Those Dominicans and Their Preaching

Hello everyone,

I hope that everyone is having a great week. I am so sorry that I am a little late posting this week. I was called in for the entire week to fill in for a gym teacher whose mother has taken a turn for the worse. She is not expected back any time soon. Please pray for them as they go through this most difficult time and please pray for the students of this inner city school as they make the adjustment to their long-time p.e. teacher being called away. This is very difficult for young children.

St. Dominic was a preacher at heart. His preaching was purely passionate. Dominic devoted himself to a passionate life of teaching and preaching out of a pure love for God. I love the way that even though he knew how it was necessary to overcome some of the most egregious heresies of his time he demonstrated time and again that the best approach to overcome the enemies of the faith was to solve the problems with a steadfast devotion to prayer, contemplation, and humility. In his preaching his focus was the dignity of human life. He was humbled and insisted that Dominican Friars were unrelentless in their pursuit of humility and their entire trust and confidence in God as the answer to evil. Preaching is an artform that takes much preparation, self-denial, and strict obedience in the spreading of God's Word. As he died, he encouraged his followers to hold true to humility. Their spirituality is largely apostolic.

One of the things that struck me as interesting about both the Dominicans and the Franciscans was their devout vow of poverty. Their mission had them completely devoted and focused on the ministry of preaching. According to Aumann, Bishop Fulk of Toulouse issued a document in which he declared: "We, Fulk ... institute Brother Dominic and his associates as preachers in our diocese ... They propose to travel on foot and to preach the word of the Gospel in evangelical poverty as religious." (127) I cannot imagine how poignant their preaching must have been given this devotion. I'm thinking now of our recent diocesan wide census where parishioners volunteered to go door to door. I wonder if our message would've been more powerful to those in our neighborhoods if we had traveled barefoot, devoting ourselves to a defined observance of poverty. I tell you if someone showed up at my door and said they were from the neighborhood Catholic church and was conducting a census of the religious traveling barefoot with a visible vow to poverty I would take them in and I would convert just on the face of their humbleness.

St. Dominic is an excellent example of how we need to rid ourselves of our personal self-efficacy and devote ourselves to the whole spirit of God. We need to let Him work in us the way that Dominic allowed Him to work in him. We can begin to appreciate what Dominic has left the Church in his contributions to sacred doctrine as a preacher and teacher.

Have an awesome week.

Peace and blessings, Belinda Harrett

All Rights Reserved ©, Please Request Permission To Duplicate. Belinda Harrett, University of the Cumberlands.