Dominican

I feel that I have been blessed as my Father is from Spain the homeland of our Father St Dominic so already I knew a bit about St Dominic and his life and my mother is from Peru the home of St Martin De Pores. I can recall when I was young boy my parents use to tell me stories about St Dominic and St Martin. My mother also did all her schooling at school run by the Dominicans and So I had a little knowledge about the founder of the Dominican order of Preachers and a few saints and had a bit of understanding who the Dominicans are.

When I was discerning my vocation it was natural for me to be attracted straight away to the Dominican order, as I felt a special and warm bond with the order already. Even though I knew a little bit about the order, I still wasn’t sure if this was the order for me and I had many questions which I wanted to ask and do some research also.

Some of the question that I asked:-

Who are the Dominican Order and what do they do?

Dominicans are preaching constantly in the various communities throughout the Province.  You may want to be among them.  You may be thinking to join the friars in special preaching work with university students or in our parishes.

Wherever a brother may be assigned, preaching remains his foremost activity.

http://www.dominicans.org.au/lifeintroduction.html (all above copied Straight from our OP web page)

We are the Friars of the Order of Preachers, also known as Dominicans after our founder St Dominic de Guzman, and are a religious order of priests and brothers in the Roman Catholic Church. The word friar is derived from the Latin word frater, meaning simply brother. Although we live a fraternal life in convents and celebrate a sung Liturgy in common, we are not monks as we are not tied to a particular monastery but are called to make the world our cloister. Consequently, although a friar is a son of a particular province, he is a brother in an international Order.

Founded in 1216, there are now nearly forty provinces of friars in the Order of Preachers, from all parts of the world, all united by obedience to the Master of the Order. Our Order, which was established for preaching the Gospel and the salvation of souls, has a world-wide mission, and so we work in a diversity of ways, with other members of the Dominican family, to spread the Gospel - not only by preaching in our own lands but also in those places around the world where the Christian message of hope and salvation in Jesus Christ has not been heard.

http://english.op.org/About_Us.html

(Copied and pasted from web page)

Where do I start to find out about St Dominic and other Dominican Saints

The best way to find out about St Dominic on your own is to read books on the life of St Dominic’s and also other Dominican saints such as St.Thomas Aquinas and his works, St Jordan of Saxony,St Martin de Porres

A few of the books I read which help me to understand about St Dominic and other Dominican saints are:-

‘The Life of St Dominic’ written by Bede Jarrett OP who is a Dominican

A really good book to read as an introduction is St Thomas Aquinas and his works is ‘A first Glance at St Thomas Aquinas – A Handbook for Peeping Thomists ‘written by Ralph McIerny

St Martin de Porres – Apostle of Charity written by Guiliana Cavallini

The internet is also a great place to start as have some really great information on all the websites to view

Some useful sites:-

http://www.dominicans.org.au/

http://godzdogz.op.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJI2Tsw96jQ

this page on you tube I found to be great and moving about the Dominicans province in the province in the USA, was really great video also to see and hear of other Dominicans in the USA province, and what they do and about their vocations and talks about community and Dominican life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnf7JbXoLTo

And of course our Australian province also has a great video to watch on you tube about Dominican life and vocations here in Australia

Al

What is the Dominican Charisma?

What really appealed to me about the Dominicans is the Dominican Charisma or the four Pillars set out by St Dominic when he founded the order

1. Prayer

2. Community Life

3. Study

4. Ministry

http://www.dominicans.org.au/fourpillars.html

The four pillars or charisma really appealed to me as it is a beautiful thing to be able to pray together as a community, being able to live together as one and live as one community, being able to continually study and read also appealed to me as it helps the spirit to grow, and opens up our hearts and minds to always learn something new every day.

Ministry life knowing that we are ready to answer God’s call and be ready for any mission with the order really appealed to me also, knowing that the Dominicans have so much to offer society through preaching and helping out others in need.

How do I get in touch with the Dominicans?

The best place to start to be able to get in touch with the Dominican order would be with vocations directions Fr Dom Murphy. They have a website with Fr. Dom’s contact information.

http://www.op.org.au/join-us---vocations.html

I myself spent many times catching up with Fr Dom who would talk to me about the order and spend time with me talking and teaching about the order and even arranged for me to spend a couple of days in Melbourne to attend a profession of vows of Br Paul Rowse.

It was a good chance to be able spend some time with the other friars at St Dominic’s the Student house in Camberwell , which I found really great. It gave me a chance to spend some time with all the brothers and ask questions who were all happy to spend time with you and answer any questions you have.

http://www.op.org.au/join-us---vocations.html

How Do I know if this is the order for me?

When I met the Dominicans and I spent time with the Dominican friars and began to know them I felt straight away a beautiful warm feeling thing in my spirit that I belonged. I felt right at home and very comfortable amongst the brothers and it is such a beautiful feeling that you know this is the order for you.