Promoter of Preaching for December

How we Do it...

The word contemplation can mean different things to different people. How do Dominicans understand it? As we continue to more intentionally reclaim this core of our spirituality in all our deliberations, it is good to revisit the distinctive take we Dominicans have on contemplation. Clarifying this would be an important step as we complete the celebration of our 800^th Anniversary.

The recently deceased Paul Philibert, OP, in his research has uncovered something rather interesting. The way Dominicans understand contemplation is revealed in Dominic’s Nine Ways of Prayer. For the perceptive eye, there is a flow in these ways of prayer. First, there is reverencing, shown in our customs of bows and prostrations. Then there is pleading, in the raised and outstretched arms, and finally there is the silent and absorbed meditative reading and study which ends up witnessing. The movement is a bit like breathing… reverencing, pleading, witnessing. The Dominican’s contemplation pushes the pray-er out onto the road, where we preach from the pulpit of our lives. We are transformed into a living, walking, talking, acting, word. This is a unique and very integrative approach to contemplation. It is a seamless garment. It never stops at any one stage, but is driven back, again and again, into the wholeness of the flow: active contemplation, contemplative action.

As we complete the joyful celebration of this anniversary year, we each take up once again the challenge it presents to us: to offer to the Church the gift of a formal vowed witness to active contemplation in the cause of justice. “Whom shall I send?” Send me.