DOMINICUS: O LUMEN ECCLESIÆ, DOCTOR VERITATIS, PREDICATOR GRATIÆ

The Italy of Romulo and Remo, of Marco Polo, of Leonardo Da Vinci, of Galileo Galilei, of Laura Paussini and Andrea Bocelli and, of course, the great sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini with his most important project of 17th century Rome, St. Peter's Basilica and the design of St. Peter's Square, places where we find the sculpture of our father St. Dominic, made by the French sculptor Pierre Legros in 1706.

Image of the presbytery of St. Peter's Basilica On the right, the niche with the sculpture of our father Saint Dominic

It all began on Ash Wednesday in the Church of St. Anselm on Mount Aventine and then the journey to the Basilica of Santa Sabina, our home, our convent, where the offices of the General Curia of the Order of Preachers are located.

Procession from San Anselmo to Santa Sabina

Basilica of Santa Sabina

In Santa Sabina, the place where our father St. Dominic lived in the 13th century, Pope Francis, as is tradition, presided over the Mass with the rite of blessing and the imposition of ashes and began the time of Lent, a time of grace to welcome God's loving gaze upon us and thus change our lives. In his homily, the Pope reflected that "Ashes are placed on our heads so that the fire of love may be kindled in our hearts, because we are citizens of heaven and love of God and neighbor is our passport to heaven. The earthly goods that we possess will not serve us, they are dust that fade away, but the love that we give in the family, at work, in the Church, in the world will save us, it will remain forever". We were witnesses of this moment, Bro Gerard, the successor of our father St. Dominic, and equally each one of the cardinals, priests, religious and lay people who perhaps for the first time attended this celebration in Santa Sabina. And the days passed... In the following week we were living Lent in the middle of the beginning of the "quarantine" due to the pandemic of COVID-19, perhaps to start living the love we give in the family, at work, in the Church... as the Pope pointed out in his homily. One does not repeat the novitiate, but these weeks have allowed us to live in community (30 friars), as if it were a second "novitiate" in which there are different spaces and times to pray, study, contemplate, celebrate and preach the Word; with an additional ingredient, to collaborate with some of the daily offices of the house. In synthesis, living the pillars of the Order in a fraternal way and working in the different responsibilities to attend to the requests of our Dominican Family all over the world. And we arrived at Easter Week, beginning with Palm Sunday. Here, in Santa Sabina, we started to celebrate and live the most important moment of the liturgical year, the Easter Triduum; keeping in mind the people of God who, attending to the measures for "social distancing", were not present at the different celebrations, but in spiritual communion; following the different liturgical moments through the media. We have also followed, in a special way, the main celebrations transmitted by the different media.

Thus, begins our understanding of an image, a sculpture that was always present in each of the prayers, meditations and preaching of Pope Francis. In one place, the presbytery of St. Peter's Basilica, there in the niche on the right hand side is the sculpture of our father St. Dominic, made by Pierre Legros in 1706, an image that, because of its location, made me think of our Dominican Family represented by our founder, there, our lay people, young people, nuns and friars at every moment, with which I extract some of the reflections of Pope Francis having as a background our "O lumen Ecclesiæ, Doctor veritatis, Predicator Gratiæ"

PALM SUNDAY: "COURAGE, OPEN YOUR HEART TO MY LOVE. YOU WILL FEEL THE COMFORT OF GOD, WHO SUSTAINS YOU"

Celebration of Palm Sunday, Pope Francis in his homily, in the background the niche with the sculpture of St. Dominic

In the Gospel, Jesus on the cross utters a moving and eloquent phrase: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me" Jesus experienced this abandonment precisely to serve us once again: "So that when we feel between the sword and the wall, when we find ourselves in a dead end, when it seems that not even God responds, we remember that we are not alone. Jesus experienced total abandonment, the most alienated situation from Him, in order to be in solidarity with us in everything. He did it for me and for you". Today, in the drama of the pandemic, in the face of so many crumbling certainties and with the feeling of abandonment that oppresses our hearts, "Jesus says to each one of us: "Courage, open your heart to my love. You will feel the consolation of God who sustains you", the Pope reminded us. The Pope recites the Angelus from the altar of St. Peter's Basilica after the Palm Sunday Mass and addresses a special message to the young people who are celebrating the 35th World Youth Day, which is also celebrated on this date at the diocesan level. Pope Francis has urged young people "to cultivate and bear witness to the hope, generosity and solidarity which we all need at this difficult time”. He did so just after the conclusion of the Palm Sunday Eucharistic celebration and the recitation of the Marian prayer of the Angelus, on the altar of St. Peter's Basilica.

