We urgently need to talk about vocations - Irish Catholic

The most recent edition of the 'Irish Catholic' (Ireland's weekly Catholic newspaper) carried an editorial on the need to urgently talk about vocations. The editor, Michael Kelly, is hoping to stimulate a conversation about the topic and will next week explore how a culture of vocations can be created in Ireland. Below, in italics, is the opening contribution on the issue. I find myself in total agreement with his analysis and he reiterates many of the concerns that I have held for some time now. I look forward to the next instalment on this question and hope that it will engage those concerned with vocations promotion to respond and react.

Every time I write about the urgent task of promoting vocations to the priesthood and religious life I get a two-fold response. Many readers - laypeople, priests and religious - get in touch saying they are delighted that I am raising the issue. On the other hand - I get correspondence - sometimes from those involved in vocations ministry - saying I have no idea how difficult their job is.

Let me begin by making it clear that I don't want in any way to discourage those involved in vocations ministry - on the contrary.

Pope Francis said recently that a lack of vocations is 'often due to a lack of contagious apostolic fervour'. I have a very strong sense that many people within the Church are not taking the vocations crisis seriously. Despite the sincere efforts of many, there are many others who give little or no thought to promoting vocations. We hear platitudes that it's about quality and not quantity.

Message from God

Or, it suits some people to say that we have to see a message from God in the ever-declining numbers. I sadly meet some priests and religious who are hostile to new vocations because they hope the decline will lead to a crisis that will force the Church to adopt his or her particular vision of ecclesial or ecclesiastical reform. Other people are even unwilling to use the term 'vocations'. They prefer 'vocation' and like to talk vaguely about every single person having a vocation. 

Vocations Sunday - which we just celebrated - is a day dedicated to vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

There is no vocation to the single life per se. One is either single and free to marry or one is not single and free to marry. It is a logical absurdity to say that one can be called to what one is; nor is there a vocation to marriage - not, at least, in the sense of a supernatural vocation. Marriage is man's natural state. Some people are called to forego the natural state in view of the Gospel and the Kingdom. Others are not. 

Too many priests and religious tread on egg-shells around laypeople as if any mention of priesthood and religious life will be taken as a slight to the lay vocation, or that laypeople are ubersensitive to a sense of feeling excluded by talk of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. This has not been my experience. In fact, it has often been a confusion among priests and religious about their identity that leads to confusion among laypeople.

Vocations' directors should not be afraid to promote the specificity of priesthood and religious life in their ministry. Presenting priesthood and religious life as a community worker or convenor isn't very attractive. It can also serve to demoralise those who are currently in ministry. If a young person feels called to be a social worker, a community organiser or a convenor they can earn a lot more money doing this in the secular sphere than in religious life!

Promotion

The work of promoting vocations to the priesthood and religious life is a challenging, even a daunting role. Vocations directors and promoters are at the forefront of trying to promote a call in a culture and a society that is often deaf to the idea of the supernatural and a culture that finds it increasingly difficult to contemplate a life-encompassing commitment. And yet, the work of promoting a culture of vocations in our dioceses and religious orders, congregations and missionary societies is vital in the true sense of that word - essential for the life of the Church. And if we believe the life of the Church, the Christian life, is vital for the flourishing of healthy, just and meaningful society then this work is vital for Ireland as we grapple to overcome a sense of dazed reality in the wake of the collapse of an economic and moral model that was built on sand.

First anniversary of election of Pope Francis - his words on vocations.

Today marks the first anniversary of the election of Pope Francis. During the course of the past year, he has written and commented on the theme of vocation a number of times. It is worth recounting some of these contributions today - and we hope for more inspiration from the Holy Father in the coming years.

From his Angelus message on April 21st, 2013 - the Fourth Sunday of Easter (Vocations Sunday):

"Behind and before every vocation to the priesthood or to the consecrated life there is always the strong and intense prayer of someone: a grandmother, a grandfather, a mother, a father, a community...This is why Jesus said: 'Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest,' that is God the Father, 'to send labourers into his harvest.' (Matthew 9:38) Vocations are born in prayer and from prayer, and only through prayer can they persevere and bear fruit. I am pleased to stress this today which is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Let us invoke the intercession of Mary who is the woman of the 'yes'. Mary said 'yes' throughout her life! She learned to recognise Jesus' voice from the time she carried him in her womb. May Mary, our Mother, help us to know Jesus' voice better and better and to follow it, so as to walk the path of life!"

In his homily to seminarians, novices and those discerning their vocation - July 7th, 2013:

"Dear seminarians, dear novices, dear young people discerning your vocations. One of you, one of your formators said to me the other day: 'evangelisation is done one one's knees.' Listen well: 'evangelisation is done on one's knees.' Without a constant relationship with God, the mission becomes a job. But for what do you work? As a tailor, a cook a priest, is your job being a priest, being a sister?  No, it is not a job but rather being something else. The risk of activism, of relying too much on structures, is an ever-present danger. If we look towards Jesus, we see that prior to any important decision or event he recollected himself in intense and prolonged prayer. Let us cultivate the contemplative dimension, even amid the whirlwind of more urgent and heavy duties. And the more the mission calls you to go out to the margins of existence, let your heart be the more closely united to Christ's heart, full of mercy and love. Herein lies the secret of pastoral fruitfulness, of the fruitfulness of a disciple of the Lord!"

