept for you at the hour of your death, promising that after your decease you would be  helpful to your brethren. 

Fulfil Father what you have said and help us by your prayer.

You shone on the bodies of so many sick by so many miracles, bring us the help of Christ to heal our sick souls.

Fulfil Father what you have said and help us by your prayer.

We are  happy to share with our readers some of our reflections

A reflection on the ‘ O Lumen’ (an antiphon which we sing to St Dominic daily at Night Prayer after the Salve Regina)

O light of the Church,

 Doctor of truth,

 Rose of patience,

Ivory of chastity,

Water of wisdom freely given

 Preacher of grace lead us to the blessed.

2016--------Wake up the world !

1216--------Dominic did just that !

 Dare we dream to be as he was?:

A flaming torch setting the world ablaze

   With God the Father’s love, mercy and compassion.

A lover of truth, who speaks the truth, acts truthfully

And walks with The Truth, Christ.

A fragrant incense rising up from the sacrifice

    Of a self giving love

A strong, pure presence  reaching out to humanity

With the joy of an undivided heart

A gentle counselor speaking a life-giving word 

that can pierce the ignorance of hearts and minds 

with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit

 An ardent preacher of the beauty and efficacy

of God’s friendship with humanity 

and leading it into the presence of the Blessed Three in One .

Yes ,we dare to dream!      

Holy Father Dominic relying on your intercession 

may our dream come true.

Novena to St Dominic 2015 - Day 8

Since today is the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, it seems appropriate to focus in this reflection on the importance that the Word of God has in St Dominic’s life and preaching. It can be said that St Dominic truly lived and was granted the grace asked for in today’s opening prayer: “grant, we pray, to you servants, that, listening to the voice of your beloved Son, we may merit to become coheirs with Him.” 

We know that he always carried with him on his journeys one of the Gospels and the letters of St Paul and it is said that he knew them by heart. The study of Scripture is, of course, an important part of the life of the Order so that the “seeds of the Word of God” may be given to others through preaching. But, of even more significance is the example Dominic left us of his use of Scripture in his prayer. In the little booklet “The Nine Ways of Prayer of St Dominic,” which dates from the 13^th century, a number of those Ways of Prayer involve Scripture. 

Most of the Ways of Prayer (e.g. the Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Ways) included the frequent repetition of short phrases from Scripture (e.g. Lk 18:13 “God be merciful to me a sinner”, Mt 8:2, the Psalms etc).

In the Fifth Way of Prayer “he held himself, standing with great respect and devotion, as if he were reading in the presence of God. Deep in prayer, he seemed to meditate on the words of God, and as it were to repeat them over and over to himself with delight.” A practice that he would also adopt while on his journeys.

The Eight Way of Prayer, is much like what we now speak of as Lectio Divina: Dominic “in the spirit of devotion roused in him by the divine words chanted in choir or in the refectory, would go speedily to some solitary place, in his cell or elsewhere, to read and pray by himself and in the presence of God. … then he felt his soul gently moved, as if he heard the Lord speaking.” This image of Dominic prayerfully contemplating the Gospels is particularly familiar thanks to Fra Angelico’s presentation of the Crowning with Thorns. 

The Ninth Way of Prayer, involved this type of prayerful mediation on the Word of God, as he walked on his journeys, indicating how well he knew the Scriptures.

“In the opinion of the Brethren, it was by praying thus that the Saint attained that fullness of knowledge of the Holy Scripture, penetrated into the very marrow of the sacred words, acquired the holy daring of his ardent preaching, and lived in that intimate familiarity with the Holy Spirit from which he drew the knowledge of hidden things.”

May our holy Father Dominic intercede for us, that we may have the same ardent love for the Word of God and may imitate him and our Lady in treasuring the Word of God and pondering it in our hearts (Lk 2:19). 

Novena to St Dominic 2015 - Day 7

Pope Francis has announced that the coming year-2016 will be a year dedicated to the Mercy of God for the whole Church, and by a happy coincidance our Order is celebrating the 800th Jubilee of its foundation.

 Reading through the Libellus and other documents of these early days I find that one of the most frequently mentioned characteristics of St. Dominic is his compassion, again and again we read of his long night vigils as he struggles with God to have Mercy on all His children, especially his most wayward ones.   Mercy Mercy, he cried, Lord have mercy on your children. What will become of sinners ?

