THE DOMINICAN SOUL

Fr. M. M. Philipon, OP

       A DOMINICAN SOUL is a soul of light  whose rapt gaze dwells in the
inaccessible  splendor wherein God conceals Himself.  It  lives with Him by faith, is in
the company  of the Three Divine Persons; a true child of  God, adopted through grace
into the very  Family of the Trinity.  The invisible world  becomes familiar to it; it
pursues its way  on earth in intimacy with Christ, the  Blessed Mother and the saints.  It
perceives  everything in the radiance of God.

       But it does not jealously guard its  faith for itself.  It longs to bear the  torch of
faith everywhere on land and sea,  in every country, to the ends of the earth.  This soul
belongs to that race of apostles  who have been prophetically designated by  the Church
from their earliest days as  champions of the faith and true lights of  the world:
"Pugiles fidei et vera mundi lumina."  We have here the key to the whole  Dominican
vocation:  to live, defend and  propagate the faith in the atmosphere of the  Church.
The Dominican soul, looking beyond  the activity of secondary causes, judges men  and
things only in the light of God.

       To realize this sublime mission, the  Dominican soul must be a soul of silence.
According to the traditional axiom, the word  Preacher must flow from a soul of
silence:   Silentium, pater Praedicatorum.  A Dominican  soul which does not love long
hours of  solitude and recollection deceives itself  about the spiritual fruits of its action.
It must mix with the crowd to act, but it  must know how to separate itself from it for
thought and prayer.  St. Dominic was a man  of tremendous silence.  St. Thomas
Aquinas'  fellow-pupils called him the "dumb ox of  Sicily."  Pere Lacordaire prepared
his  brilliant conferences for Notre Dame in  Paris with long vigils of reflection and
intimate union with God.  The spiritual  depth of a soul is measured by its capacity  for
silence.

       A Dominican soul is a virginal soul,  detached from all evil.  It dwells in
complete union with God.  All our Dominican  carry a lily in their hands.  They are
virgins, pure, free from inordinate  affections.  They walk in the midst of  people in
accord with St. Dominic's deathbed  admonition; in the conquering raiment of  their
translucent purity.  Purity is a  characteristic note of the Order of light  and truth.

       A DOMINICAN SOUL in its sublimest  activity is a contemplative soul.  It
dwells  on the heights in the unalloyed splendor of  God.  Its gaze becomes identified
through  the light to the Word with the wisdom of  God.  Solitude, penance, prayer, a
life of  study, of silence, of action, all contribute  to the formation of a sense of the
divine  reality, of the"one thing necessary" from  which nothing, absolutely nothing,
should  distract it, much less deter it.  Its  purpose is to direct everything straight to
God as quickly and as completely as  possible.  Its existence among men should be
nothing else than a prolonged gaze of long  toward God alone.  It is in contemplative
silence that a Dominican soul finds the  fulness of God.

       THE DOMINICAN SOUL is a soul of prayer  and praise.  The spirit of prayer is
the  normal climate, the completely divine  atmosphere in which the contemplative soul
breathes.  it sees nothing but God.  No  matter how distracting surrounding creatures
become, it rises above them, invulnerable to  their empty fascination, impervious to
their  tempting and seductive appeal.  But it does  hear their cries of distress, their
desperate pleas; then, silent with profound  compassion, it turns, suppliant, toward the
God of all light and goodness, to obtain the  truth which sets men free and the pardon
which brings salvation.  Following the  example of St. Dominic, whose loud cries  used
to startle the brethren at night, the  ardent and apostolic prayer of the Dominican  soul
must become a redemptive cry,  accompanied, as was that of Jesus  Gethsemani, by
tears, and sweat of blood.   Here lies hidden the real secret of the many  fruitful lives of
our missionaries, of our  contemplative nuns, of the many Dominican  vocations in the
cloister and in the world,  silent and crucified, but infinitely  powerful in behalf of
Christ's Mystical  Body.  dominican prayer, the daughter of  redemptive charity, is
lifted toward the God  of the Order night and day.  O, LORD, WHAT  IS TO BECOME
OF THESE POOR SINNERS.   Following the example of Christ crucified, a  Dominican
soul saves more souls by its  contemplative and co-redeeming prayer than  by words or
by dint of action.  All our  saints were people of continual prayer and  immolation.
Prayer was the all-powerful  lever which helped them lift the universe to  God.

