These reflections are based on my being asked to give a couple of talks, the first on Dominican spirituality, and the second on the Dominican Family and some of the work we do. Hopefully our approach to life will be of value, not only to members of the Dominican Family, but to all who strive to follow Christ. Obviously every member of our Order will have his or her own special insights into what we are about, but I hope mine are faithful to our Dominican spirit.
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'A Dominican? Is he sound?' That was the instinctive reaction of a parish priest, when his permission was sought for me to preach in his church on behalf of Life organisation. His reaction reflected an amusing irony. Dominic founded his Order to preach the true faith in the face of deep ignorance and misunderstanding about what we Christians should believe. And yet in some circles we Dominicans have gained the reputation for being unorthodox. This reflects a misunderstanding of what we are trying to do. We have all been taught that God made us to know and love him, and that in this we find our happiness and fulfilment. We should seek him with our whole minds and hearts, and with his help strive to enter ever more deeply into the mystery of his love, and the way he wants us to respond to him. In our search for God we present any new insights for critical examination, which we hope will enrich our understanding and love for him. All love involves a constant search into the inexhaustible mystery of the one we love. If this is not to degenerate into fantasy it must be grounded in truth. We readily admit that at times we will make mistakes, which we know others will correct. This is part of a dialogue in which together we seek God's saving truth. Asking awkward questions is an important way of deepening our understanding of the faith which we all believe. That was the approach of St. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest Dominican theologian. He always took seriously the objections of those with whom he disagreed. And he was prepared to use the insight of the pagan philosopher, Aristotle, in his attempt to explain our faith. This approach reflects a respect for other people's views together with the desire to build on the truth which they already possess. This is an important part of our Dominican tradition. Aquinas has been recognised as a doctor of the Church and patron of Catholic seminaries and schools.
But what is a Dominican and do we have a distinctive spirituality, not only for the members of our Order, but which can enrich the life of all Christians as well? Different Orders emphasise certain aspects of Christ's life and work and that of the Church. Dominicans focus on following Christ, the wandering preacher who sent his disciples out in pairs to prepare for his coming. Our spirituality is rooted in the vocation of the preacher - being filled with the wonder of the Good News of salvation, which we want to share with the world. Our outlook on life is influenced by Dominic's special insights into the Good News. That is what I want to explore.
Apart from being known as 'Dominicans', we are also called 'Blackfriars' - after the black cloak and hood we sometimes wear over our white habits. Some of our priories bear the name 'Blackfriars'. Someone who was dreadful at making puns, called us Dominicans, 'Domini canes' - 'hounds of the Lord.' This pun refers to the vision which Dominic's mother, Bl. Jane of Aza, received at his baptism. She saw a dog holding a flaming brand in its mouth. Dominic and his followers were to bring the light of Christ to those who walked in darkness. But our official title of foundation was 'Friars of the Order of Preachers' - hence the 'O.P.', after our names. Preaching gives us our identity - that is the special job we were founded to do. Preaching determines our distinctive spirituality. We Dominicans are called to draw close to God, precisely through loving his Word and sharing it with the world. Our whole lives are geared to preaching. We have several mottoes, 'To hand on to others the fruits of our contemplation', 'Preaching and the salvation of souls', 'Truth.'
The media usually presents us Dominicans as being rather severe and forbidding. But Dominic was noted for his joyfulness, and you will usually find a great deal of humour and laughter in our communities. St. Thomas taught that one of the qualities of being human is what he called, 'risibilitas'. That means having a sense of humour, being able both to laugh with others and at ourselves. Community life is a great cure for pomposity!
And we are friars who live in priories, not monks, living in monasteries. This distinction is important. A monk belongs to a particular house or monastery, where he will probably spend the rest of his life. There is a certain stability in his life. A friar belongs to a world-wide Order and can be moved from one house or country to another. There is an instability in our lives, which was thought to be dangerous as we left the security of the cloister. The first Dominicans were beggars, or mendicants, who depended upon charity, rather than farming. We are supported by the generosity of the faithful and by whatever we may earn through our work.
