DOMINICAN LIFE By F.-D. JORET, O.P. With a Foreword by Father Bernard Delany, O.P. Provincial LONDON SANDS & GO. (PUBLISHERS) LIMITED 15 KING STREET, GOVENT GARDEN, W.C.2 AND AT GLASGOW Private Use Only AUTHORISED TRANSLATION OF NOTRE VIE DOMIMCAWE BY F.-D. JORET, O.P. FIRST PUBLISHED NOVEMBER, 1937 BY SANDS & co (PUBLISHERS) LTD. FROM 15 KING ST., COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, W.C.2 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE WHITEFRIARS PRESS LTD. LONDON AND TONBRIDGE NIHIL OBSTAT I FR. HILARIUS CARPENTER, O.P., S.T.L., B.LITT. IMPRIMATUR I FR. BERNARDUS DELANY, O.P., Prior Provincialis NIHIL OBSTAT I EDUARDUS CAN. MAHONEY, S.Tb.D., Censor deputatus IMPRIMATUR : LEONELLUS CAN. EVANS, Vic. Gem Westmonasterii, die 133 Octobris, 1937 '"tf LIBRARIES All rights reserved More Free Items at www.catholickingdom.com 1236438 Private Use Only FOREWORD " A RELIGIOUS Order is assuredly not one of the Creeds," as is sometimes imagined by those not of our " " is it a in a restricted mean- faith > nor Religion except " ing of the word, as St. Thomas explains thus : Every Christian at baptism when he renounces Satan and all his pomps is made a partaker of the true religion. But religion has a second meaning, namely the obligation whereby a man binds himself to serve God in a peculiar manner by specified works of charity and by renunciation of the world." Only inithis secondary sense of the word " can the Religious Orders be ever described as Religions." A Religious is first a Christian and a Catholic; but secondly he is a Catholic who has taken his Catholicism and Christianity a step further and renounced not only sin but also the world, and by the three vows strives to live solely for God in the work in which he has dedicated himself to God's service. Hence when we hear enthusiasts speaking about " " " Dominicanism," the Dominican Life," or the " Dominican Way we must not associate with these expressions any sectarian intent. The Dominican Life is a particular way in which a Catholic Christian seeks union with the Divine Will through Jesus Christ Our Lord. The Dominican Order is one family within the City of God, a cell or a member of the Mystical Body, a branch of the True Vine. Under God's providence St. Dominic brought it into being at a definite moment in history in order to fulfil a definite function in the Church. The children of this family of St. Dominic, forming themselves on the traditions and examples of seven centuries, are bound together within God's Church by ties that transcend differences of race and tongue and are more enduring than the bonds of earthly kinship. VI FOREWORD This book, written especially for members of St. Dominic's Third Order, is intended as a guide and manual to teach them St. Dominic's spirit. They are to remember that they are truly his children and should bear his family likeness. They are to dismiss from their minds the error that all religious Orders are much of a muchness, only differing because their members happen to wear different habits. Each Order has its character, its function, its special technique and way of approach to God. The Tertiary must learn about his Order and absorb its spirit. The present Holy Father in his glorious Apostolic Letter, Unigenitus Dei Filius, reminds us that Religious Founders created their Orders in obedience to " the inspiration of God. Therefore all who would repro- duce in themselves the stamp and character of the religious family to which they belong should look to the origins from which it sprang. They should, following the examples of the best children of their common founder, glorify their Father by keeping his Rule and his indeed can Precepts, by imbibing spirit ; they only be regarded as faithfully doing their duty when they ' follow steadfastly in his footsteps. And their children ' for their sakes shall remain for ever (Ecclus. xliv. 13)." . This book, although written specifically for Tertiaries, will prove instructive and useful to all members of the three great branches of St. Dominic's Order. God grant it may lead all to love more and more our common " heritage and always to rejoice in the religion ofDominic, which is a delightful garden, broad, joyous and fragrant." It only remains for us to express our gratitude to an anonymous Tertiary, first for translating this book and secondly for generously applying all the profits of the work to benefit Father Bede Jarrett's foundation at Oxford. BERNARD DELANY, O.P. September 1937. More Free Items at www.catholickingdom.com THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE