Word to the Wise
Monday, August 8, 2011 - Aug. 8 - St. Dominic, priest
[Isaiah 52:7-10; 2 Tim 4:1-8; Luke 10:1-9]How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, "Your God is king!"
These magnificent words from the prophet Isaiah are Dominican favorites! On the feast of our founder, St. Dominic de Guzman, it is altogether appropriate they appear in the first scripture of the day. Since this feast is a "solemnity" for us Dominicans, we include a full complement of scriptures, but Isaiah's words do capture the spirit of the man! He founded the Order of Preachers (nicknamed for him "Dominicans") to accomplish what is said in Isaiah's vision!
Every religious order has its constellation of stories, images and ideals associated with its founder and early years. (Our early years were in the 13th century!) Dominic was a priest from Spain who was traveling with his bishop on a mission that took them through southern France, where they observed that official preachers trying to combat a heresy were ineffective because of their lavish lifestyles. The idea came to them of the possibility of establishing a group of preachers who would first impress by their apostolic way of life and then by their eloquence. The bishop had to return to Spain but Dominic remained in southern France to gradually bring about the foundation of the Order of Preachers. He began with a convent of contemplative women who had renounced the heresy but were rejected by their families. Then he gathered a group of men at a home in Toulouse, France, and thus was founded the friars of the Order of Preachers, which was officially approved by Pope Honorius III on December 22, 1216. The charism officially entrusted to us is that of PREACHING!
Dominic died about five years after the official foundation but his personality, as well as his administrative genius in establishing a governmental structure to support the preaching mission, have insured the survival of the Dominican Order for nearly 800 years. The combination of prayer, study, vowed community life, and preaching ministry, which we Dominicans refer to as the "four pillars" of our life are supported by a democratic structure of government that allows for flexibility as well as focused purpose. The Dominican "family" includes the friars (priests and brothers), cloistered nuns, apostolic congregations of women, and Dominican Laity around the world - all attracted to the charism of preaching! Dominic does not have quite the same universal appeal that St. Francis of Assisi has (St. Martin de Porres, a Dominican, is our "Francis"), but his foundation has given the church men and women like Thomas Aquinas and Catherine of Siena and Martin de Porres to serve as examples of Isaiah's vision brought to life in Dominican life! It is that vision which inspires me to do this daily online preaching in the hope that in some small way, I too can make the vision and our Dominican charism live. AMEN
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