St Dominic, a man of reverence - Novena to St Dominic Day 7

“When, as Dominicans, we look to the way St Dominic lived, and to the inheritance he passed down to us, and to a number of the actual words he spoke, the word ‘reverence’ is one that cannot be ignored. For a start, Dominic, by establishing the Church’s first democracy, taught us to have respect and reverence for the opinion of others. He taught us to listen. He taught us to reverence the Divine Office, and he taught us not only to reverence the Word of God but also to regard study as a truly sacred task.

It is interesting to note that Ceslaus Spicq, a Dominican scholar at Fribourg several years ago, after spending a lifetime studying agape in the New Testament, summed up his findings in a final study. What, he asked himself, were the principal characteristics of love as understood by Jesus and Paul in the New Testament? By way of an answer, he listed words such as self-sacrifice and unselfishness. But, at the top of the list, he placed the word ‘reverence’: reverence for one’s neighbour, reverence for the poor, for authorities, for the sacred. Reverence – that is the word, he claimed, that best expresses what love means in the New Testament.

With regard to the Word of God, and to the New Testament in particular, Dominic showed a quite extraordinary reverence. ‘When he was reading by himself,’ it is reported in the eighth of The Nine Ways, ‘he would do reverence to the book, bowing over it especially if it was a book of the Gospels.’ Furthermore, we are told in the fifth of The Nine Ways that Dominic would approach the task of prayer ‘with immense reverence and devotion,’ and that it was because of ‘his reverence’ his prayers were heard.

Dominic, we are informed, would read the psalms with very particular reverence, quite often identifying humbly with some of the most stark and heartfelt prayers of petition. On occasion, for example, being aware of some perceived weakness, he would ‘blush at himself’ and cry out like the publican, ‘Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ Again, we read in the second of the Nine Ways, ‘With great reverence and devotion he would recite the words of David, “It is I who have sinned and done unjustly”.’

Later, in the same text, we are allowed to hear something rare and very precious, actual words from St Dominic’s lips, and the words, it should be noted, are words concerning reverence. The text reads as follows: ‘Sometimes, wanting to teach the brethren with what reverence they ought to pray, he would say to them, “The Magi, those devout kings, entered the house and found the child with Mary his mother. Now it is certain that we have found him too, God and man, with Mary his handmaid, so come, let us fall down and worship before God, let us weep before the Lord who made us”.’ It is no accident that, at Bologna, we find represented in stone, on St Dominic’s tomb, precisely this image of the Magi. Also in stone, on the tomb’s face, directly above the scene of the Magi, we see Dominic himself, our humble Master and Brother, his hands joined, his head bowed in humble supplication.

These stories about reverence and devotion represent for us today, a notable challenge and inspiration. Why? Because, as contemporary Dominicans, there are times when we risk becoming mere professionals at the task of religion, competent in what we do but not always showing the deepest reverence when we find ourselves in the presence of the sacred.”