THE DOMINICAN SOUL Fr. M. M. Philipon, OP

[Dawn Marie]

 

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.