Francisco explained that the Cross of the young people of Panama had been scheduled to be handed over to those of Lisbon on this day, but, in view of the circumstances of confinement experienced worldwide, "this very significant gesture is postponed until Christ the King Sunday, next November 22, and the meeting will take place in 2023". He took advantage of these moments to greet all those who participated through the media and he asked that we go forward with faith in Easter Week, in which "Jesus suffers, dies and rises". He also invited the persons and families who will not be able to participate in the liturgical celebrations "to gather in prayer at home, also helped by the technological means", to unite themselves spiritually "to the sick, to their families and to those who care for them with abnegation" and to pray "for the deceased in the light of the Easter faith". And St. Dominic there behind Pope Francis, listening to these words has also invited us, as Dominican Family, to meditate and to make decisions such as those to cancel all the great meetings we had planned for this year: the General Assembly of the Laity in the Province of Hispania, the Congress of the Laity in the Philippines, the World Youth Meeting (IDYM) in Kenya and the Assembly of the Council of Lay Fraternities in Latin America and the Caribbean, among others.

HOLY THURSDAY: EUCHARIST, SERVICE, ANOINTING

The seat from which Pope Francis officiated, next to St Dominic

On the evening when the greatest becomes small (cf. Jn 13:3-5), the Pontiff, in his homily, gives three key words at the beginning, from which he develops his reflection: Eucharist, service, anointing. "The Lord wants to remain with us in the Eucharist, and we always become the Lord's tabernacles: we take the Lord with us to the point that he himself tells us that if we do not eat his body and drink his blood, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Mystery, this bread and wine, of the Lord with us, in us, within us”. Service: “Hat gesture which is a condition for entering the Kingdom of Heaven. To serve, yes, everyone. But the Lord, in that exchange of words that He had with Peter, makes him understand that to enter the Kingdom of Heaven we must let the Lord serve us, that He may be the Servant of God who serves us. And this is difficult to understand. If I do not let the Lord be my servant, let the Lord wash me, make me grow, forgive me, I will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven”. And the Priesthood. “Today I would like to be close to priests, to all priests, from the most recently ordained to the Pope: we are all priests. Bishops, all of us... We are anointed, anointed by the Lord; anointed to make the Eucharist, anointed to serve" And Saint Dominic is still there, listening and representing the Dominican family. From our convent of Santa Sabina we celebrated the beginning of the Easter Triduum.

GOOD FRIDAY OF THE LORD'S PASSION: IN THIS PANDEMIC

"GOD IS OUR ALLY, NOT THE VIRUS"

This day combines silence, pain and suffering, it is a synthesis of what many people have begun to feel because of the death of loved ones, friends, health professionals, priests and religious who have given their lives to the service and construction of the Kingdom of God. "God participates in our pain to overcome it", and in the midst of so much suffering caused by this pandemic, "he is our ally, not the virus". These are the words of Father Raniero Cantalamessa, Preacher of the Papal Household, in the homily of the celebration of the Passion of the Lord, presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica. The Capuchin friar gave a strong message: "Let us not make so much pain, so many deaths, so much heroic commitment on the part of the health workers be in vain. Let us build a more fraternal, more human and more Christian life". We also remember our Dominican Family in the Universal Prayer. The following is the homily during the celebration from Santa Sabina:

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE, SINCE JESUS "We've never seen anything like this, we've never experienced a moment like this. The world has changed, the situation in which we live confronts us with human limitation, with our vulnerability, with the capacity to reflect on "Another world is possible, since Jesus". On this Good Friday, the letter to the Hebrews tells us that in trust, in hope in the Lord, we can attain mercy and find the grace for prompt help.

