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Optional Formation Program THE ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHAPTER of The Dominican Laity An Introduction to the Formation Program Q. Why did God make you? A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next. There is no more fundamental question than why?, and there is no more basic concern to each of us than our own existence. Why do we exist? What is the purpose of our lives? This most important question is perfectly answered in the classic formulation of the Baltimore Catechism given above. The definitive and permanent goal of our lives is eternal life with God in heaven. But eternal life does not begin when we enter heaven; it begins the moment that grace is first infused into our souls at baptism. “Grace is nothing else than the beginning of glory in us,” as St. Thomas Aquinas says.1 The life of grace that we live here on earth—including both love of God and love of neighbor—is the beginning of the eternal that finds its perfection in heaven. We may speak of “this life” and “the next life,” but the life of grace before death is one and the same life as the life of glory. Eternal life, on earth and in heaven, is the end and purpose of every man. Our Savior instituted the sacraments and founded the Church as the means by which all men can receive grace and be lead to glory. All the other elements of our spiritual lives—the sacramentals, prayer, mortification, etc.—flow from and lead back to the celebration of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. The Dominican way of life can only be understood with reference to the end and means common to all Christians. For what makes someone a Dominican is not something separate and different from the means available to all Christians. It is not as if we first engage in the practices common to all Christians and then add extra practices (prayers, good works, etc.) that are unique to Dominicans. Instead, the Dominican way of life is a special form of Christian life. Dominicans do what all Christians do, but they do them in a Dominican way. All Christians pray; Dominicans pray in a special way (for example, praying especially the Liturgy of the Hours and the Rosary). All Christians are invited by our Lord to live the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience according to their states in life; Dominicans live these counsels after the model of St. Dominic. All Christians have a devotion to the Mother of God; Dominicans give a special emphasis to Marian devotion in their lives. And so on. The formation program you are about to begin will introduce you to the Dominican way of living the Christian life. The program consists in fourteen units, each of which is to be covered in a single meeting. Our chapter meets to study seven times a year (in September, October, November, January, February, March, and April), so the program can be completed in two years. If you miss one of the study meetings, you should meet individually with the Formation Director to discuss the content of the unit that was covered in that meeting. Over the course of these two years, you will be introduced to all the major elements of the Dominican way of life.2 1 Summa theologiae II-II, q. 24, a. 3, ad 2. 2 Sometimes we speak of the “Dominican charism” or the “charism of St. Dominic.” Most often these expressions are equivalent to “the Dominican way of life.” Charism comes from the Greek word meaning 1 Because St. Dominic is the model for us all and the means by which the Holy Spirit gave us our form of life, we begin each year with a study of St. Dominic’s life. In his life we see all the elements that we will single out and study separately in the other units. After studying the life of our founder, we consider the end of Christian life in this world: holiness or the perfection of charity. This includes a consideration of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which play an ever more prominent role in our lives as we grow in holiness. Having studied eternal life—both in heaven and on earth—we also study the means that lead to eternal life. Prayer is a principal means of growing in holiness, and we study both liturgical prayer (the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours) and private prayer. We consider how vocal prayer should mature into mental prayer and ultimately into contemplative prayer.3 The Rosary is one form of prayer especially dear to Dominicans, and we have units both on the Rosary and on Marian devotion in general. Dominicans embrace the evangelical counsels and give a special emphasis to poverty. (The Dominicans were one of the original “mendicant” or “begging” orders.) Penance has been a prominent part of the Dominican Third Order since the time of its founding. Dominicans also study assiduously: first of all the Word of God, then theology, and whatever else serves to deepen our understanding of scripture and theology. Dominicans are not hermits or solitaries, but live a vibrant community life. And, of course, Dominicans are preachers, hence the official Latin title of our order: Ordo praedicatorum (Order of Preachers). The remaining units of the formation program consider how all these elements are part of the Dominican way of life.4 Although the most important elements of the Dominican way of life are covered in the fourteen units of the formation program as outlined, it is also important to see how these different elements are put into practice in our lives in a concrete way. The specific practices of our way of life are to be found in two places. One is the Rule of the Third Order, the other is the Particular Directory of the Western Province. The Rule is valid for all Third Order members throughout the world. by necessity, therefore, the Rule is very general, so that it can be adapted to different cultures and situations. The Particular Directory adapts the Rule to the culture and context of the Western United States at this time. Each unit of the formation program contains a short passage from the Rule or Particular Directory. The fourteen units are as follows: A1. St. Dominic and the Psalms A2. Perfection of Charity A3. Veritas: Preaching A4. Devotion to the Blessed Mother A5. Liturgical Prayer: the Mass A6. Growth in Prayer A7. Penance B1. St. Dominic B2. Perfection of Charity/Contemplation B3. Veritas: Study “gift,” and the Dominican way of living the Christian life is a gift given by the Holy Spirit to the Church through St. Dominic. 3 A traditional teaching of Dominican theologians is that not only are all Christians are called to holiness but also that all Christians are called to contemplative prayer. 4 Naturally, there are differences between how the friars, sisters, and members of the Third Order live the Dominican way of life. Our focus is always on the way members of our chapter embrace St. Dominic’s charism. 2 B4. Rosary B5. Liturgical Prayer: The Liturgy of the Hours B6. Community/Apostolic Life B7. Evangelical Counsels & Poverty 3 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHAPTER OF THE DOMINICAN THIRD ORDER FORMATION PROGRAM YEAR A, UNIT I I. ELEMENTS OF DOMINICAN LIFE: THE LIFE OF ST. DOMINIC Seven centuries ago battlemented parapets raised their bold turrets around the town of Calaruèga, standing by the Roman road some thirty miles northward from Osma, the episcopal see of Old Castile. These medieval walls guarded the castle of the Guzmans, a family of Visigothic knights whose chivalry was famously jealous of its Christian faith as well as of its family honor. Within this ancient town and of this blue-blooded Guzman stock Saint Dominic was born, about 1170. His father, Felix, seems to have been happily blessed with the qualities of Chaucer’s “perfect, gentle knight,” although we know but little more about him. His mother, Joanna d’Aza, had strains of Europe’s noblest blood, and so renowned was her sanctity that she was beatified by Pope Leo XII. Besides Dominic, two other children of this union lived saintly lives, one, Mannes, having also been beatified. Marvels accompanied Dominic’s birth. Before her delivery, his mother “imagined,” says Jordan of Saxony, the Saint’s first biographer, “that she bore in her womb a dog, and that it escaped from her, holding in its mouth a burning torch, with which it set fire to the world.” “On the day of his baptism the godmother of the Saint had a vision” relates Thierry of Apoldia, “in which the blessed child appeared to her marked on the forehead with a radiant star, the splendor of which illuminated the entire earth.” Were not these fitting auguries of the infant’s life-work? Christian art has deemed them such, for they are always associated with Saint Dominic’s statues and pictures. The font used on the occasion of Dominic’s baptism, it is not without interest to note, was later taken to Madrid, and even now the royal children of Spain are christened in it. Dominic’s infancy was passed amid ordinary circumstances. At the age of seven his parents placed him under the tutelage of his maternal uncle, a parish priest at the collegiate church of Gumiel d’Izan, not far distant from Calaruèga. Here the young lad received his primary instructions, which, according to the medieval custom, consisted mainly in reading from the Latin Fathers.
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