In his encyclical letter Lumen Fidei, June 29th, 2013:

"In the family, faith accompanies every age of life, beginning with childhood: children learn to trust in the love of their parents. This is why it is so important that within their families parents encourage shared expressions of faith which can help children gradually to mature in their own faith. Young people in particular, who are going through a period in their lives which is so complex, rich and important for their faith, ought to feel the constant closeness and support of families and the Church in their journey of faith. We have all seen, through World Youth Days, the joy that young people show in their faith and their desire for an ever more solid and generous life of faith. Young people want to live life to the fullest. Encountering Christ, letting themselves be caught up in and guided by his love, enlarges the horizons of existence, gives it a firm hope which will not disappoint. Faith is no refuge for the fainthearted, but something which enhances our lives. It makes us aware of a magnificent calling, the vocation of love. It assures us that this love is trustworthy and worth embracing, for it is based on God's faithfulness which is stronger than our every weakness."

Eight student brothers renew profession

Front row (left to right): Fr Terence Crotty (student master), Br Conor McDonough, Br Eoin Casey, Fr Gregory Carroll (provincial) Br Daragh McNally, Br David McGovern.

Back row (left to right): Br Patrick Desmond, Br Damian Polly, Br Ronan Connolly, Br Kevin O' Reilly

 

Eight of our student brothers renewed simple profession today (September 13th, 2013) in Saint Saviour's Dominican priory in Dublin. The rite of renewal of profession took place during the Office of Readings and Midday prayer. All eight brothers renewed profession in the hands of the prior provincial Fr Gregory Carroll OP. Please continue to pray for all our student brothers who continue on the path of initial formation and for vocations to the friars of the Irish Dominican province.

Ireland's 20 new seminarians - an open letter to the bishops of Ireland

Saint Patricks's College, Maynooth

As the news of twenty new seminarians entering Ireland's national seminary was revealed today, I decided to write an open letter to the bishops of Ireland on the matter. The views expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Irish Dominican province.

Dear bishops,

The fact that twenty men have entered the seminary in Maynooth this past weekend is a reason for rejoicing. The men who have presented themselves as candidates to test their vocation are brave. They are the product of their faith communities, parishes and families. Most of all they are the product of prayer of the very many Irish Catholics who fervently pray for vocations on a regular basis. Without their prayer, you can be certain that there would be fewer vocations. I mentioned the bravery of these men. It is difficult to contemplate a vocation to priesthood in Ireland today. I am sure that you share the concerns of these new seminarians. They enter their further discernment in what has become known as post-Catholic Ireland. Stepping up courageously as they do is now a very counter cultural act. They withstand many forces from the world in which they live, but also they find little to help them in their decision from within the church - a church that has put vocation to priesthood and religious life at the lower end of the Catholic agenda. As bishops with primary responsibility for creating the often quoted 'culture of vocations', you are I am sure aware that the joy of accepting these twenty new seminarians will be greeted with shock and disappointment too. Twenty seminarians for Ireland's almost four million Catholics in no cause for rejoicing.

In 2009, you courageously supported and promoted the 'Year of Vocation'. The original concept to have the year to pray for and support priestly and religious vocations soon became a Year of Vocation for all types of vocation. The year quickly lost focus as the church decided to include the valuable vocation to marriage and single life and others. To me, it appeared that there was a fear in promoting vocations to priesthood and religious life - we dare not offend anyone! A great opportunity was lost. Why are you afraid of singling out the joy of vocation to priesthood? It is notable too that many dioceses have put a lot of time, effort and resources in promoting the permanent diaconate. This is laudable, but those same dioceses seem to have little to say about priesthood and it's value as a vocation.

Much is written about the 'vocations crisis' as you know. Many people have a view on how best to solve it. Personally, I don't like the term because I don't believe that it exists. When we say there is a crisis we are suggesting that somehow God has stopped calling his people to be religious and priests. This, of course, is patently untrue. God has never stopped calling. Perhaps we have stopped listening. In exercising your ministry, you are called to be the first person to witness to priesthood and the sacredness of that vocation. In many years of observing how you carry out this mission, I have become very disheartened at your efforts. With some notable exceptions, it is rare to find a bishop speak about vocations in a positive and authentic way - as a means of planting the seed in the minds of the young and not so young that they too could be called to serve God as priests, brothers, nuns and sisters. What's even more discouraging is the fact that when some bishops do take the opportunity to speak about vocations - their words can have a very negative impact and create uncertainty in the minds of potential candidates.

Most of you appoint vocation directors. I have huge respect for these men. They have a very difficult task. In most cases they are already over worked parish priests or curates. Having the vocations portfolio added to their brief can cause a considerable strain. Are they adequately supported in their ministry as vocation directors? Does the diocese give the necessary financial, material, human and spiritual support to these men? Have any of the bishops given consideration to appointing priests as full-time vocation directors or at the minimum making sure that vocation promotion is a primary ministry for a nominated priest in a diocese? This does not seem to be the case in Ireland. There is much evidence to suggest that appointing a vocations director full-time can have significant positive results in terms of stimulating interest and translating into recruiting potential candidates.

Many people that I meet in vocations ministry often express the fact that while they might like to become priests (or religious), they find it difficult to find priests and religious who radiate joy because of their calling to follow the Lord. You know that it is often said that one important reason for potential candidates who consider this call is the joy and happiness of a religious or priest that they already know. As bishops, you will be aware no doubt, that many who consider a vocation today can often be confused when they encounter organisations and associations of Catholic priests and religious who appear to portray negative images of vocation to priesthood and religious life - and where there is a distinct lack of joy in their vocation. Can you help these men and women who would like to commit themselves to the Lord by encouraging existing priests and religious under your care to make a supreme effort to welcome the young and not so young candidates - and give them an understanding the richness of your vocation?

Living in the fast paced digital age gives bishops and dioceses a real opportunity to engage in a creative and imaginative way with potential recruits. I travel the length and breadth of Ireland as a vocations promoter. I call into many rural and urban churches throughout the island. With some exceptions, I rarely find a reference to 'vocations' in church porches or bulletin boards. Very few dioceses have a vocational presence on the internet and fewer still are engaged in social media. Any young man or woman today will use these tools as a first port of call to find out information about vocation. My question to you is why you use these essential tools so rarely, if at all. In my experience, over ninety per cent of new enquirers come through this medium. You and I together are missing out on a whole cohort of potential vocations by neglecting these opportunities. The internet and social media are a cheap and cost effective way of promoting vocations and indeed preaching. While on the topic of preaching, why do we only hear from you on the topic of vocations around Vocations Sunday each year?

 In my opening remarks I mentioned prayer for vocations and the many people who do this as a daily task. You and I should be on our knees thanking God for them. On the topic of prayer, we have a direct command from the Lord himself to 'pray the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to His harvest'. Why is it that we do not take this seriously in Ireland. I do not wish to be presumptuous in suggesting that you do not - but all the evidence is to the contrary. I rarely hear of prayer events for vocations - or indeed a simple prayer added at the Sunday eucharist asking God to intervene and prompting men and women to consider His call? You and I know that a concerted and coordinated effort at this task of praying will bear fruit - but we have to do it first!

We look to our bishops for leadership in all matters of faith. You have so much to deal with on a daily basis as you set about encouraging the faith communities in your dioceses. You have many administrative and sacramental tasks. You have to care for your priests, religious and people. You also have a duty to foster and encourage vocations to priesthood and religious life - and we desperately need you to show leadership on this issue now more than ever. The future of the church in Ireland depends on you. I ask for your support in this most important of tasks. More than that, I encourage you to give consideration to having a 'vocation' assembly where all who are interested and concerned with the ongoing lack of vocations to priesthood and religious life can give their opinion and input to you. Working together, we can make a difference.

Yours sincerely,

Gerard Dunne OP
Vocations Director

The Dominicans are youthful as they prepare to celebrate 800 years

There are many reasons for optimism as the Dominican Order begins the preparations to celebrate it's 800th anniversary. The video clip above highlights contributions from some of the friars attending the recent General Chapter in Trogir, Croatia. Included are former Masters of the Order, Timothy Radcliffe OP and Carlos Aspiroz Costa OP. The fact that there are one in six brothers in formation worldwide gives the sense that the Order is youthful even if it is almost 800 years old.

The Order was founded in 1216 with the twofold mission of preaching and the salvation of souls. That mission is as important now as it was then. Would you like to be part of this exciting mission? Then, do get in touch - we would love to hear from those who are passionate about preaching God's word in our time.

New Irish bishop makes vocations a priority

Bishop Denis Nulty - Kildare and Leighlin diocese



The newly ordained bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Denis Nulty  (the home diocese of this blogger) has indicated in his remarks at his address to the congregation on the day of his installation that he will make vocations a priority as he takes up his new role. This is newsworthy and very encouraging for all who are involved in vocations ministry in Ireland. It is a rare event to hear an Irish bishop speak about vocations (other than Vocations Sunday each year) at a public event. Indeed for those who do, generally the tone is one of pessimism or to undermine those who have courageously taken the decision to give themselves to God in pursuing their vocational call. I hope earnestly that Bishop Nulty will give leadership on the issue of vocations in the time ahead. In the meantime, I wish him well in leading my home diocese.

In that opening address, the new bishop stated: "The priesthood is a call, not a career; a way of life, not a job; an identity, not just a role. The word gladness has its roots in gratitude and gratefulness – we serve the Lord because we have so much to be thankful for – we serve the Lord with joy. The best examples of priesthood for me are joyful priests who love their faith and who love the Church. Every priest is a Vocations Director – we priests and people need a renewed vigour about our priesthood and a fresh courage to invite others to respond to that call."

 

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.

'Initial Formation: Between Postmodernity and New Evangelisation'

The article in italics below is a contribution of Irish Dominican friar, fr Vivian Boland OP (pictured above), assistant to the Master of the Order for North West Europe and Canada, to a meeting of European Dominican provincials in Lisbon last week. It is reproduced in full here - the original text is to be found on the Order's international website: www.op.org. The article deals with vocations and formation in the Dominican Order. Well worth reading.

The section on formation in the acts of the general chapter of Rome is quite short (chapter VI). It does, however, clearly identify the goal of formation: ‘making a Dominican preacher’ (§185). So what is a Dominican preacher as distinct from any other kind of preacher and how is a person made into one? The acts speak of a common zeal to share the fruits of our contemplation of the Word of God and of a culture of mission: this zeal for contemplation and culture of mission constitute the environment in which the Dominican preacher develops. They are also two of the virtues he needs to have, contemplation and mission.

