When I was a novice, our Novice Master told us that, while God has promised that the Church will endure until the end of time, no such promise has been made to the Order of Preachers. Like all religious orders, we are here for as long as God wills it. We came into existence in the Church to serve a particular need, and I suppose we will be here until we are no longer needed.
It is important for us to remember this because every human institution has a propensity to think first of all of its own survival and continuation. I shall not court controversy by naming particular examples, but I am sure the reader will be able to think of many. Indeed, I would be lying if I denied that part of my motivation in praying for vocations to the English Province of the Order of Preachers is the hope that there will someone to look after me in my old age, and to remember me when I am gone.
At the moment, things are looking reasonably promising. We are expecting five men to begin their novitiate this autumn, and we have people coming up for first vows, final vows and ordination this summer, God willing. Certainly there have been times when we have flourished rather more: I remember once working out that if Dominican friars made up the same proportion of the population now as we did in the high Middle Ages, there would be around 10,000 of us. There are not. Neither have we been reduced to almost nothing, as we were for a time after the Reformation – one or two men living in exile. Proof, perhaps, that we are still needed.
What matters, though, is that we serve as best we can the needs that called us into existence 800 years ago. Fundamentally, those needs have not changed: preaching, and the salvation of souls. In an age marked by a fundamental lack of confidence – in political institutions, in our economic system, in the sustainability of our environment, and certainly in the Church – the fundamental truths of the Catholic faith must be asserted with assurance and with compassion.
In St Dominic’s vision, there are two conditions for this preaching to be authentic: first, it must be offered by brothers living in imitation of the Apostles, which is to say genuine common life. Our priories in Edinburgh, Leicester, Cambridge, Oxford and London are not just places where the friars share accommodation, but where we share lives, having all property in common, eating together, praying and recreating together.
The other vital condition is that our preaching be backed up by real intellectual rigour. Dominicans have always unashamedly valued the intellectual life and academia, seeing the importance of engaging in debate with the thinkers of the day. To this end, the English Province has its own centre of intellectual formation, our priory in Oxford, which offers training not just to our own friars but also to Franciscans, Benedictines and others who value our academic standards. Blackfriars, Oxford is also a hall of the university, offering a home to students and researchers from many disciplines, and through our Aquinas and Las Casas Institutes being deeply involved in the intellectual questions of today.
We hope that these two Dominican characteristics, of intellectual engagement and common life, give a real depth to all the work we do. In Edinburgh, Leicester and London we run city centre parishes where the liturgy and preaching are informed by our distinctive way of being. It has been very encouraging that, under the difficult circumstances of the last year or so, we have found ways of continuing to serve our various congregations in ways that seem to have been much appreciated.
I suspect that the pandemic has only accelerated a shift that had already begun towards a more “virtual” presence, and most of us are now thoroughly Zoom-competent. While we look forward to resuming face-to-face contact, so often irreplaceable, we have found new ways of preaching the same timeless Gospel to those who need to hear it. For example, the “Dominican Forum”, a series of talks to people working in the City of London, is now enjoyed by people all over the world, and our sermon website “Torch” has been appreciated more than ever. Centuries-old value and traditions and today’s problems and possibilities make for an exciting Dominican life now as they have for 800 years, and will continue to as long as God wants us.