I think it would help to understand what Dominican spirituality is about if I said something about why Dominic founded our Order, in 1216. His life spanned the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century. While travelling in the south of France he realised that the people were being led astray by a heresy which taught that the physical world was evil. That devalued not only our own humanity, but also Christ's and the sacramental life of the Church. After spending a night in an inn, arguing with its keeper, Dominic realised that there was a great ignorance of the faith, with people being unable to answer the arguments of the heretics. Dominic saw the need for preachers who could explain and defend the true faith. A number of like-minded men gathered around Dominic and he founded a convent of nuns to provide shelter and education for women converted from this heresy. Dominic realised that the support of the nuns' prayers was vital to the ministry of preaching.
In reaction to the heresy that the physical world is an evil barrier between us and God Dominican preaching focuses on the wonder of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us. Our mission is to proclaim the glory of this physical world in which we live, and of which we are a part. God has created it, and seen that it was good. Now the whole of creation groans, awaiting its redemption, when everything in heaven and earth will be reconciled in Christ. The Word of God, Jesus himself, is to become alive and grow in each one of us. Our lives witness to God's presence in us physical human beings, in the material world in which we live. Through our bodies we express our love for God and each other. We use our hands in caring for each other, our tongues in communicating with each other. All knowledge begins with our physical senses. Love expressed sexually in marriage is sacred, and is blessed by a sacrament. For even the most spiritual of activities we need a physical brain to contemplate and pray. Jesus has come to heal and raise us damaged human beings to share in God's own happiness and glory - to give us the fullness of life - a task which will only be completed when we are raised bodily from the grave. Grace heals and raises our human nature, so that we can share in God's own life, rather than denying and suppressing our humanity. For this reason we Dominicans have a deep respect for people's individuality. While developing a family spirit, we do not try to force each other into a mould. May be that's why we produce some eccentrics. There's a story that a provincial asked a prospective novice why he wanted to join the Order. He replied that people thought he was odd and that he considered he would be at home with us! I don't know whether he was accepted or is still with us.
Because Dominic preached the goodness of our physical humanity and Christ's, he had a deep devotion to the Bl. Virgin Mary. She guaranteed Christ's humanity. But more than this, she above all was the one who heard the word of God and kept it. Our contemplation is summed up in Mary's pondering God's word in her heart. As she gave birth to the Word of God, and at Cana urged the stewards to do whatever her Son told them, Mary summed up the mission of the preacher - to work with God to make his Word come alive in the world today. Paul expresses this when he speaks of his begetting the Galatians in the Gospel. It's not surprising that Mary should be the patron of the Dominican Order, and that Dominicans should have popularised the Rosary as a way of praying and understanding the wonder of God becoming man.
Dominic realised that before people could preach they must know and love what they were talking about. So he insisted that the brethren should be well educated, usually in the universities. This has led to the impression that we are all high-powered intellectuals, moving only in academic circles. Certainly we have produced great scholars, such as Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas. But we Dominicans are called to preach to people of every walk of life and degree of intelligence. We are not all high-powered academics, working only among among scholars.
But all Dominicans are meant to be life-long students, whatever our intellectual ability. A preacher must be a life-long listener and learner. Two of our mottoes sum up the Dominican vocation, and give a key to our spirituality - 'to contemplate and hand on to others the fruits of contemplation,' and 'preaching and the salvation of people.' Our contemplation should overflow into sharing the Good News. That, in fact, should be true for all Christians, since we all need to reflect on our faith, to use our God-given minds to gain a deeper understanding of what it should mean to us in our daily lives. And in different ways we are all called to share the hope which we have in Jesus Christ.
We understand contemplation in a very wide sense, as embracing both prayerful meditation and systematic study - two complementary approaches, nourishing both our hearts and minds in our love for the truth, which is Christ himself. That is one of the corner-stones of Dominican spirituality. This Aquinas, reminds us, in his treatise on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, is not a purely human activity. The Spirit of Truth enables us to penetrate the mysteries of salvation, gives us a sense of wonder and reverence at the majesty of God, together with a true appreciation of his creation. 'Through the Holy Spirit we receive a divine instinct, a taste, for the things of God' - for what is true or false, right or wrong. This is what Paul means by our having the mind of Christ.
