fifth Tuesday

Transcript

“How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Luke 2:49

These words which Jesus spoke to Mary have two meanings for us who desire to imitate Christ through imitating our Holy Father Dominic. First, we can hear St. Dominic himself addressing these words to us. We should not have to search far and wide to know him, nor should we be dismayed that he left us almost no written words. His example of love for God and souls is enough. Whenever we look at the life of our Holy Father, we see him in adoration of the Blessed Trinity. Indeed, through his actions and words, St. Dominic taught his first friars to pray as he did: to seek union with God. It is when we seek this union with God in prayer that we also grow closer to our Father in religion, who lives in the Father’s house in heaven, desiring that we may one day join him there.

The second way we may take these words is to speak them ourselves. As daughters of St. Dominic, ought we not to be in the house, that is, under the protection and doing the will, of our Holy Father? Once we get to know St. Dominic, we must honor him by living as he desires.

Our Rule and Constitutions, which Dominic chose, and which were developed under his patronage and in his spirit, give us the roadmap our Holy Father designed for our journey to heaven. As such, by living these with fervor and fidelity we honor our Father who gave them to us. We honor our Father when we embrace all that is present in the life he gave us – our crosses and our joys – silence, study, prayers, the habit. In all things we must continually return and renew ourselves in the spirit of our founder. A good child will not neglect to visit and honor her parents even as an adult. We, to be good daughters of our Holy Father, must continually visit St. Dominic in prayer, venerate his relics, and honor him by our fidelity to the Rule he gave us. By so doing, may we one day be welcomed into heaven by Our Lady and St. Dominic, there to spend eternal life with them, in praise of God.

Let us honor today the fifth joyful mystery of the Rosary, the Finding of Jesus in the Temple, and let us beg, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, that we may always show ourselves worthy children of St. Dominic.