Dominic could resonate with the beautiful lines from the poet on mercy and this was surely his way of thinking and his way of seeing life.

               "The quality of mercy is not strained----

it droppeth like the gentle dew from heaven

Upon the place beneath:  it is twice blest;-------

it blesseth him that gives and him that takes"

                                                                                                                        Shakespeare

St Lukes' Gospel on the Proddigal Son would have been especially dear to Dominic. It is said that he pondered with Mary the Word of God and St Paul's letters that he always carried with him, knowing them almost by heart.    We can see him pleading with and sharing the full depth of this story with the man in the inn as they talked and argued all night  long, and also with the sinners who were drawn to him, as they sensed that here was a man who would listen to their story and understand their problems, and sinfullness.---I will arise and go to mt Father---I have sinned and gone astray.  He would encourage these poor  children even the heretics, telling them of God's boundless love and mercy for them, and the welcome they would find in Jesus just as the prodigal son experienced it.

He would remind them too of the last Supper, the moment when John rested his head on the breast of Jesus in complete trust, sure of Jesus' love for him and his acceptance of this "son of thunder."   

 Where did St. Dominic our Father find the strength to sustain those long nights of intercession  and days of walking, teaching and arguing while at the same time bringing to birth his young Order of Friars Preachers?  He would tell them of God's constaint pursuit of them  each one individually and personally.

                        "All which I took from thee I did but take,-----not for thy harm's sake

                 but just that thou migh'st seek it in my arms.----all which thy child's mistake

Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home;   Rise clasp my hand an come.

                                                                                                                              the hound of heaven

 It was Our Lady, Queen of Heaven herself who walked with Dominic along the dusty roads and came with him into the inns, wherever a wayward son and daughter could be found.

 Maybe his prayer went like this - universal and personal as always

          Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners,   Hail holy Queen  mother of Mercy,----turn then most gracious advocate thine eyes of mercy towards us/

 Our Father Dominic has not changed and he accompanies his children as they travel along the dusty roads of life sometimes getting muddied and messed up, but always with our Father and Mary our Mother - sure that after this our exile he will be there waiting to show us the blessed fruit of Mary's womb---Jesus         Dominic we thank you.

Novena to St Dominic 2015 - Day 4

St Dominic and the Rosary

Today we reflect on our Dominican tradition of devotion to the Holy Rosary and we quote from a letter (September 1985) by Fr Damian Byrne OP when he was Master of the Order.

The Dominican legend of the Rosary - "The barren land"

The order was born into a barren land: dichotomized humanity, with flesh warring against the spirit, with woman downgraded and life itself despised, was unable to accept the reality of the Word made flesh, dwelling in the midst of us. There was only one answer, and it was summed up in the simple words: "Hail... the Lord is with you... you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son..." (Luke 1: 28-31).

Whatever critical historians may have to say about the Legend of the Rosary, it bears witness to the charismatic gift entrusted by the Church to the Order of Preachers, a gift which we must exercise by reason of profession, by our legislation and by the constant exhortation of the See of Rome.

The Legend, as such, is worth recalling in these days of renewed insistence on our preaching ministry: After much fruitless labour, tradition has it that the Mother of God appeared to Dominic in the forest of Bouconne near Toulouse: "Wonder not that until now you have had such little fruit from your labours. You have spent them on a barren soil, not yet watered with the dew of divine grace. When God willed to renew the face of the earth he began by sending down the fertilizing dew of the Angelic Salutation. Preach my Rosary composed of one hundred and fifty Aves, and you will obtain an abundant harvest."

True devotion to Mary

It places Mary in her true ecclesial context - waiting herself in the barren land with the broken, the wounded and the little people of God. The heavenly Ave comes first on her, for in truth the Hail Mary is not so much an ascending prayer as a downward divine blessing poured out on all flesh. Mary stands in the desert on behalf of all humanity, so that it may blossom once more like the rose. The word addressed to Mary is addressed to all: "Rejoice, the Lord is with you." Here, we all draw waters from the springs of salvation, as the fertilizing rain of the Ave renews our land.

A school of prayer

There is a healthy plurality about the Prayer of the Rosary, for its long and varied history has produced many approaches: it has its rich Marian tradition, as witnessed at thousands of Marian shrines, in processions and in rituals where Mary is crowned as Queen. It has too, its Christological orientation as a "compendium of the Scriptures;" it is a powerful vocal prayer and it is a many levelled way of contemplative prayer. It can be prayed in a group or alone. In a word, the Rosary is a School of prayer, providing for body, soul and spirit.

