Feast of Saint Dominic

Participants at the General Chapter in Trogir, Croatia July/August 2013

 

Irish Dominican Vocations would like to wish all readers of this blog a very happy feast day. Dominicans throughout the world will be celebrating the feast of our founder Saint Dominic. He continues to be our inspiration and our guide and it is heartening and encouraging to see the continuing interest in his legacy to the church - that men and women would be enthusiastic in the preaching mission and by extension bring others closer to God.

For those who contemplate the Dominican vocation, I am reminded today of the words of the former Master of the Order, Timothy Radcliffe OP, who wrote about the desire of the young friars to bring enthusiasm to the Order:

"Just as the birth of a child engages the life of all the family, so each generation of young people coming to us modifies our fraternal community. You come with your questions, for which we do not always have an answer; with your ideals which reveal sometimes our insufficiencies; with your dreams that we do not necessarily share. You arrive with your friends and your families, your culture and your tribe. You come and disturb us, and that is why we need you. You generally come with requirements that are in fact essential to our Dominican life, but we have sometimes forgotten or depreciated: a deeper community prayer life, a more beautiful, more intimate fraternity ion which we care more about one another; courage to leave our old commitments and to set off on new roads. Often, the Order is renewed because young people come and insist on trying to build the Dominican life such as they read it described in the books! Go on insisting!

We pray today through the intercession of Saint Dominic that he will inspire many more men and women to follow in his way.