Regular Observance and Sacred Preaching: Homily for Sunday, August 10, 2025

What does it mean to be a parish staffed by Dominicans? Regular Observance and Sacred Preaching. We explore in this homily what it means specifically to be a parish that embraces this charism. Readings for Today.

Regular Observance and Sacred Preaching

On Friday, we celebrated the patronal feast of the Dominican Order, that of St. Dominic. One question that I think it is important to reflect upon is this. What does it mean to be in a parish staffed by Dominicans? This question is, I think, an important one because it cannot be the case that we, as friars, are diocesan priests wearing funny clothes. Even though, I might remark, our clothes represent the best of 13th century fashion.

As you may know, Dominicans have a special charism. A charism is a gift given by God for the benefit of the entire church. And we boldly proclaim our charism at the end of our names, “OP.” We are Order of Preachers. Which, of course, means among things that we should be doing, we should be good at preaching.

But we need to understand that preaching for us means more than just what priests and deacons do at Mass. The sacred preaching is a powerful charism given to us all by God. And to be in a parish staffed by Dominicans means that all we do and how we live informs the sacred preaching.

While it is more common today to refer to Dominican life by the four pillars, which St. Dominic, quite frankly, would not have understood, I prefer another way, one that would have been more familiar to St. Dominic. I suggest that Dominican life is about regular observance and the sacred preaching. This is not merely a semantical difference.

The three aspects of regular observance form a synergistic relationship with the sacred preaching. To understand this, I am reminded of a little cartoon that featured Christmas lights eating at a restaurant. The waiter asks them why they always come to the restaurant together. And they reply, “Because when one of us goes out, we all go out.” It may be the case that not all of you will get this joke, since Christmas lights are made differently today.

But in a way, this joke is a good analogy to Dominican life. When one Dominican engages in the sacred preaching, it is the result of the interactions with other Dominicans in community and prayer and study that the preacher brings to the sacred preaching. So the phrase “regular observance” was really common in describing all forms of religious life in St. Dominic’s day. Dominic’s former way of life as a cathedral canon would have been built on regular observance. Benedictine monks would have followed regular observance while also doing manual labor to support themselves.

So what is regular observance? It is prayer, study, and community. But like the Trinity, I think it is best not to think of these as three separate things, but forming one unified whole. And it is regular observance that informs and inspires the sacred preaching. So the answer to the question, “What does it mean to be in a parish staffed by Dominicans?” is that the Dominican charism, regular observance, and the sacred preaching infuses everything we do as a parish. And not only that, it means that everyone in the parish, in roles appropriate to their state in life, lives out the regular observance and the sacred preaching.

So what does it mean to live regular observance? Let’s take the subparts to this, prayer, study, and community, and examine them. Prayer is the primary aspect of life for every Christian. This is because we need to cultivate the relationship with God above all else. Jesus tells us that love of God is the most important commandment. Time and again we hear that followers of Jesus must prioritize this relationship with God over all others.

And so, when we gather at Mass, regardless of the size of the community that gathers, we come to Mass first and foremost to worship God. This was the theology of what is sometimes referred to in pre-Vatican II liturgy as the priest having his back to the people. The theology was that the entire community, priest and congregation, was facing Jesus together. The emphasis was upon Jesus.

Now, I am not advocating a return to those days, but what I am saying is that in all we do at Mass, our primary focus must be upon God. It is also the case, however, that we do not pray only on our own. There are times when we pray in community as well. Certainly we can think of Mass in this way, for we meet Christ and each other as Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Vatican II document on the liturgy reminds us.

But, Dominicans, and in fact all who engage in regular observance today, also devote themselves to what is called the Liturgy of the Hours. We Dominicans pray together the Liturgy of the Hours, most especially in Lauds, that is morning prayer, and Vespers, that is evening prayer.

The second sub-part of regular observance is study. For St. Dominic, study was seen as a form of prayer. That is because when we study our faith, our goal is to allow our faith in God to seek understanding of God. And there is a certain asceticism to study. We need to make sacrifices, particularly of time, to engage in it. And all of this is best done in community. We pray and study in community.

And our prayer and our study are not only for ourselves. They are for all of us. So to be a parish staffed by Dominicans is to walk in the footsteps of St. Dominic. This is a parish known for our sense of community. But we also need to ask ourselves, do we study together? Besides Mass, do we pray together?

One small step I would ask you to consider is at least some of the time to join the friars in the priory for the Liturgy of the Hours. During the week, we pray evening prayer at 5 p.m. and morning prayer at 7. On Saturday and Sunday, evening prayer is at 5.30, with morning prayer on Sunday morning at 8.45.

A second thing is to consider how it is that you engage the Dominican charism. Regular observance gives rise to the sacred preaching, in which we all participate. This means our lives are not simply a collection of random actions, but are rather done with meaning and purpose, with the goal of witnessing to the Gospel and sharing this witness with others. So as we recall St. Dominic today, on the weekend where our novices made their first profession, let us all together commit to regular observance and the sacred preaching.

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