St. Dominic Catholic Church

Pastor's Corner

August 5, 2018 Celebration of the Feast of St. Dominic

Happy Feast of St. Dominic! 

From the founding of our parish in 1921, Dominican friars have served as pastors and associates, often providing more priests than local diocesan parishes enjoy.  This is because of the charism of the Dominican Order (the Order of Preachers) and the nature of our life as friars.  

The mission of the Order, founded by St. Dominic in 1216 is to share with others the truth about the God whom we contemplate in our hearts.  St. Dominic wanted his friars to live in community so they could pray together, study together and learn from one another, practice charity with one another, and thus be formed by this communal life into preachers of the Word. Our motto is “Truth”, and we search for truth in the Scriptures in which God is revealed, and in the encounter with Jesus in the sacraments of His Church, through prayer, and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  We seek to find the truth in order to share it with others.

Study, prayer and communal life are essential to our life and shape our preaching.  Sometimes people are surprised that we are not available 24/7, to which I would first of all respond that God’s Sabbath rest on the 7^thday was meant as an example for us all!  I’d also point out that in order to be good Dominicans we musttake time for individual and communal prayer and study, contemplation, and a robust common life - all of which informs our preaching.

Our Constitutions outline five major elements to the way we follow Jesus: our common life, common celebration of Mass and prayer, our vows, assiduous study, and our apostolic ministry of the Word.  This last element bears notice. Priests are called to do all kinds of ministry, but as Dominicans, our emphasis mustbe on those that are more intimately connected to Scripture and evangelization.  The whole point of preaching, after all, is the call to conversion and the salvation of souls!