       But in Dominican prayer, the first place  belongs to praise.  "Praise God, exalt
Him,  bless Him and preach Him everywhere,"; this  is the purpose of the Order and its
unique  ambition:  Laudare, benedicere, praedicare.   The Dominican soul is
theocentric; in  everything it aims at the primacy of God:

the primacy of the First Cause in all the attainments of our spiritual lives;

the primacy of honor and of effective direction for theological wisdom over the study
of profane sciences;

the primacy of choral life, of the Opus Dei, in the hierarchy of monastic observances
and among our means of sanctification;

the primacy of the Word of God over human rhetoric in an office of preaching which
must always be essentially evangelical and supernatural;

the primacy of God in all things.

The Dominican soul finds its joy in  proclaiming and singing the supreme grandeur  of
Him alone Who is.

       A DOMINICAN SOUL is an apostolic soul  which is hindered by nothing when
the glory  of God and the spiritual good of souls is at  stake.  The vows of religion,
monastic  observances, study, prayer and community  life all converge to give the
Dominican life  the maximum of apostolic efficacy.  Setting  aside secondary tasks and
material  preoccupations, the Friar Preacher dedicated  himself wholly and directly to
the salvation  of souls, following the example of the first  Apostles who left behind
absorbing economic  cares to consecrate themselves to "prayer  and the Word of God."
Whatever is doctrinal  is ours; when the faith is endangered, the  Dominican soul is
aroused and enters the  fray for Christ.  Not without reasons did  St. Peter and St. Paul
appear to St.  Dominic.  In the history of the Church, the  redemptive mission of the
order is a  prolongation of the vocation of those two  great Apostles of Christ:
announcing to all  men the Gospel of salvation.  All the means  of spreading divine
Truth must become ours;  press, radio, films, television.  The Order  is present in full
vigor at these command  posts of the human universe, to pursue its  mission of truth.  A
Dominican soul is not  regimented, it is not disturbed by progress,  nor does it find new
techniques  disconcerting; rather, it marshals these  into the service of the liberating
truth  which is Love.  So it is that the Order  through centuries has preserved its youth
and its creative spirit, ready to answer  redemption's every appeal.

       The Dominican soul is strong, with the  very power of God.  Because it is certain
of  the redemptive power of the Cross, it has  the initiative in the midst of a confused
and despairing world to undertake great  enterprises, the genius to create  institutions
capable of adapting themselves  to meet the demands of an ecclesiastical  apostolate
which is constantly being renewed  and adjusted.  With faith and tenacity, it
relentlessly perseveres in its works of  salvation.  "The desperate hours are the  hours of
God," and often, in a moment,  Providence miraculously intervenes and saves  all.  The
Dominican soul advances in the  midst of the difficulties of life, serene  and confident,
buoyed up by the Immutable  Force of God.

       While engaged in the difficult combats  of the Church Militant, the Dominican
soul  remains joyful.  "The religion of the Father  Dominic," said God to St. Catherine of
Siena, "is joyful and lightsome."  Above the  trials of redemption, joy pervades the
Dominican soul, the inadmissible joy of God.   The secret of this Dominican joy lies in
the  peaceful certitude that God is infinitely  happy in the society of the Three Divine
Persons, even if men refuse to know Him and  receive Him.  At the summit of the souls
of  the saints, joy always flourished together  with an unalterable peace.  God is God,
and  what possible difference can anything else  make?  The joy of a soul is measured
by its  love.  The Apostles went away joyful because  they had been judged worthy to
suffer for  Christ, Whom they loved above everything  else.  On the roads Languedoc,
the sharper  the rocks became, the more St. Dominic sang.  Raised up by the same spirit
of heroic  strength fortified with love, the Dominican  soul remains fixed in an ever-
singing joy.

       THE DOMINICAN SOUL is a daughter of the  Church, always ready to obey the
Pope and  the directives of the hierarchy, and to  place itself at the service of the
Mystical  Body of Christ.  It cherishes the memory of  the symbolic vision of Pope
Innocent III,  who perceived St. Dominic supporting the  columns of the Church of the
Lateran, the  mother-church of Catholicism.  "Thou are  Peter and upon this rock, I will
build my  Church."; Who hears you, hears me; who  spurns you, spurns me," the Lord
Jesus had  forcefully asserted.  The Dominican soul  does not hesitate.  Who hears the
Pope,  hears Christ; the authority of God speaks  through the bishops and all religious
superiors, St. Catherine of Siena called the  Pope the "gentle Christ of this earth."  Her
filial docility toward the hierarchy made  her to an eminent degree a true daughter of
the Church and defender of the Papacy.  Thus  she became after her death the
secondary  patron of Rome and by her protection  shelters Catholic Action throughout
the  world.  A Dominican soul lives and dies for  the Church of Christ.

