Dominican Life


Book Description

Dominican Life, by the French Dominican Joret, is a masterful treatise for Dominican Tertiaries or anyone who with an affinity for St. Dominic and his sons to seek union with the Divine Will through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Children of this family of St. Dominic, forming themselves on the traditions and examples of seven centuries, are bound together within GodÕs Church by ties that transcend differences of race and language and are more enduring than the bonds of earthly kinship. This book is intended as a guide and manual to teach the spirit of St. Dominic so that the reader might learn more about the Dominican Order and absorb its spirit. Although it was written for lay Dominicans, it will prove instructive and useful to all members of the Dominican Order as well as any laity interested in finding the character and spiritual charism of St. Dominic. This new edition has been completely re-typeset in full agreement with the original. English spelling of words has been maintained from the original.




Dominican Life


Book Description

In a series of seventeen conferences, Fr. Walter Wagner, O.P. of the St. Joseph Province of the Order of Preachers offers his reflections on the Rule of Saint Augustine. With wisdom and wit Father unearths hidden treasures in this ancient Rule and concretely applies the Rule to 21st Century Dominican Life as it is lived today by thousands of priests, brothers, nuns, sisters, and lay men and women. Enlightening and challenging, both brand-new postulant and wisened Diamond Jubilarian will benefit from this delightful commentary. The conferences were transcribed from the original audio recording of the 2011 Annual Retreat preached to the Dominican Nuns of Summit, NJ by Fr. Walter Wagner, OP and edited for publication. This book is now in its Second Edition.




In the Image of Saint Dominic


Book Description

A beautiful book of meditations on various Christian virtues or charisms as reflected in the lives of nine holy Dominican men and women. Manifesting the special grace and spirit given to St. Dominic, these outsanding lives are shining examples for modern Christians on how to make the Gospel teaching incarnate in today's world. Saints portrayed include Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, Martin de Porres, Fra Angelico, Peter of Verona, Catherine de Ricci and others. Charisms highlighted by each life include prayer, joy, poverty, study, friendship, art and more. The lives of the saints occupy a special place in the history and spirituality of the Catholic Church. The men and women in this book form a comprehensive image of one of the most significant movements in the history of Western Christianity: the Dominican order, whose particular charism emphasizes the sanctification of the intellect and importance tht sacred truth holds in the life of the Christian believer.




An Exploration into Dominican Spirituality


Book Description

'My aim in this book is to show clearly that the ... Dominican tradition ... is capable of shedding light on the questions of men and women today and suggesting a way of dealing with them. These questions are ultimately a variant of the one central question of human existence, bound up with a particular time, place and person: the question of a good and meaningful life ... my starting point is the basic conviction that a religious and dedicated life cannot be lived anywhere else than in the midst of our turbulent culture, which constantly makes us uncertain ... this book is deliberately written from the perspective of someone who in ecclesiastical jargon is called a "lay person".' From the Introduction by Erik Borgman 'This book is a highly attractive and stimulating exposition of Dominican spirituality by Erik Borgman, a Dutch Lay Dominican. The central intuition of the book is that Dominican spirituality is founded on the encounter of God in all of human experience. Dominic's experience in the early thirteenth century was born in opposition to Catharism, which maintained that God was remote from us and that there was a fundamental opposition between the divine and this material world. But for Dominic it is here, in our lives, with all their creativity and goodness, their mess and confusion, that God is to be found. Our mission as preachers pushes us "to enter the unrest of the street and the inn, politics and journalism, welfare, teaching and science, in the belief that the holy, the traces of the Holy One, are to be found there". Even in the most difficult situations, when all is dark, God is waiting to be discovered. "If Dominican spirituality has a core, then it would be this insight into the unexpected and unheard-of nearness of God'. This is the good news that the Order of Preachers was founded to preach and the source of the happiness of the preacher."' From the Foreword by Timothy Radcliffe OP




Dominican Spirituality


Book Description




The Dominican Way


Book Description

The Church needs a blast of Dominican fresh air. The book points to the quality of that fresh air. Introduced by Timothy Radcliffe.




