Why Dominican? ... or Community Counts

My first encounter with Dominicans was at my university parish. The two diocesans priests left and in their stead we got three Dominicans. At the time we would jokingly say "since the Dominicans took over," but, it was indeed what happened. The priests wore habits, which we weren't used to, and they didn't do everything just the same. A Midwestern parish can have it's proverbial feathers ruffled rather easily.

There were two things that did make me like them a lot though. First, after the Mass, you would see all three of the priests gathered waiting to greet the parish community. This had never happened when we had Diocesan priests. And second, the preaching - all three of the priests would make us think, would take the gospel in a new direction. Their passionate preaching consistently resonated with us. It was powerful, thoughtful, and showed an empathy with our lives that made listening to a homily easy, enjoyable even. These two things are still big draws for me.

I've looked at some other orders, societies, and whatnot and I still come back to the Dominicans. For me, it comes down to the four pillars: prayer, community, study, and preaching (sometimes referred to as ministry or the apostolate, someday I'll know why). Prayer has become an important part of my life. Listening to God has actually led me to believe that I'm called to be a Dominican. Anyone who knows me knows that I hold friendship in high-esteem and that community is what I build my model of ministry around. I do actually love to read, and am ready to digest some more theology, so study shouldn't be bad. And here's where it gets me: PREACHING. I love the idea of being a preacher. It scares me, because I know how often I'll be preaching to myself, but I know that I will love it. To learn more about the gospel and to share that thoughtfully and lovingly with the church - I just think that's awesome. So the four pillars are awesome. And I am attracted to them. I think they'll be hard, and the road to God is bound to bumpy, but it's worth a try, a whole-hearted try.

Shalom,
Joe