On December 22, 2014, the Dominicans in Macau celebrated together the 798 anniversary of the approval of the Order at St. Dominic’s Priory with a special program of activities focused on the reading of Chapter II of the Acts of the latest General Chapter of Trogir (2013) and the solemn celebration of the Eucharist.
The Reading, done by two student brothers and two sisters, was elegantly mixed with meaningful and beautiful songs sung by the participants: twenty eight brothers from the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary, thirty four sisters from the Congregations of Dominican Missionaries of the Rosary and a few lay persons. The Master of Students, Fr. Jarvis Sy, OP prepared the special Mass and acted as Master of Ceremonies of the whole program. The Prior, Fr. Jose Luis de Miguel, OP presided the concelebrated Eucharist and the Promoter of the Jubilee, Fr. Fausto Gomez, OP pronounced the homily/reflection.
After the Mass, all the participants shared the simple agape. Everybody seemed to be happy. Indeed, “how beautiful upon the mountains the feet of those who preach peace†– peace to the world, peace to you and me!
Hereafter we publish the reflection of the Promoter of the Jubilee for the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary (The Staff of www.dominicansmacau.org )
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Through our life, we always remember as individuals and as members of a community, or family important and significant events, such as a birthday, an anniversary, a silver or golden jubilee of priesthood, religious life, marriage, the centennial or millennium of a community, or of a country, etc. The Order of Preachers celebrates on December 22, 2016 the 800th Foundation Anniversary, or approval of the Order of Preachers by Pope Honorius III. The Jubilee Year properly speaking will be celebrated from November 7, 2015 (Feast of All Saints of the Order) to January 21, 2017 (the date of the second Bull of confirmation of the Order of Pope Honorius III). The motto of the Jubilee is: “Sent to preach the Gospel.†From November 7, 2014 to November 6, 2015 the Order prepares for the Jubilee proper while remembering, moreover, that 1215 is the year when Dominic began to live with 16 brethren the first Dominican community preaching adventure.
On December 22, 2014, we commemorate the 798 Anniversary of the Order. On this significant occasion, I wish to present some developments of the Jubilee celebrations in the Order and the Province, and focus on the nature of the Jubilee 800.
What will be the highlights of the Jubilee celebrations in the Order? The General Chapter of Trogir, Croatia (2013) presents to us the nature of the mega-celebration and the main steps to take by way of preparation (cf. General Chapter of Trogir 2013, Acts, AGCTr., chapter III nos. 50-62).
The Order has drawn a well detailed plan to commemorate Jubilee 800. The general program released on November 7, 2014 is composed of fourteen events: some are carried out internationally, others regionally and still others – the majority – in local communities. The different events try to cover the various dimensions of Dominican life, including the liturgical, academic, contemplative, artistic, and social dimensions. In July-August, 2016 three groups of young Dominican – one of brothers, another of sisters and a third of lay – will make separately the pilgrimage to St. Dominic’s historical places in Spain, France and Italy. The group of brothers will be composed of one hundred in initial formation (two per Province) and will make the pilgrimage with the Master of the Order, Fr. Bruno Cadoré OP. Along the way the three groups will gather together with Fr. Cadoré.
It is important to underline that the Jubilee 800 is a celebration of the entire Dominican family and each branch is to seek out the most suitable way to participate in the celebration (cf. ACG Trogir 57, 9). The Asia/Pacific region will organize a retreat for the region in the Philippines. In the different places, the distinct branches of the Dominican Family are strongly invited by the authorities of the Order to work together, and never forgetting the participation of lay and priestly fraternities.
I find interesting the activity of the lay Dominicans in Europe: “The European Council of Lay Dominican fraternities came up with the idea of the Pilgrim Image of St. Dominic travelling from country to country across Europe.
What will be the highlights of the Jubilee celebrations in the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary? In a meeting in Hong Kong on April 24, 2014, the Provincial Council decided on some important activities to be carried out by the Province. In the different Vicariates and Priories and Houses, there might be organization of special courses and lectures, retreats and publication of pertinent articles and books.
