Feast of St. Dominic, August 8, 2021
/St. Dominic takes up the commission given to the disciples by Jesus—We, too, are commissioned
Matthew 28:16–20
Motto of the Dominican Order
Contemplata aliis tradere
(Hand on to others the fruit of your contemplation)
Music Meditations
- “Ahavat Olam” (Song of Thanksgiving) (sung by by Ben, Jonah and Henry Platt) [YouTube], a Hebrew song of trust in God
- “Christ in Me Arise” (composed by Trevor Thomson) [YouTube]
- “Christ Has No Body Now but Yours” (sung by Josh Garrels) [YouTube]
- “Christ Has No Body Now but Yours” (sung by Rexaband) [YouTube] (praise and worship version)
- “The Summons” (John L. Bell) [YouTube]
Opening Prayer
From St. Rose of Lima, O.P.:
I am yours, and I desire to belong to You alone; I will be eternally faithful to you, and I desire to lay down my life for you.
Companions for the Journey
A History of St Dominic and the Founding of the Dominican Order
Adapted and sometimes stolen from various sources, including the magazine of the English and Scottish Dominicans, 2021. (O.P.’s quoted by name are English Dominicans.)
The Order of Preachers honors St Dominic de Guzman (c.1174–1221), who was born in the small Castilian village of Caleruega, as its founder but, as Fr Simon Tugwell OP notes, “the Order was not simply his personal brainchild and he was not, and never claimed to be, its sole inspiration or even the primary embodiment of its nature and ideals.” Rather, Dominic was raised up by Providence to bring to birth a new movement within the Church – itinerant mendicant friars – and he accomplished this by engaging with the needs of his time and in collaboration with other people. “It was always with his brethren and with the authorities of the Church that he shaped the nascent Order of Preachers.
As an adolescent, he had a particular love of theology and the Scriptures became the foundation of his spirituality. During his studies and Palencia, Spain, he experienced a dreadful famine, prompting him to sell all his books and other equipment to help his neighbors. He was made a canon and ordained to the priesthood in the Monastery of Santa Maria de la Vid. After completing his studies he was appointed to the cathedral chapter of Osma. In 1203, Dominic, now a Canon, traveled with his bishop, Diego, through the south of France and encountered the Albigensians who taught that the physical world is evil. This heresy not only devalued our own humanity, but also Christ and the sacramental life of the Church. After an all-night debate in Toulouse with an Albigensian innkeeper whom he converted, Dominic was moved by compassion and realized the great ignorance of the Faith that existed. Thus he saw the need for preachers who could reach the people and could explain and defend the faith. So began the friars’ life of itinerant mendicancy, with their base at the newly-founded monastery of nuns at Prouille. After Diego’s death in 1207, Dominic, eschewing the violence which was then being waged against the Albigensians, Dominic devoted himself to preaching and the rigors of the apostolic life which he had begun with bishop Diego.
In Languedoc, where Dominic called himself “the humble servant of the preaching”, a small band of co-workers had joined him and in 1215, Bishop Fulk of Toulouse approved the foundation of a new religious order. “Concern for the Faith was the main concern of the new Order”. Later that year, he travelled with Fulk to Rome to meet Pope Innocent III. The pope advised Dominic to adopt an existing Rule as new rules were forbidden by the Fourth Lateran Council. In 1216, Dominic and his brethren adopted the Rule of St Augustine which he had already been keeping as a canon of Osma. Fr Vladimir Koudelka, OP, notes that “they chose the Augustinian Rule, not for what it contains, but for what, by virtue of its universality, it does not contain. This enabled them to specify in the customs which they added to the rule the goal of their order and the new means for attaining their goal, without contradicting the rule.”
On 22 December 1216, Pope Honorius III approved the foundation of the St Dominic’s community and took them under papal protection. Finally, on 21 January 1217, Pope Honorius III issued a second bull to Dominic which crowned the first and completed the confirmation of the Order. The new bull conferred on the new Order a ‘revolutionary’ name and office – an order of preachers rather than just an order comprised of people who are preaching. The pope thus addresses Dominic and his sons as “Friars Preachers” and entrusts them with the preaching mission. Dominic had obtained, explicitly and officially, what he had first petitioned from Innocent III: “An Order which would be called and would be an Order of Preachers.” Having obtained confirmation of his Order from Pope Honorius III, on 15 August 1217 St Dominic placed his trust in God and dispersed the sixteen brethren that then comprised the Friars Preachers to Paris, Spain, Rome and Bologna, and the pope commended the universal mission of the Dominicans to the bishops in 1218.
