Veritas - From the APRIM

                                 Veritas – From the APRIM

This week is the most significant week of commemoration for Dominican communities. Wednesday is the feast day for Blessed Joan of Aza, mother of Saints Dominic and Mannes. Thursday, the Solemnity of St Dominic, the founder of the Dominican Order of Preachers. On Wednesday, our ELC students participated in a Liturgy to celebrate St Joan. On Thursday, the whole school celebrated St Dominic. These two occasions were wonderful and fitting ways to honour these saints. The two days also made me consider the concept of legacy.

Legend has it that St Joan had a dream when she was pregnant with St Dominic. Supposedly, she dreamed of giving birth to a dog with a torch in its mouth, which then ran through the world setting it ablaze. The Order has traditionally seen this event as a prophetic foreshadowing of the man that St Dominic would later become: Praedicator gratiae – “Preacher of Grace.” (Br Anthony John Mathison, OP, 2017). Blessed Joan raised both Dominic and another son, Mannes, deeply in the faith, and St Dominic certainly went on to spread light throughout the world. Would she have known the legacy she would leave; that her son would found this 801 year-old order? Would she have thought much about her dream and what it meant immediately after she had it?

As alluded, St Dominic’s legacy is truly profound. Where he saw a spiritual need, St Dominic evangelised, changing the lives of many and bringing souls to God. Moreover, he inspired those around him to join with him, leading to the foundation of the Order of Preachers. This was an order that, under St Dominic’s direction, lived out the Four Pillars in a unified manner: being in Prayer to deepen the relationship with God and to better follow their calling; pursuing Study to know more about God’s creation for the love of God; living in Community like the Holy Trinity; and through Ministry (Service), spreading God’s word through actions and speech. Like his mother, St Dominic also had a vision (or dream) in which Mary, Mother of God, appeared and inspired the Rosary. St Dominic was deeply affected by Mary. Would St Dominic have known the legacy he would leave – the Order of Preachers and the Rosary?

Mary, Mother of God, also had a dream about conceiving Jesus. In Luke’s Gospel, Mary is said to have been ‘perplexed’ and ‘pondered’ what was said when she heard the Angel of her dream. The terms ‘perplexed’ and ‘pondered’ are apparently poor (but the best) translations of the ancient Greek of early scripture. Mary is thought to have really wrestled with the message of her dream. Would she have known what it really meant? Right through Jesus’ life, she would have wrestled, and not until His resurrection would she have understood. From the dream, would she have considered her legacy? Would she have really envisaged someone like St Dominic would be so profoundly influenced by her? Would she have had any comprehension of the magnitude of her son’s legacy?

St Joan, St Dominic and St Mary did not accumulate wealth. Their words and deeds were love-filled and profoundly good. Through this, they accumulated souls for God, and continue to do so today through their legacy. I suppose, bringing souls to God is their legacy.

Of course, there is the greatest legacy of all – that of Jesus, the human revelation of God. I could write so much about Jesus’ legacy but won’t. Instead I’ll quote the final passage from the Gospel of John 21: 25 “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

And we continue to write today.

So, I leave the following question with you to ask yourself: “What legacy will I leave?”

Mr Matthew Crisanti

Acting Assistant Principal: Religious Identity and Mission