PREVIEW: MEDITATIONS ON THE LIFE OF ST DOMINIC

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M EDITATIONS FOR THE

F IFTEEN T UESDAYS IN HONOR OF OUR

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H OLY F ATHER S AINT D OMINIC

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by Sister Mary Madeline Todd, O.P.

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Franz Mayer Studio (Munich, Germany) crafted the stained glass windows viewed throughout this book. The life of Saint Dominic depicted in these windows can be seen in the clerestory of the Saint Cecilia Chapel.

Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia Congregation 801 Dominican Drive Nashville, TN 37228

Kindly do not reproduce or copy text or images in any form.

Copyright Š2009 by LBP Communications

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Saint Dominic, rose of patience and clothed in Heavenly robes, pray for us.

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Eleventh Tuesday in Honor of Saint Dominic Clothing of the Brethren Blessed are the merciful

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“What do you desire?”

“The mercy of God and yours and to be received to the holy habit of Saint Dominic.”

For eight centuries the sons and daughters of Saint Dominic have knelt to receive the holy habit and have begged the mercy of God and of the Order. For eight centuries this two-fold mercy has been granted and has sustained the life of prayer, community, study, and preaching of the Order of Preachers.

When choosing the habit of his Order, Saint Dominic chose the undyed wool of innocence; not, however because he viewed his sons and daughters as perfect.

In fact, it was to oppose the errors of the dualists who claimed that some were spiritually perfect and some hopelessly lost in the material aspects of living that Dominic founded his Order. Dominic knew that the only hope for that purity of heart declared blessed by the Lord lay in the mercy of the unblemished Lamb Who shed His Blood as the price of our sins. This truth he highlighted by the black of penance of the habit. By the daily penance of the ascetical life of the Order, each Dominican religious implores God’s mercy anew.

The Dominican not only asks for and receives the treasure of divine mercy, but also becomes a channel of God’s mercy by preaching His truth. The first preaching of every Dominican is that within community life. Life in common reveals to each member of the community the unique strengths and weaknesses of others. The common life is not possible without mercy. Each day within the Mass, the Divine Office, and the rosary we repeatedly ask of God that He forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us. From Christ crucified Saint Dominic learned the sacrificial cost and the liberating beauty of mercy.

If we, too, would be merciful we must also learn of Christ this mercy without limit.

In the footsteps of our holy father Saint Dominic, we are called to carry the mercy begged for in prayer and given and received in community to the world where we have dedicated ourselves to labor for the salvation of souls.

As preachers we are continually called to lead others to the founts of prayer and the sacraments, by which grace and mercy restore sinners—including the preachers ourselves.

To be clothed in the holy habit of Saint Dominic is in itself a preaching. The habit is an external sign of the internal unity which makes us one heart and one soul in God, the purpose for which we have been brought together. We are called by the Father, in Christ, through the gift of the Holy Spirit to a oneness that makes of us a family after the model of the most Holy Trinity. To be a human family requires forgiveness; to be united as one requires mercy. As we daily put on the habit of Saint Dominic, may it be a reminder to us to ask once more the mercy of God and of our community and to be willing to extend the mercy we freely receive.

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Saint Dominic, trumpet of the Gospel and most zealous for the salvation of souls, pray for us.

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Twelfth Tuesday in Honor of Saint Dominic Dispersal of the Brethren They shall obtain mercy

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To go forth as an apostle requires the daring of unwavering courage, the boldness of unfailing trust. This trust, Dominic knew, cannot and must not be in oneself. Were one to go forth in one’s own strength to proclaim one’s own message, preaching would be empty and the mission would be futile. Dominic placed his trust in God and in the mercy that alone could make of any sinner a preacher unto others.

Because his trust was in God rather than in man, Dominic served with a radical abandon that, without such trust, might have been sheer recklessness.

In 1217, the Order was still in its infancy. Although the brethren were few in number and brief in the time of their formation, Dominic trusted that, through the same mercy by which he had been called to preach Christ and his Gospel, his children would be sustained. And so, on the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, Dominic sent the brothers out two by two, entrusting them to the intercession of the Mother whose merciful gaze they would beg in the Salve Regina each night.

Dominic’s trust was not misplaced. Within a few short years, by the time of his death, the Order was well-established and flourishing across Europe. Like the first apostles on whose lives they would model their own, the brethren were few in number and poor in courage, yet their testimony to Christ went out to all the world. Their preaching brought Christ to the whole world, not because they were wealthy in eloquence but because God is rich in mercy.

Sometimes we may feel overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of the task that lies before us. The voices that distort the truth seem so much more numerous, so much more powerful in their methods of persuasion. When we recognize the poverty of our own resources, we are called to renew our trust in God. Our holy father Saint Dominic was bold because he knew the greatness of the One in Whom he placed his trust.

May we be true to the example of Saint Dominic, trusting completely in God’s mercy to heal us and His grace to sustain us. When the Holy Spirit inspires our superiors to send us forth, let us go without fear and without hesitation. While it is true that we are too ignorant to convince the world of the truth and too weak to love perfectly, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Having obtained mercy, may we proclaim mercy by the testimony of our words and through the even more persuasive testimony of our lives.

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Saint Dominic, enriched with the grace of Christ, pray for us.

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Thirteenth Tuesday in Honor of Saint Dominic Dominic at Prayer Blessed are those who mourn

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Prayer was not something Dominic did, it was who he was. Dominic’s soul was a soul of prayer. It was said of him that he spoke only of or to God. The dialogue of love began early in Dominic’s life and it never ceased.

Shaped by the land of Caleruega, whose broad horizon offers an expansive view of where heaven touches earth, Dominic likewise possessed an expansive heart. For him, heaven, in fact, touched earth—and even more, suffused earth.

The transition to his years of study at Gumiel did not distract Dominic from the loving interior conversation of his soul with God. He lived in the light of the good example of his uncle. In Gumiel and in Palencia he applied his mind steadfastly to the sciences that would prepare him for the priesthood. Truth was not only what he studied. Truth was the One he contemplated.

In the busy years of his apostolic work, Dominic turned no less to the contemplation that inspired and informed his preaching. In the scene depicted in our chapel window, Saint Dominic kneels in prayer. His feet are bare: unshod, in readiness for the proclamation of the Gospel of peace, but, more significantly, bare in the presence of the Sacred. Before him stands a prie-dieu holding books to signify the Word he pondered so often, and that led him to deep communion with the Word made flesh. Outside the window beside him, the parish church stands as the place where Dominic offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, being nourished by and nourishing others with the Word and the Eucharist.

Looking more closely at the exchange depicted, one notes that Dominic’s gaze rests on the crucified Christ. This is not Christ dead, but alive. The halo which burns brightly around the head of Christ, reflected in the halo and star at the head of Dominic, suggests the union of minds between the two. Dominic’s arms are outstretched like those of Christ, ready to receive divine love and open to embrace all that the Father wills.

Dominic’s absorption in prayer did not lead him to ignorance of or indifference toward the plight of those suffering in the world. In his profound union with Christ crucified, he shared the weight of the world’s sins. He wept profusely for his own sins and for sinners not yet converted, mourning that they freely turned from the Love that alone could fulfill their restless hearts.

If we hope to live as our holy father Dominic lived, we must love as he loved.

May we be committed to lives of prayer, mourning for our own sins and those of the world, while holding fast to the hope through which Christ, died and risen, assures us of life beyond death, joy beyond sorrow, love beyond isolation.