Humbert of Romans recounts for us some of the last words of our holy Father: “Here, dearest brethren, is what I bequeath to you as sons, as to your rightful inheritance. Have charity, keep hold of humility, possess voluntary poverty.” I have often reflected on these parting words of our holy Father, but what caught my attention during this past week was the fact that this is Dominic’s bequest to his sons and daughters as our rightful inheritance. In other words, Dominic makes us heirs of what was for him the foundation of his spirituality and the source of his apostolic fruitfulness – charity, humility and voluntary poverty.

St. Dominic – A Man of Prayer

Imagine a man who walked the dusty roads of Spain and France, not with wealth or armies, but with a heart burning with love for God and a voice that carried the Gospel into the hearts of the poor and the learned alike. This man, St. Dominic de Guzman, was not merely a preacher of words — he was a preacher of prayer. His life teaches us that true evangelisation begins not in the marketplace, but in the quiet sanctuary of the soul.

A Reflection on the ‘O Lumen,’ the prayer we sing to Dominic daily after Compline (Night Prayer).

O light of the Church,
Doctor of truth,
Rose of patience,
Ivory of chastity,
Water of wisdom freely given
Preacher of grace lead us to the blessed.

Dominic is a flaming torch setting the world ablaze with God the Father’s love, mercy and compassion.

Extract from the book: Saint Dominic’s Way of Life, by Patrick Mary Briscoe, OP and Jacob Bertrand Janczyk, OP.

One of the oldest prayers to the Virgin Mary is the ancient antiphon titled in Latin Sub Tuum Praesidium. By some accounts this prayer dates to the third century.

When I was reflecting on St Dominic’s life in the light of today’s Gospel the thoughts that came to me weren’t about the ‘miracles of multiplication’ that occurred for the feeding of his Brothers (and on occasion Sisters), but rather that in the living of his life and the establishment of his Order he let Christ take, bless, break and distribute both himself and his Order as Christ wished and indicated. As Dominic said, “seed that is hoarded does not bear fruit.”

The presence of Saint Dominic in our chapel—in the painting by Fra Angelico—encourages me throughout the day to listen deeply once again to the Word of God.

With his left hand,Dominic gently touches the pages of Scripture. In reality, we cannot touch an object without being touched by it ourselves. A person touches God because God touches us first.

St Dominic - Light of the Church

During the past week at Mass, we have been hearing parables of Jesus about the kingdom of heaven, as recounted by St Matthew. It is a treasure more valuable than all earthly possessions; a priceless pearl; a tiny mustard-seed that grows to become a great shrub where birds of the air can build a home.

Towards the end of his life, when the disciples of St Anthony, the father of monasticism, asked for a word of advice he replied with three words – always breathe Christ. Breathing and respiration is a double movement – in and out. St Dominic was certainly always breathing Christ. His life, in its nights and its days, was an incessant rhythm of praying and preaching. And even Dominic’s prayer had this rhythmic quality.

Mother of Mercy

One of the oldest prayers to the Virgin Mary is the ancient antiphon titled in Latin Sub Tuum Praesidium. By soom accounts this prayer dates to the third century. The beautiful words, first written in Greek, present the Blessed Mother as one who intercedes for us.

The theme of my reflection is: Reverence

I was very struck by the talks given by Fr. Paul Murray, O.P., to the Dominican Novices in Caleruega, Spain this year ( 2025), and I would like to quote a portion of one of his talks, in which he highlights St. Dominic’s reverence in praying, shown in the Nine Ways of Prayer, in teaching the brethren to be reverent to one another and in the reverence and veneration he shows to the Scriptures themselves.

THE MIRACLES OF ST. DOMINIC
Narrated by SISTER CECILIA

Of the Bread and Wine Miraculously Multiplied and Distributed to the Brethren Through His Prayers

On this fifth day of our novena to St Dominic, we began our Mass with the prayer:
Draw near to your servants, O Lord,
and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness,
that, for those who glory in you as their Creator and guide,
you may restore what you have created
and keep safe what you have restored.

What is impressive about St Dominic? His simplicity, I think.