Towards the end of his life the great scholar, Aquinas, said that he had learnt more at the foot of the cross than by reading many books. The two approaches are meant to complement and nourish each other and are not opposed. But we Dominicans do stress that devotion and prayer should be rooted in a sound understanding of the mysteries of our faith, and should not be based on ephemeral flights of fantasy, of dubious value. Our study is an act of reverence and worship for the truth, which is the Word of God himself. Our reflections spring from our love of God, who has revealed himself to us, so that we may find our happiness and fulfilment in knowing and loving him. Perhaps the best way of understanding what heaven means is to be found in the image frequently used in the Bible - the joy of knowing and loving someone, and our being known and loved by him or her. That is the kind of happiness we are called to share with God. So, our Dominican search for truth is inspired by love, and should lead to a deeper love. Our study and our life of prayer should nourish each other, and not be separate compartment of our life. Our priories are meant to be houses of prayer, very different in atmosphere from a secular college.
Our study and meditation of the Good News is not meant to be simply for our own spiritual enrichment. The Gospel is too important to keep to ourselves. It would be very selfish for us to be content with being nourished at the banquet of God's wisdom, while others starved. Hence our mottoes, 'To share with others the fruits of our contemplation,' and 'Preaching and the salvation of people.' So, a Dominican's life is inspired both by his love for the Word of God, and for his people, with whom he wants to share the Good News of salvation. This is summed up by the disciples on the road to Emmaus. As they travelled the risen Lord joined them and explained the scriptures. Their minds were not simply enlightened, but their hearts warmed to him. In their joy they rushed to tell the other disciples the wonderful news that the Lord had risen. That conversation with the risen Lord sums up Dominican contemplation. As the disciples rushed to share the Good News they epitomised the meaning of Dominican preaching. For me the Dominican vocation provides the ideal combination of the contemplative life and the active apostolate. In this we try to follow Christ in both seeking the solitude of prayer and in preaching the kingdom of God.
Our fifth Master General, Humbert of Romans, delighting in speaking of the 'grace of preaching.' By this he meant that preaching is a special vocation, in which the preacher is assisted by the Spirit of Truth. The preacher himself draws close to God, precisely through his love of God's word, and by leading others to welcome it. That is the special way in which we are called to be generous in our love - by sharing God's greatest gift - the Good News of salvation.
Preaching can be daunting, since we know that we all fail to live up to the Gospel we proclaim. Paul feared that while preaching to others he should become a castaway. And yet if we were to wait till we were perfect no one would ever hear the Gospel. So, with every sermon the preacher is first talking to himself, reminding himself how he should live. This requires great honesty and humility. While preaching to others we re-enforce our own commitment to Christ. The same is true for teachers and parents. The encouraging thing is that the Spirit who assists the preacher is also at work in the minds and hearts of those who hear him. Preaching is the work of both man and God, who is involved at every stage. As Paul tells us, one sows, another cultivates, but God gives the increase. That's very encouraging for the preacher who must always feel so inadequate. It also means that the preacher must be a person of faith, who is prepared to entrust the results of any sermons to God, who will act in his own good time, usually without giving the preacher the encouragement of knowing that he has achieved anything. A preacher must also be a man of prayer, asking God to be with him as he prepares and gives his sermons, praying that God will open the minds and hearts of those to whom he preaches.
As a former Augustinian canon Dominic realised the value of community life in providing support for its members, and in being a power house of prayer, which would inspire the preaching of the brethren. Community prayer, especially in celebrating the Eucharist together, is at the heart of Dominican life. As a community we are united with Christ around the altar in renewing the mystery of our salvation. With him we consecrate our lives to serving our heavenly Father and his people. Together we give praise and thanks, seek God's mercy and ask his blessing. As a community we are nourished by the Word of God, firstly in the scriptures and sermon, and then in the Eucharist. Our celebration at the table of the Lord expresses and re-enforces our communion with the Lord and with the members of our community. Together, at the end of Mass, we are commissioned to go in peace to love and serve the Lord - and his people.