For our Province in particular, the Acts of the General Chapter of Trogir underline that the Jubilee must favor the new foundations in which the Order is birthing (ACG Trogir, 57, 7). Moreover, the General Chapter recommends dialogue and solidarity with the poor, and ecumenical and interreligious dialogue ibid. 57, 4). Although the whole Dominican order – like the whole Church – is missionary, still our missionary Province reminds all – with others – of the mission ad gentes, and continues doing in a specific way what our Father Dominic longed to do but was not able to do: “When we have established the Order,†Dominic said, “we shall go to the Cumans and preach the faith of Christ to them and win them for the Lord†(witness Bro. Paul of Venice); “He proposed to go to the pagans and die there for the faith, once he had organized his brethren†(from witness Bro. Frugerio of Pannabilli ). (Cf. Early Dominicans Selected Writings, ed. Simon Tugwell, OP, New York / Ramsey / Toronto: Paulist Press, 1982, Section I)
As Promoter, I suggest some activities that might help us be in “the Jubilee Mode.†First suggestion was the recitation of the Jubilee Prayer, which is now recited in most of our communities. Second suggestion: the reading within Advent of chapters 2 and 3 of the Acts of the latest General Chapter (ACGTr, 2013), and the solemn liturgical celebration of December 22, 2014. With the approval of the Fr. Provincial, the Promoter shall continue making recommendations from time to time.
What is the nature or identity of the Jubilee? The aims of the Jubilee 800, or of any other jubilee or similar celebration are – in the words Pope Francis for the 2015 Year of Consecrated Life – “to look at the past with gratitudeâ€; “to live the present with passion,†and “to embrace the future with hope†(Pope Francis, Message for the Year of Consecrated Life, The Vatican: November 21, 2014, I, 1-3).
The Jubilee is a time to remember and give thanks to God! Often the Jubilee Year or the Holy Year is presented by the Church as time of memory and hope. In convoking the 2000 Jubilee St. John Paul II speaks of the purification of memory and of the memory of the martyrs. In this context, it is worthwhile to note that the 2014 Nobel Prize of Literature, Patrick Modiano was given the prestigious award by reason of his remarkable literary exercise of “the art of memory,†in particular by his luminous evocation of the Second World War and the German occupation in France, mixing powerfully memory, forgetfulness, guilt and identity.
We learn from the biblical Jubilee Year (the 50th year) that this was a year of forgiveness and liberation, a time to go back to original justice (cf. Lev 25:10; Is 61:1-3; Lk 4:18-21; ACGTr 40). The disciples of Jesus went back to Galilee: everything began there (cf. Mt 28:1-8). The Dominicans go back to Caleruega, Fanjeaux, Toulouse, Rome and Bologna, etc. We go back to our origins, to the style of life of Dominic and the first Dominican communities.
We draw near to our Father Dominic and his goal for Dominican life: the salvation of souls and preaching, which are the foundational ideas that Dominic developed from his intense love of Christ as the Saviour and his compassionate love for people. Salvation of souls – of persons and peoples -, evangelizatyion is achieved through the ministry of preaching which is carried out from prayer and contemplation, permanent study, fraternal life and evangelical poverty. Dominic and the brethren chose the rule of St. Augustine to underline – and lived to the full – common life and poverty, which he radically linked to preaching ((cf. Felicisimo Martinez, OP, Domingo de Guzman Evangelio Viviente, 1991, chapter III). It is important to add that Dominic lived his life and carried out his apostolic ministry in the Church: he was faithfully dedicated and helped renew a Church in crisis. As St. Dominic preached the Word within a historical context and situation, we are asked to proclaim the Good News in our times, and to read and interpret the signs.
Our Jubilee celebration takes us to our personal origins, too. We go back to our first profession, to our vestition with the Dominican habit. We go back to the mystery, the wonder, the joy of asking for the community’s and God’s mercy; above all, asking for God’s mercy that we need through the years and every day.
The Jubilee 800 is a time of hope. Jubilee celebrations are also a call to be and become more true pilgrims to the house of the Father. Our hope is founded on the already of our faith in the resurrection of Christ towards the not yet of our hope in heaven by the now of our charity. (Cf. St. John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, 110)
Our brother St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that prayer is “the interpreter of hope,†or the voice of hope. The Jubilee 800 is a time of prayer, too. The Church describes Jubilee or Holy Year as time of prayer and penance: “Without prayer, all our activity risks being fruitless and our message empty†(Pope Francis, EG 269). Prayer, furthermore, can never be an obstacle for mission (Ibid. 262).