In the final paragraph on formation the acts give us more of a definition: the Dominican preacher is there identified as ‘a preacher of grace’ and ‘a true witness’ (§200). The first phrase is from the O Lumen and the second echoes a well-known passage in Evangelii nuntiandi (1975), Pope Paul VI’s great charter on evangelization, that modern people ‘listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if they do listen to teachers it is because they are also witnesses’ (EN §41). It is a perfect description of the insight that came to Diego and Dominic in Montpellier: if they were to preach the gospel effectively it would have to be not just as teachers with a particular expertise and style but as witnesses living in a way that was visibly evangelical.

The Rome general chapter encourages us to read again what Krakow 2004 and Bogotà 2007 said about formation. Krakow emphasised that vocations to the Order are a gift – a grace already – that call us to understand the ‘fast paced age’ and ‘diverse world’ in which people are joining us. Where are they coming from? What are they bringing with them? What needs do they have that lead them to us? What gifts are they offering us? Bogotà has a very good section on formation, speaking of contemplation and Dominican spirituality, and emphasising the role of communities as agents of formation alongside the individual brothers and the novice and student masters. Bogotà also discusses characteristics of the contemporary world that affect all of us, not just the younger people joining us. It lists among the challenges to formation the need to help men to be self-critically free and the need to encourage them to be bold in inventing new solutions and as witnesses to the gospel by their lives.

I would like to take these two themes from what the last general chapters have said about formation, that it is about making ‘preachers of grace’ and ‘true witnesses’. What light might be shed on these themes by the contrast set up for us between postmodernity and new evangelization?



Postmodernity : giftedness and grace

A first reflection is to say that the notion of gift is problematic in postmodern thought and might be in danger also of being misunderstood by some proponents of new evangelization. In postmodernity each one can offer the gift he cherishes knowing that there are many alternative gifts, that people are free to choose, and that the reasons for their choice may remain unavailable. We talk about ‘lifestyle choices’ which are regarded as matters of taste and preference. Is a religious vocation, even the Christian faith itself, another such choice?

On the other side, some English speakers will be hesitant about the word ‘evangelisation’ because in English it has associations with a kind of proselytizing that people experience as intrusive: ‘I have come with the gift you need, whether you know it or not’. To be between postmodernity and new evangelization in the matter of gift, is to be between on the one hand a plethora of gifts none of which claims total seriousness for itself and, on the other hand, a gift that seems to want to impose itself in a way that is invasive, claiming too much for itself.

 ‘Can a gift be given?’ is how Kevin Hart summarises differences between important postmodern thinkers (Postmodernism: A Beginner’s Guide, Oxford, 2004). Questions about the gift – or grace – are at the heart of postmodern philosophy, according to Hart.  He focusses on Jean-Luc Marion in France and John Milbank in England. In Marion’s philosophy the first thing to be said is not about consciousness, or about being, but about givenness. Nothing can show itself unless it first gives itself, Marion says. Most deeply the human being is not a self-awareness, or a detached rational subject, but is gifted, given by what we receive. Marion’s philosophy leaves room for revelation, for the gift of Christ, and he is a believing and practising Catholic. It is a kind of praeambula fidei, opening a door to a fresh appreciation of the love of God as the most fundamental gift.

John Milbank is keen to be a conversation partner with Marion, and is also much exercised by the question of the gift, by grace. He criticizes Marion, saying that his thought remains within the limits set by modern philosophy even though he (Marion) is trying to go beyond those limits. Milbank himself argues for a reciprocity of gift-giving: to express gratitude, for example, does not destroy the character of a gift, does not necessarily turn it into just another quasi-commercial, perhaps manipulative, exchange.

The reflections of  Marion and Milbank on the character of the gift are abstract and theoretical. Zadie Smith, in her novel On Beauty (2005), expresses more clearly one aspect of what they are getting at. In this passage ‘Howard’ is an unbelieving father, ‘Jerome’ is his believing son, and ‘Lee’ is his indifferent son:

‘What I’ve really realized is Howard has a problem with gratitude’, pressed Jerome, more to himself than to his brother. ‘It’s like he knows he’s blessed, but he doesn’t know where to put his gratitude because that makes him uncomfortable, because that would be dealing in transcendence – and we all know how he hates to do that. So by denying there are any gifts in the world, any essentially valuable things – that’s how he shortcircuits the gratitude question. If there are no gifts, then he doesn’t have to think about a God who might have given them. But that’s where joy is. I’m on my knees to God every day. And it’s amazing, Lee’, he asserted … ‘it really is’ (page 237).

In modern times people tried to hold on to the idea of essentially valuable things while gradually forgetting that such things are possible only if they are gifts, there for us but before us, and without us. Only occasional honest radicals (like the moral philosopher Peter Singer and the theologian Joseph Ratzinger) not only see that you cannot have one without the other – the essentially valuable can only be a gift – but they also spell out, in very different directions, the logical consequences of detaching them.

