Novena to St Dominic - Day 7

Guy Bedouelle o.p. provided me with a starting point for my reflection on St Dominic. In his book ‘The grace of the Word’ he has this to say:

When Dante called St Dominic “the passionate lover of the Christian Faith” he referred to the entire life of the Father of Preachers, to his unflagging eagerness to bear witness to this faith, to defend it and to transmit it. If St Dominic yearned to penetrate Catholic teaching through study, to be able to expound it in persuasive terms, if he aspired to affirm it in every way in order to “strengthen his brethren”, it was because his own faith was flawless and intense.”

He goes on to say that

Christ is the centre of faith and its source. It is through Him that we embrace all that the Church believes. The theology of St. Dominic, if we may speak of the theology of one who left no written works, seems based entirely on Redemption through Christ, from which everything else in Christian teaching radiates.

The Christ who had saved Dominic, this Jesus whom he contemplated, followed and preached was the Son of God, the Redeemer. When Dominic exhorted his brethren to prayer he said only this “Let us think of our Saviour” (Bolognia, 41)

“Let us think of our Saviour.” Through this little phrase we see into the heart of Dominic and get an insight into the source from which all his apostolic zeal and activity flowed.

Dominic’s eyes are ever on Jesus. “He spoke only to God or of God” we are told. Dominic always turns us towards Jesus; to make Jesus known and loved is his sole preoccupation. He spent his nights with Jesus in prayer and his days in graced filled preaching; a preaching supported by the witness of his life.

Through their encounters with Dominic people were able to meet Jesus and come to know him as their Saviour only because Dominic had met Jesus and knew him intimately as his Saviour.

Fast knit to Christ Crucified Dominic’s heart was at one with Christ’s own longing for everyone to know the Father’s love for them in a personal and intimate way through the experience of faith. It was this ardent desire that motivated him to spend himself in being all things to all people in the hope that he might lead some of them to Christ. His constant prayer was for that true charity capable of labouring for and procuring the salvation of souls. That charity which was so in evidence in his life, he learned at the foot of the Cross where with Mary he lingered long and lovingly contemplating the love of God made visible in Jesus. The crucified Christ was for him the model of total self giving. As Jesus was so Dominic became, totally divested of self. His prayer was always to God and for others. “O God, what will become of sinners” became for him the cry of a heart completely configured the heart of Jesus. It was here at the foot of the Cross that Dominic experienced for himself the mercy and compassion that nourished his spirit and served as the focal point for his preaching. His own encounter with Christ directed all his interactions. As he was himself loved by Jesus so he loved others and in so doing won numerous people to God.

Dominic we pray to you in the words of Bl. Jordan:

“You having once begun the way of perfection left all in order to follow naked the naked Christ, preferring to pile up treasure in Heaven. But with even greater strength did you renounce yourself and manfully bearing the Cross, you chose to follow the footsteps of the sole true guide- the redeemer.

You who sought the salvation of the human race with so much zeal come to our aid. ‘Be for us “Dominicanus” that is a careful watchdog of the lord’s flock.

Novena to St Dominic - Day 6

In reflecting on the life of St Dominic, in preparation for his Feast-day, I was struck once again by his passion for preaching, for the proclamation of the Gospel. For most of his adult life he longed to go and bring Christ to those pagans who had never heard the gospel. Although this was not possible, he founded his order in response to the Albigensian heresy, working tirelessly to proclaim the Truth, who is Christ, to those who had been deceived by falsehoods and half-truths. As Jordan of Saxony, Dominic’s successor, wrote, it was for “these innumerable souls who were deceived that they felt moved by deep compassion”.

This is in marked contrast to an attitude sometimes encountered today: the idea that what matters is the sincerity of one’s beliefs not what is believed. At times this can go so far as thinking that people would be ‘better off’ not knowing, because once they are given the Gospel they will be obliged to ‘keep all the requirements’, and will fail and sin whereas at the moment they are not sinning because they don’t know. Thinking about this presented me with something of a jolt – to what extent are my own thoughts and actions influenced by this attitude? Do I see my faith as a collection of ‘requirements’, of “hard sayings” (Jn 6:60) and not what it truly is, what St Dominic lived and proclaimed: the Good News! The greatest news I could possibly bring to another person – our redemption; the invitation to share, even now, in the inner life of the Trinity; the chance to know Christ, to live in and with Him, most especially in that most intimate communion when we receive Him in the Eucharist. This is why St Dominic founded the Order of Preachers; to bring this Great News to those who were being deprived of the fullness of this relationship with Christ by the half-truths of the Albigensians.

