Today in Australia is the memorial of St Dominic. For us in Australia his feast day has been transferred to the 3rd August because on the 8th August we celebrate here our national saint, Mary MacKillop.
St Dominic is famous for founding the Order of Preachers, commonly known as the Dominicans. After accompanying his bishop on a journey through France, he was exposed to the heresy of Albigensianism also known as the Cathars. They were dualistic heretics influenced by gnosticism who saw the body as evil and only the spiritual was good. This meant that all the physical world including our bodies was seen as evil and ruled by Satan, whereas the spiritual world was the only “true” and pure reality made by God, and not contaminated by sin. They also denied the humanity of Jesus and said that he was a spiritual being who only appeared to be human, but he wasn’t an actual physical person. This denies the foundations of our faith - the Incarnation, God made flesh, and the Resurrection, the same God made flesh who was killed and came back to life conquering death.
While encountering these heretics and their beliefs, St Dominic quickly noticed that they lived holier, more ascetic lives than the majority of monks and priests at the time. He realised that this was one of the stumbling blocks preventing the effectiveness of the missionaries who were trying to convert the Carthars but without success. This was because they were often going about with large retinues of servants accompanying them and dressed in fine clothing, whilst the Cathars themselves repudiated this as decadent luxury. This is why when St Dominic established his Order of Preachers, that he instilled in them and practiced it himself, to live “apostolic poverty” that validated the truth of what they were preaching. They were itinerary missionary preachers who were to practice what they preached, bringing the light of saving truth to all who are trapped in the darkness of heresy, so that the Gospel could set people free.
This is why Dominican spiritually can be said to be specifically Incarnational, emphasising the goodness and beauty of creation as coming from God - all coming from God and all leading back to God. This is the famous theological theme of exitus and reditus (exit and return). God is the source, cause and origin of all reality, and creation is the overflow of the goodness of God. Although corrupted by sin, creation is still intrinsically good. Humanity and all creation is redeemed and sanctified by Jesus, then united in him it returns back to God.
This doctrine of the goodness of creation is obviously standard orthodox theology, however it is also a unique particular theme in Dominican spirituality. The truth is not merely intellectual, but the mind and person is brought up to God through contemplating reality and encountering the Supreme Truth, the Holy Trinity. Truth is experienced through divine revelation and the context of Liturgy, as well as through human reasoning and through nature, because they all express Ave lead back to Ultimate Truth. This truth fully unites in the person of Jesus Christ, all of spiritual and physical reality who is the centre and apex of everything.
The simplest, most popular and most effective expression of Dominican spirituality and evangelisation was the devotion of the Rosary. This consisted of 150 Hail Mary’s daily, in imitation of the monastic practice of praying 150 psalms everyday, going back to the Desert Fathers. Repeating and proclaiming the angelic salutation (Luke 1:28) again and again, announcing the beginning of our salvation in this prayer. Then meditating on the mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ as historical events, but also mystical truths that all Christians are invited to share in together with Jesus through faith.
Regular meditation on the life of Christ in order to be united to Christ to so he becomes alive in us, and lives in us - this is Incarnational spirituality! Honouring Mary the Mother of God, who gave birth to the God-made-man, the Word-made-flesh, and entering into the moment of her yes as all creation held its breath in anticipation for her response. This is the beautiful, precious heritage of the rosary that was developed by the children of St Dominic, the man of prayer. Although historically it was not exclusive to the Dominicans, what most Catholics know as the devotional prayer practice of rosary is actually the Dominican Rosary, their style of prayer has become the norm for most Catholics today.
St Dominic needed to be able to bring the goodness of the world and the truth of the faith to the heretics who rejected both. To do this he needed to gain their respect as a man who lived ascetically and was not corrupted by luxury. Hence the creative solution he developed in his friars of itinerant monastic preachers who were true men of prayer and of God. This was part of the movement to reclaim “apostolic simplicity” in a time when the perception was that monastic life was more interested in luxury than in God and people. Previously movements had been initiated by St Bernard and the Cistercians, as well as St Norbert and his Canons. The most famous contemporary of St Dominic is St Francis of Assisi himself, the Poverello - the poor one of Christ who in receiving the stigmata was seen not only as the perfect imitator of Jesus Christ, but totally confirmed through the manifesto of the stigmata.