Thomas Aquinas too, in his treatment of the virtue he calls ‘grace, or gratitude’, is already alert to some of the questions raised by modern philosophers. He considers both the asymmetry or inequality which Marion believes is necessarily involved in gift-giving as well as the reciprocity which Milbank prefers to stress. Ancient philosophers already saw something problematic in gratitude: it seemed impossible to contain within the limits of justice and obligation. Thomas argues that gratitude makes complete sense only in a context of justice, friendship, and grace (Summa theologiae II.II 106,5). Love transforms all indebtedness, he says, for the more love loves, the more it ought, always seeking to return more. Aristotle saw that reciprocity in gratitude sets up an exchange that seems to be without end and disallows such reciprocity because, he says, virtue cannot be about something infinite. Thomas, however, says that in the context of love or charity it is not inappropriate that the obligation of gratitude should be without end (106, 6 ad 2).
                                                                                                    
What have these philosophical questions about the gift and gratitude got to do with initial formation among the friars preachers? As the Krakow chapter said, the brothers who come to us are gifts, their vocations are matters of grace. We need to be thankful that God is sending vocations to the Order. In some countries, for reasons that remain mysterious, there are vocations to the Dominicans even when there are no vocations to other religious orders.

But the giftedness is reciprocal, for the Order that receives these vocations is also a grace for them. We offer to them the gift of fraternity, of belonging to a brotherhood. In my experience for most of the young men coming to enquire about us community life is one of the main reasons they are attracted to us. Of course they speak also of study, of liturgy, and of the preaching mission, but the fact that we do these things together, in the context of a common fraternal life, is powerfully attractive to them. Maybe, at the beginning, it is the idea of community life that attracts them, the ideal of a joyful fraternity at the loving service of the Word of God. Later they come to learn what is involved in the incarnation of this grace, that our living and working together is a matter also of flesh and blood, and is marked by sin even though it is established on grace.

The first thing a new brother ask of us is ‘the mercy of God and yours’ – he asks for a grace, a free gift.  In profession, the act that incorporates him into the Order, he offers the gift of himself, of his whole life, to God, to Mary and Dominic, and to the brotherhood, to the ecclesia domestica that we are. To give one’s life in this way is to acknowledge that there are essentially valuable things, that the gift of a vocation to follow Christ in this way can only be received by me through an unreserved giving of myself in return.

Initial formation is, then, an education in gratitude. If we are trying to make preachers of grace the best way to do it is to give people experiences of grace, and an understanding of grace. At the heart of our lives is prayer, and the contemplation of the Word of God. In these radical practices we learn how to receive. We are mendicants firstly before God. Our preaching of grace appears as the fruit of a life lived in the experience of grace. Of our celebration of the liturgy, LCO 57 says

… the brothers, together with Christ, glorify God for his eternal plan and for the wonderful workings of grace. They pray to the Father of mercies for the whole Church, for the needs and salvation of the whole world. Thus, the celebration of the liturgy is the centre and heart of our life, the basic source of our unity.

In speaking later of the ministry of the Word the constitutions return to this experience of grace in the Eucharist:

The Eucharist is the centre of the Church’s life, the source and the summit of all evangelization. The brothers should meditate attentively on the grace of this wonderful sacrament, pondering its importance for their salvation and that of others (LCO 105 §II).

In our study we take pride in placing the theme of grace at the centre of our theologies. In our life together each of us, sooner or later, experiences the mercy of our brothers in very concrete ways. The Eucharist is our great act of thanksgiving, itself given to us as a gift. The fundamental ethical disposition is gratitude. The liturgy of the hours is about praise, petition, and thanksgiving. The theme, style, and (we hope) effect of our preaching is grace. In all these ways Dominic was praedicator gratiae and we seek to be like him. So our initial formation can be described as an education in grace in order to make preachers of grace.

It might seem strange that self-consciously postmodern thinkers, Marion and Milbank, help us to remember essential things about our own tradition. We are more familiar with postmodernism being regarded as relativistic, even nihilistic and atheistic. But we are asked not just to lament the world in which we find ourselves living but to try to understand it and to find in its concerns and questions evidence of human need and divine purpose.


New evangelization: what kind of witness?

The other theme I found in what the general chapter of Rome said about formation is that we are forming men to be ‘true witnesses’. What does it take to be a true witness today? Postmodernity can seem fast and superficial, offering a diet of passing images and fleeting sound bites. The time required for study, for contemplation, for initiation into a traditional way of living, for practising virtue: all of this seems like a luxury. The Rome chapter says the preachers of grace and true witnesses will be characterized by genuine personal maturity, the practice of prayer, fidelity to the vows, common life, continual study, and active solidarity with the poor. These are all things that require time, as well as virtues like patience and perseverance, a relationship  with time which postmodernity does not encourage.

Kevin Hart says that in postmodernity, religion is either rejected as fundamentalist or embraced in one of its liberal forms. Whereas before, fundamentalism was a pathology of religion – one of the ways in which religion could go bad – it is more common now for any serious religious commitment to be described as fundamentalist. Unless one remains agnostic, or sits lightly to what one professes to believe, people fear extremism and a closed mind. Any serious religious commitment seems to mean one is taking things too seriously.

