Novena to St Dominic 2024 - Day 2
Published by Dominican Nuns Ireland in Reflections (Dominican) · 1 August 2024
Tags: st, dominic, novena, to, st, dominic, feast, day, patron
Tags: st, dominic, novena, to, st, dominic, feast, day, patron
Novena to St Dominic - Day Two
Novena Prayer
O wonderful hope,
which you gave to those who wept for you at the hour of your death,
promising that after your decease you would be helpful to your brethren;
fulfill, Father, what you have said and help us by your prayers.
which you gave to those who wept for you at the hour of your death,
promising that after your decease you would be helpful to your brethren;
fulfill, Father, what you have said and help us by your prayers.
V/: You shone on the bodies of the sick by so many miracles;
bring us the help of Christ to heal our sick souls.
bring us the help of Christ to heal our sick souls.
R/: Fulfill, Father, what you have said and help us by your prayers.
V/: Blessed Father Dominic, pray for us.
R/: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Reflection
In Love with God
1st of August
It has been written of St Thomas Aquinas, that “his genius could have put up no such fight as it did, without the driving force of a love to match its greatness ... Thomas, from the beginning, was head over heels in love with God ...” (Walter Farrell, A Companion to the Summa, p.20)
The genius of St Dominic was the inspiration to found an Order of Preachers, Friars, Nuns, Sisters and Laity who would by their lives, their prayer and their study, “rekindle the fire of charity which was being extinguished in the world...” (recorded by Rodrigo of Serrato, from the dream of Bl Jane of Aza while she was pregnant with Dominic, cf Supplement to the Liturgy of the Hours for the Oder of Preachers, Chicago 1991, p.213.)
In every generation of man we seem to struggle with the ability to believe both that God is love and that we are infinitely loved by Him. It is perplexing, when we understand that this is precisely what we have been created for; and yet, this is the pattern to be observed, from the sin of our first parents and throughout history. We must engage with the struggle to overcome the temptation to disbelief, because we are bound to wait – this isn’t heaven – and the waiting requires so much patience and perseverance. But the battle has been definitively won, by Jesus’ willing acceptance of His crucifixion and death and His triumphant Resurrection, for us and for our salvation.
For us and for our salvation – it never fails to inspire amazement, that God should have in His heart for us, such infinite love – that He as it were, looks on us as treasure, pearls of great price, for whom even His own life was worth sacrificing.
This morning’s Gospel, taken from St Matthew, recalls Jesus describing to the crowds what the kingdom of heaven is like. As we look forward to the feast of St Dominic, one can almost picture him as being that ‘someone’ who has found the treasure; or the ‘merchant’ who has found a pearl of great value. His overwhelming love for God inspired in him an overwhelming love also for men, and a desire that they should know and believe in this infinite, indescribable and wonderful love of God for them.
At the moment of the conception of every human life, there is God – imprinting His image and likeness into us; and God is heaven. We are by no means heaven, but through our Baptism and in each reception of the Most Holy Eucharist, this heaven that has been sown in us, prepares us to recognise and know it, when we are brought to see. St Dominic’s desire was that we might be people who see with God’s own vision; and he set himself to find all the treasure, all the pearls – all of us – without regard for the cost.
His legacy, which is the legacy of the Lord Himself, is that we continue to be people who rekindle in the world that fire of charity which his mother dreamt of. May the Lord open our eyes and our hearts; may He fit us for an eternal home with Himself; and may St Dominic’s prayers for us obtain that gift, that we be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
(Artwork: St Dominic, Detail from 'The Mocking of Christ' by Fra Angelico, Convent of San Marco, Florence, Italy)
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