#and ive been horribly neglecting the institution......

[whumpshaped]

so you're hate gonna hate me for this 😭 but I just recently read Dollhouse (absolutely amazing btw 🫶🏽🫶🏽) but is it still ongoing? and do you still make like little drabbles and whatnot about it? obviously it's absolute if you don't, just wondering!!

- 🐘

why would i hate u for liking smth i work super hard on,, it Is ongoing !! i can add u to the taglist if u dont wanna miss it !!

[lawrenceop]

Mary’s Patronage of the Dominican Order

In January 2020, I was honoured to preach the annual retreat for the Studentate of the Holy Name Province (California). The twelve talks looked at joyful, sorrowful, and glorious aspects of the Dominican life. Below is the 10th talk on our being led to glory under the patronage of Our Blessed Lady.

On the 22nd of December in 1216, our holy father St Dominic knelt before Pope Honorius III, at the Lateran Palace in Rome. And he received from the Holy Father a papal bull entitled ‘Religiosam vitam’, which extended “apostolic protection”, that is to say, papal approval, for the newly-formed Dominican brethren. This marked the beginning of the Dominican Order for this document gave to St Dominic and his brethren various legal rights and privileges and safeguards that secured our place in the Church as a religious order. In particular, it allowed St Dominic to “receive and keep” both members of the clergy and lay men who would “flee from the world to enter religious life.” A month later, the same Pope issued another document that granted to St Dominic’s Order the unique title of “Order of Preachers”, a term that until then had been used collectively to refer to the college of bishops. Incidentally, I believe that certain distinctively episcopal gestures and symbols were conceded to the Order, and these are found throughout the Dominican rite of Mass and in the rite of confession, for example, as signs of our sharing in the episcopal ministry of preaching.

These days, the anniversary of our Order is barely recalled liturgically - it is, after all, very close to Christmas, and falls within the ‘Golden Nights’ of Advent on the day proclaiming Christ to be O Rex Gentium. However, if we look in the old calendar, the 22nd of December – at least in the early 20th-century – was highlighted by the feast of the Patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Therefore, on a day that recalls the apostolic protection of a pope, we recall that ultimately, it is to the Mother of God that we look, for protection, for help, for succour. It is one of the glories of the Order that we have Our Lady as our patroness, and in particular, I want to consider the blessings she has given to us that lead us to heavenly glory.

According to some historians, the feast of Our Lady’s Patronage was instituted in the 13th-century when Pope Innocent IV had revoked some of the privileges granted to the Order, leaving us vulnerable to the attacks of the secular clergy. With no earthly patrons to help us, we looked to Our Lady whom the Vitæ Fratrum acknowledges as the true founder of the Order, and eleven years later, Pope Alexander IV restored the rights and privileges of the Order. The Constitutions, therefore, call her the “immensely caring mother of our Order”, but even this is somewhat less effusive than the old Constitutions which acknowledged Mary to be “our special Advocate and our most tender Mother and Patroness, who ever intercedes for us with God.” Apparently, we didn’t want to appear special, lest other Orders become jealous, just as some no longer wanted to claim the Rosary or the white Scapular as Our Lady’s special gift to the Order. However, for centuries, the Order claimed the special patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but this wasn’t because we were special friars. Rather, Our Lady instituted the Order of Preachers, and she protected it and safeguarded its mission because Our Lady has a special love for the salvation of souls. It is because of our mission, and the grave import of preaching the Gospel of her Son for the good of souls, that we find in Mary so great an advocate and patroness. For the Order is Our Lady’s gift to the world to help the Church in her most essential work of proclaiming the Truth to the world.

Thus the Vitæ Fratrum begins in this way: “It is clear from a careful study of holy Scripture, that the blessed Virgin is a compassionate advocate and powerful helper of mankind. By her prayers the fire of God’s wrath kindled against sinners is tempered lest they perish, and countless blessings are showered down upon the world… One of the examples of this is the fact, revealed to many of God’s servants, that this great Order was raised up by Almighty God’s mercy for the salvation of souls, through her all-prevailing intercession.” In an astonishing vision reported by a monk, he then sees Our Lady pleading with her Son to save sinners. But Jesus replies: “Holy Mother, what can I do, or ought I to do, further for the human race? Have I not sent them patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, and doctors of the Church for their salvation? Have I not delivered myself up to death for their sakes?” But Our Lady continues her prayers, saying that she cannot teach the divine Wisdom what to do, but she is sure that if he desires, Jesus will “find some remedy for this perishing people.” At last, on the third day, the Lord says: “I know, sweet Mother, that sinners are being lost for want of preachers, having none to break to them the bread of the holy Scriptures, or teach the truth, or open the books now sealed to them. Wherefore, yielding to thy entreaties, I will send them new messengers, an Order of Preachers, who shall call the people and lead them to everlasting joys; only then shall we bar the gate to all slothful, accursed, and empty-handed souls.’ After this the monk beholding this vision saw brethren clothed in the habit which we now wear, and the Son and the Mother sent them forth with their blessing, giving them power to preach the Kingdom of God.”

