Become a
Dominican
THE JOURNEY OF DISCERNMENT
Discernment is a gift from God. It is the ability to perceive the path of holiness and the course of virtue that Divine Providence has in store for every person. It depends not only on one’s personal experiences but also, and most importantly, on the revelation God has given to the Church community and the individual discerner. In the case of a religious vocation, discernment is not a private matter but a gift which both the individual and the Order receive together from the Holy Spirit. This gift sheds light on the discerner’s search for that vocation which will lead to their true flourishing and authentic happiness as a child of God. Once the person comes to know the way God has set for them since the foundation of the world, the grace of divine charity floods the heart and impels the young person to make the leap of faith: They left their nets and followed Him (Mk 1:18).
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In the following of Christ, the disciple can discern two callings or vocations. First, there is the vocation to holiness, which belongs equally to all. Before his Ascension, Christ commanded his disciples to teach all nations what he first taught them and to baptise in the name of the Holy Trinity. By faith and baptism, a person is brought from the darkness of sin and error to the light of Truth in Christ. This transformation is what the universal call to holiness is all about: a conversion which entails the illumination of a human soul by heavenly wisdom; the Trinity’s joyful drawing of a soul towards eternal life.
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There is also the particular vocation of each person, and this vocation is the object of discernment. This vocation arises from the first vocation and normally entails some sort of life-long commitment. As this commitment is an act of dedication or consecration to God, it may be expressed through a sacrament - such as priestly ordination or the exchange of marriage vows - or through some other ritual, such as religious profession.
FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST DOMINIC
Having discerned a divine calling to follow in the footsteps of St. Dominic, the aspiring Dominican is invited to make contact with our vocations promoters who will guide him through the application process. An aspirant must be a practising Catholic already involved in the life of the Church. He must be healthy, single, and feel called to a life of celibacy, community, and service as a messenger of God’s Word to the world.
Having been accepted by the admissions board of the local province, he is welcomed in the spirit of fraternal charity by the local community to begin his pre-novitiate. An aspirant or postulant is a candidate who, though not officially a member of the Order, lives with the brothers and shares in the life and mission of the community.
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Following a retreat, the aspirant is then ready to become a novice. This is marked by the reception of the habit in a very simple but impressive ceremony. The brother receives the white tunic, a leather belt, rosary beads, a white scapular and capuce (hood), and finally a black cappa (cloak) and capuce. The laying aside of secular dress followed by the clothing with the religious habit are deeply significant acts in which the novice makes his own the admonition of St. Paul: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires (Rom 13:14).
At the beginning of this ceremony, the superior asks the aspirant: “What do you seek?”, to which the aspirant replies: “God’s mercy and yours”. This question will again be asked when the new religious comes to make his first profession of vows and also when the time comes for final profession. At these decisive moments of his religious life, therefore, the Dominican acknowledges God’s mercy as the source of every blessing and the Dominican Order as the divine instrument through which the blessings of his vocation are bestowed upon him. And this is true not only at the time of clothing and profession of vows but indeed throughout the life of the religious. Initiation into the Order is the start of a new way of life, a life aimed at the pursuit of Christian perfection attained by the grace and mercy of God.
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The superior who clothes the aspirants with the habit reminds them in a short address of the essentials of religious life, the particular features and practices of Dominican life and the observances of the Order. To emphasise the beginning of a new way of life in a religious family, a religious name may be taken by the novice. On the day of the novice’s religious clothing, the prescribed year of novitiate officially begins. The novice is free to leave at any time and the Order is equally free to send him away should it be persuaded that he does not have a vocation to our way of life.
THE NOVITIATE
From the day that a young man receives the habit, he begins to build his life upon the four pillars of Dominican life: prayer, study, community and preaching. The novitiate is a trial period during which the novice comes to understand more clearly the nature of a divine and Dominican vocation. He experiences the Order’s way of life and is formed in the Dominican spirit so that his intention and suitability may be ascertained.
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The novice actually lives the religious life while he studies it, lives it as he will always live it – in its essentials – until his last breath. He is introduced from the start to all the essential practices and exercises of the community. Taught these by the Novice Master, he performs them in union with the rest of the community under the Prior. His studies as a novice examine the history, spirituality and laws of the Order. He learns to love and embrace the example of St. Dominic and the many saints of the Order.
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The novice is introduced to the fullness of Dominican life in a house of regular observance. The novice’s surroundings, far from being artificial, are the normal and natural conditions existing in a fully established Dominican foundation. Whatever he needs to know in order to be thoroughly informed about Dominican life is learned by him from personal experience of that life.
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In this way the novice will become fully and truly acquainted with Dominican life, and will be moved to consecrate himself willingly and totally to the mission of the Order. The novitiate, therefore, presents to the novice all the successive stages of progress in Dominican life so that from them the living and vigorous seed of his Dominican vocation may be properly nourished.
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A novice’s time is well occupied. Apart from attendance at most of the community exercises, he gives a great deal of time to specifically novitiate activities. As the novitiate is above all a time of contemplation, support and perseverance, prayer is given a particular emphasis in novitiate life. Under the direction of the Novice Master, he is directed in the ways of the spiritual life. This commitment to spiritual things, and of accustoming himself to a new and regular way of life, is relieved by recreation in which his mind is refreshed and renewed.
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As the year comes to a close, he can request to be admitted to temporary vows. The Order on its part, if convinced of his suitability, his sincerity and his upright motives, will then gladly receive him to profession for a period of three years. Temporary profession leads in the normal course to perpetual profession, which is made by taking solemn vows. Once professed, the brother passes from the novitiate to the studentate where he begins formal theological studies.
THE STUDENTATE
St. Dominic included study as an essential part of his plan for the Order. He, who himself always carried the Gospel of St. Matthew and the Epistles of Saint Paul, sent the brothers to the major cities so that they might study, preach, establish priories and centres of learning, and thereby better serve the mission of the Church. St. Dominic established in the Church a form of religious life that in his day was in many respects new. It was not a novelty that religious should be studious or learned, but the notion was quite new that an order should be founded in which study would be an indispensable means for realising its aims.
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The newly professed brother sets about the tasks of study with promptness and diligence. He realises that it is by study that he will be equipped to work for the salvation of souls in the Dominican way: by preaching the veritas of Christ.
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The best teacher and model in fulfilling this duty of study is St. Thomas Aquinas, whose teaching the Church commends in a unique way and the Order receives as a patrimony which exercises an enriching influence on the intellectual life of the brethren. Consequently, the brothers are encouraged to develop a genuine familiarity with his thought and should renew and enrich his teaching with the continually fresh riches of sacred and human wisdom.
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It is not necessary to be a genius to become a Dominican, but it is necessary to have average ability at least, persistent good will and perseverance in study. Gradually the student will become aware of the growth within himself of a power to bring to souls the message of the faith they eagerly await. Average as he may know himself to be, he is brought by his professors into contact with the greatest minds in the Church. By application and diligent study, he can qualify adequately for the exercise of the apostolic ministry of the Order.
In the life of a Dominican student there is a serene balance of prayer, study and healthy recreation. There is a variety too in the subjects studied, and encouragement is regularly given to guide the student through the programme of studies. Over time, the mind of the studious friar is enlightened, his will is strengthened, and his oratorical skills are sharpened.
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The study of Dominicans has its breaks but it does not come to a conclusion with ordination. For Dominicans, study is not an end in itself, but a means for the attainment of the special goal of the Order, namely preaching and the salvation of souls. Indeed, study is a means so intimately connected with that goal that it remains a duty for one’s whole lifetime.
