St. Dominic de Guzman

Homily for the Feast of St. Dominic

St. Paul’s words from his second letter to Timothy were chosen for the Feast of St. Dominic, in particular the verse that charges him to preach the word, to stay with this task whether convenient or inconvenient - correcting, reproving, appealing - constantly teaching and never losing patience.

In a history of the Dominican Order, his contemporaries said of him: “He seldom spoke unless it was with God or about God; and in this matter he instructed his brothers.” “Frequently he made a special personal petition that God would grant him a genuine charity, effective in caring for and obtaining the salvation” of men and women. He believed that that only when he was leading others to God was he truly a member of Christ because this is how he viewed the ministry of Jesus himself. By imitating Jesus in leading others to God, he saw himself as united to Jesus.

This attitude led him to urge his Dominican brothers to study constantly the Old and New Testaments. He always carried with him the Gospel according to St. Matthew and the letters of St. Paul, and so well did he study them that he almost knew them from memory.

As devoted as he was to the ministry of preaching, he was also well-known for his closeness to the fraternity, refusing three times the offer to become a bishop. He always responded that he much preferred to live with his brothers in poverty.

Because he and his brothers were mendicant friars, we Franciscans refer to him as Our Holy Father St. Dominic. Both he and St. Francis of Assisi were responsible for this new form of religious life that spread rapidly throughout Europe. Today we honor him as someone who chose to live a life that made it possible for him to bring many to faith in Jesus through his preaching and his example.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator