Lay Dominicans, wonderful. I will pray for you.
It reminded me of a post on a Dominican blog:
This morning an Air Force pilot pointed out that flying close to the deck in Afganistan and Iraq, you can always tell what kind of animals you are coming up on. A flock of goats scatters in every direction in response to the noise of the aircraft, whereas the sheep all run to the shepherd; so before you are even close, you know what kind of animals the flock is made of.
That said, this seems like one occasion to make a shameless plug. The scripture doesn’t make mention of the assistant that the shepherd has, the dog. Now the dogs’ job is not just to herd the sheep, but to bark when the wolf comes, and to defend the sheep and the shepherd, even at the cost of their own lives. It is worth noting in this context that the dog has always been associated with St. Dominic, appearing in art at his side, and the word “Dominicans” being derived from Domini canus - God’s dogs.
I took classes at St. Vincent Ferrer in NYC some years back. It’s an amazing Dominican church.
Look see:
http://www.csvf.org/Architecture-A.html
You can go back and see the great Rood suspended over the altar.
Pray for me. I love the spirituality of the Dominicans, yet still feel drawn to the Carmelites as third order.
I ran sheep for more than a decade and had two guardian dogs, Agnes and Raquel, Great Pyrenees, the best dogs I have ever known. If I had half the nobility of Agnes I would be emperor already.
I also had a few goats,whom I dearly loved. Dairy animals can be special. But docile they ain’t.
I spent several days at the priory at St. Vincent’s two Aprils ago. That is some gorgeous church! But what touched me the most was that when we came into the friars’ chapel for matins and lauds there were always a few people, almost invisible in the church on the other side of the screen, who prayed the morning offices with us — the unsung saints and pilgrims who praise the Lord anonymously and alone and carry His grace secretly into the world.
Blessed Juana of Asa is said to have had a dream during her pregnancy that (in the most elaborate version) a black and white dog carried a torch in his mouth and set the world on fire. But Dominic was named after another saint who assured Juana that she would become pregnant and bear a great child. I think the “Lord’s Dogs” was just a perceived pun more than a derivation, and the English friars have a website called, I think, “Godz Dogs” — which, barring the phonetic ‘z’, is “Domini-canes”.
As long as I am permitted to wag my tail, I will be happy to bark for the Lord. Thanks for your prayers.If I am preserved from disgracing the order, I will be content.