Novena to St Dominic 2024 - Day 6
Published by Dominican Nuns Ireland in Reflections (Dominican) · 5 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 Six
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
Rose of Patience
5th of August
On this sixth day of our Novena to Our Holy Father Saint Dominic, I felt prompted to reflect on a subject close to my heart, and that is Saint Dominic as the Rose of Patience. In Our Holy Father’s life of heroic acts, patience can appear a somewhat pedestrian virtue, and it can be easily overlooked both by our pride and our platitudes.
Any gardener will tell you that keeping roses is no small affair; from choosing the “right roots” to pruning judiciously, it is a labour of love and an arduous one. Of course, no one who has seen a well-tended rose garden in full bloom will argue that it is not well worth the effort! The intricate arrangement of rose petals nestled together is a natural marvel and its beauty is hailed in every culture – all of which makes the rose the perfect symbol for the virtue of patience.
Or does it?
I’ll admit, when I think of patience, I don’t think of roses. To me patience can be a ‘small’ virtue; I think of endless lines in government buildings and staying calm in slow traffic. It does not inspire thoughts of greatness like its older brother Fortitude - which makes me think of the Japanese Martyrs, and the Battle of Lepanto, and Catherine of Siena going to Avignon to shuffle Pope Gregory off to Rome. By contrast, patience can appear to be the wimpy virtue that I’m exhorted to practice at daily Mass when I really want to hear calls to heroic justice and daring do, like St. Dominic raising a boy from the dead. The fact is, patience is not exciting, which can make it seem really trivial from day to day in the same, tiresome battle against my way of doing things.
And that’s just it, isn’t it? My way of doing things.
When we look closely, we see that patience is really a battle in the will, in which we face and accept the fact that all creation is working according to the Perfect Will of God and not according to our own desires. The frustration we feel in facing some evil – be it large or small – is really a protest against the fact that we have to endure it. If we were running things, nobody would have to endure anything of the kind! But patience means that we see it in the context of God’s great love for us all and can see beyond our immediate discomfort into the great things “God has prepared for those who love him.”
In the life of Saint Dominic this acceptance was on full display, especially in his ability to bear with the pain of his apostolate, which kept him in prayer nightly crying out in tears, “My God, My Mercy, what will become of sinners?” Tradition has it that the beginning of St. Dominic’s mission to preach the Gospel in Southern France was not a success – the Albigensian heresy was deeply entrenched and many of its adherents lived lives that appeared holier than those of many of the Catholic clergy. Saint Dominic won few converts and even fewer men who were willing to follow his way of life. In his desperation, he cried out to Our Blessed Mother, who smiled on him and gave him her Holy Psalter as the weapon that would win him the battle.
This tradition wonderfully illuminates a reality that St. Dominic lived in every facet of his preaching: the work, he knew, was not his, but God’s, and its success or failure was entirely in the hands of Heaven. In this assurance, he daringly sent out the few friars he did have to found other convents – without anyone to enter them! – and continued to face grievous challenges with serenity and a hardy hope. The rapid growth of the Order of Preachers and its endurance for over 800 years is a testament to this early and lasting patience.
Patience is not a small virtue. She is a humble virtue, who conceals her greatness in small things. For, if we look at her roots, we see that they are planted deeply in Faith, Hope and Charity: we bear trials well when we believe that our ultimate good is in the God whom we love. This is why the practice of ‘small’ acts of patience is really a testament to the abiding of the Holy Spirit within us, and when we make them, we practice the ‘big’ ones as well. In our world, pain is the most unacceptable evil; we have become masters of eradicating, ignoring, and medicating. Our social programs, ‘end-of-life plans’, and ‘pre-emptive’ abortion of children with disabilities identified in utero are signals that humanity is not often patient, not often willing at all to ‘accept what it cannot change’, and defiant towards belief in the absolute Goodness of God.
By practicing this ‘small’ virtue, we say ‘no’ to this defiance, and we witness to the overriding Providence of Love every day. For this ‘Love’ has intimate designs for us, which go far beyond the pleasures of this world, and in enduring pain and suffering with Him we are able to enjoy this promised sweetness even now. This leads us on to a greater love, which seeks not just the avoidance of pain, but takes on even the loss of good things for the sake of the Beloved.
(Artwork: St Dominic, Detail from 'The Mocking of Christ' by Fra Angelico, Convent of San Marco, Florence, Italy)
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