Dominic's Fourth Way of Prayer - Novena to St Dominic Day 3
St Dominic's Fourth Way of Prayer
After this, St Dominic, standing before the altar or in the chapter Room, would fix his gaze on the crucifix, looking intently at Christ on the Cross and kneeling down over and over again. Sometimes he would spend the whole time from the end of Compline until midnight kneeling down and standing up again, like the apostle James, and the leper in the Gospel who knelt down and said, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean”; and like Stephen, who knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Do not reckon up to them this sin.” While he prayed, our holy father Dominic would become more and more assured of the mercy of God, both for himself and for all sinners, and for the protection of the novices whom he used to send all over the place to preach and win souls. Sometimes he could not contain his voice, and the brethren would hear him say, “To you, Lord, will I cry, do not turn away from me in silence …” and other such words from sacred scripture.
But also, at times, he spoke in his heart and his voice was not heard at all, and he would remain on his knees, his mind caught up in wonder, and this sometimes lasted a long time. Sometimes, when he was praying like this, his gaze seemed to have penetrated into the spiritual heavens, and he would suddenly be radiant with joy, wiping away the abundant tears running down his face. At such times he would be in an intensity of desire, like a thirsty man coming to a spring of water, or a traveller at last approaching his homeland. His prayer became stronger and more insistent, his movements rapid yet always sure and orderly, as he stood up and knelt down.
He came to be so used to this prayer of kneeling, that when he was on a journey, both in the guesthouse, after the toils of the road, and on the road itself, when the others were sleeping and resting, he would turn to his genuflections as his own special practice, his own personal service. This way of prayer he taught the brethren more by his example than by anything he said.
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