In many ways religious community life is very similar to that of a family. One of the reasons people join a religious Order, rather than live a solitary life, is that they need the companionship and support of others. Also we feel called to work together as a team. Like any family, we have the challenge of getting on together in a positive way. Neither community nor family life can work if we are self-centred and selfish. Living together provides great scope for human and Christian growth - in love, patience, tolerance and mercy. We have aged and sick people in our communities, just like many families. They witness to the special dignity of following Christ in his weakness and provide an invaluable continuity with our past. The healthy members of the community are challenged to be generous in showing them the love, care and respect they need and deserve. But there is an important difference between family and community life. Members of a religious community don't chose who they live with, and are not bound together by blood ties. Instead, people of different ages and temperaments are thrown together by God and our major superiors and expected to make the best of it. But with all our differences, we share a common outlook on life and are united in taking the same vows.
Dominican brothers and sisters take the vow of obedience, which embraces poverty and chastity. This lifelong commitment is important, as in marriage. It involves an unconditional formal gift of ourselves to the loving service of God in the Dominican Order, and gives a stability to our vocation. We are not meant to be fair-weather Dominicans who quit when the going gets rough, as it certainly does at times, as in any walk of life. Instead, we are called to follow Christ, who was obedient to his Father's will, even to death on the cross. Such a permanent commitment is an act of faith. The young friar or sister cannot know where obedience will lead him or her, what demands it will make. Such faith consists in a deep trust in God. We believe that in calling us to be Dominicans he has committed himself to stand by us and give us all the help we need to be faithful in our vocation, providing we turn to him in prayer and give ourselves generously to doing his will. Our response to God's call is inspired by an unconditional love on his part and ours. Our vows are meant to provide a frame-work which will give direction for our growth in loving God and his people. Religious life should not be a straight-jacket, which restricts our development as human beings and as Christians. If that were the case, it would do more harm than good, and we would be better off doing something else. Of course becoming Dominicans does restrict our options. Most obviously, we can't marry. Later I will say more about Dominican chastity. But it is part of everyone's life to make choices - to marry or to remain single, to be a doctor or plumber. When someone marries he or she not only excludes the possibility of becoming a friar or sister, but also all other possible marriage partners. This is a positive decision which focuses married love. Similarly, while becoming a Dominican rules out certain options, this is intended to enable us to develop in a different direction. That's the spirit in which we welcome our Dominican vocation - as a positive commitment to loving and serving God as preachers.
Although most people don't take these vows their Spirit is important to every Christian. Obedience has nothing to do with giving up our wills. That would make us inhuman and, far from being a way of perfection, would destroy us. Instead, we freely consecrate our lives to God's will, as expressed in our Dominican Rule and Constitutions. People used to speak of blind, rather than informed obedience, as though that were a virtue. Our superiors now consult us, and try to discover our strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. This is a sign of our respecting each other's individuality and special gifts, and the way they can best be used in the service of the Church. But, after all the consultation, obedience demands that we do what is asked of us. Perhaps the dialogue of obedience is best expressed in the Agony in the Garden. There Jesus expressed his inclination to escape the cross, put the situation in his Father's hands with the words, "If it be your will, let this chalice (of suffering) pass," and concluded, "Not my will, but yours be done." This was not a question of Jesus giving up his will, but bringing it into harmony with that of his Father. It takes a strong act of will to obey, when what is asked of us goes against the grain. Usually we are given a job and expected to get on with it. As far as possible our superiors give us our head in using our particular talents in preaching the Gospel, for example, two Dominicans were great artists: fra Angelico and Bl. James of Ulm, who painted stained glass windows. Our obedience should witness to the world that Christians find their fulfilment in hearing God's word and doing it, even when that turns our plans upside down. The apostles found an unexpected fulfilment in leaving their nets and becoming fishers of men, Mary in becoming the mother of our saviour, and above all, Jesus in being the obedient Suffering Servant of the Lord. Obedience should channel and foster our growth as human beings and as Christians, not stifle it. The problem for all of us is that we can have too narrow an idea of our personal fulfilment, and confuse it with doing exactly as we please. Unselfish obedience should bring out the best in us, though perhaps not in the way we had expected.
