Thomas Griffin 8/8/24
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St. Dominic was born in 1170 in Spain. He was later ordained to the priesthood and was traveling to preach the gospel when he encountered something in the city that changed the direction of his life.
Dominic was called to preach against those who were spreading the Albigensian heresy. Proponents of this thought taught that all matter was evil. They believed that in order to be pure you had to abstain from all material pleasures and goods. They even rejected the sacraments and procreation. He taught against this dangerous mindset and reiterated the beauty and dignity of the material world.
Dominic saw that many people were swept up with this heresy because of its dramatic call to live completely for God. He, and others, preached against these teachers but with little success. He experienced that a main issue stemmed from the fact that the Catholic priests lived a wealthy lifestyle compared to the common person in the city.
The first chapter of the Constitutions of the Order of Preachers from the St. Joseph Province states the following about their community. It helps shed light on who their founder was, what he was most about and why he was so impactful:
“The Order’s purpose was described as follows by Pope Honorius III in a letter to St Dominic and his brothers: ‘He who never ceases to make his church fruitful through new offspring wishes to make these modern times the equal of former days and to spread the Catholic faith. So he inspired you with a holy desire to embrace poverty, profess the regular life and commit yourselves to the proclamation of the word of God, preaching everywhere the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’
He knew that in order to win over people’s hearts they needed to see that people lived their faith and did not just speak about it. So, Dominic and three others began to live a life of poverty and dedicate themselves to prayer, study and preaching. These three principles of the Dominican life ought to steer our lives as well because it is all about the desire to give people access to the divine life by living radically for Jesus Christ.
A motto of the Dominican order is “to contemplate and share the fruits of contemplation.” He immersed himself in a life of personal prayer. In order to speak to others about the logic of heavenly realities and transmit the truth in a transformative manner, Dominic knew that he needed to be in deep communion with God on a daily basis. This is a critical aspect of his life and it is necessary for every disciple.
Jesus simply called his disciples to follow him. Literally come after his footsteps and live the way he did. Listen to his words and be captivated by his actions. This is the life of contemplation. Too often we can convince ourselves that deep prayer is only made for the holiest of saints, the ones they make statues of like Dominic. However, Jesus invites each and everyone of us to follow him closely and live a life of contemplation.
We can begin to do this by committing to a certain amount of prayer time each day. If you are currently not praying at all, commit to 5 minutes of prayer a day. If you have certain prayers you say everyday, make a commitment to reading one chapter of the Gospels each day. In honor of St. Dominic, enhance your prayer life in some way this week – make contemplation your main focus.
We can also honor his witness by continuing our own studies. Dominic believes that when the human mind uses reason correctly it aligns itself with God. This doesn’t mean we have to enroll in a masters degree program though. To be created in the image and likeness of God means that we are able to reason, choose and to love. We can come to true assertions about reality because God gave us the gift of our intellect. In order to grow this faculty we can read spiritual articles online or watch videos from phenomenal Catholic resources like Word on Fire and Ascension Press. Reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church can also help us to become aware of the reasons for what we believe.
Finally, Dominic was a preacher. He knew that in order to speak about the truth in a way that is clear and powerful we must be a person that loves. If we desire to follow Jesus we must also speak about him. Jesus didn’t leave this as an option for his disciples. He required them to talk about his kingdom in foreign lands and he calls us to speak about his way, truth and life in our lives today. We can begin this task by striking up a conversation with someone at work about our experience at Sunday Mass or simply being a person that prays before eating lunch.
It is the simple ways of preaching that allowed Dominic to change the faith landscape of his time. The same will be true for our age. Today, let us live like he did. Let us be captivated by contemplation and move to share the fruits of our encounter with the living God with others.
Thomas Griffin is the chairperson of the religion department at a Catholic high school on Long Island where he lives with his wife and two sons. He has a masters degree in theology and is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Empty Tomb Project: The Magazine. He is the author of Let Us Begin: Saint Francis’s Way of Becoming Like Christ and Renewing the World.
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