A method of preaching

St. Dominic is above all the "Man of the Book." Art may show him without the beads, but never without the Scriptures. The well known fresco of "Christ mocked" in San Marco is a classic illustration. It contains the main elements of Rosary preaching:

1.The Central theme of the Lordship of Jesus, the subject of our contemplation and of our preaching. This is the suffering, yet triumphant Jesus of "now", with power still going out from his glorious wounds to heal his people.

2. Mary, the first and supreme contemplative who is already exquisitely occupied in pondering these things in her heart and at the same time inviting Dominic to keep her company.

3. St. Dominic, standing for ourselves, pondering the word in the Scriptures and preparing to preach it to others. Fra Angelico portrays him exactly as Our Lady requested five hundred years later at Fatima when she said: "Keep me company meditating on these mysteries of the Rosary."

An instrument of healing

Early preachers of the Rosary were concerned not merely with preaching a devotional

exercise. They were mindful of the Acts of the Apostles: "Grant to your servants to speak your word with boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." (Acts 4: 29, 30). Among the classic texts of their preaching was the story of the woman with the issue of blood. She touched the Lord and experienced power go out from him. Healing was a very real part of the Rosary apostolate of former times. The Preacher would hold up the beads, and invite his hearers to touch the Lord in faith, as they reverently called on the name of Jesus in each Ave. "The beads", they would say, "are like the tassel of his robe. Reach out and clutch them in faith and you will be made well."

The Spanish apostle of New Granada, St. Louis Bertrand, gives a graphic account of the miracles performed through his own use of the beads which he was accustomed to place around the neck of the sick person. After his return to Valencia he gave a Rosary to a friend and told him to preserve it with reverence, "because in the Indies, this Rosary cured the sick, converted sinners, and I think, also raised the dead to life."

In these days of the new flourishing of the ministry of healing, it would be remiss of us Dominicans to fail in the healing dimension of the Rosary which is an integral part of our tradition.

It may be timely to recall a remarkable letter addressed to a former Master of the Order by Pope Pius XI. On 7th March, 1934, he wrote: "It may justly be said that the Rosary of Mary is, as it were, the principle and foundation on which the very Order of St. Dominic rests for the perfecting of the lives of its members, and obtaining the salvation of others."

Novena to St Dominic 2015 - Day 3

In the Fundamental Constitution of the Order we find the phase “following in the footsteps of the Saviour, speaking among themselves or their neighbours, either with God or about God.”  In the Process of Canonisation the Brethren indicated that this was wholly characteristic of Dominic their founder – frequently repeating that he “only spoke to God or about God.”

Yet this formula is not a creation of Dominic – he borrowed it from the founder of the Order of Grandmont, St Stephen of Thiers: The virtuous man should always speak of God or with God; for in his prayer he speaks with God and with his neighbour of God”

This sentence makes clear how the synthesis of the two aspects of Dominican life operate together, and transcend all dualism.  Our life will have all the more unity, when our activity is rooted and flows from our union with God.

St Dominic was a person who was undivided in himself, because he was open to all.  He was open to all because the one love that is the source of all - the form of all and the end of all - is one in him and in all.  He was capable of experiencing the truth that we are completely rooted and grounded in God’s love.

The following quotation from Love and Living by Thomas Merton is relevant here: “Christianity is a religion of the Word.  The Word is Love, but we sometimes forget that the Word emerges first of all from silence.  When there is no silence, then the one Word which God speaks, is not truly heard as Love. Then only ‘words’ are heard. ‘Words’ are not Love, for they are many and Love is One.  The one Word which God speaks is Himself.”

This silence of St Dominic which he proposes that we should imitate, is like that of the Virgin Mary: silence of the heart allows us to unceasingly hold in our minds and in our hearts the mystery of salvation.

Novena to St Dominic 2015 - Day 2

On this second day of our Novena in honour of St. Dominic, I cannot help calling to mind one of the great outstanding qualities of St. Dominic, namely, that of his zeal.  The dictionary describes it as ’an  intense enthusiasm for a cause’, and those belonging to the family of St. Dominic are only too well  aware how well this description fits his intense enthusiasm for the salvation of souls.

