Word to the Wise
Thursday, November 7, 2019 - Thursday in the 31th Week in Ordinary Time
[Phil 3:3-8a and Luke 15:1-10]None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. [Romans]
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019 ALL SAINTS OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS
[Romans 14:7-12 and Luke 15:1-10. These texts will vary at Dominican locations.]
None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. [Romans]
When I entered the Dominican Order in 1964, most of the canonized saints of the Order were featured in a dozen or so stained glad windows in the chapel of the novitiate. Thanks, especially, to Pope St. John Paul II, that number has grown quite a bit and a much larger building would be necessary to feature them all in windows! They are a mixed bag from apostolic mystics like St. Catherine of Siena, to brilliant scholars like Thomas Aquinas, to itinerant preachers like St. Vincent Ferrer, to humble servants of the poor like Martin De Porres and Juan Macias, to missionaries like Dominic Ibanez, to artists like Bl Fra Angelico, etc.etc.. Needless to say, the group is headed up by our Father Dominic!
There are, of course, thousands of holy men and women who have worn the Dominican habit, and I have known some of them and considered them to be true saints. All have met St. Paul's words in the scripture quoted above. They did not live or die for themselves.
Given the vast array of ministry that so many Dominicans have exercised, it is not possible to isolate one particular activity except the one in our official title, the Order of Preachers. In whatever way these men and women preached, it was the way of holiness for them. They were dedicated to the truth about God and lived it. We Dominicans gratefully salute them today and look to the one living in our midst for daily inspiration. AMEN