Dominic inspired is followers to develop a ”mixed” spirituality. They were both active in preaching and contemplative in study, prayer and meditation. The brethren of the Dominican order were urbane and learned as well and contemplative and mystical in their spirituality. From the beginning, friars have been drawn to urban centers and, in distinction from the monks, preached the Gospel to city-dwellers in their own vernacular languages, not Latin. As Fr Anthony Ross OP said, “the Black Friars lived in contact with the bustle of life in towns and cities, although some monastic elements of prayer and silence were retained in the domestic life of their communities”, thus combining the Dominican elements of contemplation and apostolic ministry. However, St Dominic did not just choose cities but university towns, for there his friars could study, engage with new ideas and recruit new friars. On August 15, 1217, Dominic dispatched seven of his followers to the great university center of Paris to establish a priory focused on study and preaching. The Convent of St. Jacques, would eventually become the order’s first studium generale. Dominic was to establish similar foundations at other university towns of the day, Bologna in 1218, Palencia and Montpellier in 1220, and Oxford just before his death in 1221.
Fr Simon Tugwell notes: “Dominic’s policy is clear: it was from the great universities of Europe that he wanted his order to radiate. The friars clearly met the needs of rapidly expanding city life and the intellectual challenge of the new universities, and St Dominic’s strategy of expansion, which was ably continued by his successor, Bl Jordan of Saxony, was immensely successful.” Between 1217 and 1222, the Order had established 40 priories in 8 provinces. By the end of the thirteenth century there were 404 priories and almost 15,000 friars including a province in the Holy Land.
The Order in eight centuries has encompassed theologians and philosophers like St Albert and St Thomas Aquinas, Garrigou-Lagrange and Chenu, Congar and Schillebeeckx, mystics like St Catherine of Siena, Tauler and Meister Eckhart, artists like Bl Fra Angelico and Michelangelo, humble saints like St Martin de Porres and St Agnes of Montepulciano, reformers like St Antoninus and Pope St Pius V, and prophetic preachers like St Vincent Ferrer, Savonarola, Bartolomé de las Casas, Francisco de Vitoria, Lacordaire and Gustavo Gutierrez.
Today, there are Dominicans in over 100 countries, over 41 provinces and vicariates and some 6,500 friars, 4,000 nuns, 35,000 active sisters, and over 100,000 lay Dominicans in the Dominican Family.
Weekly Memorization
Taken from the gospel for today’s session…
"Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you."
Living the Good News
What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?
Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:
Reflection Questions
- How can Jesus be in Heaven and here with us?
- Do I believe Jesus is with me always?
Do I believe He wants me to bring hope and healing into the life of another? - Do I have to be perfect to be a witness to Jesus Christ?
- Dominic started with 16 brothers in his community and sent each of them throughout Europe to preach and to invite others to join them. In five years they had sixty separate communities organized into eight provinces.
What did Dominic risk in sending those first friars out?
What are you willing to risk to bring the message of God’s love to others in our world? - What are the ways people can actually preach without actually being in the pulpit?
How am I called to preach with my life? - If you could choose one way that the existence of God could be made known to others, what would that be?
- What are some of the ways I can help others to become disciples?
Meditations
This week we will be concentrating on prayers/meditations from Dominicans throughout the ages:
The Rosary: A uniquely Dominican prayer:
Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., the former Master General of the Dominican Order from 1992-2001, had this to say about prayer, specifically about the Hail Mary:
So often we think of prayer as the effort that we make to talk to God. Prayer can look like the struggle to reach up to a distant God. Does He even hear us? But this simple prayer (Hail Mary) reminds us that this is not so. WE do not break the silence. When we speak we are responding to a word spoken to us. We are taken into a conversation that has already begun without us. The Angel proclaims God’s word. And this creates a space in which we can speak in turn: Holy Mary, Mother of God.