Postmodernity in some of its manifestations is atheistic and nihilistic. Some Christians see this too as a kind of praeambula fidei, a philosophical approach to faith except now along the via negativa rather than the via positiva. Aquinas teaches people how to be atheists, is how one Catholic philosopher of religion puts it (Denys Turner, ‘How to be an atheist’, New Blackfriars 83 (2002) 317-35). Donagh O’Shea, a brother of the Irish province and former master of novices, in a paper entitled ‘Formation in the Postmodern Age’, says that the loss of God as ‘object’ is to be welcomed because it entails the loss of self as ‘subject’ and this opens the way for ‘an intimate kind of knowing’ (the phrase is Derrida’s) when words fall away and we open again to what the mystical traditions teach about a knowledge beyond subject-object knowing. This mystical, apophatic, theology has, of course, an honoured place in our own theological tradition.

That is one way of responding to what postmodernity has to say on religion. My experience is that it will appeal to the older brothers among us, those who have lived through the past thirty years or so in the Order. The new evangelization, however, will be more attractive to younger brothers and many of our present vocations are coming to us from groups and movements that are explicitly concerned with the new evangelization. It seems to imply a re-assertion of positive theology in the face of postmodern skepticism and relativism, a straightforward proclamation of the truth of the gospel, calling people to share the joy there is in living with Christ.

The natural temptation for the Church, as for ourselves, is to adapt our way of being and working to what seems reasonable and necessary in our own time. Everyone, whether they like it or not, is being formed by the values and voices of the cultures within which they live and that come to live within them. A question for any new evangelisation is whether it too might be ‘postmodern’ in its style: fast and superficial, content with the kind of visibility that makes for striking images and clever slogans, a kind of ‘theme park’ Catholicism of tee-shirts, mugs, and other merchandise. This certainly ensures a certain kind of visibility and witness, one that seeks to be counter-cultural and undeniable. But what about the deeper things, that take time to mature, in silence and through experience? What about the less glamorous aspects of life, things that are less photogenic, the routine of prayer, study, and pastoral care?

The light of evangelical preaching can sometimes seem like a trapped light, an affirmation of faith that is earnest but a bit tense, as if hiding a deeper insecurity. One task for would-be evangelisers, as for all of us, is the purification of motive: why do I want to share the gift I value with this person? Is it really for the sake of the other that I am acting or is it to re-assure myself? It brings us back to the question of whether the gift I offer is really a gift or has also other meanings. The politics of postmodernity, according to Hart, is conservative. Whether he is right about this or not is an open question but he thinks that postmodernity will have no place for the poor whereas modernity at least still had a place for them. Postmodernism attracts liberals, he says, whereas postmodernity attracts conservatives. (Postmodernism refers to trends in the arts, postmodernity to the historical period in which we find ourselves.) It is striking, then, that the acts of the Rome chapter add ‘active solidarity with the poor’ to the its list of virtues that characterize the preacher of grace and the true witness.

I should add immediately that I know brothers of quite different generations and quite different theological styles who have been in active solidarity with the poor.

Christ, of course, is the centre of any evangelization. Initial formation between postmodernity and new evangelization has to concern itself with Christ. How are we thinking of him? How are we relating to him? How is access to him possible for us, access to his teaching, to his life, to his person? Pope Benedict returns often to this theme, saying that our task is to facilitate the encounter with Christ, to see how we can bring it about that people come to meet Christ and experience the joy there is in giving oneself to Christ. Jean-Luc Marion has written some beautiful pages on Christ as the revelation of God. As a man of faith this is his personal answer to the question posed by his philosophy about the possibility of revelation. John Milbank also speaks frequently about Christ but one of the dangers for a philosophical theology such as his is that Christ comes to be regarded as a theory and not as a person with whom we can be in relationship. We would want to say, would we not, that the fundamental gift is Christ. He is the eternal Word spoken by the Father and so the first to receive himself by being given. All other gifts flow from this primordial one, from the gift of the Spirit who is this giving and receiving, to the gift of creation and the grace of salvation.

The new evangelization calls us back to Christ, invites us to taste again the joy that comes from faith in Him, to have the confidence to offer others this possibility because we have come to know that he is the way, the truth and the life for all human beings. Philosophical theologies run the risk of turning Christ into an idea or a theory, new evangelization runs the risk of stimulating a merely subjective, emotional relationship with Christ, one that may not survive the harder questions life will present over time.

Where do we turn? Well perhaps that ‘active solidarity with the poor’ is the key to a way forward. We encounter Christ in his body. This is how human beings experience things and it is, we can say, why the Word became flesh. And his body is the church, the community of those who believe in him and the community of those for whom he laid down his life. The Dominican preacher of grace speaks with authority out of his experience of grace, not because he has read the books and understood them, but because he has come to know what grace means. We only come to know that along the way of our vocation, through contemplation and mission. We know it through contemplation: Donagh O’Shea says that contemplation is perhaps the only way forward at present. And we know it also through living together in a missionary fraternity, what the Rome acts call ‘a culture of mission’. We encounter Christ embodied in his community, in medio ecclesiae. The heart of Christ’s teaching is that we encounter Him in responding to the poor, to the neighbor, to the one who has a call on our care and mercy and love (think of the good Samaritan, the great commandment, the last judgement scene in Matthew 25).

Modernity tended to reduce theology to ethics where postmodern theologies seek to orient us entirely to the love of God, the gift of gifts. What about the new evangelization? Is it about calling ourselves and others to what Saint Paul names ‘the obedience of faith’ (Romans 1:5)? Is it about watching and listening for a Christ who escapes our control, who interrupts our ways, unsettles our convictions, topples our idols, and calls us sharply to account?

