February 2023 laudare, benedicere, praedicare T O P R A I S E , T O B L E S S , T O P R E A C H
F E B R U A R Y
2 0 2 3 Celebrationsfromthe Dominicancalendar appearinitalics 10/St.Scholastica 11/ 12/ SIXTHSUNDAYINORDINARYTIME 13/ Bl.JordanofSaxony 14/ SaintsCyrilandMethodius 15/ 16/ 17/ 18/ Bl.JohnofFiesole(FraAngelico) 19/ SEVENTHSUNDAYINORDINARYTIME 20/ 21/ 22/ AshWednesday 23/ St.Polycarp 24/ 25/ 26/ FIRSTSUNDAYINLENT 27/ 28/ 1 / 2/ THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD 3/ 4/ 5 / FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 6 / Paul Miki and Companions 7 / Anniversary of Deceased Fathers and Mothers of the Order of Preachers 8 / 9 /
By Sister Angela Marie, O.P.
Taken& Filled
At the climax of the Mass, the priest approaches the altar and recites these words: Jesus “took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to his disciples ” Took Blessed Broke Gave Each of these verbs is potent, and each one is worth pondering We pause here to consider “take,” which is theologically significant The very word for Church in Greek, Ekklesía, means “called out of ” We too are called out of the secular world to enter God’s Kingdom, to follow a new way of life with a higher calling We are called to be holy just like God In fact, this word "holy" means set apart, consecrated, other Just as the priest takes bread at Mass and sets it apart from normal bread, consecrating it into Christ’s very body and blood, God calls people throughout history to be set apart for a Christian relationship with himself
"God calls people throughout history to be set apart for a Christian relationship with himself."
Even before Christ came to establish his Church, God was preparing for this sacred assembly He called the Israelites to be his chosen people. He took them out from the ways of the nations and invited them into a deeper relationship with him What he called them to leave behind helps us understand what Jesus invites us into at Mass when the priest repeats this word, "take " In Egypt, God elected his chosen people and invited them into the covenant at Mount Sinai But first he had to take them out of Egypt. They had to leave behind their old comforts and securities to trust that God would provide for them in the desert Though they were slaves in Egypt, they continually pined for the “fleshpots, leeks and onions” that they had tasted in Egypt Faced with the sacrifices of following God through the desert, they repeatedly murmured to return to their old comforts God takes these people to himself, but often they do not want to be taken
How often do we act the same way? How often do we Christians, after resolving to follow Christ more closely, look back to old comforts? We may value sleeping in or Netflix over preparing our hearts for Mass
Why do superficial attractions capture our hearts? “Capture.” Do we willingly allow ourselves to be enslaved by what our senses and laziness can enjoy after Christ has set us free? God wanted to “take Egypt” out of the Israelites just like he wants to take the empire of sin and the evil tyrants of our disordered passions out of us when he calls us forth at Mass (cf St Gregory of Nyssa)
When God takes the empire of sin out of us, calling us into his holy family, he nourishes us perfectly. And we must trust that God will fill our longings with exactly what we need One of the most vivid types for the Eucharist in the Old Testament occurs in this same drama of God calling the Israelites to himself and taking them out of Egypt. As they wander through the desert for forty years, he sustains them with “bread from heaven,” manna And when he calls us forth into his Church, he feeds us with the true bread from heaven, his precious body and blood
"God will fill our longings with exactly what we need."
Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage September 30, 2023 Join the novena which began January 30th For more information: https://rosarypilgrimage.org Hosted by the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC
Living the Dream
by Sister Jacinta, O.P.Iwant you to meet someone.
Come ” Father Augustine, O P , one of the Dominican friars at the university chaplaincy and my spiritual director, led me through a packed crowd of young Catholics who had traveled 10 plus hours to attend the National Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS)
Conference in Orlando, Florida. Every table we passed was stacked high with pamphlets, holy cards, rosaries, and pictures of grinning religious men and women wearing blue, white, brown, or black habits My stomach did nervous flips, and I gripped the strap of my conference pull string bag more tightly. After a couple turns and down a long hallway, Father stopped at a table thickly surrounded by young women The table sign read, “Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia Nashville, TN ”
Vocation Story "
Sister Michaela greeted me with the most genuine of smiles and started asking me questions about where I was going to school, my college studies, and how I was involved with FOCUS In a blink, my arms were full of Nashville Dominican informational material including a short documentary DVD about the sisters Walking away, a bit star-struck and dazed, I could only think, “Wow She was so real Her joy was so real ”
After I returned to NYC, my dream city where I was studying at my dream school in my dream undergraduate program, one of the first things I pulled out from the conference was the DVD about the Nashville Dominicans With a bowl of ramen in my lap, I settled in for the 10-minute video By minute 5, the noodles were forgotten Minute 8, my heart began beating unusually hard. And when it was all over, I was crying, not because of any sadness, but from shock and wonder They were women, real and joyful women, living a life singularly for Christ, a life radically different from anything I had ever encountered, a life so in touch with what really mattered faithful love and friendship, prayer and dedicated service, selfforgetfulness and virtue The attraction I felt was astonishingly strong, and a voice inside whispered, “You’re going to do this ”
Despite my best efforts to ignore that voice, the desire for the joy I saw in Sister Michaela and in the sisters in the documentary persisted and grew “Just go and visit the Motherhouse in Nashville That will help you know what God wants,” Father Augustine encouraged. “You want to do what?!” my parents exclaimed “I always knew you would do something different,” my best friend said
After 3 days of observing and semi-living the life of the sisters, the desire to enter the community and to be consecrated to Christ became overwhelming, and God gave me a gift of tremendous peace That was what I needed to draw up the courage to ask the sisters and my reluctant parents for permission to enter, to make the necessary preparations, and to say good-bye to my family and friends. It was heart wrenching and tearful, but the joy of becoming a part of the community far exceeded any sadness
How my life has unfolded is quite different from the life I dreamed about as a child It is so much better! I sometimes wonder how, in that crowd of thousands of university students, Christ prepared for me a path to a gift of love the gift of a religious vocation that daily astounds Jesus promised anyone who leaves brother, sister, father, and mother for His name ’ s sake will receive a hundredfold He has been unwaveringly faithful to that promise.