Homily Eighteenth Saturday of Ordinary Time (Feast of St. Dominic)
Homily Eighteenth Saturday of Ordinary Time (Feast of St. Dominic)
St. Dominic is known as the patron saint of preachers. Dominic was a contemporary of St. Francis. The two of them revolutionized the way religious life is lived.
In the church there are two types of clergy (secular and religious). A simple way to understand the difference is to consider who clergy pledge obedience to. Secular clergy (like me) are obedient to the local bishop. Religious make a vow of obedience to the person who is the superior of their order.
Religious orders, up until the time Dominic, usually were monastic in nature. Monks lived in a monastery and took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Another vow they took was that of stability. This meant that they were never to leave the monastery for any length of time. The secular clergy were able to move around and to live among laity in the world. They usually were parish priests who were anchored in their diocese.
Dominic had a vision of a religious priest or sister who would not be stationed in one place, but would travel around the world preaching and evangelizing. They would live the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, but they would keep those vows as they interacted with the laity.
Dominic’s brothers and priests became known as traveling preachers. And they would go into areas where the faith life of people had weakened and they would preach renewal. They still have that mission today. Dominicans are known as great scholars and educators.
Dominic’s order was labeled a mendicant order. They were not anchored in one place, but could move to where they were needed most. They usually traveled in groups so they could support and take care of each other. Mendicants help to reform and energize the church.
Reflection Questions:
- Would Dominic’s model of religious life be truer to the way Christ lived or not? What would be the sacrifices that a mendicant would have to make?
- Dominic put an emphasis on preaching. Do I want to be challenged by a homily or affirmed? What is more important?
Dear Parishioners,
I am trying to explain some of the protocols we are following at Mass right now. Some might wonder why we ask people to sit in assigned seats.
The reason for this is that we want different households to keep physical distance from one another. We are also trying to keep people from passing one another in aisles and entrances. For that reason, we ask people to take a seat in the front rows first and then we seat people who come in later further back. When we leave church we request that people sitting in back to leave first.
The whole idea of traffic patterns in church is that we do not want people to mix with others. There is more to physical distancing than just sitting apart.
Having to stay apart from each other and keeping social distance is difficult on all of us. But it is important if we ever are going to stop the spread of this virus.
May Our Lady and the Angels and Saints protect you today.
Fr. Mark