       THE DOMINICAN SOUL is an imitator of the  Word, singularly solicitous for
the glory of  the Father, eager to work for the redemption  of the world, for the
"consummation of all  men in the unity" of the Trinity.  It is  modeled, in all its interior
acts, on the  intimate sentiments of the Soul of Christ,  the adorer of the Father and the
Saviour of  souls.  Now the Word fulfills a twofold  function:

within the Trinity, He is the divine light, "Lumen de Lumine," the Image and Splendor
of the Father.

outside, as the Incarnate Word, He lives as the Incarnate Word, He lives as the Revealer
par excellence of the Father and of all the mysteries of God.

Similarly, the Dominican soul which  receives by reason of its vocation the  "office of
the Word" dwells within itself,  in a profound, living contemplation of the  pure Light
of God, keeping itself  continually before the face of the Father,  while by its apostolic
activity, it becomes  manifestive of the Divine Truth; it walks on  earth among men like
a mirror of God.

       A DOMINICAN SOUL is divine with no  desire but God:  to know Him, love
Him,  serve Him and to spend eternity with Him in  order to exalt Him ceaselessly.
Everything  is simple in the life of a Dominican soul  faithful to its divine vocation.  It is
not  overcome by pitiful sights, nor by  complicating details; it clearly sees:

only one horizon:  God

only one motive power:  Love

only one end:  the forming of the whole Christ as ordained to the City of God.

Everything else fades from it sight.  Nothing, apart from God, is worthy of  attention.  It
realized the ideal of St.  Dominic:  "To speak only with God or about  God," Cum Deo
vel de Deo.  Dominican saints  have hewed to this line of divine conduct:   "My
daughter, think of Me,"  God commanded  St. Catherine of Siena, "and for My part, I
shall think of thee."  And at the twilight  of his life of immense labor for Christ, St.
Thomas Aquinas wished for no other reward  but God:  Nothing save THEE.  Nisi TE.
This  is the fundamental attitude of every  Dominican soul.  GOD, GOD, GOD.

       FINALLY, THE DOMINICAN SOUL is a Marian  soul.  The preface of the feast
of St.  Dominic places in high relief the wonders of  the spiritual fecundity attained
through  this intimate friendship with Mary.  Under  the constant guidance of Mary,
our holy  Father renewed the apostolic form of life in  the Church, launched intrepid
champions of  the faith into the world, and won thousands  of souls for Christ.  When
dying, he left as  his legacy to the Church, the Rosary wherein  his religious family
might find the proper  form for its devotion to Mary.  Where is the  Dominican who
does not dream of living and  dying with the Rosary in his or her hand?   It is a
universal law of the economy of  salvation:  the more devoted a soul is to  Mary the
more Christian it is.  It is  equally true to say that the more devoted a  soul is to Mary
the more Dominican it is.

       THUS THE DOMINICAN LIFE is a harmonious  synthesis which the great light
of God  illumines.  Everything proceeds from faith  and is ordered to His glory.  Fixed
in God  by love, the Dominican soul lives for this  alone:  united with Christ in each of
its  acts, through Him, with Him and in Him, it  thinks only of glorifying the Father by
continual adoration and of saving souls who  will glorify Him eternally.  It lives in the
Church, through the Church, for the Church,  in a spirit of brotherhood with all men,
eager to communicate to them the Truth which  is achieved in Love.  Everything is light
in  a Dominican soul, but a light which revolves  on love.  It mediates frequently on the
memorable words of St. Dominic to a cleric  who was astonished at the power of his
apostolic preaching:  "My son, I have  studied in the books of charity more than in  any
other; love teaches all."  Redeeming and  illuminating charity is the key to Dominican
life.  Not the love of knowledge, but the  knowledge of love.  The Dominican soul is
another Word which spirates love.  Its  favorite book is the Gospel, in which the
Eternal Word speaks.

       From that divine Light, under the gentle  influence of the same Spirit of Love, all
the virtues diffuse themselves in the  Dominican soul.  Among these virtues, three
shine forth brilliantly in the luminous  raiment of faith:  the cross, purity, love;  the
cross which raises us above the earth,  purity which frees us from all that is not  God,
love which fixes us in Him.  This is  the harmonious synthesis of the ideal  Dominican:
the purity fo a virgin, the  light of a doctor, and the soul of a martyr.

       When evening comes, the Virgin of the  "Salve" is there to gather the soul of the
faithful servant under her mantle.   Initiated for all eternity into the  splendors of the
beatific vision, which  supplant the obscurities of faith, with Him,  through Him, and in
Him, together with all  the angels and saints, the Dominican soul in  unison with the
Spirit of Love, chants the  glory of the Father unto eternity.

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