Archbishop Dermot Farrell
Letter to the Order of Preachers
on the 800th anniversary of their arrival in Ireland
As the Dominicans in Ireland mark the eight hundredth anniversary, both of their arrival among us, and of the birth of Saint Thomas Aquinas, I write to reflect on the Dominican contribution to the life of the Church in Dublin, and, most of all, to express my appreciation for the constancy, courage, and vitality of the Order’s witness to the faith in Ireland.
John Troy OP, Archbishop of Dublin from 1786 to 1823
Eight Centuries of Proclamation and Mission
For eight centuries, members of the Order of Preachers have faithfully proclaimed and explored the Word of God, and ministered to the People of God, not only in Ireland but in missions as diverse as Australia, India, the Caribbean, and the Americas. From the time they first set foot in Ireland, the friars adapted their mission to the changing historical situation across the island of Ireland. Authenticity in mission, being foolish for Christ (see 1 Cor 4:10), brings many fruits, but this always comes at a cost. The martyrdom of Peter Higgins (d. 1642) and Terence Albert O’Brien (d. 1651), beatified in 1992, embodied their courageous commitment to Christ and to his flock (see John 10:11). In another age, John Troy (1739–1823), who served as Archbishop of Dublin for 37 years, shaped the expression of Catholic life in his building of St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral and by the role he played in the establishment of Maynooth College.
As Ireland began rapidly to change in the 1960s, the learning of Dominican scholars in philosophy, scripture, and theology, by their work in houses of formation and faculties, and their informative, compassionate, joy-filled media presence, served greatly the reception of the Second Vatican Council in an Irish Church which had little desire or preparation for change and renewal. Is this not to follow “Dominic’s great call to preach the gospel of God’s merciful love in all its saving truth and redemptive power”? (Pope Francis, Letter on the Eight Centenary of the Death of Dominic, May 24, 2021)
Sisters and Brothers in the Poor Christ
In the coming weeks, Saint Dominic’s birthplace, the small Spanish town of Caleruega, will host an international gathering of younger Dominican sisters “to reflect on God’s dream for them as women preachers in today’s world.” Since its foundation, one of the most important facets of your Order has been that you are an Order of both women and men in an authentic communion of charism and ministry, a communion which has deepened and diversified over the centuries.
The Irish Dominican sisters in their two foundations, Cabra and Siena, have contributed significantly to the deepening of the faith in Ireland, bringing the gospel and its transformative power to the imperatives of education, of justice and inclusion, to raising awareness about the fragility and wonder of our Common Home, while embodying the conviction that, without its mystical dimension, our faith will never have the ‘depth of soil’ (see Mark 4:5) that will provide that ‘good’ place for the Word ‘to take root,’ and ‘bring forth fruit.’ (Mark 4:8) We are blind to the fullness of the mystery of our life in God (see Eph 1:23, 3:19), when we fail to see the unique contribution of the feminine to the mission of the Church.
Saint Catherine of Siena is not alone among Dominicans in perceiving herself as “stirred up by a devouring desire for the honour of God and the salvation of souls.” (Dialogue, Chap 1). Women and men of prayer—mystics who have risked falling in love with God—come to know that there is nothing more important in life than the seeking of God’s face in the darkness, in the light, and in the service of their neighbour. Only through lives lived out of prayer in its deepest sense, can the gospel—God’s open door—find its way from the ultimate dryness of ideas to the depths of the heart, the hallways of the God’s Holy House (see John 14:2; cf. Luke 5:4 and Mark 9:28–29).
The Gift of Thomas Aquinas
That same desire for the love of God, and the corresponding radical compassion for the neighbour form the foundation of the life and work of Thomas Aquinas, the eight centenary of whose birth you also celebrate this year. Thomas was graced with a passion for the absolute, for that which is ultimate. It turned his life upside down, and gave him the freedom radically to embrace Dominic’s charism and way.
Uncompromising in his search for the ultimate, Thomas forges a new way of speaking of God and of “showing how one might go on speaking of ‘God’ in the ordinary world” (see Cornelius Ernst OP, Multiple Echo: Explorations in Theology [London: DLT, 1977], 74). It was to the “ordinary world” that Christ came. It is in the “ordinary world” that we are saved—the world of birth and death, of hope and failure, of generosity and loss. Our mission is to the “ordinary world.” Saint Thomas, with his capacity to search without compromise, belongs to more than a Church turned in on itself.
Both people of faith, and our sisters and brothers who do not, or cannot, perceive a horizon other than the created, need Thomas’s passion for the ultimate, and the humility it brings. “God is honoured by silence,” says Thomas, “not because we may say or know nothing about him, but because we know that we are unable to comprehend him.” (Super Boethium de Trinitate) We need the experience in which such hope is grounded. Christian life makes no sense apart from such a hope. This is no flight from the world, but a true encounter with the world God gives us.
St Dominic with Ss Peter and Paul in a stained-glass window at St Saviour’s Priory, Dominick Street, Dublin
Contemplata
Just over a decade ago, the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris hosted a Fra Angelico exhibition under the rubric, “Fra Angelico and the Masters of Light.” Fra Angelico’s mastery of light, his capacity to render the interiority of his subjects, gave expression to his profound faith and intense spirituality. What he fashioned was not only born of contemplation, but it evoked contemplation. It was born out of silence and called to silence.
Given this talent with the Word and with words, one could be forgiven for failing to see the same dynamic in Thomas. The mystery that Fra Angelico had explored and expressed through image and silence, Thomas had explored through word and silence. May this fruitful diversity in the service of the Word continue to inspire the friars and sisters towards imaginative initiatives in the public square, especially in the arts, in publication, and on the periphery of society and Church.
Looking to the Future
Our Church needs this witness to the power and faithfulness of God. We need witnesses to the transcendent closeness of the Father, and to the revealing work of the Spirit. We need to know that God still seeks his people. But that discovery is hollow without witness to the compassion and closeness of God to the weak and the vulnerable, those hidden in our society. There too we meet the Lord, hidden and at the same time revealed in the face of his little ones.
Our world, which still thirsts for mystery and hope, also needs this witness and this word. The radical discipleship of Saint Dominic brings home how enduring proclamation happens only in a dialogue born of openness and generous commitment to the world God gives us anew every day. In the prophetic words of Saint Paul VI,
what matters is to evangelise human culture and cultures—not in a purely decorative way, as it were, by applying a thin veneer, but in a vital way, in depth and right to their very roots… always taking the person as one’s starting-point and always coming back to the relationships of people among themselves and with God. (Evangelii Nuntiandi, no 20)
I pray that the Risen One, the Lord of history and time, may continue to guide the friars and the sisters, in your richness and diversity, in finding new and imaginative ways of bearing witness to the work of God among and within all his people, and most of all, the poor.
St Dominic, Pray for Us.
St Thomas Aquinas, Pray for Us.
St Catherine of Siena, Pray for Us.
+Dermot Farrell,
Archbishop of Dublin