THIS book is intended for you, dear Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order, who share our Dominican life, though you are living in the midst of the world. My earlier pages are addressed directly to you. And they are preceded by the Rule which has been drawn up for your guidance. But afterwards, when I am trying to treat more par- ticularly of the spirit of our religious family, that spirit which we speak about} so much and which we certainly feel, but which we find great difficulty in defining clearly, I am in hopes of being of service to my other brothers and sisters in St. Dominic, notably to the sisters of the regular Third Order. Whether we belong to one branch of the Order or to another, we are in duty bound to take account of the whole of that great family which is our own, to be at one in our devotion to our great Patriarch and to be imbued with his spirit. We ought all to know where to look for the well- springs of our life as well as the traditional way of drawing upon them, and we must know, above all, how a Dominican should pray. Each one of us must set upon his whole life the seal of truth. Veritas ! That magic word which is emblazoned on our shield sums up the whole of our rule of conduct. In setting before you the life of the First Order, in which the Dominican spirit is realized with special fulness, I run no risk of failing to interest our Tertiaries. To quote from an address delivered by one of themselves to a " gathering of his brethren : It is not so much the Third Order which has to be explained and commended to would-be postulants. It is the First Order itself, vu Private Use Only viii THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE it is St. Dominic, his example, his life, his acts, his spirit. Gould we not describe the true Tertiary as a really Dominican soul, the soul of a Dominican religious who is prevented by certain reasons, circumstances or insuper- able obligations from observing the Rule of the First Order?" 1 May this little book contribute to winning recruits for our beloved Third Order and may it also enable me, in a modest way, to help all our brothers and sisters in St. Dominic to live in the spirit of our common Father. PASSE-PREST, jth March, 1936. 1 Paul Jamot, T.O.P., in UAnnte Dominicaine, June, 1932. More Free Items at www.catholickingdom.com TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE FOREWORD . v PREFACE . vii JxTJLE * CHAPTER I. THE THIRD ORDER 15 SECTION I. THE AIM OF THE THIRD ORDER . 17 1. To Lead to Perfection . 17 2. Perfection to be found in Union with God by Charity . .20 3. The Duty of realizing Perfect Charity . 23 SECTION II. THE TERTIARY PROFESSION . 28 1 . It is a real Profession . .28 2. The Obligation Contracted . 31 3. Risks and Spiritual Advantages . 34 SECTION III. A RELIGIOUS STATE . .38 1. The Sacramental Character and the Virtue of Religion . -39 2. The Virtue of Religion and the Theo- logical Virtues ..... 42 3. The Virtue of Religion and the Moral Virtues in the Religious State . 46 II. A RELIGIOUS FAMILY . .51 I. SECTION A REAL FAMILY . 53 1. The Order of St. Dominic 53 2. Dominican Solidarity .... 58 Life in . 3. a Fraternity . .63 ix Private Use Only X TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE SECTION II. THE VENERATION DUE TO OUR PATRIARCH .68 i. St. Dominic, by his Greatness, Deserves the Respect of All . .69 a. St. Dominic our Law-giver has a Right to our Obedience ..... 73 3. St. Dominic our Father Claims our Filial Piety ....... 77 \ SECTION III. THE SPIRIT OF ST. DOMINIC . 82 1 . What is the Spirit of a Religious Order ? 82 2. Where is the True Spirit of our Order to be found ? . .85 3. What Constitutes the Dominican Spirit ? 88 III. THE SUBLIME SOURCES OF OUR LIFE . 93 SECTION I. THE BLESSED VIRGIN. PATRON OF THE PREACHERS ..... 95 1. Mary's Intervention in Favour of our Order .96 2. The Devotion of our Order to Mary . 102 SECTION II. JESUS OUR SAVIOUR AND LIFE- GIVING HEAD .no 1. Our Saviour in His Historical Reality . no 2. Our Saviour in His Mystical Reality . 1 16 3. Our Saviour in His Eucharistic Reality . 121 SECTION III. THE MOST HOLY TRINITY . 128 IV. OUR CANONICAL OFFICE . .135 SECTION I. THE DOMINICAN LITURGY . 137 SECTION II. THE MASS AND THE OFFICE 1. The Holy Sacrifice . .142 2. The Office as the Outcome of the Mass . 148 3. The Excellence of our Office . 153 More Free Items at www.catholickingdom.com TABLE OF CONTENTS XI CHAPTER PAGE SECTION III. THE SEQUENCE OF THE HOURS . 161 1. The Night Office 161 2. Morning Lauds . .166 3. The Little Day Hours . .172 4. Vespers ...... 176 180 5. Compline .....