Receive ye the Habit

I have blogged about numbers 4 & 6 on my "playing catch-up list." Now to hit on 1.

For a little over a month, I have been trying to keep the Rule of St. Dominic. Two others and I (the novice on the left) were incorporated into the folds of the ancient brotherhood that started in Spain and set flame to world. We are called the Order of Penance; the Militia of Jesus Christ; Order of Friars Preachers. I now wear the same habit that our Holy Father Dominic received from Our Lady. St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Rose of Lima, Pope St. Pius V, St. Vincent Ferrer, the list of holy men and women goes on and on. I just hope I do not bring any shame to the good names who proceed me.

Why in the world would a Dominican brother take St. Francis, founder of the Franciscans as his name? Well, it so happens that the two founders bumped into each other at the Fourth Lateran Council. Thats Right! What a small world, but it is not surprising to me. Both orders honor the other Holy Father as a founder of their own order.

I think I can learn a lot from both of my Patrons. I pray to repent like St. Francis, and to spread the Truth and zeal for God like St. Dominic. I don't think either of them had beds. Maybe that will go next. They both liked walking. There is a soup kitchen under the patronage of St. Francis that I checked out. That was pretty cool. St. Dominic always kept his conversation with God, or about God. I ask for his intercession to trim the fat, so to speak.

I am so blessed to have been exposed to truly Catholic teachings. Teachings that are older than 45 years old. At the Dominican meetings we go over the Summa and encyclicals that the New Order probably doesn't want you to see. Taking these books off the shelf and blowing dust off is not worth many peoples time anymore. Does the Church not have these problems anymore? Is the Church really in "Spring Time?" Mass attendance down, next to empty seminaries, tradition is the ugly step child. I do see some promise. Some of the youth want strict Catholicism more than the hierarchy. But the problem is the youth have been subjected to nothing but "feel-good" Catholicism. Guitar Mass has replaced Gregorian Chant. Obedience has turned into the blind leading the blind... I just feel that the Church is being married to the world and other religions, which for hundreds and hundreds of years was the opposite goal.

At these meetings we do not get any of this feel good nonsense. What happens when things don't feel good anymore. If everything is based on feelings, St. John of the Cross would warn you to get ready for a very dark, dark night. There is comfort in knowing you walk away from a group meeting intellectually stimulated and not just warm and fuzzy.
Let us pray for people who will teach, preach, and stand up for Dominican Spirituality and Catholicism.