Dominicans are required to recite five decades of the rosary each day. They begin the rosary a little differently, omitting the Apostles creed, the first Our Father and three Hail Mary’s. Instead, this is how they begin:
V. Hail Mary, full of grace, he Lord is with thee;
R. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus
V. O Lord, Open my lips
R. And my mouth will proclaim your praise.
V. O God, come to my assistance,
R. O lord, make has to help me. Glory be to the Father, etc.
Try this week to pray the Rosary several times, using the Dominican beginning, and recalling the words of Father Timothy Radcliffe reminding us that God is speaking to us first.
A Dominican Meditation:
From Praying with the Dominicans, by John Vidmar, O.P. / A reflection on Virtue by Conrad Peplum, O.P.:
I must beware of making purely negative resolutions, for then I shall simply look back on the past as measured by failure. The more cheerful and helpful way is to reverse this procedure. Already I have found out what my predominant fault is, for I have made a thorough examination of conscience. Then when I am certain, or at least as certain as I can be, I must concentrate not on the sin, but on the corresponding virtue. My resolutions now will not be to avoid this or that, but to increase or develop this or that. I shall finally not measure my past by a series of faults, but by the number of times, few but perhaps non the less real, when I have managed to achieve success. The gardener who spent all of his time digging up the weeds and never thought very much of strengthening his plants would produce a very tidy but depressing garden… So in my soul all my energies should first be spent on encouraging my poor feeble virtues to grow strong, and then by their very strength they will cause sins to diminish.
I pick one virtue and try to discover ways to strengthen this gift, rejoicing when it sometimes happens…
Meditation/Prayer for each day: Prayer of Blessed Jordan of Saxony to St. Dominic:
Blessed Jordan, who succeeded St. Dominic in the office of Master General in the Order of Friar-Preachers, had an intense love and veneration for the holy Patriarch. This prayer expresses the confidence one blessed had in the power of St. Dominic’s intercession, as well as the ardent love for his departed father, friend, and guide which filled the heart of Blessed Jordan of Saxony. Since the prayer is long, it has been divided into sections for each day of the week.
Sunday: O Blessed Father, St. Dominic, most holy priest and glorious confessor of God; noble preacher of His Word, to you do I cry. O virginal soul, chosen by the Lord, pleasing to Him, and beloved above all others in your day; glorious alike for your life, your teaching, and your miracles, to you do I pray. I rejoice to know that I have you for my gracious advocate with the Lord our God. To you, whom I venerate with special devotion among all the saints and elect of God, to you do I cry from this vale of tears. O loving father, help, I beseech you, my sinful soul, not only lacking grace and virtue, but stained with many vices and sins.
V. Pray for us, holy father Dominic.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Monday: Holy Dominic, man of God, may your soul, so happy among the blessed, help my soul so poor and needy. Not only for your own sake, but for the good of others also, did the grace of God enrich your soul with abundant blessings. God meant not only to raise you to the rest and peace of heaven and the glory of the saints, but likewise to draw innumerable souls to the same blessed state by the example of your wonderful life. God encouraged numberless souls by your loving advice. He has instructed them by your sweet teaching; He has excited them to virtue by your fervent preaching. Assist me, therefore, O blessed Dominic, and bow down the ear of your loving kindness to the voice of my supplication.
V. Pray for us, holy father Dominic.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Tuesday: Behold, O Holy Father Dominic, my soul, poor and needy, flies to you for refuge. With all lowliness of mind, I cast myself down before you. I desire to approach you as one sick—sick unto death. Most earnestly do I beseech and implore you by your merits and loving intercession to heal and quicken my soul. Fill it with the abundance of your blessings.
V. Pray for us, holy father Dominic.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Wednesday: I know in very truth and have the fullest certainty that you, holy father Dominic, are able to help my soul. I trust that in your great charity you did desire to succor me. I hope that in His infinite mercy, our Savior will accomplish all that you shall ask. This is my firm hope, because of the greatness of that familiar love which here below you did bear to our Lord Jesus Christ, the beloved of your heart. He will refuse you nothing. Whatsoever you shall ask, you will surely obtain, for though He is your Lord, yet He is likewise your friend. One so dearly beloved will deny nothing to him whom he so much loved. He will give all things to you, who lovingly left all things for His sake, and gave yourself up and all you did possess out of love of Him.