To contemplate the cross and the passion of the Lord, the passion of God, the passion of humanity, is to meditate and pray in silence on the greatness and goodness found here; to love and admire the mystery of God from the fragility of our human condition, and to raise our weak hope with the strength of the passion of his Son, as we have heard from the psalmist: "I trust in you, O Lord: you are my God" (Ps 30) In the story of the Passion, the cross of Jesus becomes the emblem that brings us together in the face of a deafening silence and an abyss that has paralyzed all movements, entries and exits. We do not want to return to normality because perhaps normality was the problem, because our "Common House" is giving us a lesson in learning "on line or iCloud". It is an obvious and painful reality of uncertainty, confusion, disorientation, hunger and thirst... as if spring had not begun, where flowers and the climate bring us every year the beauty of nature where animal and vegetable beings enjoy all its splendor... except us, because we get used to the fact that prosperity is indispensable, having the right to everything the world offers us, to the point of thinking that death does not exist, that it is normal to live, to enjoy a long, safe and happy life. The silence of this afternoon speaks, it is eloquent and transparent, it invites us to reflect and act from our vulnerability, but above all to commit ourselves as brothers and sisters, as members of the Church, with the preaching of Jesus, with the Beatitudes as the fundamental teaching on which we move and exist because "Another world is possible through the God who announces Jesus". Today the invitation that is proposed to us is to live and work for a conversion on a personal, structural, community level and, above all, in solidarity and generosity, that will allow us to be "Facientes Humanitatem": Builders of humanity, sharing our time, our looks, our joys, our pains and needs, forming part of the history of salvation, of the history of humanity. This is a first gesture of "Facientes Humanitatem".

We are in God's hands as Christ on the cross, science can help to save human lives, we pray, we are in a time of silence, of contemplation, therefore, a vital moment to reflect on the meaning of life, of our vocation, of our human relationships and our relationship with Jesus, our savior, our hope in tribulation. You are our hope: "We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world. Amen!

EASTER VIGIL: LET'S NOT PUT HOPE UNDER A STONE.

Francis invites us not to give in to resignation, to believe that all is lost: "let us not give in to resignation, let us not put hope under a stone. We can and must hope, because God is faithful, he has not left us alone"; and he strongly reaffirms: "Darkness and death do not have the last word. Courage, with God nothing is lost". And Dominic was a witness there...

The Master of the Order presided over the celebration in Santa Sabina

EASTER SUNDAY

TO SPREAD THE HOPE THAT COMES FROM THE RESURRECTION

"It is the contagion of hope: my love and my hope are truly resurrected! This is not a magic formula that makes problems disappear. No, it is not the resurrection of Christ, but the victory of love over the root of evil, a victory that does not "pass over" suffering and death, but pierces them, opening a way into the abyss, transforming evil into good, a distinctive sign of God's power," said Pope Francis, deepening the meaning of hope. In this sense, Bro Gerard reminded us in his Easter greeting that:

"…to be a Dominican is to belong to a Family! And this Family is all over the world. Brother Timothy sends his greetings from Oxford, England, Fray Carlos from Bahía Blanca, Argentina, frére

Bruno from Prouilhe, France, and I am here in the room of St. Dominic in Santa Sabina. We are all in this together, facing the threat of illness and death, caring for those who are sick, mourning the

passing of some members, finding new ways of preaching and sharing reflections, inviting people to join us online in our prayer and liturgy, doing concrete works of mercy such as sharing food and

protective equipment to those who take care of the sick.

Many Christians celebrated the Easter Triduum in locked doors. Would our lives be the same after the pandemic? More importantly, should our lives be the same after Easter? Our Risen Lord enters through locked doors, greets us with his peace and tells us not to be afraid. When everything seems

hopeless and we feel helpless, our Risen Lord assures us that he will see us in “Galilee”. It is the place where the apostles found their vocation. Our “Galilee” is our vocation story. It is where Jesus asked Peter, “do you love me?” As preachers, lay or ordained, active or contemplative, we became Dominicans because we said “yes” when we heard the same question deep within our hearts. And

Jesus tells us: “feed my sheep”. There is so much hunger today: hunger for the Bread of Life, hunger for the Word of God, hunger for food, hunger for compassion and solidarity. For the love of Jesus, let

us continue to feed the flock of the Risen Lord”.

Dear brothers and sisters: we are living the Easter of the Risen Lord, preparing ourselves for Pentecost, thank you for being part of our family, for our lay fraternities and for our young Dominicans who, just as today in their homes, in their houses, we friars are also in the cloister, living this experience of reflection and conversion, of seeing, judging and acting with words and deeds in the face of what seemed normal to us, but which really is not. Our "Common House" is breathing pure oxygen, enjoying the springtime that has arrived and which we hope to share little by little. I am sure that together we have prayed because "Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I", says the Lord. During this Easter season, like the disciples of Emmaus, let us live in the joy of the hope of the One who comforts us, who encourages us and invites us to continue because He is the way, the truth and the life. Thank you all for your messages, for your prayers. We also do it from our home in Santa Sabina.

Br. Juan Ubaldo LÓPEZ SALAMANCA, OP General Promoter of the Laity

Rome, April 2020