In this vision, we have no cause for any sense of entitlement and privilege; no cause for complacency because we’re special. Rather, to speak of Our Lady’s patronage is to remember the responsibilities and duties entrusted to us as friars preachers. We’re to “preach the Kingdom of God” by exposing the truth of the Scriptures and the doctrines of the Church to our contemporaries. As we’ve already noted, therefore, we must prayerfully study Scripture and theology to equip us for this divine mission of calling souls and leading them to heaven. I’m reminded of a fresco in the Chapter House of our first convent in Florence, at Santa Maria Novella, and painted on an entire east wall, to the right of the altar, is a work by one Andrea da Firenze begun in 1366. It is entitled ‘Via Veritatis’ and it shows the Dominican Order leading souls to heaven through their preaching, teaching, refutation of heresies, assisting the pope and bishops who govern the Church, and through the sacramental ministry of hearing confession. Seated in the Chapter House before this great painting, the Florentine Dominicans could not have failed to recall the many duties entrusted to the Order by Christ and his Blessed Mother. As we hear Our Lord say in the Vitæ Fratrum: “I will send unto them preachers and men of truth, through whom the world shall be enlightened and reclaimed. If it so prove, it is well; but if not, there remains no further remedy, but I will myself come in judgement and be avenged upon them.”

So, given this high but arduous calling, we might ask, who will preach to the preachers? Who will pray for these men of truth? Who will give sweet rest to these labourers in the vineyard of Christ’s Church? Our Blessed Mother herself will come and be our “immensely caring mother”. For Theodoric of Apoldia recounts a vision given to St Dominic which assures him that we are protected under her mantle, and he says that it is Mary “by whose loving hands that we are blessed, who bestows on us the dew of so many graces, and who preserves us by her intercession from countless dangers!” Therefore, following the order in which Theodoric enunciates them, I want to consider these three Marian gifts in our Dominican life: the Salve procession, the Holy Rosary, and the white scapular.

The nightly Salve procession after Compline is distinctive to the Order, and it seems that Our Lady herself gave it to us as a nightly protection from the attacks of the devil. Listen again to the Vitæ Fratrum: “The Virgin Mother of all love both cherishes with a very special affection and watches over this Order which she has founded, while the devil – who is jealous of everything that is good, and who hesitated not to tempt the Lord of all – assailed our brethren in Bologna and Paris.” The understanding here, not made explicit, is that during the night the brethren were tempted by the devil in various ways, sometimes through frightening visions, but also other “horrible torments” inducing them into sin. In 1226 Blessed Jordan of Saxony therefore declared that we must turn to our special patroness, and so he instituted the Salve procession, and at once “the phantoms were put to flight, those who had been tormented were left in peace, two who had gone mad were restored to their wits… and from that time all went well with them.”

Moreover, several people had visions of Our Lady coming from heaven to bless the brethren during the Salve procession. As the Salve was being sung, Mary would bow to the brethren in greeting, she would kneel before the Lord as our Advocate, “praying for the preservation of the Order”, and then as we sang O dulcis Virgo Maria and bowed low, she would bow back, and then give her blessing before returning to heaven. Every night, therefore, Mary intercedes for the Order and she desires to come and greet us, to bless us, to kiss us goodnight as our own mothers would have when we were children. Let us, therefore, not neglect this beautiful practice of the nightly Salve for through it, Our Lady opens the gates of heaven, and she comes to bring us the light of Christ, the light of his grace that would protect us from the temptations and fears of the night, and confer on us the rest that we need after busy days of preaching, teaching, and study. Hence the Vitæ Fratrum recounts that “Brother Seyer, a professor of Cambridge University, who was renowned for piety and learning, reported to us how a certain holy man used often to behold a globe of light come down from heaven and rest upon the heads of the brethren while they were devoutly singing blessed Mary’s anthem after Compline.”

The Salve then, becomes, like our lullaby that resounds in our heads as we head back to the silence of our cells and soon, it is hoped, to sleep. However, it is especially moving to sing the Salve when one of our brothers falls asleep in Christ – I will say more in my next talk.

In Theodoric’s list, after being blessed by Our Lady’s own hands, he tells of the “dew of so many graces”. I believe that this is a reference to the Holy Rosary because the word rosarium, although it can refer to a rose garden, could also be derived from the word ros meaning ‘dew’. This makes sense when we recall that Our Lady said to St Dominic when she gave him the Rosary that his preaching wasn’t effective because he was trying to cultivate dry ground. Therefore, she says, “preach my Rosary” because heresy will not disappear until prayer rises like dew from the earth. The beads of the Rosary, Mother Theodosia Drane OP says are thus like drops of dew which water the dryness of the heart with the dewfall of the Holy Spirit.

