On this first Tuesday in the series of 15 Tuesdays in honor of our Holy Father St. Dominic, our reflection ties together aspects of the mystery of the Annunciation with St. Dominic’s correspondence with God’s will in his life.
Correspondence to the Will of God
In his classic Abandonment to Divine Providence, De Caussade says that Our Lady knew and followed the divine will in the circumstances of her life, as did the Patriarchs and Prophets before her. In our reflection, we think of how her parents presented her in the Temple to serve the Lord, and we can imagine Our Lady doing nothing else than entering into that service with great joy; she received St. Joseph as spouse with a similar joy, knowing that this marriage decided upon according to the custom of the time, was in God’s plan for her. Yet in the scene of the Annunciation, we see a more direct and immediate invitation to follow God’s will as declared by the Angel, which she also accepts with humility and joy.
This interesting interplay between God’s will for us revealed by providential circumstances or the solid and fast guidelines that we know, and the more direct and personal intimations of His will, is seen also in the life of our Holy Father St. Dominic. His noble parents, Felix de Guzman and Blessed Jane of Aza, sent him at a young age to be educated for the priesthood. He set himself to embracing this providential expression of God’s will so well that when he emerges as a youth completing his studies, Dominic’s fervor in following the Lord was already so noteworthy that the Bishop of Osma recruited him to join his group of canons at the cathedral.
Later, even Dominic’s special vocation as founder of the Friars Preachers came about through the circumstantial arrangement of Divine Providence. His historic night vigil talking with the heretical innkeeper, who saw the light of God’s truth along with the dawning of a new day, could seem to be a random event, yet it set Dominic on the path of preaching for the salvation of souls; and even the form of his Order in adopting the Rule of St. Augustine was providentially shaped by the recent edict of the Fourth Lateran Council forbidding the foundation of orders with new rules.
Yet while whole-heartedly embracing God’s will as laid out for him in these circumstances of his life, St. Dominic also knew how to follow God’s interior inspiration within. It was the hours of contemplative prayer and meditation on the Word of God that fueled the blazing fire of zeal for souls that later drove his apostolic preaching. Fully open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, those capacities to catch the gusts of His inspirations, St. Dominic was able not only to follow the lead of circumstances, but also to step forward boldly in action. On that feast of the Assumption in 1217 when he dispersed the little band of brethren in the fledgling Order, they protested this initiative. Surely it would destroy these fragile beginnings! Yet St. Dominic spoke with the assurance inspired by God: grain that is hoarded would rot, but sown abroad will reap a rich harvest. The friars indeed set out, and it turned out as he had said, the Order taking root and flourishing all across Europe.
As we keep this first Tuesday in honor of our Holy Father St. Dominic, then, let us ask him to help us correspond to God’s will in the circumstances of our lives with greater fidelity, so that we can be more attentive to the interior inspiration of the Holy Spirit within, and entrust the results of all our efforts with greater confidence to God.
Additional Prayers
If you would like to observe this day with additional devotions, we have posted the following prayers in the past: