St. Dominic Catholic Church

2002 Merton Ave | Los Angeles, CA 90041 | (323) 254-2519

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COVID-19 UPDATES & RESOURCES 

 

Two Letters from Pastor Fr. Roberto Corral, O.P. 

PANDEMIC GRATITUDE

TRUSTING IN GOD

Mass - Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Spanish Mass - March 31, 2020

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NEW* RECURSOS EN ESPAÑOL

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CHURCH & OFFICE HOURS

CURRENT RESTRICTIONS:

  • THE CHURCH AND PARISH OFFICE ARE CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE FROM THE ARCHDIOCESE.
  • DAILY & SUNDAY MASS ARE CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
  • MINISTRY GATHERINGS ARE CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
  • CONFESSIONS ARE FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY (PLEASE CALL OR EMAIL THE OFFICE).
FOR MORE RESOURCES PLEASE VISIT OUR COVID-19 UPDATE PAGE HERE: https://saintdominics.org//emergency

Religious Life

For information concerning a religious vocation with the Western Dominican friars, click here.

For information concerning a vocation to the diocesan priesthood, contact the Archdiocesan vocation director through LAvocations.org

Links to some Dominican Women's congregations and monasteries

For help with general discernment of a vocation to priesthood, marriage or religious life, please click the link here.

Our Patron, SAINT DOminic

If he hadn't taken a trip with his bishop, Dominic might have remained within the structure of contemplative life as a canon regular - a priest living with other priests serving at the cathedral of his diocese in Spain in the late 12th century.  They were attempting a reform by reviving the apostolic common life as described in the Acts of the Apostles.  On a journey through southern France with his bishop, he was confronted with the Albigensian heresy, which held that two opposite principles - one good, one evil - were the source of the spiritual and physical realms, respectively.  They denied the goodness of creation, the Incarnation and the sacraments.  The "perfect" among them abstained from sex to avoid bringing more children into the world, and took as little food and drink as possible.

Dominic saw that ordinary people admired the extreme asceticism of the heresy's leaders, and saw that the clergy sent to preach to them would be ineffective unless they took seriously Jesus' command to share the good news with "no money bag, no sack, no sandals" (Luke 10:4)  He began a mission of itinerant preaching.  His initial success was with some women, who, upon their conversion, formed a monastic community to support Dominic's mission with their prayers. 

Dominic’s vision was universal; he saw a need in the Church which extended beyond France. Gradually, a number of men began to join him, and the Order of Friars Preachers was founded in 1216. As the Order spread through Europe and through time, the Order came to include active sisters and a host of lay Dominicans.  His ideal, and the life of the Order, is a linking of a life with God through study and prayer - especially the liturgy of the hours - with a ministry of salvation to people through the preaching of the Word of God.  To this day the Dominican strives to "contemplate and share with others the fruits of contemplation." 

This life has aspects that any Christian should imitate: the combination of prayer, study and activity in service of others is, ideally, the life of a Christian accountant, carpenter, mother, engineer or nurse.

Prayers for Evangelization

 

Please pray that many parishioners respond to Jesus' invitation to send them to those who do not know Him.  Pray that those who will hear the Gospel will respond!  You can:

  • Ask God to open their spiritual eyes (2 Cor. 4:4).
  • Ask God to give them ears to hear (Matt. 13:15),
  • Ask God to give them faith to believe (Acts 20:21).
  • Ask God to give them the will to respond (Rom. 10:9).
  • Ask God to send Catholic Christians into their lives to witness to them (Matt. 9:38).
  • Ask God for an opportunity to invite them (Luke 14:23).
  • Ask God to set them free from spiritual captivity (2 Tim. 2:25-26).

St. John Paul II's Prayer
to Our Lady of Evangelization

O Mary, Mother of Jesus and Mother of his Church, we are mindful of the role you play in the evangelization of souls who do not yet know Him. We are mindful of how missionaries came with the power of Christ’s Gospel and committed the success of their work to you.

As the Mother of Divine Grace you were with the missionaries in all their efforts.

And as Mother of the Church you presided over all the activities of evangelization and over the implantation of the Gospel in the hearts of the faithful. You sustained the missionaries in hope and you gave joy to every new community that was born of the Church’s evangelizing activity.