So much so that he spent his nights and much of his day in prayer, pleading for their salvation, even to the point of offering himself to be cut in pieces to be placed at the gates of hell to save poor sinners.  This reminds us of the words of Jesus in St. John’s Gospel (Ch.2) ‘Zeal for your house devours me’.

Oh, how zealously St. Dominic laboured to bring Christ’s mercy and healing to the people of his time – surely in our day he longs even more  to reach out to our needy sisters and brothers, which he does, through the ministry of his many sons and daughters in every part of the world - for those caught up in drug and alcohol addictions, in sexual abuse, slave trading, human trafficking, abortion of innocent babies in the womb and suicide to mention only some of the desperate needs that plague our world in this new millennium. 

It was to bring the compassion and healing of Jesus to such needy peoples that St. Dominic founded his Order -  specifically for their salvation.  We read in the Book of Numbers (Ch.25)  ‘the Lord said to Moses: ‘Phinehas the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel my people, because he was the only one among them to have the same zeal as I have…’.  How appropriately these consoling words can be applied to St. Dominic and hopefully also to his children in his Order.

Each member of St. Dominic’s family is called to imitate this same zeal for the salvation of souls – those of us in the cloistered life are called to devote ourselves without hindrance to praying and pleading with God for the salvation of all peoples – called to be devoured by the same zeal as Dominic - and by frequent contact with the furnace of love as he was, we too are set on fire with ardour for the spreading of God’s Kingdom on earth and the salvation of souls.

Novena to St Dominic - 2015 - Day 1

 

 

Jesus said to His disciples: “The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea that brings in a haul of all kinds.” Mt 13:47

The opening words of the Gospel reading we heard today at Mass seemed to me to be a very fitting description of the Order of Preachers – and providential, that we have been given these words at the beginning of our novena to St Dominic.

In its almost 800 years of life, the Order of Preachers has proven itself to be like the dragnet Jesus spoke about – attracting to itself people of all kinds, rich in diversity; of every shape and size; from every corner of the earth – and each one has found in it a home; a place where they feel welcome and to which they belong; and a place where they have discovered they can be free to be themselves; a place of mercy where they have found acceptance and love – the beginning, perhaps, of eternity?

We know that St Dominic was inspired primarily from the hours he spent in contemplation at the foot of Christ’s Cross; that his sole prayer for himself was that he be given the gift of perfect charity.  The shape of the Cross is the shape of the greatest commandments we have been given by the Lord Jesus: that we love God with all our heart and soul; with all our mind and strength; and that we love our neighbour as ourselves.  When Jesus had His arms outstretched on the Cross, His embrace of humanity was without limit; without condition and with the capacity to enfold in His mercy everyone who went to Him and sought Him there … and everyone entrusted Him theough the faith of others, as was the paralytic who was let down though the roof of the house where Jesus had been teaching and preaching.

In reflecting on St Dominic and on the shape of the Cross on which hung the Saviour of the world: the Cross which was so dear to St Dominic – it seemed to me that the gift we have been given as Dominicans, the grace of the Holy Spirit Who has been breathing His life into the Order since its beginnings in 1206 – and Who has been guiding and directing the children of St Dominic in a most dynamic period of the world’s history: the gift of unbroken unity with which we have been blessed, is a fruit of St Dominic’s whole-hearted docility to God. 

His vision for the Order he founded was – maybe? – that it take as its pattern the shape of the Cross: in all things – in its common life; its fidelity to the liturgy and prayer, especially the Eucharist; in its study and its preaching – in all these things, we should direct our gaze upwards, on God  And, in experiencing the Lord’s boundless love and infinite mercy – that we might open wide our arms so as to be able to embrace, with Christ crucified, all of our brothers and sisters in the Order and in all the world.

We pray then, as we look forward to the year of mercy and the Jubilee of the Order – through the intercession of St Dominic – that when the dragnet is full and the fishermen have hauled it ashore, that it may be that the baskets are filled to overflowing, and none may be found to be ‘no use’ and thus thrown away.

May the Lord be gracious and bless us with His mercy, may His face shine on us and on the whole world that we may be saved.

