The Lay Dominicans of the Queen of the Holy Rosary Group will be posting meditations for the fifteen Tuesdays leading up to the feast of our Father Dominic on August 8th.   See here for more information on the 15 Tuesdays devotion.

Christ, the innocent lamb, embraces his cross and takes it up. Through our baptism we have, in the words of St. Paul, “put on” Christ. This “putting on” Christ means to imitate him in word and deed, to become a humble servant to those in need just as he did in his sacred passion and death. For Our Holy Father Dominic, the cross held such significance that he not only embraced it as the symbol of his Order, but would also pray with arms outstretched in the form of a cross. It was in this form of prayer that Dominic served his fellow man by raising a young boy from death to life, just as Christ, through his cross, brought us from the death of sin to life. Let us then embrace the cross as Christ did and learn from it.

As lay members of the Order of Preachers, we robe ourselves in the cross which is both black and white. These colors hold significant meaning for the Dominican. According to Br. William Hinnebusch, O.P. in his book Dominican Spirituality (p. 154),  white symbolizes Christ’s innocence and black his humility. Through the putting on of this sacramental, we again “put on” Christ and imitate him in his innocence and humility.

Just as Isaac, in the Old Testament, carried the wood he was to be sacrificed on, so Jesus, the innocent Lamb, willingly carried the wood of his cross. We share in the guilt of our first parents, but God has given us a means to “crush the head of the serpent” and robe ourselves in the innocence of Christ. Through our frequent participation in the sacraments, we, by grace, throw off the garment of guilt and put on the innocence of Christ and are thus united more closely to the Lamb of God.

The black of the habit reminds us to put on the virtue of humility. Humility is the attitude of the Christian that teaches us to serve Christ over ourselves. In the words of St. John the Baptist, it is an attitude of, “He must increase and I must decrease.” Christ perfectly lived the virtue of humility especially in carrying his cross. Through suffering, Christ carried out the will of his Father despite the insults and lies, the spit and dirt that was tenderly wiped away by Veronica, or the ignorance of those leading him like a lamb to be slaughtered. He did not excuse or justify himself, complain or bicker, and he was not angry at their ignorance but diligently and humbly, made his way to Golgotha. Let us follow Christ as we carry our cross and remember that as it is written in Scripture, “He who humbles himself, will be exalted.”

Oh innocent Jesus! You offered yourself up for us in such a humiliating way to show us your love. May we join with Mary our Mother and follow you in innocence and humility and thus comfort you as she did on your way! Oh Jesus meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto thine!

The Lay Dominicans of the Queen of the Holy Rosary Group will be posting meditations for the fifteen Tuesdays leading up to the feast of our Father Dominic on August 8th.   See here for more information on the 15 Tuesdays devotion.

The Order of Preachers has long had a devotion to Our Lord’s Crown of Thorns.  After the relic of the Crown of Thorns was acquired by St. Louis IX, King of France, in the middle of the 13th century, some of the precious thorns were given into the care of the Dominican friars who commemorated the occasion of the Crown’s reception annually.  In order to call special attention to the Crown, a feast day was inserted into the Dominican calendar for April 24th most likely by the former Master General, Bl. Humbert of Romans.

As a Third Order Franciscan, King Louis IX nurtured an intense devotion to the Crown of Thorns throughout his reign and built one of the most beautiful chapels in all of Paris, the Sainte-Chapelle, to house the relic.  Louis wanted to draw attention to the Crown of Thorns to remind himself and his subjects of Our Lord’s unique Kingship, which Louis sought to emulate in his own governance: the Kingship of the suffering servant. Louis’ kingship was not for himself; it was poured out in service of others, especially the poor, and for the sanctification of society.

Like St. Louis, all Dominicans can look to the Crown of Thorns for inspiration in living out the kingly mission of Our Lord in our apostolic work.  Our Holy Father Dominic specifically intended for his followers to serve in parishes, councils, dioceses, universities, and even secular organizations, not for themselves, but in order to bring the Word of God into every facet of society.  This is something that the laity, in particular, are uniquely able and empowered to do. In his book, “Dominican Laity and the Year 2000”, Fr. Anthony Dao Quang Chinh, O.P., states that, “Lay Dominicans are called by God to live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life.  They are destined by God to bring Jesus’ salvation to its fullness. As Jesus sanctified the world, Dominican laity, as individuals and as groups, will sanctify society.”

