Prayer

We Dominicans center our lives on Jesus Christ, the true Light, moved by the Holy Spirit radiating God’s healing presence in the world today. We celebrate the Word in daily common prayer, meditation, study, and in the proclamation we call the Holy Preaching. In imitation of the Mother of God, who pondered these things in her heart, our lives are nourished by God’s Word as spoken in Sacred Scripture, celebrated in the Eucharist, and encountered in everyday life.

In faithful response to the invitation of St. Dominic, the solemn, common celebration of Mass and the liturgy of the hours remain the center of our daily life. There, especially in the Eucharist, salvation is present and at work, a mystery we share, contemplate and proclaim to others that they as well may be incorporated into Christ through the sacraments of faith. During each celebration of liturgy, we intercede with the Father of mercies for the entire Church, as well as for the needs and the salvation of the whole world.

As exemplified by some of our great saints, Dominicans also encounter God both in the world in which we live and in contemplative silence. St. Albert the Great, a 13th century Dominican who held a strong belief that all truth is ultimately one, pioneered the study of the natural world as integral to understanding God in all his diversity. Albert’s insights contributed to the establishment of modern science not as something distinct from theology, but in necessary mutual dialogue. In the midst of mystical contemplation, another Dominican, St. Catherine of Siena, had conversations with Jesus that were so profound and important they led her to Rome and to Avignon to engage in challenging conversations with the Pope.

Though quite different from each other, St. Albert the Great and St. Catherine of Siena are both considered Doctors of the Church and represent important aspects of Dominican prayer. Each friar balances the contemplative and the active dimensions of Dominican life. This balance is something for which we continually strive, not something we achieve once and for all.