You were there with your intercession and your prayers, as the first grace of baptism developed, and as those who had new life in Christ your Son came to a full appreciation of their Christian calling.

We ask you, Mary, to help us to fulfill this mission of evangelization which your Son has given to his Church and which falls to us. Mindful of your role as Help of Christians, we entrust ourselves to you in the work of carrying the Gospel ever deeper into the hearts and lives of all the people. We entrust to you our missionary mandate and commit our cause totally to your prayers.

To Jesus Christ your Son, with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit be praise and thanksgiving forever and ever.   Amen!

 

 WHAT IS DISCIPLESHIP?


A CONSCIOUS, INTENTIONAL RESPONSE TO AN INVITATION TO RELATIONSHIP
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph #546) says that through his parables Jesus invites people to the feast of the kingdom, but he also asks for a radical choice: to gain the kingdom, one must give everything. (Mt. 22:1-14)  Words are not enough, deeds are required!  (Mt. 21:28-32)   Believing is possible only by grace and the help of the Holy Spirit. But this free choice is also an authentically human act. that is not contrary to our freedom or to human reason (Catechism, #154). After all, we choose to trust some people and what they reveal to us about themselves in order to enter a relationship with them.

AN EXPERIENCE OF NEW LIFE
Christ's disciples have "put on the new the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth."  By "putting away falsehood," they are to "put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander." (Ephesians 4:24-25)  This new life is made possible by Christ who unites himself to us.  He says, "I am the vine, you are the branches.  Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing." (John 14:5)  St. Paul could claim, "I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me." (Galatians 2:20)  An essential aspect of this new life is prayer.  In the Holy Spirit, Christian prayer is a communion of love with the Father, not only through Christ but also in him. (Catechism, #2615)

A LIFE DIRECTED TOWARDS OTHERS
By loving us even to his death on the cross, Jesus manifests the Father's love which he receives. By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves receive.  He gives his disciples a new commandment: "love one another as I have loved you." (John 13:34)  Through baptism, the disciple receives graces of the Holy Spirit called charisms which help to build up the Church, the secular order, and meet the needs of the world.  (Catechism, #799)

A LIFE OF WITNESS
The experience of a new life leads the disciple to speak to others about the treasure they have discovered in Jesus Christ (Matthew 13:44).  This has been commanded by Jesus, who his disciples, "Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20)  Witnessing to Jesus is necessary for salvation: "everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God." (Luke 12:8-9)

A LIFE IN COMMUNION
Jesus formed a community of disciples around himself during his life.  He proclaimed a mysterious and real communion between his own body and ours: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." (John 6:56)  This community continues in the Church.  In the Mass, the communion of Christ's disciples, born from Jesus' total self-gift for our salvation on the cross (Catechism, #766) is expressed and deepened.  Moreover, St. Paul told the Church in Corinth, "you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it." (1 Corinthians 12:27)

Becoming a Disciple of Jesus 


Just as any human relationship takes time to develop, so too our relationship with Jesus.  And like our other relationships, there are distinct stages that mark its growth.  The descriptions below are from the book Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell. 

Initial trust: Do you have a positive association with Jesus Christ, the Church, a Christian believer, or something identifiably Christian?  Without some kind of bridge of trust in place, we cannot move closer to God.

Spiritual curiosity: Are you intrigued by or desire to know more about Jesus, his life, and his teachings or some aspect of the Christian faith? This curiosity can range from mere awareness of a new possibility to something quite intense. 

Spiritual openness: Are you open to the possibility of personal and spiritual change?  Is there a pattern of behavior you want to change, or do you have a hope that there's more to life than you are experiencing?

Spiritual seeking: Are you actively seeking to know the God who is calling you?  Do you seek the company of Christians?  Have you been asking a Catholic friend about Mass, the Bible, or how to pray?  Seekers are asking of God, “Are you the one to whom I will give myself?” Are you wondering if you can commit to Christ in his Church.

Intentional discipleship: This is the decision to “drop one’s nets,” like Simon Peter, the fisherman at the Sea of Galilee did.  It is to make a conscious commitment to follow Jesus in the midst of his Church as an obedient disciple and to reorder one’s life accordingly.  It's not the end of the journey at all - but a definitive new direction of one's life!

Where are you on this journey?