Today is the feast day of the birth of the Blessed Mother. It’s not a holy day of obligation so it might go unnoticed if you don’t follow the Church calendar. As many of you know, I’m a Lay Dominican, and the Dominican Order has a special relationship with the Holy Virgin, and I wanted to share a good article as to why. As you might know, the Blessed Mother was supposed to have given St. Dominic the rosary, but there is more than just that. In “Mary, Mother of St.Dominic” by Br. Titus Mary Sanchez, O.P. you can read about our relationship here.
Filial love of Mary is an essential aspect of the Dominican character. The Order of Saint Dominic is Blessed Mary’s Order. Our Order was established by her intercession and has been sustained by her aid for eight centuries. The Order could not have survived long if it could only rely upon the wisdom of its men, the learnedness of its scholars, or the rhetoric of its preachers. If one removed Marian devotion from our life, what you would find would be unintelligible—it would simply not be a Dominican friar’s life any longer. Why?
Brother Titus provides three reasons. I’m just going to skim them. Please read the entire article to fully understand.
First, each friar of the Order of Preachers takes a vow of obedience to the Blessed Mother. In this way “Our Lady accepts a friar’s vow as permission to use him however she pleases.”
Second, the Dominican friar wears a white scapular is gift from the Virgin, given to Blessed Reginald of Orleans. “Our habit—our uniform—is from heaven, a gift from our Mother.”
Third, Dominican friars pray the Salve Regina and the rosary, which was given to Dominic from the Blessed Mother, daily.
Brother
Titus ends his piece with this wonderful conclusion:
The Order of Preachers is Mary’s Order. In imitation of St. Dominic, her name ought to be engraved on the heart of every member of our Order.
It
would be totally appropriate to pray a rosary and/or a Salve Regina today in
her honor.
Salve, Regina, mater
misericordiae;
vita dulcendo et spes
nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus, exules,
filii Evae.
Ad te suspiramus,
gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo advocata nostra,
illos tuos misericordes
oculos
ad nos converte.
Et Iesum,
benedictus fructus
ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium
ostende.
O clemens, O pía,
o dulcis Virgo María