May our Father Dominic intercede for us, that we his children may have the same passion to bring Christ to those who, in our time, are being denied Him by ignorance and falsehoods and half-truths.

Novena to St Dominic - Day 5

A Reflection on St Dominic and Prayer, given by one of our sisters, for the fifth day of our Novena to St Dominic

Taken from the book, "St Dominic" by Alain Quilici, O.P.

It is said that saints are most in tune with their sinfulness and the sinfulness of the world. They are, like Dominic, so close to the Lord that they feel his great pain at this sinful world, and are pained to the deepest parts of their being as well. Dominic suffered with the Lord because he united himself with the one who united God and mankind. Jesus Christ, in his passion, gave himself totally to the Father for love of us; Dominic follows this path, seeking the suffering of the passion as a path to deeper union to and an expression of love for Jesus Christ.

Dominic contemplated the crucifix with an incomparable penetration – his prayer tends to be united with Christ’s prayer. It becomes identified with the passion of the Lord Jesus: his passion for his Father, his passion for the salvation of mankind, his loving passion and his painful passion. The summit of Jesus’ prayer is his prayer on the cross, this prayer about which we know only a few fragments, a few cries, but about which we presume is filled with immeasurable love. Dominic had the grace to perceive something from Jesus’ prayer of agony. His sons and daughters are invited to participate in the grace of communion with Jesus’ sacrifice. For this sacrifice does not come freely. It is the price that is paid for the salvation of souls. Not the price that God requires, but the price that each of us should pay in order to show what part one is willing to play in God’s concern to save all mankind.

Jesus took the best part. It will not be taken away from him. The martyrs who received the grace to shed their blood like their Lord come next. That is why Brother Dominic wanted to be a martyr. He did not want it for himself. He was not concerned with that. But he wanted to go all the way to the gift of his own life. He wanted the love within him to bring fruit worthy of the love that God himself, manifested for the poor creatures that we are. “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” (Phil.2:5)

Novena to St Dominic -Day 4

As we draw nearer to the feast of St Dominic, I have been thinking again about how he is in a sense a ‘mysterious’ and ‘obscure’ kind of saint: so much has been written in an attempt to make him known, while he wrote so very little himself – his ‘words’ are the sisters and brothers he gathered together into the Order of Preachers; the souls he won for the Lord Who was his most intimate friend.

I considered what a great legacy he left, in leaving so ‘little,’ because he thus can be a saint everyone can truly know and have as a close friend; and when we see the diversity within the Order: how he founded an Order that has room for every one – we can be moved to a wonderful sense of gratitude to our eternal Father, for blessing St Dominic with that certainty and confidence in Him, that He can and does make us one, who are so very different and distinct.

I wondered where would be a good place to come to know St Dominic, and in reading his ‘fourth way of prayer,’ it seemed that here is the answer.

In this way of prayer, Dominic ‘either before the altar or in the Chapter Room, with his eyes fixed on the crucifix, would contemplate it with indescribable intensity.  He would make numerous genuflections before it. ... After such prayers he was filled with great trust in the mercy of God for himself, for all sinners and for the preservation of the younger brethren whom he was sending out into the world to preach the Gospel to souls.  He was sometimes unable to refrain from breaking into speech, repeating words of the psalms or other words of Holy Scripture.

But sometimes he spoke within himself, and no sound became audible; and he would prolong his genuflections, his soul lost in ecstasy.  While he remained praying thus, he would sometimes look as if his mind had pierced the sky; and soon he would be seen to be thrilled with joy, and to wipe away the tears that flowed from his eyes.

And more by his example than by word, he taught his brethren that way of praying.

Blessed are the pure in heart: they shall see God.

In imitating Dominic’s example, I wondered what it is we might learn in our contemplation; what it was that he learned and that he came to know in gazing upon the cross.  Two things, maybe.

The overwhelming wonder of divine love: that no human words could ever describe, causing us to fall into silence, that silence where we find true peace: awe that leaves us speechless.

