St. Rose’s family tried in vain to convince her to marry.
Feast Day: August 23
More than four hundred years ago in South America, there was born a girl whose beauty was intended not for this world, but for the next. St. Rose of Lima was so attractive that she drew the stares and admiration of others. She was so abhorred by this that she rubbed her face with pepper and lye to disfigure it.
From an early age, Rose was interested in the things of God. As a young girl — in imitation of Saint Catherine of Siena, another Dominican — she began to fast three times a week and performed severe penances in secret. She resisted the attempts of her parents to get her married and spurned the attention of suitors who began to notice her. Despite the censure of her parents, she spent many hours contemplating the Blessed Sacrament, which she received daily.Finally, out of frustration, her father gave her a room to herself in the family home, and with the help of her brother, she built a small cell in the family’s backyard garden, to which she went for long periods of time for prayer. She supported her family with her needlework and with flowers that she grew, and helped the poor in various ways. Continue reading ‘Misunderstood by Her Family, St. Rose of Lima Became a Dominican Tertiary’ »
Dogged by cultural upheaval and religious confusion, the early Dominican Order in the thirteenth century had its work cut out for it. And yet, St. Dominic emphasized the importance of prayer and contemplation for his Dominicans. The words Contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere – “to contemplate and to share with other the fruits of the contemplation” – is the motto of the whole Dominican Order – friars, nuns, active sisters, and laity.
Pope Benedict XVI realized this, and reaffirmed the role of prayer in the life of a community of cloistered Dominican nuns in Rome last year. Speaking to the members of the Convent of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Holy Father stressed the importance of prayer in drawing graces from God. He said, Continue reading ‘Dominican Motto Stresses the Importance of Contemplation’ »
Devotion to the Blessed Mother was key in winning Catholics back from the heretical Albigensians.
Feast Day: Aug. 8
St. Dominic Guzman, whose feast day is Aug. 8, is the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly known as the Dominicans, or Order of Preachers. Approved by Pope Honorius III in 1216, the Order had its roots amidst the growing spread of the Albigensians, a sect which held that the physical world was evil and was created by Rex Mundi, or the King of the World. The Albigensians believed in a second god, the one whom was worshipped, who was of a being or principle of pure spirit and completely unsullied by the taint of matter. This heresy was well organized and gained a foothold that had not been seen since the days of the Arian heresy centuries before.
On August 8, the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception starts its Jubilee Year – 150 years of existence in the Church. On that day in 1861 Mother Kolumba Bialecka opened the first novitiate in Wielowies, Poland.
St. Dominic won the hearts of the people with a preaching that combined intellectual rigor and a popular and approachable style. He also had a great love and devotion to the Blessed Mother. A popular legend says that the Blessed Mother gave him the Rosary. Later, the Rosary became closely linked with the Dominican Order. Pope Pius XI, who died in 1939, said, ”The Rosary of Mary is the principle and foundation on which the very Order of Saint Dominic rests for making perfect the life of its members and obtaining the salvation of others.” Continue reading ‘St. Dominic Founded His Order to Counter the Religious Confusion of His Day’ »