Our poverty does not mean that we despise the things of this world, but respect them as God's creatures without becoming obsessed or possessed by them. It's something like enjoying the birds that visit our gardens, rather than shutting them up in a cage in our rooms. They neither restrict our freedom, nor we theirs. Our poverty gives us this kind of freedom of spirit. We are spared the pressure of acquiring the various status symbols of success. Our poverty should witness to the world that people should not be evaluated by how much they have acquired or the status they have achieved. Through our poverty we try to share Christ's love and respect for the so-called non-achievers, for those who are on the fringe of society. We lay great stress on the 'option for the poor'. Not simply so that we can help them in their need, though it is vitally important for us to hunger and thirst for justice. But we realise that we can learn from the poor that most of us do not need to possess all that we seek. The desire for riches can distort our perspective as to what is really important in life - to seek first the kingdom of God. The self-sufficient man and woman can easily think that they have no need of God. The poor remind us that he alone can satisfy our deepest needs and give us everlasting happiness. Not that we should tolerate the injustice which reduces people to inhuman destitution. That is an evil, crying out to heaven, which we should articulate for the poor in our preaching.
Members of religious Orders are sometimes accused of running away from the 'cares of this world'. Anyone seeking that kind of freedom will soon be disillusioned! We are responsible for the fabric of large priories and churches. Like everyone else, we do have material needs - that is an important reminder that we are human! We have to provide the members of our community with shelter food and clothing. But everything we use belongs to the Order, not to us personally and any money we may earn is handed into the bursar, who tries to provide us with whatever we may need. Most Dominicans have a large number of books and a word processor. These are not luxuries, but tools for our trade.
Dominican poverty celebrates the goodness of the world created by God. We have no time for a spirituality which speaks of despising the things of this world and trying escape from it. We believe that heaven and earth proclaim the glory of God, and the task of the preacher is to articulate that praise. This is summed up by the words around the Dominican crest, 'To praise, bless and preach'.
As we proclaim the goodness of the physical world in which we live our task is to emphasise the wonder of the Son of God becoming a man of flesh and blood, and dwelling amongst us. His physical humanity convinces us that ours is good. In Jesus God expressed his love for us in a human way, familiar to us. He continues to do so through the sacraments, which sanctify our physical world, which they use to help us draw close to God. Devotion to the Mass and Christ, present in a special way in the Eucharist, has always played a central role in Dominican life, as it should for all Christians. Starting at our priory in Liege, Dominicans popularised devotion to the Bl. Sacrament, for which Aquinas is said to have composed the liturgy for the feast of Corpus Christi.
Strictly speaking religious chastity should be called 'celibacy.' We are all called to be chaste in the way appropriate to our particular walk of life, whether we be married, or a single lay person, or a member of a religious Order. Having said that, I will use the familiar terminology and speak of the chastity, which is an essential part of Dominican life and spirituality. This is often understood in a very negative way as the denial of our sexuality and implying a contempt for the physical expression of love. If we thought that, our chastity would be an insult to God. It would be like giving God something we despised, and thinking that was a worthwhile expression of our love for him. No, we have a great respect for human sexuality and our own. We consecrate to God something that is important to us personally - our right to marry, to express love sexually and to have children. Our chastity expresses a deep reverence for our own and each other's bodies, with their sensual emotions. As we consecrate our sexuality to God we celebrate a further dimension of our Dominican spirituality, which emphasises the goodness of this physical world created and redeemed by God, and through which we draw close to him.
Chastity is, at times difficult. When someone takes his vows as a Dominican he or she does not become emotionally dead. Nor are we people who join the Order because we are sexually frigid. We have the same emotions as anyone else. At times we may well be tempted to give them full expression. Sometimes we will miss not having a husband or wife, being a parent, and all that family life involves. Without being cynical, it must be said that we can be as starry eyed about married life as married people can be about religious life. Both are demanding, yet fulfilling, vocations - different ways for God's people to draw close to him. Our commitment to our particular vocation is really tested when we find this difficult. We accept the pain our chastity can cause, as an expression of our love for him. I think we can help others by being prepared to admit that we, too, can have problems with chastity.