Novena to St Dominic 2014 - Day 9

 

These past days we have been reflecting on the life and virtues of St Dominic and his zeal for the salvation of souls.  Blessed Jordan of Saxony concludes his Libellus (a short history of the beginnings of the Order) with the exclamation: “who could ever hope to imitate the virtues of this man Dominic?” and he continues: “we can however admire them and weigh up the slackness of our own generation against his example.” 

In the face of Dominic’s virtues Jordan more or less felt that we could never reach that holiness without an extra special grace – somehow we hear a certain resignation in his tone as he encourages us to “follow in our father’s footsteps to the best of our ability.”  But I’m sure Dominic himself would have something different to say to us.  No doubt, Dominic was convinced that God’s infinite love and mercy which were the source of his strength and his zeal, were available to all his children.  He was always aware of how much he himself stood in need, totally dependent on God’s infinite mercy and in prayer frequently called out for that mercy: “Lord what will become of sinners!”  Although Dominic preserved his Baptismal innocence throughout his life this was not the result of any merit on his part – he knew that he stood in need of God’s infinite mercy as much as the greatest sinner.  I think that Dominic’s wish would be that each of us become the person we were created to be – not a replica of himself.  We see this from his respect for individuals – a respect which has been a characteristic of the Order down to the present day.  Often our discouragement stems from our efforts at trying to imitate someone else or while being blind to what the Lord is doing in our own hearts.  In this morning’s homily we were reminded that our “true identity is based on the fact that we are children of God, created in his image with a role in life that no other can fulfil – to really know this in one’s heart and to live accordingly as Dominic did, is surely the road to unending happiness” and holiness.

Dominic’s joy and cheerfulness surely sprang from this knowledge of being loved infinitely – fruit of his many hours of contemplation of the Crucified Saviour.  Jesus has saved the world and taken on Himself the sins of all of us – now He desires that we open our hearts to receive the gift of His love and in freedom to live by that love. This gift is available to all of us if we allow that area of our heart to be spoken to.  But am I willing to open?  In today’s world there is great emphasis on effort but our effort  must be rather more faith and trust, letting go and letting God do His work.  All our yesterdays lead us to the now of today and now must always be new and different and must mean letting go as fully as possible and let myself live more and more out of the gift of God.

As we celebrate this feast may we experience some of the joy which Dominic had in his heart and may he intercede for us with the Lord Jesus that we too may be given the gift of true charity to enable us to spend ourselves and let ourselves be spent in the service of our Lord and Saviour and of our brothers and sisters.

 

 

 

Novena to St Dominic 2014 - Day 8

As we approach the end of Novena to St. Dominic. I would like to share a thought on the fourth way of prayer of St. Dominic.

"St. Dominic, standing before the altar or in the Chapter Room, would fix his gaze on the crucifix, looking intently at Christ on the cross and kneeling down again and again.  Also at times, he spoke in his heart and his voice was not heard at all, and he would remain on his knees, his mind caught up in wonder, and this sometimes lasted a long time. Sometimes, when he was praying like this, his gaze seemed to have penetrated into the spiritual heavens, and he would suddenly be radiant with joy, wiping away the abundant tears running down his face. At such times he would be in an intensity of desire, like a thirsty man coming to a spring of water, or a traveller at last approaching his homeland. His prayers became stronger and more insistent; his movements rapid yet always sure and orderly, as he stood up and kneel down."

Today is the feast of Transfiguration. And it seems to me that this prayer of St. Dominic is closely related to this feast. When the apostles saw Jesus transfigured they were overcome with wonder, amazement and deep joy. Maybe they also had to wipe away their tears. When St. Dominic was looking at Jesus on the cross and was overcome with joy, his joy was not only for himself, but for others. When we gaze at Jesus, we too become more and more aware - as St. Dominic did - of the mercy of God: and not only for ourselves, but for all sinners, for the whole world. With the apostles on the mountain, and St. Dominic at the cross, we pray "Lord it is wonderful for us to be here."

Novena to St Dominic 2014 - Day 7

Today's Gospel forms a very good starting point for my reflection on St Dominic.

I have sometimes heard homilies on this passage along the lines of: Peter showed great faith, he stepped out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus. But then he took his eyes off Jesus and instead of being focused on Jesus he started thinking about what he himself was doing and so he began to sink.