Unlike these other saints and founders we do not have any writings of St Dominic himself unfortunately. However, we do have a very beautiful but little known testimony of his spiritual life, known as his 9 ways of prayer. This is a collected testimony of specific ways that St Dominic was regularly seen to pray.
In today’s age of interest in yoga and other non Christian forms of spirituality, the ways of St Dominic can be a helpful alternative and effective antidote to this. For many Catholics, their faith is exclusively an intellectual exercise, or a series of truths that they accept and believe - but it has no impact on their day to day life. Or for other Catholics, they find comfort in particular external devotions and sacramentals that can at times learn towards superstition and error without the truth of the Gospel. But most Catholics do not really think much about physical postures and ways of praying in a fully embodied way other than kneeling. In Byzantine Christianity, they have retained the practice among laity and monastics, of partial and full prostrations known as metania. But in Western Christianity we have lost the practice of prostrations and it has become associated with how Muslims pray.
The beautiful illustration and example of St Dominic’s 9 ways of prayer, show us that prayer is not something static. Prayer should always be dynamic and life giving, because it is a relationship with the Living God. So all our prayer, whether formal or personal, liturgical or private, should always have as it’s goal to become prayer of the heart - pure prayer from our entire being. Not just lip service or empty words, not just ritual without emotion or understanding, not just emotional sensationalism without spiritual reasoning. Prayer should aim towards expressing the fullness of our being, symbolised by what we often call the “heart” - as reaching out to God, while simultaneously being open and receptive to God. A true encounter that is transformative, something that changes us and makes us somehow more alive, more real. This is deep, true, pure contemplative and mystical prayer. Union with God so that we are so full of God, that God shines through us, that people can feel the Presence of Christ in our way of speaking and being. That our whole life becomes a living witness of God and the aroma of Christ in us will draw all people back to God (2 Corinthians 2:15).
There is no specific or set “method” to pray. Because prayer is personal, it is relationship with God. We raise our minds and heart to God in love, speaking and listening in trust and faith. Everyone is unique.
However I have found great benefit personally in incorporating physical aspects in prayer. Although we stand, sit and kneel in Mass - how many of us pray this way outside of Mass? Some people when at home may kneel, some people might close their eyes, some put their hands together, some raise their hands with palms facing up, some stand up etc..
For myself I have I have personally found it helpful to stand the entire time while praying the Divine Office at home as a hermit. I like to chant it in plain recto tono style, and to make a profound bound during the “Glory be” at the end of each psalm. That way I’m chanting the psalms and singing the Word of God to myself, simultaneously proclaiming it and hearing it so that the words become my own words. Then through bowing, my body is participating in adoring God together with my spirit so they are in sync, and to use a modern term - my prayer life becomes “holistic” and integrated.
Another helpful posture for he has been while at adoration in my parish to lay prostrate face down on the floor before the Blessed Sacrament. This helps me to not be distracted, to focus on completely laying myself and my life before Jesus and just spend time with him, resting with him without any expectations other than to spend time with him. Some of these postures are also found in the 9 Ways of Prayer of St Dominic.
I highly recommend looking at the different postures that he would pray in, and see if there are any you may already do. You may find one that inspires you to try it really speaks to your heart as a new way to help you deepen your prayer life. All these different ways are just exactly that, they are ways or suggestions of styles of prayer. If you find one of them helps you and inspires you like I have, then Praise God!
If you find that they trigger a negative response in you and you find them disagreeable, then Praise God! Listen to whatever the Holy Spirit is speaking to you or saying to you, take time to listen, but also talk back and respond. That is authentic personal prayer! Whether we eat or sleep, drink and walk (1 Corinthians 10:31), whether we talk or are silent, ok the company of others or alone at home - every moment of our life can become a continuous moment of prayer, so that we pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17 ) and our life becomes a living sacrifice acceptable to God (Romans 12:1)!
May St Dominic help inspire you today, to pray with your entire being - body, mind, heart and soul (Matthew 22:37). May you desire and learn to imitate his example to only ever to speak to God or about God, and to become fully alive in Christ as a person of prayer.
Like Our Lady, may you desire and learn to live the truth in love (Ephesians 4:-5), so that God lives, moves and sustains your whole being (Acts 17:28), and you can rejoice in God your saviour (Luke 1:46) with leaps of joy (Luke 1:41).
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