If you were to go to Mass today over at St Vincent Ferrer's in Kenwood or All Saints or St John Vianney's, you would be celebrating the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Today, August 8th, here at St Gertrude's, because we are a Dominican parish, we are celebrating the Solemnity of our holy father Dominic, the founder of the Order of Preachers, the Dominicans, which, for us, takes liturgical precedence over the regular Sunday celebration. And as you can see (and I hope it brings as big a smile to your faces as it brings to mine) today we are bursting at the seams with young Dominican friars -- the twenty-one young men who received the holy habit of our father St Dominic in a beautiful vestition ceremony last night and our eight novice brothers, who, a week from now, will make their First Profession as Friars Preachers.

Listen for a moment to the only description of the physical appearance of St Dominic we have, given by a cloistered Dominican nun of the thirteenth century, who knew St Dominic personally, and who had received the habit from the hands of St Dominic himself:

"I would describe the appearance of Blessed Dominic in this way. He was slender and of medium height. His face was handsome and somewhat ruddy. His hair and beard were reddish and his eyes beautiful. From his brow and eyes emanated a kind of radiance, which drew everyone to revere and love him. He was always cheerful and smiling, except when he was moved to compassion at the sight of someone's affliction. His hands were long and well-formed, and his voice was of a pleasing resonance. He was never bald, although he wore the full corona, which was sprinkled with a few gray hairs."

But a saint's physical appearance isn't what makes them a saint, although sanctity can sometimes radiate physically from a person. A spiritual portrait of St Dominic is what we need, one that captures the essence of who the Spaniard, Domingo de Guzman, was as a man of God and as a priest and founder, and this we can gain from understanding the Order he founded.

Here's how the Fundamental Constitution of our Order begins: "The Order's purpose was described as follows by Pope Honorius III (back in the year 1216) in a letter to St Dominic and his brothers: ‘He who never ceases to make His Church fruitful through new offspring wishes to make these modern times the equal of former days and to spread the Catholic faith. So he inspired you with a holy desire to embrace poverty, profess the regular life and commit yourself to the proclamation of the word of God, preaching everywhere the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.'

"The Order of Friars Preachers, founded by St Dominic, ‘is known to have been established, from the beginning, for preaching and the salvation of souls, specifically. Our brothers, therefore, as the founder prescribed, ‘should everywhere behave uprightly and religiously, as men intent on procuring their own and other people's salvation; they should behave as evangelical men, following in the footsteps of the Savior, speaking to God or of God, among themselves or with their neighbors.'"

One thing for which I will be eternally grateful to our holy father, St Dominic is the fact that, in founding our Order, he didn't set himself up as the model, the example which every subsequent generation of Dominicans must emulate, must follow. He bequeathed to us, his children, great liberty. We don't all have to strive to be an "alter Dominicus," another Dominic. The old saying is, "If you've met one Dominican...you've met one Dominican!" There's nothing "cookie cutter" about us. We're not always trying to be the best carbon-copies of St Dominic that we can be, and then getting angry with each other when we fail to live up to his high standard.

What our holy father did leave to us is what I like to call "the elements of his own sanctification;" he bequeathed to his sons and daughters the means of grace, to which he gave himself over wholeheartedly, that led to his being conformed ever more closely to the image of Christ crucified and risen from the dead. What are these "elements of his own sanctification"? Things like: the Rule of St Augustine by which we live our common life; the monastic observances; the chanting of the Divine Office in choir; the living of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience; a tender devotion for and total confidence in the Mother of God; a life of assiduous study of sacred truth; combined with an overwhelming thirst and zeal for the salvation of souls. It was giving himself over completely to these things that had led St Dominic to the heights of sanctity, and it was with absolute confidence that he bequeathed them to his sons and daughters, knowing that if we too gave ourselves over to them, each in his or her own unique way and mode, we too would be led in the "paths of perfection."

I spoke of the great liberty that is ours as sons and daughters of St Dominic. One of the principles of the philosophy and theology of our Dominican brother, St Thomas Aquinas, that a young person imbibes in coming to the Order of Preachers is one that we refer to among ourselves in short-hand as "quidquid recipitur." The whole phrase in Latin is "Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur." A translation would be: "Whatever is received is received according to the manner of the receiver." What that means is that when I receive something, I receive it as myself, not as someone else, in a way that is unique to me, and, most important, I make what I receive my own. In our context today, in speaking of the "elements of his own sanctification" which St Dominic bequeathed to the Order he founded, what this means is that, when a young man or woman comes to the Order of Preachers to be formed, he or she receives, as our common patrimony, a way of life that is encompassed by the "elements of Saint Dominic's own sanctification," and in receiving them and striving to live them, the individual Dominican is not changed into another little St Dominic, but rather makes these elements his or her own and strives to live them out in a way that is peculiarly, particularly his or hers, in a way that marvelously preserves and protects the individuality of each member of the Order.

One of the historians of our Order, the late Fr William A Hinnebusch, of our Province, wrote in his two-volume history: The character of the Order of Friars Preachers reflects the ideals of St Dominic its founder. He yearned to save the souls of his fellowmen everywhere in the world. His Order incarnates this ideal. For this purpose he created it, gave it its character, endowed it with religious life. Basically the Order of Friars Preachers is contemplative. As such, the first souls it reaches are its own members. It sanctifies them and brings them into close union with God through the prayer of contemplation. But like its founder, the Order is also apostolic. It aims to create such love for God in the hearts of its children that their love will burst forth and inflame others. The contemplation of Dominicans must become evangelical, leaping the walls of the cloister and carrying the light of the Gospel throughout the world.

"The character of the Order of Friars Preachers reflects the ideals of St Dominic its founder." This is what I mean when I say that St Dominic entrusted to us, his sons and daughters, the elements of his own sanctification. It's as if he says to us, "Here, these worked for me, and I know they'll work for you, too." And you know what? I think I've had a sense, from even before I could count myself among the sons and daughters of St Dominic, that our life "works", that it is indeed a path to holiness. Not that any one of us ever lives it perfectly, or follows the path without deviation, but if we give ourselves over to it by the grace of God, then the grace of God will draw us closer and closer to the end for which we are made, for which our hearts long, namely the vision of God face-to-face.

Pope Honorius III said it best back in 1216 about St Dominic and his first followers, but it remains true to this day, and it is why there is nothing ancient about the Dominican Order except our long and illustrious history: "He who never ceases to make His Church fruitful through new offspring wishes to make these modern times the equal of former days and to spread the Catholic faith. So he inspired you with a holy desire to embrace poverty, profess the regular life and commit yourself to the proclamation of the word of God, preaching everywhere the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

May it be so. May it always be so.