Dominic was a man of great faith who repeatedly acted from that faith - sending out his first followers to make foundations in different parts of Europe, his many miracles etc. And I think what nourished/produced this faith was that he lived with his gaze firmly fixed on Jesus. We see this particularly in the record of his prayer practices, "The Nine Ways of Prayer." He often prayed before a crucifix, "looking intently at Christ on the Cross" and speaking with Him "in his heart." He spent long periods praying and meditating on the Gospels - "It was as though he was discussing something with a friend" and would spend his journeys reflecting on some passage of scripture.

May we learn from him how to live with our eyes fixed on Jesus and so come to greater faith and intimacy with God.

Novena to St Dominic 2014 - Day 6

As we continue our novena I would like to focus on St Dominic’s love of and fidelity to prayer and his ease at praying all through his life especially at moments when he had to make important decisions.

Today the 4^th of August we celebrate the feast of St John Mary Vianney who also was a great man of prayer.  Yesterday at Sunday Mass we read the Gospel of Matthew (14: 13 – 14) where Jesus needed to get away from the crowds to pray and grieve for the death of John the Baptist but because of the pressing needs of the crowds he did not get it.  In today’s Gospel following on from the feeding of the multitude and sending the crowds away Jesus goes up into the hills to pray.

Very often St Dominic is addressed in   poems and hymns as ‘Gospel man of Prayer’. Theoderic says: “A certain cleric after hearing Dominic explain the Holy Scriptures could not refrain from asking him in what book he had studied to find matter so sublime”  “My son” replied the saint “I have studied chiefly in the book of Charity, it is there that we learn all things.”  Dominic must have spent many hours before the Crucifix which inspired him to go far and near preaching the Word of God, visiting the poor, consoling the afflicted, healing the sick in imitation of his Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

Dominic we are told by those who knew him “spoke only to God or about God.  Biographers tell us when he was on his journey with a band of friars he would remain at the end to be alone and pray.  He was often heard singing the hymn to Mary “Ave Maris Stella”.

At night he spent much time praying, resting his head on the altar steps.  Blessed Jordan of Saxony says  that God gave him the singular grace of weeping for sinners, the wretched, the afflicted.  Day and night Jordan says Dominic prayed without ceasing and using the leisure time afforded for contemplation.

Abbot William of Toulouse at the saint’s canonisation process said “I never saw anyone pray so much or weep so much.  When he prayed he cried out and could be heard by those around him and in these cries he said: “Oh Lord have mercy on your people – what is to become of sinners? - thus he spent his nights imploring, praying for the sins of others.”

Dominic grasped the importance of the liturgy – Mass and the Divine Office.  We are told “none was more fervent when celebrating the Eucharist.  Almost always when he was outside the priory when Dominic heard the first bell for Matins from a monastery he arose and aroused the brethren.  With great devotion he celebrated the entire day and night Office in proper order.  Rudolf of Bologna said “the Blessed Dominic always attended choir with the community”.  When he was there he used his prerogative as father and founder to encourage them “to put their whole hearts into the chanting.” 

Many of us are familiar with the ‘Nine Ways of Prayer’ where Dominic gives us the example of using his body in genuflections, standing and prostrating before the Altar and Crucifix.  Dominic was very aware that we are more than spirit and soul – we are flesh and blood people too.  If our prayer is to be an authentic expression of our faith then devotion and worship must also have a corporal dimension to it. 

I conclude with a prayer to St Dominic for all of us and an increase in numbers.

 

Joyful friar,

Tolerant master,

Grace-filled preacher.

Gospel man of prayer

Pray that your sons and daughters

May be faithful to you heritage

Of common life

Common prayer

Study

And service

And that other men and women will join them

To praise

To bless

And to preach

That Jesus Christ is Lord.  Amen

 

 

  

Novena to St Dominic 2014 - Day 5

On reflecting on today’s readings at Mass and on St. Dominic during this novena in his honour, I was struck by how closely Dominic resembled Jesus – how Christ-like he was.

In the Gospel this morning, Jesus, needing to be by himself with his disciples to mourn the violent death of John the Baptist, put aside his own needs for the sake of the crowds who followed him. Experiencing compassion for them, he preached the good news to them, healed their sick and fed them – giving them both temporal and spiritual sustenance – caring for the spiritual, moral and physical needs of the people.

