St Dominic's Prayer for Others

A Reflection on St Dominic's Prayer and concern for others.

 

All of the accounts of St Dominic's  life speak of his great passion for the salvation of others. A passion that found expression both in his preaching and in his prayers. This was something that impressed me when I was discerning my vocation - the energy and fervency of his prayer for the conversion of sinners. His frequent cry "what will become of sinners?"  This links into what I read in St Catherine of Siena's "Dialogue": when God the Father tells her that it is the love and desire with which she offers her prayers, penance and actions that is most important since only love is infinite.

 

The main purpose of my life here is to offer worship to God and to pray for those who need our prayers. But looking at St Dominic's life I see ever more clearly that my prayer must be passionate. To use a modern expresssion, I must be engaged by what I am praying for. I must know in my own heart the tragedy of those who turn from God and have that knowledge, that awareness, fuel my prayer. So that my prayer, like Dominic's, will be earnest and fervent and will bear fruit for others.