Priest joined order which saved him spiritually from ‘personal crisis’
The Order of Preachers may have reached the end of their 800th anniversary, but there is still cause to celebrate.
“It’s a time for joy and gratitude for our founder, St. Dominic, for the existence of the Order and its charisms and for our personal vocations to the Order of Preachers,” said Cathy Neugebauer, a lay Dominican.
“It is also a time of renewal for the whole Order and each Dominican (as) we reflect on the past and consider how the Holy Spirit continues to breathe life into (St. Dominic’s) followers.”
Dominican friars, nuns, and laity gathered together at St. Mary’s Church in Vancouver Jan. 21 to celebrate the history of the Dominican Order and share stories of their experiences with the Order’s spirituality.
The Jubilee marks 800 years since Pope Honorius III’s Bull confirming the foundation of the Order, said Neugebauer, who shared her Dominican Order experiences with more than 90 participants. She was part of a panel that included priests, nuns, and other laity.
The Order of Dominicans prepared for the Jubilee year with a 10-year period of preparation, with special themes for each year. This year’s theme is Sent to Preach the Gospel, “which is what the Order of Preachers is about!” said Neugebauer.
While the anniversary marked the beginnings of the Order for the friars, the Dominican nuns have an even longer history said Neugebauer.
The contemplative nuns were founded in 1206, when St. Dominic de Guzman established a house for women at Prouille, France. He had invited a group of noble ladies, whom he had converted to Christianity, to offer prayers in support of his new Order of Preachers. The order, comprised largely of professors and university students, was formed to fight against heresy during the 13th century.
“The official rule for lay people and formal recognition of lay Dominicans came centuries later,” said Neugebauer. “Nevertheless, we are all part of the ‘Dominican Family,’ along with some secular institutes, other lay groups and more temporary associations such as Dominican Volunteers International and International Dominican Youth Movement.”
Father Gabriel de Chadarevian, OP, assistant pastor at St. Mary’s, shared his experience on how the Dominican order saved him spiritually.
After rejecting the Catholic Church’s teachings at the age of 15 due to reading the works of Karl Marx, he was living in a time of “personal crisis,” he said.
While studying in a university in Beirut, Lebanon, “I really saw something of St. Dominic on the face of a Sister Mary Bernard, a Dominican working in the university campus,” he said.
“She was a very beautiful woman, advanced in years, but the beauty of her joy at being a Dominican and preaching the Word of God was very attractive to me.”
The nun suggested he get in contact with the Dominican Friars, and he soon joined the Order at the age of 29. “For me, before becoming a Dominican, I dreamed about being a father of a big family. I was romantic, and hoped to find a woman with whom I could have 12 children,” Father de Chadarevian told the laughing audience.
“For me, I had to be a priest within a family of brothers. I am a family man, so that makes me a community man too,” he said. “We call ourselves friars because we are brothers, even though we are priests!”
Father de Chadarevian, Pastor Father Pierre Leblond, OP, and Father Claude Noel, OP, priest in residence, formed the small community of Dominican priests at St. Mary’s.
“I thank God I found my joy in the Dominican life,” said Father de Charevian. “We are so very blessed to have so many saints and blessed men and women be a part of our Dominican family.”
Neugebauer added, “We can imagine ourselves being sent as St. Dominic sent his followers, now sharing the joy and the freedom of the mission with the whole Dominican family.”
