How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of peace, joy and salvation (Is 52:7)
On 22 December 1216, Pope Honorius III signed the first papal Bull which approved the foundation of St Dominic’s community in Toulouse and took the brethren under papal protection. However, St. Dominic was not fully satisfied with the first approval and asked the Pope for a second Bull that would approve the universality of the Order and in particular its identity name, the then revolutionary name of “Order of Preachers.†On 21 January 1217, St. Dominic received a second Bull from Pope Honorius III that “crowned the first and completed the confirmation of the Order†(www.op.org – Dec 25, 2016). This fact is the reason why the anniversary of the second papal Bull was chosen as the closing date for the Dominican Jubilee 800 that is today, January 21, 2017. This evening, joining all the Dominicans throughout the world, we are gratefully and joyfully and hopefully celebrating with this Solemn Votive Mass of our Father St. Dominic the closing of the Jubilee 800!
It is beautiful to celebrate together as the Dominican Family
in Macau the closing of the Jubilee. The end closes the curtains of the glorious Dominican Jubilee! Dominic’s adventure of preaching, however, continues! We sisters, brothers and sisters of our lay fraternity continue the awesome adventure of preaching the Good news, of proclaiming the message (II Tim 4:2) – counting always with the permanent presence of Jesus, the Preacher (Mt 28:19-20).
Through the celebration of the Jubilee 800, we Dominicans recalled our birth to rejoice, to give thanks, to be sorry, to renew ourselves, and above all, to revive our passionate love for our unique mission of preaching. Indeed, the Jubilee was a wonderful year to praise God and rejoice: laudare, benedicere et praedicare! Our different activities within the umbrella of the Jubilee 800 were prayerful stops that helped us make of our celebration a path to joyful renewal for each one of us and for our communities. Usually, a simple but significant agape followed our religious or academic celebrations.
The preparation of the Jubilee started officially on November 7 (Feast of All Saints of the Order), 2014 and ended on November 6, 2015. At our St. Dominic’s Priory in Macau, we began to recite the Jubilee Prayer on September 20, 2014 and we end it this evening of January 21, 2017. The daily recitation of the Jubilee Prayer put us on the “Jubilee Mode,†that is, a dynamic process of renewal: “We ask you, Lord, to pour again into us the Spirit of the Risen Lord, that we might faithfully and joyfully proclaim the Gospel of peace.â€
On December 22, 2014, we commemorated together the 798 Anniversary of the first Confirmation of the Order by Pope Honorius III, with the common reading with intermittent songs of Chapter II of the Acts of the Brethren’s General Chapter of Trogir (2013), focused on the charism of preaching and our Dominican style of life.  “Our style of life flows from the personal and communal balancing of study, contemplation, and liturgical prayer, each element enlivening the others.â€
Throughout the year of preparation and the year of celebration of Jubilee 800, the Dominican Family in Macau celebrated also the saints of the Order with the flavor of the Jubilee. A highlight of our Jubilee 800 was the celebration of the Feast of Saint Catherine of Siena. On April 25, 2015, the Dominican brothers of St. Dominic’s Priory went to Taipa to celebrate with our Dominican sisters the Feast of St. Catherine at the sisters’ community of Our Lady of the Rosary. The young Dominican sisters with the assistance of our brothers presented movingly and even passionately the life and works of the great Dominican mystic and apostle, to whom God said: “I Am He Who Is, you are she who is not.â€
The Dominican Family of nuns, brothers, sisters, and lay and priestly fraternities throughout the world opened formally the Jubilee 800 on November 7, 2015, which is – as we all know – the Feast-day of All the Dominican Saints. The Dominican Family in Macau opened the Jubilee’s year-long celebration at the Chapel of St. Dominic Priory with Solemn Evening Prayer. A deeply meaningful part of the Rite of Opening was the Ritual of the Light that is the lighting of a large Dominican Candle which has illumined our chapel up to today – its last day -, January 21, 2017: “As St. Dominic de Guzman enshrined and shared the fire of your love may we, O God, through our preaching and ministry, share that same love with others.â€
Another significant event for all Dominican convents and communities in the world was a Common Lenten Penitential Celebration. The Macau Dominican Family join the Dominican Family of the world with its own Communal Penitential Rite Celebration which was held here on March 21, 2016. For all of us – sinners – this celebration was an act of continuing conversion, which was the main objective of the Jubilee 800 and also of the Jubilee of Mercy the whole Church was then celebrating. We, Preachers of Truth and Preachers of Mercy, remember the words addressed to us then: “Asking for forgiveness and forgiving make the world new every day.â€
Another activity connected with the Jubilee 800 was an outstanding morning lecture on The Dominican Presence in Macau pronounced by Fr. Jarvis Sy, OP on October 1, at 10:00 AM at St. Paul School. It was followed by the celebration of the Mass in honor of St. Therese of the Child Jesus presided over by Bishop Stephen Lee. The relevant words of the first missionaries of the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary come to mind: “We must preach, moreover, through our life style so that if our teaching of the doctrine does not move hearts our lives will move all those who see us: this is the best way of teaching.â€
The most solemn celebration of the Jubilee 800 in Macau was the Thanksgiving Mass sponsored by the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary and organized and carried out by Macao’s St. Dominic Priory with the help of our Dominican sisters in Taipa. It took place on the day of the 800 anniversary of the first approval of the Order by Pope Honorius III: December 22, 2016. The place of the grateful celebration gave incredible historical luster and mystery to it: San Domingos Church. The first San Domingos church or chapel was constructed under the supervision of the first three Dominicans, who had arrived in Macau on September 1, 1587; in this place they started their ministry. The Solemn Mass was presided over by Bishop Stephen Lee, with twenty seven priests – mostly Dominicans – concelebrating, and the Dominican sisters, and some other brothers, sisters and lay faithful participating. Fr. Provincial, Javier Gonzalez OP expressed the deep gratitude of the Dominicans to the authorities and people of Macau. One remembers the petition of one of our brothers: “Thank you, Father, for the grace of preaching you bestowed upon us; we reiterate our commitment to live our calling in fidelity and love, in the spirit of our predecessors, of our holy martyrs and confessors; we reaffirm once again our willingness to be sent wherever there is need to serve the people.â€
Our brother Yves Congar says that Christian tradition may be symbolized by a person walking. Likewise, I suggest, this symbol for our Dominican adventure of preaching today. The person walking – every preacher – has one foot on the ground of the living past, and the other foot in the air, open to change and renewal, and ready to stride forward. When we started our Jubilee journey together, we were told that the Jubilee meant looking at the past with gratitude, embracing the future with hope, and living the present with passion (Pope Francis). Grateful to our glorious past, hopeful towards our future, we try to live our present faithfully, joyfully, and creatively, with passion for Jesus and compassion for all the people, preferentially the oppressed, the poor and the excluded. Saint Paul advises us: “Let us go forward on the road that has brought us to where we are†(Phil 3:16).
The two-year long celebration of the Jubilee 800 has strengthened us and empowered us to go on more determined, more enthusiastic, more fired up: to go on with our marvelous preaching adventure which our Father started. With our Father Dominic’s help (“imple Pater quod dixisti), we continue the adventure. And when it is time to walk through the desert of life, we try not to be discouraged or disheartened: “What makes the desert beautiful is that in some place there is hidden a well of water†(Antoine Saint-Exupery). Like our brothers and sisters through 800 years, like pilgrims with a thousand hopes plus One, you and I are sent: we are sent to proclaim grace and to preach peace! Yes, our journey continues!
How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim peace and who bring good news (Rom 10:15).
Fray Fausto Gomez OP
St. Dominic Priory
Macau, January 21, 2017