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THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2013  ST. DOMINIC [founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans)]

[Numbers 20:1-13 and Matthew 16:13-23 - Scriptures will vary at Dominican locations.]

 

     Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.  You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.

  

     It is said of St. Dominic that he was always either talking TO God or ABOUT God!  He carried with him a copy of the epistles of St. Paul and the Gospel of Matthew.  A passage from that gospel speaks to us today.  Jesus is trying to get his disciples to understand who he is and what his mission is.  Just as it seems that Peter has the right idea, Peter also shows that his understanding is imperfect, just as the crowd's understanding is mixed up.  Peter gets the leadership job, but he has a long ways to go before he'll truly understand Jesus.  Jesus tells him that he [Peter] has to think as God thinks!

 

     I wonder how many of us consider ourselves as "thinking as God thinks?"  St. Dominic certainly tried and succeeded by uniting an apostolic lifestyle with orthodox preaching and mobility to create a new way of living out the gospel!  Although the "Dominican Family" includes friars, apostolic sisters, cloistered nuns and Dominican Laity, the friars [I'm one] will celebrate in 2016 the 800th anniversary of the official foundation of the Friars of the Order of Preachers.  The way of life that I and my Dominican brothers and sisters strive to live has endured and we are continually challenged by our "pillars" of prayer, study, community and ministry to think as God does.  Please pray for us on this, our patronal feast day!   AMEN