Hence, the Rosary is Mary’s gift to the Order; it prepares the ground for our preaching and teaching. In the Rosary Shrine in London, for example, we have monthly candlelit Rosary processions, and these draw many people, including non-Catholics, who are looking for a time of quiet reflection, of muted beauty, and of peace. And then, during these processions, we preach and teach through the brief reflections that we give on each mystery. The sweetness of Mary, Mater misericordiæ, draws them, and many people who might not come to Mass are happy to join in a Rosary procession; people will accept a Rosary during our street evangelisations, and they ask for our prayers; and in prison ministry, many inmates ask for Rosaries as a sign of their hope in divine protection. The old Dominican blessing for a Rosary thus asks that the Rosary itself – and not just the praying of the Rosary – “be endowed with such power of the Holy Spirit, that whoever carries one on his person or reverently keeps one in his home, or devoutly prays to [God] while meditating on the divine mysteries” should share in the graces, privileges, and indulgences granted to the Confraternity of the Rosary. And, moreover, we ask that these persons will be “always and everywhere be shielded from all enemies, visible and invisible, and at his death deserve to be presented to you by the most blessed Virgin Mary herself.”  

For whoever devoutly holds on to the Rosary will, by Our Lady’s intercession be brought to pray the Rosary, and to love God. I can say this from my own perspective. For years, as a convert to Catholicism from a devout Protestant family, I thought Marian devotion was extraneous and unnecessary, and I did not really understand the Rosary. In fact, I felt guilted into praying it! But Out Lady has other plans for me: first she put me in the Order of the Rosary. But even this didn’t get me to pray the Rosary regularly – I intellectualised it too much, and I think I tried too hard to like it. And then, Our Lady had me assigned to her Rosary Shrine in London where I became its Rector. By this stage, I had learnt to pray the Rosary as a matter of obedience. And then, now, Our Lady arranged for me to be the Order’s Promoter General of the Rosary, and for me to teach Mariology in Blackfriars Oxford! By a tremendous grace, at the time that the Master appointed me to this position in his Curia, I found I was able, with some ease, to pray 15 decades of the Rosary daily. Nevertheless, to begin with, all those years ago when I was a teenage convert, the Rosary was just something given to me at my first Communion, but it wasn’t something I used often. St Louis Marie de Montfort thus tells “several stories of great sinners who were converted through the power of the Rosary”, and I am sure there were many devout Rosary-praying Catholics who prayed for me and whose prayers continue to sustain me today.

Mary protects those who revere her Rosary, which is why she gives it to us. It hangs by our left side as a spiritual weapon, but it hangs there as a visible sign to others. On occasion when I am travelling people have commented on my Rosary when they see it, and this becomes an opening for a conversation about the Faith; children for example, love playing with the beads, and this is an opportunity to speak to their parents. During the two centuries or so when priests were not allowed to minister in Japan because of persecution, the Japanese Christians kept the faith alive by praying the Rosary, and many members of the Confraternity of the Rosary in Japan shed their blood for the Faith. Without mentioning the miracles of Lourdes and Fatima, these are just some examples of the many blessings given to the world and to the Order through the Rosary. Therefore, St Louis Marie de Montfort says: “As long as priests followed Saint Dominic’s example and preached devotion to the holy Rosary, piety and fervour thrived throughout the Christian world and in those religious orders that were devoted to the Rosary. But since people have neglected this gift from heaven, all kinds of sin and disorder have spread far and wide.” A century ago, Our Lady of the Rosary appeared at Fatima to remedy this, telling us to “pray the Rosary daily” for peace. And on subsequent occasions, and through Pope St John Paul II, Mary has again and again asked us to pray the Rosary. As Dominicans, to whom the Rosary was entrusted by Providence, we must therefore pray the Rosary and promote it both within and without the Order. I ask you, brothers, please to help me in this necessary work because it pleases Our Lady and Christ so very much. For as St Louis Marie de Montfort says: “Our Lady not only blesses those who preach her Rosary but she highly rewards all those who, by their example, get others to say it.” Truly, this is the chain of grace, by which we are rescued from the Enemy and pulled up to heaven!

Lastly, Our Lady’s third sign to her favoured sons is the scapular which she gave to the Order through Blessed Reginald. Like our own mothers who clothed us, so our heavenly mother clothes us in garments that anticipate the wedding garments of heaven. We have already looked at this, but I wish today to just remind you of those words which used to be said when we received it. The scapular is “the maternal pledge from Heaven of the love of the Blessed Virgin Mary towards us, under whose wings thou shalt find a shelter from the heat, and a bulwark and defence in death from all dangers both of body and soul.” Kiss the scapular, therefore, before you put it on, as a sign of your love for Our Blessed Mother and of trust in her great patronage; this devout act used to be enriched with indulgences.

Let us pray:

O God, who, for the salvation of souls, placed the Order of Preachers under the special protection of the most blessed virgin Mary, and was pleased to pour out upon it her unceasing favours: grant to your suppliants, that we may be led to the joy of heaven through the aid of that same protectress. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Collect for the feast of Our Lady’s Patronage of the Order)