The encounter with Christ, if it is to be understood in a Catholic sense, can only be a communitarian, ecclesial, fraternal experience. This experience must feed our minds and our thinking, not just our feelings. But it must not neglect our feelings or dismiss the role of beauty. This experience must become social and institutional and not remain simply personal and private. Christ is the sacrament of our encounter with God (as Edward Schillebeeckx put it) and the Church, as Christ’s body, is the sacrament not only of communion with God but also of unity among people.

Our constitutions remind us often that our fraternity constitutes an ecclesial community, an ecclesia domestica (without actually using that phrase). The Dominican preacher, a preacher of grace and a true witness, speaks with authority when he has experienced grace. He speaks with authority to other human beings out of an experience of living with other human beings. The vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty are understood in our tradition to be about freedom, a freedom that comes from imitating Christ and being united to the Church. The constitutions say that our vow of poverty brings a freedom in imitation of Christ that ‘draws us closer to the poor we are sent to evangelise’  (LCO 31 §II).

Conclusion

This brings us back to the insight of Diego and Dominic at Montpellier. An effective preaching of the gospel, effective evangelization, requires preachers of grace and true witnesses, men who not only know about these things but who understand them through experience and live them out. This is the kind of man we are trying to produce when we talk about making a Dominican preacher.

Of course we cannot organize or guarantee experience for people even when we put them in the way of experience. The acts of the Rome chapter also contain an important meditation on preaching and formation, which quotes Humbert of Romans saying that ‘the only teacher of the preacher is the Holy Spirit’ (ACG Rome §53). This has always been a key point in our theology of grace, that the capacity to receive grace is itself a gift of God.

What the last general chapter says about formation is short but provocative: we are trying to make preachers of grace and true witnesses. The real agent of this making is the Holy Spirit. Our most important tools are contemplation and life in a missionary fraternity: traditional things like prayer, liturgy, study, common life, and apostolic engagement. I believe we can be confident that the way of life we have received contains resources that will enable us respond effectively to the questions of our time and to the preoccupations of the Church. It is a blessing that so many men, young and not so young, are keen to share this way of life. Their presence is a joy and an inspiration to us.
By Bro. Vivian Boland, OP (Socius for North-West Europe/Canada)

Good news for Irish Augustinian vocations

Irish Dominican Vocations is always delighted to hear of any good news on the vocations scene in Ireland and believes that such news should receive the widest possible coverage - in a time when there is such negative news about the Irish church. So, it was with great joy that we learned of the recent solemn profession of an Irish Augustinian friar, Colm O' Mahony OSA (pictured above). The profession ceremony took place in the Augustinian church in Cork on the feast of the Annunciation (March 25th, 2011).

Irish Dominican Vocations sends best wishes to Colm (who will be ordained deacon in a few weeks time) and congratulates the Irish Augustinian friars on this excellent news with the hope that the order in Ireland will be blessesd with more vocations. For more information about the life and work of the Irish Augustinian Order, see their website: www.augustinians.ie

An upsurge in vocations with a helping hand from an Irish Pub!!

Catholic Ireland news carries a very interesting story which suggests that there has been an upsurge in vocational interest following the recent World Youth Day in Australia in 2008 and also that an Irish pub 'Gallaghers' in Parramatta hosts an innovative programme once a month that creates a 'popular and credible setting' in which young Catholics can come together to discuss their faith. Magnificent!! You can see the full news story here.

More Good News on the Vocations scene in Dublin

As regular readers of this blog will know, I have great admiration for the Redemptoristine nuns (pictured above) who live nearby at Saint Alphonsus Road, Dublin 9. You will also know that this cloistered and contemplative community have been very successful in the past few years in attracting new members to their community. Last week, another significant event in terms of vocation and new membership took place in their community chapel, when Sr Maria received the habit and the veil of the Redemptoristine Order. Sr Maria is from Slovakia and she brings to five the number in formation in this community of thirteen. This is a remarkable achievement for these prayerful and joyful women. Sr Gabrielle (the sister in charge) tells me that there is a steady number of enquiries about their life and work.

To know more about the Redemptoristine nuns in Dublin, please visit their website here, and for more pictures of the reception of the habit of Sr Maria, please see their blog entry here.

Is Ireland Losing Vocations?

There has been some coverage recently in the Catholic media in Ireland and Britain about the transferring of some candidates for priesthood (seminarians) and priests to a 'conservative' French (religious) community. The community in question appears to be the Missionaries of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Toulon.

It has been reported that many of the Irish bishops are concerned about this and that there is a broad agreement among the hirearchy in Ireland that Irishmen interested in the priesthood should be encouraged to join Irish based dioceses and congregations. It is estimated that 'a few dozen' Irishmen have joined congregations outside the Irish church in recent years.

While I agree that, as far as possible, men from Ireland should be encouraged to join Irish dioceses and religious orders in Ireland I am left with some questions. What is it that the dioseses, seminaries and religious orders and congregations are not offering to these men who undoubtedly have vocations? Is is tradition, authenticity, identity - or the lack thereof? And who can blame men (young and old) who seek to follow the Lord elsewhere when there is a distinct lack of interest in promoting vocations to priesthood and religious life in Ireland?