The Jubilee 800 is a year to remember and hope and pray and – like the biblical jubilees – a time to rejoice together as a family of brothers and sisters. Jubilee translates jubilaeum! St. Jerome translates the Hebrew word Yobel to the Latin word jubilaeum, or magna laetitia: great joy. The witnesses in the process for the Canonization of St. Dominic all speak of the joy of our Father, who was, as Blessed Jordan of Saxony tells us, always cheerful with a cheerfulness that came from “his exceptional integrity of character and the extraordinary energy of divine zeal.†According to our sister St. Catherine, God the Father told her: “Dominic’s friars are joyful.†Pope Francis continues reminding us that joy is an essential quality of preaching and witnessing our faith. The Pope from Argentina writes: We pastoral workers, teachers, administrators, missionaries should not allow ourselves to be robbed of the “joy of evangelization,†and of the joy of “community†(cf. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 78-83, 92; Conversation with the Superior Generals: Rome, November 7, 2014; Message for the Year of Consecrated Life, November 21, 2014, II, 1).).
Jubilaeum 800 is, above all, a time to love – more. Jesus asks each one of us, in a special way this year, the question he asked Peter three times: “Peter, do you love me?†As Dominicans, we look to our past dynamically to focus our vigilant attention on the future by living the present permeated by love, by truth in mercy: veritas in misericordia. Dominic lived his days thus: the night for God and the day for the neighbor, because God has made the night for prayer and the day for mercy. The celebration of a Jubilee is a call to become truly poor, which today means for us – I submit –living a simple life style – an “evangelical life-style†(cf. EG 80, 83, 92, 78). Our Pope, who is clearly embarked on a revolution of tenderness, comments: “A person who is not convinced, enthusiastic and in love, will convince nobody.†We are missionaries and therefore, we have to possess “missionary enthusiasm,†and be passionate lovers, with “passion for Jesus and passion for his people†(EG, 266, 268), and principally passion for the poor and vulnerable (cf. EG 209 and 266).
The present, our times, is what matters most for us. Our brother E. Schillebeeckx advises us: “Without a living relationship to the present, any talk about Dominican spirituality remains a purely historical pre-occupation with the past of the Order – often an excuse for neglecting tasks which are urgent now†(God among Us – The Gospel Proclaimed, SCM Press Ltd. 1983, 235). On the other hand, those who escape to the future, with a hope described as a pie in the sky, will not live the present. The bridge of past and future is the present, today, now, and to live the present means to put love in everything we do each moment.
Jubilees in the Church and in the Order are radically a time of renewal, metanoia conversion. Objective of the Jubilee is “the renewal of the apostolic life of the Order†(ACGTr no, 108). After reading the second letter of the Promoter of the Jubilee, one brother commented: I learned some time ago that a celebration, a jubilee should not be a day’s affair, or a year’s commemoration, but a process, a dynamic process of renewal. Indeed, the success of the Jubilee will not depend on series of lectures or liturgical celebrations, or pilgrimages to St. Dominic’s places but on the continuation and strengthening of the process of renewal, and principally personal renewal, which makes possible communal and social renewal.
Personal renewal is principally conversion of the heart, a conversion centered on the passionate and compassionate love of Christ (cf. Rom 13: 14; Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 36). The first Dominicans “had received in their hearts that wound which has made all the saints eloquent. No orator can exist without this asset of a passionate soul…†(Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, Essay on the Re-establishment in France of the Order of Preachers).
The process of communal and personal conversion requires a good examination of conscience. Who am I? Am I happy? What is the place of the brothers and sisters, of the needy in my life? How is my life style – closer to the poor, the rich, or the middle class? Am I attached to power or positions or possessions? How are my faith and hope and love? Why some of us seem not to be motivated enough to continue the life-journey of formation and renewal?
It is time to conclude! The first group of Dominicans – 15 in all – arrived in Manila on July 22, 1587 (three others arrived in Macau about ten days later). Why these missionaries were so successful in their ministry that the civil and ecclesiastical authorities asked the King of Spain to send many more (muchos) Dominicans to them? Why? “Because the Dominicans live in these lands very much like sons of their Father Dominic†(cf. E. Neira, OP, Heraldos de Cristo en los Reinos del Oriente, 1986).
As a family, the family of Saint Dominic, we recall our birth to rejoice, to give thanks, to be sorry. Jubilee time is a time of hope and prayer and love. It will certainly be a time to praise, to bless and to preach: laudare, benedicere and praedicare. We remember the 800 hundred years of Dominican existence to be inspired and moved to change, to renew ourselves and thus transform the world.
May the Jubilee 800 be a special kairos, a time of grace!
May Mary Our Lady and Mother, and St. Dominic our Father help us! Amen
Fausto Gomez, OP
Provincial Promoter
St. Dominic’s Priory, December 22, 2014