But like everyone else, members of religious Orders, taking a vow of chastity, are called to fulfil Christ's commandment to love our neighbour. John, in his first letter, tells us that if we are incapable of loving those whom we can see, we will be unable to love the invisible God. And this means not only giving love, but also welcoming love. Our lives are enriched by the love of many friends, both men and women. Hopefully we enrich their lives. Obviously there are dangers in being open to love and friendship. We need to show great maturity if we are not to harm others as well as ourselves. But the answer is not to hide in a protective fortress and pull up the draw bridge. Such lonely isolation may keep us chaste, but it would be in danger of turning us into dried up bachelors or spinsters, incapable of developing through showing and receiving care, understanding and compassion. And it's only possible to be merciful when we allow people to draw close enough to tread on our toes! Quite simply, anyone who is unable to love people, should not preach a Gospel of love to them. Our chastity is meant to provide a very positive way of relating to God and each other - to be a witness to the value of chaste love. Rather than denying human love, our chastity gives us the freedom to love people in a special and very positive way. The companionship of community life is of the greatest importance in supporting us in our chastity.
Our priories are our homes and bases from which we go out to preach. They are meant to be houses of prayer, and that distinguishes them from secular halls of residence. As we celebrate the liturgy together we give public witness to the faith we profess, and which gives meaning to christian and religious life. Celebration of the liturgy is an important form of preaching the word of God. Together we contemplate and enter into the deep mystery of salvation and give glory to our creator and redeemer. We express our longing for God in our personal lives, our need for him to unite us as a community, and to bless our mission to spread the Good News. We realise that no one can begin to draw close to God or do his work without his being involved at every stage. By praying together we are reminded that we do not make our way to God in solitary isolation, but as God's people, who support each other with our prayers, in our life and work. Our communities, and indeed the whole Church, are called to reflect and enter ever more deeply into the life of the Blessed Trinity, in which there is perfect unity, between the distinct persons. For us this means being united as a community, while loving and respecting each member as a unique individual. Through our shared humanity, our baptism as God's children and our religious profession we are equal, no matter what role we may play in the community. We need to pray together, to ask God to help us ensure that the valuable differences among us do not become divisive. We must join Jesus in his Priestly Prayer that our communities may be united in sharing the life of the Blessed Trinity, that together we may enter and proclaim God's glory, that we may be consecrated in the saving truth, which is Jesus himself. Community prayer is essential in strengthening our community life. Since our work is part of the mission of the whole Church and of the Dominican Order we need to pray together not only for the preacher, but for those to whom he is sent. We are not working alone, independently of each other, still less independently of God. We need to be united in our prayer for the salvation of the world. In brief, community prayer is essential to our Dominican iife and apostolate.
Together, in our community Masses, we renew our vow of obedience, as with Christ we consecrate our whole lives to the loving service of God and his people. With Christ we offer own bodies as we re-affirm our vow of chastity. The words of the Anglican marriage service sum this up beautifully, "With my body, I Thee worship." And in our poverty we identify the fruitful emptiness of the crucified Christ. We are nourished by the Word of God, both heard in the scriptures and the sermon, and received in Holy Communion. And at the end of Mass we are commissioned to "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord." For us Dominicans that means proclaiming the Good News of God's love and mercy, which we have celebrated in the Mass.
Our houses are meant to be both our homes and also bases from which the brethren go out to preach. The life of the priory is specially geared to that work. Dominic introduced the novel idea of dispensation, not so much as a concession to weakness, but as a means to promoting our work of preaching. The brethren could, for example, be excused from community duties so that they could study or preach. At times there can, of course, be tensions between the demands of the apostolate and community life.
Although we have superiors, we Dominicans are very democratic. We elect our leaders from the ranks, to which they return after they have served their limited term of office. We don't have career structures and frown on brethren who try to be upwardly mobile! Dominic was a great believer in collective responsibility, with major decisions being taken by the superior in council, and as far as possible at the local level. In this we show our respect for each other's views, and together try to discover God's will for us. Dominic discovered the principle of subsidiarity centuries before the word was invented and suggested for the European Community.
Very briefly, I have suggested the meaning of Dominican life and spirituality. We believe that our approach should inspire not only us Dominicans, but should help everyone in following Christ. Next, I will say something about the Dominican Family and the variety of work we Dominicans do. This, I hope, will illustrate how Dominican spirituality effects our whole approach to life and will enrich your own Christian lives.