Dominican Pathway

Dominic de Guzmán founded the Order of Preachers in 1216 to fight the Albigensian heresy not by force but by preaching backed by contemplation. His insight was that effective witness requires genuine interior life. You cannot give what you do not have. The Dominican motto — contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere, to contemplate and hand on the fruits of contemplation — defines the tradition's charism. Study is not separate from prayer in the Dominican vision. It is one of its forms. To read the Scriptures or the Summa Theologiae with the right disposition is already a form of adoration. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest Dominican theologian, was also a man of intense prayer. His Adoro Te Devote — a Eucharistic hymn he composed — is one of the most beautiful theological prayers in the Latin tradition. Lectio Divina, the slow prayerful reading of Scripture, is the Dominican practice most accessible to ordinary life. The Rosary is the Dominican gift most widely practised in the whole Church. This pathway moves through the Dominican charism from body to intellect to the act of sharing what has been received.