Dominic, likewise, put the needs of others before his own. In fact ‘Dominic’s life was shaped by the needs of others,’ Simon Tugwell says. This idea of Dominic’s life been shaped by the needs of others and the reality behind it has stayed with me – sometimes to ponder with admiration Dominic in his own person and the mission of the Order and sometimes too in the challenges it poses for me, as I direct this question to myself. Is my life shaped by the needs of others? – or do I live an individualistic, selfish existence? I like the phrase coined by Timothy Radcliffe when he says:

“Dominican Spirituality is about living in God and for others”.

The Gospel message is clear and consists in giving one’s life for others as Jesus did and as the greatest expression of his love for us: in the text:

“And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world” ( Jn 6:51)

The Eucharist is actually prefigured in today’s Gospel with the taking, blessing, breaking and giving of the five loaves to the people. Jesus not only gave his life for us but continues to live in us, loving us, strengthening and sustaining us by his presence and grace.

From the beginning to the end of his life we are given proof that Dominic’s life was indeed shaped by the needs of others. “Dominic was a man unusually responsive to the world around him. A realist as much as a visionary, he stood out among his contemporaries not only as a man of God, but also as someone notably quick, flexible and generous in his response to the immediate demands of history”( p.15 Preachers at Prayer – Paul Murray O.P.)

That sense of openness to the world is a marked characteristic of many of the great Dominican preachers, ‘When I became a Christian,’ noted Lacordaire, ‘I did not lose sight of the world’. And, in a similar vein, Vincent McNabb remarked once to some of his brethren: ‘The world is waiting for those who love it…If you don’t love men don’t preach to them - preach to yourself’!  (p.16 Preachers at Prayer – Paul Murray O.P.) Dominic had this tremendous, genuine love for people – he cared deeply for them. We are told that “his heart was full of an extraordinary, almost incredible, yearning for the salvation of everyone”. (Libellus 34)

These are just some of the ways he put the needs of others before his own:

• As a student he responds to the needs of others by selling his precious books to help relieve the distress of famine victims.
• He stayed up all night and argued powerfully and passionately with an innkeeper who was a heretic and brought him back to the faith.
• He changes his whole way of life in a dramatic way from being a Canon Regular to an Itinerant Preacher.
• He heals many people and performs other miracles in his lifetime.
• He founds an Order for ‘preaching and the salvation of souls’ – totally directed towards the needs of others, towards their salvation – their greatest need.

How did this come about? – that Dominic’s life was shaped by the needs of others? Because, as Vicaire tells us, his deepest inspiration was his love of Jesus Christ.

Another historian William Hinnebusch, reinforces this attribute of Dominic, when he says:

‘Endowed with a charm and compassion that drew both men and women

            into the orbit of his love, his dominant trait was a priestliness that was

            marked by a profound love of Christ and the Eucharistic Mystery.

 Dominic’s profound love of Christ could only be a response to his awareness of God’s love for him and very much aware of that love lavished on himself by God, he shared it with others.

 Reading through the early accounts of his prayer-life, what immediately impresses one is the place accorded to others – especially to the afflicted and oppressed.

In this regard Jordan of Saxony writes of Dominic:

“God had given Dominic a special grace to weep for sinners and for the afflicted and oppressed; he bore their distress in the inmost shrine of his compassion, and the warm sympathy he felt for them in his heart spilled over in the tears which flowed from his eyes”

Paul Murray O.P. in his book, The new Wine of Dominican Spirituality. A Drink called Happiness, has a beautiful passage in reference to this special grace, given to Dominic. He says:

“the wound of knowledge that opens up Dominic’s mind and heart in contemplation, allowing him with an awesome unprotectedness to experience his neighbour’s need, cannot be accounted for simply by certain crowding memories of pain observed, or by his own natural sympathy. The apostolic wound Dominic receives, which enables him to act and to preach, is a contemplative wound.”

My prayer is that through the intercession of St. Dominic, all of us might receive this contemplative wound, this same special grace, which will deepen our love for Christ and our communion with the Blessed Trinity, allowing our lives to be shaped by the needs of others, especially through ceaseless prayer and the humble and loving service of our sisters and brothers.

Novena to St Dominic 2014 - Day 4

Memorial of Blessed Jane of Aza,

Today being the day when we give thanks for the blessed life of the mother of St Dominic, it seems fitting to spare her a thought as we approach his feast day. 

For most of us, mothers are the most influential people in our lives in so many ways; and from what we know of Blessed Jane, it seems certain that she was so in the life of St Dominic.