“For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end.” (cf Eph 2: 13-18)  For there, at the foot of the cross, there is no place for discord or enmity – nothing but the love of God matters, and that that love be known by and alive in every one.  For that look with which Christ our God gazes on us with such longing, is the same look, the same longing He has for the brother with whom I am at odds; and in that peace that only God gives, I must understand that the faith and the love and the desire my sister has for the Lord, is no less valid or sincere than is my own.  With the pure heart that Dominic had, we too will know that the cross is a place of glory and of gladness – ‘it is wonderful for us to be here!’ (cf Mk 9:5)

“How blessed are those who love you,” Lord Jesus!  “They will rejoice in your peace.  Blessed are those who grieved over all your afflictions, for they will rejoice for you upon seeing all your glory, and they will be made glad for ever.” (Tobit 13:13-15)

And it is in contemplating the crucifix that with open and pure hearts, lovers of God know how infinitely dear they are to Him – they know who they are.  I think that it was there that Dominic realised who he was in God’s sight, and he couldn’t but fall into an ecstasy at realising that even he, a mere creature, was so valuable to his Lord, so precious.  There, he allowed his mind to be remade, his whole nature trasnformed (cf Rom 12:1-2) – and the return he got: the gift of discernment of the will of God: that will which destined Dominic from the first, to be moulded into the image of Jesus. (cf Rom 8:28-30)  It is in our contemplation of Christ on the cross that we too, will realise how God has called even us to partake in the fulfillment of His plan, that in His wisdom, by giving us life – He has made us to be necessary somehow to Him; we are not here by accident.  Dominic knew in faith what the Lord was calling him to do; if we make a friend of him, he can obtain for us also the courage to discern the Lord’s will for us and to do it.

May the Lord enkindle in us the gift of wonder in Him and in who we are in His sight; and may He, through the intercession of Mary and Dominic grant us that purity of heart which will enable us to see Him for all eternity.

Novena to St Dominic - Day 3

Pondering on the various virtues attributed to St. Dominic in the Hymn ‘O Lumen’ sung each evening in his honour by all his children throughout the world, I was drawn to the title ‘Rose of Patience’, this is a virtue in which most of us need encouragement from time to time, if not all the time! There are so many facets associated with this vibrant virtue. Making the effort with God’s ever present help, to be patient in our daily dealings with one another and in the various situations that occur each day, is already an important beginning – but there is of course, a much deeper level to this beautiful virtue to which God calls us, of which St. Dominic gave such ample evidence in his own humble life.

 

Witnesses at his canonisation mention repeatedly in one way or another – that he was a man of patience, of humility, compassion, encouragement, cheerfulness, obedience, to name but a few, all so closely linked with patience. But, we may ask why ‘Rose of Patience?’ – what is the connection? Roses symbolise ‘love’. Love and patience are two words closely associated – St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians: ‘Love is patient’ – we cannot have true patience without love and we cannot have true love without patience. Patience is also linked to obedience – ‘the sign that thou hast this virtue of obedience’ said the eternal Father to St. Catherine, ‘is patience’. All these virtues shine forth so brightly in the life of our father, Dominic, and invite or rather, urge us to imitation.

 

So how does one learn to cultivate this most necessary virtue? It cannot be achieved by sheer will-power alone – no, we must ask for it in humble prayer. How well St Dominic knew this as he spent long hours by day and by night communing with God in prayer. Alongside prayer, we turn for help and enlightenment to the holy Scriptures, we know St. Dominic constantly carried the holy Scriptures with him on his long journeys, and he would have been very familiar with the text in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans – ‘everything written in the Scriptures is written that we might have hope through the patience and encouragement which the Scriptures give’ – the letter goes on to say ‘God is the source of patience and encouragement’.

Blessed Jordan, St. Dominic’s successor, set himself the task of training the first nuns of the Order, in patience, which he rightly believed to be of utmost importance to the cloistered contemplative life as well as to every walk of life. He reminds us that it is the virtue of patience that will be subject to vigorous attacks by the Devil as the soul progresses.

The virtue of patience is so all embracing, not just patience with one another, but patience with God: ‘wait for the Lord, keep to his way’ the Psalmist tells us. and of course the need for patience with ourselves cannot be over estimated – it is a journey of a lifetime for most of us. Asking Jesus in humble prayer for his help as he told us to, is the only way: ‘Learn of me for I am gentle and humble of heart - true gentleness and humility are as we all realise, closely intertwined with patience.

