“Preaching is the essence of how the Dominican Order understands itself,” Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P. told 33 young men at St. Joseph’s Province’s recent vocations weekend (Feb. 13-15) at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. The order’s earliest constitution, explained Fr. Legge, who teaches theology at Providence College, in Providence, RI, stresses that the “all important goal is that Friars be useful to the souls of their neighbors.”

In St. Dominic’s day, said Fr. Legge, the call for Friars to go out into the world was revolutionary and quite controversial. The monastic ideal of the early Middle Ages stressed the importance of monks “perfecting themselves by withdrawing from the world,” he said. By contrast, Dominicans went out into the world, braving all its temptations. But key to understanding the Dominican vocation, stressed Fr. Legge, is that the Friars perfect themselves, “work out their own salvation precisely by preaching to others. He added that “a life of preaching is an oblation to God.”

St. Thomas Aquinas, silencing critics of the order, made clear that these worldly expeditions were not in tension with the two other pillars of Dominican life—the contemplative life and study—but that these two “are wedded to preaching.” Study provides substance for preaching, while contemplation allows the Friar to hand on to his hearers “what he has contemplated, that is, God.” The common life, too, “generates preaching,” said Father Legge, as the Friars who stay in choir, or even work in the kitchen, participate in the preaching of the Friar who goes out into the world.

In the final analysis, said Father Legge, those called to preach have “a grace of preaching;” and “preaching is a divine action,” not just a matter of skill: “God acts through us as his instruments.” To watch a video of Fr. Legge’s talk, please see above.