The advantage, and also danger, of leaving very little writing behind, means for us who would want to know St Dominic, that he can be the kind of saint we would want him to be; we cane make him and shape him after our own thoughts and imaginings.  And still, what we know from the accounts of the brothers who followed him, enables us to know him truly, because his whole life was lived out of the strength of his attraction to Jesus.  We have been – ourselves – attracted by the Person of our Saviour – and year by year, as we come to know St Dominic more and more, our friendship and communion with him is strengthened, because in his own lifetime, he seemed to reach such a deep intimacy with the LORD, that he was utterly absorbed by his contemplation of him, no matter where he was, or with whom.  He knew with his every breath, that he belonged to God; that everyone he encountered and his brethren who followed him – also belonged to God; and so, his embrace was wide enough to welcome every kind of person one could imagine, and every single one of them felt in himself that he was loved: loved by St Dominic, and loved by Christ.

In reflecting on Blessed Jane’s influence, and being Our Lady’s day, one might be inclined to think that the conviction in St Dominic of who he was, came in no small way from his mother.  Like Mary in very many ways, she too knew before the birth of her son, that he would be a light for the world, reconciling men with God; in her prayer to the Father, she seemed to understand that her son was given her so that she might return him to God, as Mary also did; and with Mary, she could rejoice from her soul in the magnificence of God, Who was pleased to call her to be mother to such a beloved son and through whom she herself would be called blessed.

I think that the boy Dominic must have been deeply impressed by the prayer and the love of his mother, for the LORD; and that in her contemplation of all the wonderful things God had done for her, most especially in the gift of Dominic himself – she must have shared with him the fruit of her contemplation; and thus, he understood who he was, what he must do for the glory of the Father; and the importance he wanted his brethren to accord to the blessed Mother of God: the trust in her protection and in her nearness to us at all times; that he would wish us to have.

And that in Blessed Jane, through St Dominic, we have gained a mother who, in prayer, learned to say to us with love and confidence – what Mary once said at a wedding in Cana – ‘Do whatever he tells you.’

As we bless God for all He has given us, in giving us St Dominic, we thank Him very particularly today for Blessed Jane, for our own mothers, and for Mary who never ceases to care for us and protect us.

Novena to St Dominic 2014 - Day 3

Today's reflection is a quotation from the Dialogue of St Catherine of Siena, Chapter 158, where the Heavenly Father speaks to Catherine about Dominic and his Order of Preachers:

Look at the ship of your father Dominic, My beloved son.  He governed it with a perfect rule, asking his followers to be attentive only to My honour and the salvation of souls with the light of learning.  He wished to build his foundation on this light, while not for all that giving up true and voluntary poverty.  He had that as well, and as a sign that he had it and that its opposite displeased him, he left as a bequest to his sons his curse and mine if they should have or keep any property individually or collectively.  It was a token that he had chosen Queen Poverty as his bride.

But for his more proper object he 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.

Where would he have his children eat by the light of learning?  At the table of the Cross. On that Cross is set the table of holy desire where one eats souls for love of Me.  He wanted his children to do nothing else but stand at this table by the light of learning to seek only the glory and praise of My Name and the salvation of souls.  And so that they might attend to nothing else, he relieved them of worry about temporal things and wanted them to be poor.  Was he lacking in faith or did he fear they would not be provided for?  Certainly not, for he was clothed in faith and trusted firmly in my Providence.

Dominic set his ship in order by rigging it with three strong ropes: obedience, continence and true poverty.  Enlightened by Me, the true Light, he was providing for those who were less perfect.  For, though all who observe the rule are perfect, still even in this way of life one is more perfect than another and both the perfect and the not-so-perfect fare well on this ship.  Dominic allied himself with My Truth by showing that he did not want the sinner to die but rather to be converted and live.  He made his ship very spacious, gladsome and fragrant, a most delightful garden.  

Novena to St Dominic 2014



Today the 30th July we begin the novena in honour of our Father and founder, St Dominic.  Each day as part of the novena we a reflection or a relevant commentary on Dominic's life and work - which we hope to publish here.

We would also like to announce the launch of our new website next week before his feast - so watch out!

During this novena we pray for all our many kind friends and benefactors and ask you to pray with us for vocations to the whole Dominican Order and in particular to our community.