August 8, 2012
- Category: brdaniel
- Published Date
- Written by Br. Daniel Thomas, OP
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Solemnity of our Holy Father Dominic ((1170-1221)
Isaiah 52:7-10
Psalm 96
2 Timothy 4:1-8
Matthew 5:13-19
“I wish to only speak to or about God.” St. Dominic’s motto.
Today I’m going to draw all of you into this celebration of the Feast of our Holy Father Dominic. There is no way that I could contain all that is pertinent about the life of St. Dominic in the limited space of this reflection so I’ll have to settle for sharing some of my own, personal thoughts on this special day.
The motto of the Dominicans is VERITAS – Truth. Dominic’s mother had a dream that her son appeared as a dog with a flaming torch in its mouth lighting fires of faith all throughout Europe. It was on the basis of this dream that the religious order that he founded – the Order of Preachers – is more commonly referred to as, Dominicans. Or, if you want a play on words, Domini – canes – Latin for hounds of the Lord. Of course it is never totally clear in these kinds of traditions which came first: the vision of Dominic’s mother or the simple fact of a Latin translation of what appeared obvious.
In order to be those “Hounds of the Lord” Dominic gave his followers four “pillars” that would give support to this mighty task and I’ll pass them on to you since they can apply to all of our lives of trying to follow the Lord.
“Prayer” is the first pillar. It’s through prayer that we begin to be focused. “Study” is the second pillar, as we must always seek “truth.” Then Dominic gave the third pillar, “Community” reminding all of us that we are never to be “lone wolves” out there on our own but always supported by a faith-living community. Dominic’s last “pillar” is ministry. We begin with prayer; study the truth; live in community that keeps us honest and then go out for our ministry. Whenever these “pillars” and not kept in their proper order we run into difficulties and will never be as fruitful in our lives as we could be.
These “pillars” can apply to everyone’s lives so I encourage you to see how they might give you that extra nudge to work at being Domini Canis – Hounds of the Lord! Amen.
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