V. Pray for us, holy father Dominic.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Thursday: O Holy Father Dominic, we praise and venerate you, because you did consecrate yourself to Jesus Christ. In the first flower of your age, you did dedicate your virgin soul to the comely spouse of virgins. In your baptismal innocence, shining with the grace of the Holy Spirit, you did devote your soul in fervent love to the king of kings. From early youth, you did stand arrayed with the full armor of holy discipline. In the very morning of life, you did dispose your heart to ascend by steps unto God; you did go from strength to strength, always advancing from good to better. Your body you did offer as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing, unto God. Taught by divine wisdom, you did consecrate yourself entirely to Him. Having once started on the way of holiness, never did you look back, but giving up all for Christ, who for us was stripped of all, you did follow Him faithfully, choosing to have your treasure in heaven rather than on earth.
V. Pray for us, holy father Dominic.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Friday: O Holy Father Dominic, steadfastly did you deny yourself. Manfully did you carry your cross. Valiantly did you plant your feet in the footprints of Him Who is in very truth our Savior and our Guide. All on fire with the flame of charity burning strongly in your fervent soul, you did devote your whole self to God by the vow of poverty. You did yourself embrace it, and by the counsel of the Holy Spirit did institute the Order of Friars Preachers to carry out the strictest form of evangelical poverty. By the shining light of your merits and example you did enlighten the whole Church. When God called you from the prison of the flesh to the court of heaven, your soul went up into glory, and in shining raiment you did stand near to God as our advocate. Come, then, I pray; help me, and not only myself, but all who are dear to me. Help likewise the clergy, the people, and the men and women consecrated to God. I ask with confidence, for you did always zealously desire the salvation of all mankind. You, after the blessed Queen of Virgins, are, beyond all other saints, my hope, my comfort, and my refuge. Bow down, then, in your mercy to help me, for to you do I fly, to you do I come and prostrate myself at your feet.
V. Pray for us, holy father Dominic.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Saturday: O Holy Father Dominic, I call upon you as my patron. Earnestly I pray to you, devoutly do I commend myself unto you. Receive me graciously, I beseech you. Keep me, protect me, help me, that through your care I may be made worthy to obtain the grace of God that I desire, to receive mercy, and all remedies necessary for the benefit of my soul in this world and the next. Obtain this for me, O my master. Do this for me, O blessed Dominic, our father and leader. Assist me, I pray you, and all who call upon your name. Be to us a Dominic, that is, a man of the Lord; be a careful keeper of the Lord’s flock. Keep and rule us who have been committed to your care. Correct our lives, and reconcile us to God. After this exile is ended, present us joyfully to the beloved and exalted Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Who, with the glorious Virgin Mary and all the court of heaven, dwells in honor, praise, glory, ineffable joy, and everlasting happiness, word without end. Amen.
V. Pray for us, holy father Dominic.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ
Father, through the intercession of St. Dominic, Doctor of Truth and Light of the Church, make your love glow in our hearts. After the example of so great a saint, make us heralds of your Gospel in a world that hungers for you but often does not know its needs. Give us St. Dominic’s unswerving loyalty to the Holy Church and may we, like him, be fonts of true wisdom for our weary world. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Poetic Reflection:
Thomas McGlynn, O.P., one of many Dominican poets (Brother Antoninus, also known as William Everson, Sister Rose Hawthorne, John Grace, Stanislaus Mc Carthy, Sister Maryanna, Thomas Heath, Thomas Aquinas, for example) presents us with a beautiful tribute to the man and mission that was St. Dominic:
“Dominic”
Firm as his bronze
he is moving forward
agile and serene
through Languedoc
the world
and time
to praise
to bless
to preach
gripping the Gospel
to his heart,
with joy his answer
to the malice of a guide
who leads the way
Through thorns.At the foundry
where the bronze was cast
a workman said:
“We, too, have to walk
through thorns.”
Closing Prayer
A Dominican prayer from the thirteenth century:
May God the Father bless us
May God the Son heal us.
May the Holy Spirit enlighten us and give us eyes to see with
Ears to hear with
And hands to do the work of God with
Feet to walk with,
And a mouth to preach the word of salvation with,
And the Angel of Peace to watch over us and lead us at last
By our Lord’s gift, to the Kingdom.