So each evening, as we sing the Antiphon ‘O Lumen’ to St. Dominic and invoke his title ‘Rose of Patience’, let us make it our plea with him to foster continually in his sons and daughters, this pearl of great price.

Novena to St Dominic - Day 2

This reflection concerns prayer and spirituality in the lives of St. Dominic and the early Dominicans and I will quote some passages from the book ‘ Early Dominicans’ (The classics of Western Spirituality) – from the Introduction by Fr. Simon Tugwell O.P.

Fr. Simon says :

“ that the early Dominicans were not particularly concerned either for themselves or for others with what has come to be called the “interior life”. Some of them, certainly, were great men of prayer, but their prayer was simple, devotional and largely petitionary. They retained the monastic practice of spending some time in private prayer after Compline and Matins, though this was not put into any constitutional text as an obligation. There is no hint at all of any methodical ‘mental prayer’, such as we find in later centuries, nor is there any sign of any theory of mystical progress attached to their simple prayers.”

Fr. Simon goes on to say:

“What we know of the prayer of St. Dominic shows that it was habitually intercessory and his meditations and contemplations are shown as resulting typically in preaching of one kind or another. This suggests that even the prayers and devotions of the Dominicans have an apostolic quality and this impression is reinforced by the discovery that Jordan of Saxony, Dominic’s immediate successor, who was regarded by his brethren, as a powerful man of prayer, says of himself, “I hardly ever pray”, a complaint echoed in other early Dominican writings. The all-absorbing ambition of the friars was “to be useful to the souls of others”. Their own spiritual exercises were designed to make them better preachers, and their own spiritual progress was not sought as a goal in its own right but rather as a kind of spin-off from their service of others. This service of others was determined by the needs of others. And in the thirteenth century what was needed most was catechesis, doctrinal and especially moral.”

I think this same spiritual need is the greatest in today’s world and I pray that through the intercession of St. Dominic and all our Dominican saints, that we, and all those already in the Order as well as those entering, will respond to this need, following the example of the early Dominicans, by being graced by God with that selfless all-absorbing ambition of being useful to the souls of others, according to each one’s particular vocation in the Order.

I conclude with Timothy Radcliffe’s definition of Dominican Spirituality, which has always impressed me and sums up the points I have been trying to make. He says :

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

Novena to St Dominic - Day 1

A Reflection on St Dominic and Prayer, given by one of our sisters, for first day of our Novena to St Dominic

Taken from The Life of St. Dominic (1170 – 1221) by Bede Jarrett O.P.

For St. Dominic, Prayer was a simple converse of the soul with God; and converse is easier and fuller when it is between two friends.

The more, then, the mind can realise friendship with God, which is the essence of religion, the more facile is the heart’s opening of itself, for the problem of prayer is always how to make God the friend not only accepted and believed in, but to form part of the familiar circumstance of life.

Everything that could help to produce this truth vividly was made use of: vocal prayer, gestures, beads; and, since he found that a dialogue of speech and silence, a chorus of praise, could be more easily secured by a devotion to the sacramental Presence, it was around the altar that St. Dominic grouped his interests. The Mass was the highest expression of it; the crucifix its homeliest representation. The gospels most wonderfully depict that perfect life and character, and show up against background of hill and lake and field and village and cobbled streets the moving figure of the true and loyal friend. Hence the Mass became his most particular devotion; the crucifix his daily companion, his “ever open book”; and the New Testament his favourite study, carried always, learnt by heart, made the textbook of life. “He spoke only of and to God,” said a follower of Dominic; and we feel that he did this naturally because God was the central object of his daily work and nightly watching. As Dante observingly notes of him, he was “the athlete” of Christ, “kindly to his friends, fierce to his foes”; he was the “torrential” preacher just because he was “fast knit to Christ,” and he was fast knit to Christ by means of his vivid and intensely personal prayer.

Is there any need to add that St. Dominic’s devotion to the maiden mother of God was particularly vivid? His friars were “her friars” needing and receiving her special help. Visions were seen, it was reported, of his sons preaching from books held before them by our Lady’s hands; she corrected them, protected them, blessed them sleeping; and was seen in Cambridge to send fire on them when they prayed; at death she comforted them. The spirit of the saint descended, then, on his children, says Gerard de Frachet, to sum up all his record of devotion, “so that studying and praying and sleeping they had her before their eyes and she turned her eyes of mercy ever towards them”.