By no means will the Dominican vocation earn worldly rewards; quite the opposite.  In following Him, we can find consolation in Our Lord’s words: “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first.”  This is the spirituality of our Order: to bear the Crown of Thorns in life, in imitation of Christ the King, so that we might be crowned by Him with glory in heaven.

The Lay Dominicans of the Queen of the Holy Rosary Group will be posting meditations for the fifteen Tuesdays leading up to the feast of our Father Dominic on August 8th.   See here for more information on the 15 Tuesdays devotion.

The Scourging of Christ Jesus shows us the weakness of human flesh. How easy it is to break the barrier of our body and expose our innermost flesh to pain at every movement! Every word and action of Our Lord has a deeper meaning, as does every silent moment. “As a lamb led to the slaughter He was silent and opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). He willingly allowed this suffering to teach us how to suffer, to be the Sacrifice for forgiveness of sin. This is what sin looks like; it tears us apart and exposes us to more pain and suffering. “He who knew no sin was made sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21). He took our punishment in His own Flesh, and sanctified it. He made it holy in His holy Body. Not only did He embrace and sanctify the eternal punishment of original sin, the purity of the God-Man’s Flesh made holy all that we suffer in this life, giving new meaning and purpose to a life aligned with God’s will.

Our spiritual Father St. Dominic took the Blessed Scourging to prayer, and then made it come alive. In his Nine Ways of Prayer we see that the Third is self-flagellation, an entering into Christ’s own experience of bodily pain and suffering. God blessed Dominic’s desire with the grace and courage to purify his flesh for his own few sins, as well as for the purification of poor sinners. Dominic’s life was one of mortification, a continual separation from the worldly in order to more freely move toward the eternal. He ate little, slept little, donated his precious books to give money to those even poorer than himself. Father Dominic used an iron chain on himself, but only asked his followers to use wooden switches.

Today it is a rare calling to suffer with Christ on the path of extreme mortification, but we can take comfort in the example of Our Blessed Mother. Although she did not suffer visible scourging, we know that She was mysteriously and intimately united with Her Son in all His sufferings by means of a perfectly-aligned will. By following Her example and accomplishing God’s will, we too are drawn into His suffering through faithful meditation on His Passion and Death, the sacrifice of His Flesh for the sanctification of our own. We should strive in our prayer life to know God more fully, and in knowing Him we will love Him. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear” (1 John 4:18). Let us rejoice and give thanks for His mercy, justice, and love, and never cease to pray: Lord, increase our desire to accomplish your holy will.

Jesus instructed us to ask the Father that we be spared from tests of our obedience to God’s will. “Lead us not into temptation.” Though Our Lord could not have sinned, he set an example for us in the garden of Gethsemane while awaiting the arrival of the betrayer, and he encouraged the apostles to do similarly. “My Father, if it is possible, let this chalice pass me by.” There is a certain comfort in knowing that we are instructed to beg that our trials be bearable and that Our Lord himself did the same.

What then should we make of Our Holy Father Dominic’s strong desire for martyrdom? When threatened with death by men opposed to his preaching, Dominic asked to be killed slowly so as to merit as much as possible for others. His eagerness dissuaded them from murder, but his desire was sincere. Our Father Francis showed a similar eagerness, boldly preaching in Muslim lands even to the Sultan. Like the sons of Zebedee in the Gospels, they wanted to drink the chalice, but we cannot attribute their zeal to naivete or to having lived in a rougher, more brutal age. The teacher of the Little Way, St Theresa of the Child Jesus, lived in a privileged, comfortable time close to our own and she too wrote of her longing for martyrdom in the missions.

The resolution to this apparent paradox is in the second part of the Our Lord’s prayer in Gethsemane. The desire for martyrdom, a recurring theme in the lives of the Saints, is the expression of desire to imitate Jesus completely.  Lead us not into temptation, because our own wills are weak, but if God’s will is what moves us we can do or endure anything.

Dominic never made it to Hungary or Poland, but he planted the desire for martyrdom firmly in the charism of the Order of Preachers.  Others followed him to those mission fields and to Florida, to Vietnam, to Japan, and witnessed to the Faith with their blood. Dominic’s martyrdom was incessant travel, ecclesiastical bureaucracy, unending organization.In doing those things he set an example for us to follow Our Lord completely, saying with Jesus not my will, but “Thy will be done.”