Dominicans open new intellectual headquarters

Brother James Dominic Brent, O.P.
Currently preparing to be ordained a Dominican Priest in spring 2010

Brother James Dominic Brent, O.P., minces no words when asked what prompted him to become a priest, when, at 28, he was a successful academic teaching philosophy and Thomistic studies at St. Louis University: it was the sense of "the bankruptcy of life without faith," he said, that prompted him to reconnect with his calling first discerned during high school. Not untypically, his college years had seen him drift away from that resolution. Now 33, he became a deacon earlier this year and is due to be ordained a Dominican priest in spring 2010.

This is not to say that Dominican life comes without challenges. Starting out on the road to priesthood he had assumed that celibacy would be the biggest hurdle for him. To his surprise, obedience turned out to be the hardest thing. "At 28, I was living an autonomous life," he said, "but all of a sudden you have a Superior and a lot of accountability; you are there to serve other people and you leave a lot of your own wishes at the door." But to his greater surprise still, obedience brought with it a deeper encounter with God. "Ever since I joined the Order, I have known a happiness, a joy, and a peace that I never before knew was possible in this life."

Dominicans are free to choose their field of study, their reading, he added; "Dominican life does not suppress conceptual thinking as can happen in other religious settings. And that is a great freedom."

His own experience of discovering the full force of his longing for God will be a powerful tool once he assumes his preaching duties in the world at large, with his pastoral charges, young and not-so-young adults, seemingly content with their lives but fundamentally unmoored. "People avoid the Church," he said, "because they think one can't be happy and Christian at the same time." That, Br. Brent insisted, is a fallacy: far from faith interfering with happiness, "there is no greater joy than being a Catholic and knowing Christ in the Eucharist."

"That's why it's called the Good News: it tells us the truth about happiness," he said. But how to convey this message in today's highly secularized environment is of course no easy task. Nonetheless, Br. Brent is convinced "that the Holy Spirit is always doing something and that our time is a special moment of grace."

That action of the Holy Spirit, he said, is clearly evident in the Dominican Province of St. Joseph, which has 30 men currently in formation and another ten in the novitiate. Then there are dozens of men drawn to the Order and considering making the jump. "The Lord seems to be sending us a lot of young men; He clearly has a mission for us," said Br. Brent.

He sees special opportunities in the current climate of financial distress that is upending so many lives. Assigned to pastoral duty at St. Peter's Church on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., among other assignments, he prepares adults for the Baptism of their children. He is discovering that hardship is also an opportunity for people to "step back and take a hard look at their lives." "A crisis prompts us," he said, "to consider the life we have been living and to ask ourselves, 'is this as deep as it gets, or is there more?'"

Br. Brent comes to his mission thoroughly trained in the wisdom of Thomistic teaching. His doctoral dissertation was on "the Epistemic Status of Christian Beliefs in Thomas Aquinas." In layman's terms, his subject concerned the demonstration of the "reasonableness or the intelligibility of faith," which means, in part, answering the question of how to accept certain truths, those of divine revelation, even if we cannot prove them.

Divine revelation, said Br. Brent, "is an action by which God bears witness to Himself; He gives us information about Himself, and confirmation of His presence, as in the lives of the saints, and in miracles, and also an inclination of the heart to accept these things. In the end, that formula, he said, "information, confirmation and inclination" stirs us to a reasonable belief.

Like many of his fellow brothers and Friars, Br. James will live a life of the mind. Down the line, a likely destination will be a professorship, perhaps at the Dominican House of Studies. "But I will not just be an academic," said Br. Brent; "I will see myself first and foremost as a priest who celebrates the sacraments, who prepares people for Mass in confession. Secondarily, I will be studying philosophy and theology for the sake of being a good priest and building up the Church."

Br. James is determined to find ever more effective ways to "translate" the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas for an uninitiated audience, to show them, quite simply, that Catholicism makes sense. "There may just be a book in it one day," he said, "but I have to hone my skills first."

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Press Information

The media are invited to interview leading Dominicans of the Province of St. Joseph as follows: Saturday, April 18 from 1:00pm-2:00 pm and Sunday, April 19 at 1:00-2:00 pm

Please meet interviewees on the 1st Floor of the Theological Library at the Dominican House of Studies (directions below), or by appointment.

For more information, or to schedule phone interview(s), please contact THOMAS PETERS or JEFF GRABOSKY.

Phone: 202-495-3877 or 202-495-3828
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Address: The Dominican House of Studies, 487 Michigan Ave, NE, Washington DC 20017