From ‘Libellus’ written by Bl. Jordan of Saxony we know that St. Dominic
‘In every reasonable purpose which his mind conceived, in accordance with God’s will,he maintained such constancy that he hardly ever consented to change any plan which he had formulated with due deliberation’

St Dominic's Fourth Way of Prayer

After this, St Dominic, standing before the altar or in the chapter Room, would fix his gaze on the crucifix, looking intently at Christ on the Cross and kneeling down over and over again. Sometimes he would spend the whole time from the end of Compline until midnight

The more I immerse myself into the Dominican way of life and grow in knowledge (be it still at an elementary level) of the Order of Preachers, I can’t help but see striking similarities between our Lord Jesus Christ and our holy founder, St. Dominic. Indeed, as William A. Hinnebusch O.P states in his book, Dominican Spirituality (1965); “Everything positive in the Order’s spiritual life traces back to Dominic, just as everything positive in the church traces back to Christ.”

Today is the first day of our Novena to St Dominic, and I have tried to base my reflection on the Mass readings for today, which actually fit quite well.

The Gospel for today (Mt 13:44-46) speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven as a “hidden treasure” or “pearl of great price”. The one who finds it “goes off happy” and “sells everything he owns and buys it.” Dominic was a man who was deeply aware that the Kingdom of Heaven was a priceless treasure, and this filled his life with joy.

The feast of the Transfiguration is a celebration of God’s revelation. The glory of God that was veiled in the law and prophets - from Moses to Elijah - is now unveiled before the Church,to the apostles and us who receive their message.
‘Christ, during his earthly life, was always resplendent with the divine light, which remained invisible for most men.The Transfiguration was not a phenomenon circumscribed in time and space, no change took place in Christ at that moment, even in his human nature, but a change was produced in the consciousness of the apostles, who received for a moment the ability to see their Master as He was, resplendent in the eternal light of his divinity’. (V. Lossky)

One of the mottos of the Dominican Order is “Truth.” St Dominic founded the Order to preach the truth about the goodness and beauty of God’s creation and Christ’s saving Incarnation in response to the heresy of his time, which taught that the created physical world was evil and that abortion, murder and suicide were therefore good acts.

Dominic’s knowledge of the truth flowed from his intense prayer and contemplation of the Scriptures: “If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (Jn 8:31-32)

I would like to focus this reflection on St Dominic as a man of prayer.

Jordan of Saxony tells us in the Libellus that Dominic was familiar with Cassian’s Conferences, and that they were among his favourite reading. From Cassian we learn that humility, simplicity and charity are the foundations of all prayer. St. Dominic practised all these to a heroic degree.

An extract from the testimony of Bro. Buonviso, a witness in the canonization process of our Holy Father St Dominic.

The fourth sworn witness was brother Buonviso of the Order of Preachers. He was with the blessed Dominic, as he says, at Bologna, in the cloister of St. Nicholas, and at Rome and at Milan and he looked after him when he was ill. So he said that when the brethren left the church in the evening to go and rest, the blessed Dominic used to remain secretly in the church to pray,

One of the sayings of St Catherine of Siena, which is quite well known, is

“Be what you are called to be, and you will set the world on fire.”

It is unceasingly amazing that this Order of Preachers, enriched through many centuries by the wisdom and teaching of saints like Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, Vincent Ferrer; the beauty of Blessed Angelico; the humility of St Martine de Porres – and countless others, known and known to God, was established by St Dominic, who left little behind by way of writing – little enough that he could so easily have passed into obscurity and been forgotten within a few generations of his death.

And yet he didn’t. By his life, his love and his understanding of the grace he received from God, he was truly a fire-starter.
Here we are, over 800 years later, thanking God for His gift to us of this simple man, who simply loved God and was utterly absorbed in Him.

Happy Feast of St Dominic!

During the our Novena to St Dominic (the 9 days leading up to his Feast Day on the 8th of August) we sing an English translation of the latin 'O Spem'; a prayer to St Dominic referring to his promise on his deathbed that he would continue to intercede for us in heaven.
Here is a short clip of us singing that prayer.

Dominic on his deathbed bequeathed to his brethren, as their rightful inheritance, his last will and testament saying: “have charity, guard humility and possess voluntary poverty.” This was the path which led him to holiness and he was and is inviting us his sons and daughters to imitate him as he imitated his Saviour, Christ Jesus.

After a long preaching tour in Northern Italy, brother Dominic falls gravely ill in Bologna. It is July 1221, and the town is so stifling, humid and hot that there is no hope of improvement for Dominic’s health. The decision is made to carry Dominic to a small Benedictine hermitage on the hillside outside Bologna.

As he feared being buried in the Benedictine monastery where he had stayed, he begged to be carried anew among his brethren. Once he was back in town and settled in one of the convent’s cells, he was asked whether he wished to be buried next to the relics of this or that saint. Dominic gave this superb answer: “God forbid that I be buried except under the feet of my brethren.”