Word to the Wise
Saturday, August 8, 2015 - Saturday in the 18th Week in Ordinary Time
[Deut 6:4-13 and Matt 17:14-20]"Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength." [Deuteronomy]
AUGUST 8 HOLY FATHER DOMINIC - Founder of the Order of Preachers
These words are recited several times a day by pious Jews. The phrase is known by the first two words, "Shema, Yisroel" ("Hear, O Israel). Jesus refers to this as one of the two most important of the commandments. The other is from Leviticus 19, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Since this day is the feast day of our Holy Father Dominic, we Dominicans - the Order of Preachers - would call attention to the focused love of God that he had. He is said to have told the brothers to speak only of God and to God. At night, his love of neighbor was shown in his loud prayer, "O Lord, what will become of sinners?"
Beginning this Fall, Dominican friars around the world will celebrate the 800th anniversary of our official recognition as a religious order in the church. That date will be December 22, 2016. Our central charism of preaching has kept us alive all these years. There have been good times and bad times, but we have endured. In no small part this is because the fundamental structures of the Order as envisioned by Dominic allowed for democratic government and flexibility in ministry. For all his demonstrable holiness, Dominic was also a political and administrative genius! He realized that a heresy in southern France which he encountered on a trip from Spain with his bishop would not be overcome by papal legates traveling in luxury. A group of well-prepared preachers, living an apostolic lifestyle, was needed. He gathered some companions and the rest is history.
The combination of prayer, study, community and ministry, supported by a democratic governing structure has sustained us in our preaching. I hope the Beloved Congregation will keep all of us Dominican friars (along with the cloistered Dominican nuns, the apostolic congregations of Dominican sisters, and the Dominican Laity) in your prayers especially as we begin this celebration that we may continue "the Holy Preaching" for many more years to come. AMEN
config
view
logs
4096.0 KB
80 ms
4