Fatima

A note from Lisbon Airport. Not the nicest place to be when your flight is delayed and there is no information about when we might be likely to depart! In any case, it gives the opportunity to reflect on the past few days in Fatima.

Like most other Marian shrines that I have had the opportunity and fortune to visit, Fatima is primarily a place of prayer and penance. Many Irish pilgrims, young and old, visit here every year. I always take the opportunity when in these places to talk about vocations and the Dominican vocation particularly. I believe it is always necessary to find the opportunities wherever and whenever they arise to encourage people to pray for vocations. And because pilgrims go to Fatima (and other places of pilgrimage) to pray I ask for their help in praying for vocations to the Irish Dominicans. Fundamentally, vocations grow out of the prayer of the Christian community - and I believe that no prayer goes unanswered.

Visiting Fatima is a humbling experience. One gets the opportunity to meet all sorts of people who visit for all sorts of reasons - wanting to know God more fully in their lives, and seeking comfort, solace and peace. Many of course, return over and over again in thanksgiving.

With the Lord's help, the prayers of the pilgrims I have been accompanying this past week will not go unanswered. It has been a great experience.

Reflections on Vocations by the Masters of the Order

I have been reading the official acts of the General Chapter of the Dominican Order held in Bogota, Colombia last year. This meeting of brothers from the provinces of the Order throughout the world is charged with reflecting on the life, mission and work of the brethren and to legislate, when necessary, for the good of the Order worldwide.

Naturally, I am interested to read what the General Chapter has to say on vocations. In his letter on the 'state of the Order', the Master General, fr Carlos Aspiroz Costa (pictured above) reflects on the theme and speaks of the gift of vocations, the deep necessity to pray for vocations, the possibility of meetings of the friars involved in vocations ministry to meet together and share their experience. He encourages greater collaboration between the various branches of the Dominican family in encouraging new membership with a particular emphasis on the promotion of vocations by the friars for the contemplative nuns.

Fr Carlos also quotes his two immediate predecessors as Master of the Order on the theme of vocations. Firstly, he quotes fr Damian Byrne (Irish province) who was Master of the Order from from 1983 to 1992: 'For what do we want vocations? How are we going to form them? (...) How are we going to form ourselves so as to receive the new religious and how are we going to carry out the necessary changes in our life that will enable us to live with them in the peace of the Gospel and to bear their challenge and that of their world?' Here, fr Damian challenges the brethren to receive new members and to make the necessary changes to allow them to flourish - even if it means that the brethren have to form themselves to do so! His words are as important today as they were when he wrote them to the brethren at General Chapter in Mexico in 1992.

Secondly, fr Carlos quotes his immediate predecessor fr Timothy Radcliffe. The quote is from a letter to the Order written in 1994 entitled 'Vowed to Mission': 'Do we dare to accept into the Order young people who have the daring to face these new challenges with courage and initiative, knowing that they may well put in question much of what we have been and done? Would we happily accept into our own Province a man like Thomas Aquinas, who embraced a new and suspect philosophy and posed hard and searching questions? Would we welcome a brother like Bartolome de las Casas, with his passion for social justice? Would we be pleased to have a Fra Angelico who experimented with new ways of preaching the Gospel? Would we give profession to Catherine of Siena, with all her outspokenness? Would we welcome Martin de Porres, who might disturb the peace of the community by inviting in all sorts of poor people? Would we accept Dominic? Or might we prefer candidates who will leave us in peace? And what is the result of our initial formation? Is it to produce brothers (and sisters) who have grown in faith and courage, who dare to try and risk more than when they came to us at first? Or do we tame them and make them safe? These are challenging questions posed by our brother Timothy - reminding the Order that it has a duty to be challenged by its new members, and by new membership itself. And ultimately that we give to those who come to join us the opportunity to grow spiritually, intellectually, humanly and psychologically to be effective preachers!

Summer Happenings...........

It's hard to believe that it is summertime in Ireland. We have had the most atrocious weather during June, and July has been very wet so far. It makes one think of sunny and warmer climates. But, we Irish are the eternal optimists......so the weather can only get better, can't it?With the admissions process for this year concluded (almost!), it is time to turn thoughts towards the next academic year. While this vocations director will take a break at intervals during the next couple of months, it will also be a busy time. These summer weeks are given over to planning activities for the next twelve months. I hope to arrange:

schedule of visits to third level institutions for vocation promotion purposes.
dates and venues for vocations weekends.
ongoing visits and meetings with the many interested candidates.
meetings with Catholic youth movements.
a new website for Irish Dominican vocations.
visits to Dominican communities throughout Ireland to keep vocation promotion as a priority at local level.

All the above are priority during this summer period. In the meantime, I hope readers of this blog will continue to assist these most important tasks by praying for the success of and the blessing of God on all that we do.

Word of Welcome

Welcome to the blog. It will be an effort to communicate something of my work as vocations promoter for the Irish Dominicans - and to know something of the life of the Order of Preachers in Ireland.

Today, I am putting the final preparations in place for the forthcoming vocations weekend in our Limerick priory. Five men from various walks of life will live with the novitiate community. During the weekend they will experience and partake in our life of common prayer, study, community and mission. Weekends such as this make the life of a vocations director very worthwhile