If Dominican Were a Color


Book Description

The colors of Hispaniola burst into life in this striking, evocative debut picture book that celebrates the joy of being Dominican. If Dominican were a color, it would be the sunset in the sky, blazing red and burning bright. If Dominican were a color, it’d be the roar of the ocean in the deep of the night, With the moon beaming down rays of sheer delight. The palette of the Dominican Republic is exuberant and unlimited. Maiz comes up amarillo, the blue-black of dreams washes over sandy shores, and people’s skin can be the shade of cinnamon in cocoa or of mahogany. This exuberantly colorful, softly rhyming picture book is a gentle reminder that a nation’s hues are as wide as nature itself.




Building the Benedict Option


Book Description

Building the Benedict Option is a combination spiritual memoir and practical handbook for Christians who want to build communities of prayer, socialization, and evangelization in the places where they live and work. Beginning when the author was a new convert, she desired more communal prayer and fellowship than weekly Mass could provide. She surveyed her friends--busy, young, urban professionals like herself--and created unique enriching or supportive experiences that matched their desires and schedules. The result was a less lonely and more boisterous spiritual and social life. No Catholic Martha Stewart, Libresco is frank about how she plans events that allow her to feed thirty people on a Friday night without feeling exhausted. She is honest about the obstacles to prayer and the challenge to make it inviting and unobtrusive. Above all, she communicates the joy she has experienced since discovering ways to open her home (even when it was only a small studio apartment). The reader will close this book with four or five ideas for events to try over the next few weeks, along with the tools to make them fruitful. From film nights to picnics in the park to resume-writing evenings, there are plenty of ideas to choose from and loads of encouragement to make more room in one's life for others.




The Autobiography of St. Charles of Sezze


Book Description

St. Charles of Sezze was a Franciscan mystic and stigmatist of the 17th century. Although he was quite unlettered, still, through the ever increasing influence of the Holy Spirit he wrote books that number in size, and content make him one of the greatest mystical writers of the Church, ranking with St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. In his own times this mystical doctrine, illustrated in this Autobiography, served as a powerful counterweight to fatal Quietism and Jansenism. The canonization of St. Charles after his having remained unknown for several centuries should serve to indicate that his life and writings carry a message for modem man. His complete obedience rebukes the present-day lust for self-determination; his humility, its pride and boastfulness; his poverty, its precipitate rush after material pleasures. What he suffered at the hands of the demons also carries a lesson for modem times. It is that the devil is very much in existence, and deliberately to close our mind against the thought of him will only serve to give him greater power. St. Charles teaches us the way to oppose the devil and all the fallen angels in their incessant warfare against our souls. Very few will ever be asked to suffer bodily harm from the devil, but all must suffer, and overcome, his temptations to pride, lust and ambition.




Preaching with Their Lives


Book Description

This volume tells the little-known story of the Dominican Family—priests, sisters, brothers, contemplative nuns, and lay people—and integrates it into the history of the United States. Starting after the Civil War, the book takes a thematic approach through twelve essays examining Dominican contributions to the making of the modern United States by exploring parish ministry, preaching, health care, education, social and economic justice, liturgical renewal and the arts, missionary outreach and contemplative prayer, ongoing internal formation and renewal, and models of sanctity. It charts the effects of the United States on Dominican life as well as the Dominican contribution to the larger U.S. history. When the country was engulfed by wave after wave of immigrants and cities experienced unchecked growth, Dominicans provided educational institutions; community, social, and religious centers; and health care and social services. When epidemic disease hit various locales, Dominicans responded with nursing care and spiritual sustenance. As the United States became more complex and social inequities appeared, Dominicans cried out for social and economic justice. Amidst the ugliness and social dislocation of modern society, Dominicans offered beauty through the liturgical arts, the fine arts, music, drama, and film, all designed to enrich the culture. Through it all, the Dominicans cultivated their own identity as well, undergoing regular self-examination and renewal.