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In this issue:
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"It is Good to Die a Dominican!"
- In Memoriam
- Submitting a Death Notice
- Provincial Necrology
- Suffrages
- Dominican Feast Days for the Dead
- When Can I Pray the Office of the Dead?
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In this issue:
"It is Good to Die a Dominican!"
In Memoriam
Submitting a Death Notice
Provincial Necrology
Suffrages
Dominican Feast Days for the Dead
When Can I Pray the Office of the Dead?
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"It is Good to Die a Dominican!" | |
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Sr. Peter Thomas, OP (MI-ANN Religious Assistant)
Our modern society has an awfully distorted view of death. It wants to avoid it at any cost—except, of course, when it wants to hasten it to avoid cost. Such is the worst of the culture to which we must preach.
Christians have always had a decidedly different view of death. We know that “God did not make death” (Wisdom 1:13) as part of His original plan; yet in the fallen world in which we live, death is an inevitable part of our journey back to union with the Father, and has been conquered and transformed through the Lord’s Resurrection. Thus Saint Paul can say that “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).
Dominicans in particular tend to be even more cheerful at this prospect. There’s an old saying that “it is good to die a Dominican!” This was rendered legendary within my community by an accidental misreading at table once, when the Sister reader, led astray by the many gratuitous Latin phrases sprinkled throughout the book in use, confidently proclaimed that it was good to “DEE-ay ah Do-MIN-ee-cahn”—to the confusion and subsequent delight of the rest of us.
Our fellow moderns might consider this morbid, but in reality it comes from a great confidence, the confidence of knowing that the Dominican life well-lived is a sure path to holiness, and that the Dominican family are faithful in praying for their dead.
Our Order has always had this commitment to prayers for the departed. My community’s Constitutions say, “A distinctive and cherished feature of the Dominican tradition consists in a prayerful remembrance of the dead” (n. 57), and the friars’ constitutions instruct the brothers to “cherish the memory of those in the family of St. Dominic who have gone before them ... and make known their teaching and achievements, while not forgetting to pray for them” (LCO 16). In the early days of the Order, many of the laity who associated themselves with the Friars Preachers were motivated primarily by the assurance that they would be thoroughly prayed for after death!
Why this emphasis, within an Order apparently so focused on the external apostolate? It’s perfectly congruent. The end of the Order of Preachers is the salvation of souls — our own and others’. Such an aim does not end with death. Instead, we accompany with our prayers those who have gone beyond the reach of our preaching.
The Lay Dominican Rule beautifully situates suffrages for the deceased in the context of fraternal communion and works of mercy (Rule n. 8). May our prayers this November and throughout the year for our deceased brothers and sisters in Saint Dominic be fueled by charity and as zealous as any of our works!
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We pray particularly for the souls of our deceased Lay Dominican brothers and sisters of the Central Province who died this year. If any names are missing, please let us know.
CO-CED: Blessed Mary Mother of Dominic
Mrs. Marilyn Pipkin
CO-WHR: Queen of the Vietnamese Martyrs
Maria Tran Thi Lu
Anna Nguyen Thi Bad
IL-SPR: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
Fr. Peter Witchousky, OP
Mrs. Marie V. Pope
MI-ANN: Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati
Dr. Kathryn Moseley
MN-MPL: Holy Rosary
Mr. Kevin Geraghty
WI-MIL Queen of the Rosary
Mrs. Jane Heidl
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Submitting a Death Notice
If a member of your fraternity passes away, please share their information as soon as possible with the Communications Committee using this link.
A death notice will be sent out to all Central Province Lay Dominicans, so that we can pray for the repose of his or her soul. That information will also be added to the provincial necrology.
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Provincial Necrology
Patricia Kloppenburg, a member of the Liturgy Committee, is currently rebuilding the provincial necrology. The goal is to have a list of every deceased Lay Dominican of Central Province, and to that end, we need each fraternity’s assistance. (Pat is happy to send any fraternity the list of names she has so far.)
Please email Pat at [email protected] the following information for EACH deceased member of your fraternity:
- Fraternity name
- Deceased member’s full name including title
- Day, month and year of death
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The following prescriptions are included in the working drafts of the Particular Directory.
- Pray daily an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Eternal Rest for deceased Dominicans. It is highly recommended to pray daily the De Profundis (Psalm 130).
- Offer three Masses a year for all deceased Dominicans (this may be a personal intention, or offered with a stipend); observe Anniversaries of Deceased Parents (February 7), Deceased Benefactors and Friends (September 5), and All Souls of the Dominican Order (November 7).
- Upon the death of a fraternity member, pray the Office of the Dead and, if possible, attend the funeral mass of the deceased member.
De Profundis (Psalm 130)
V: Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord:
R: Lord, hear my voice!
V: Let Your ears be attentive to my voice in supplication:
R: If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, Lord, who can stand?
V: But with you is forgiveness, that you may be revered.
R: I trust in the Lord; my soul trusts in his word.
V: My soul waits for the Lord; more than sentinels wait for the dawn.
R: More than sentinels wait for the dawn, let Israel wait for the Lord,
V: For with the Lord is kindness and with Him is plenteous redemption
R: And he will redeem Israel * from all their iniquities.
R: Let us pray:
O God, creator and redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of your servants and handmaidens the remission of their sins, that they may obtain by our loving prayers the forgiveness which they have always desired. You who live and reign forever.
R. Amen.
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.
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Dominican Feast Days for the Dead | |
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In addition to All Souls Day on November 2nd, Dominicans have three additional anniversaries for the dead. These are celebrated each year and, if superseded by a Sunday, are moved to the next day.
February 7th — Anniversary of Deceased Parents
September 5th — Anniversary of Deceased Friends and Benefactors
November 8th — Anniversary of All Deceased Brothers and Sisters of the Order (All Dominican Souls)
Read an excellent article on the feast of All Dominican Souls at this link.
On these feast days, it is recommended that Lay Dominicans pray the Office of the Dead, with the Dominican propers for the day:
Dominican Propers for Morning and Evening Prayer
Propers of the Office for the Order of Preachers
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When Can I Pray the Office of the Dead? | |
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Sr. Peter Thomas, OP (MI-ANN Religious Assistant)
The Divine Office is an extension of the Church’s official liturgy, flowing from and returning to the liturgical high point, the Mass. And just as Mass can be offered for the faithful departed – affecting the celebration itself to a variety of extents – so too we can pray explicitly for the dead within the Office. This is the purpose of the “Office for the Dead,” found at the back of our breviaries.
When can or should we pray this office? First, there are certain fixed days: All Souls Day on November 2nd, but also the three Dominican anniversaries for the dead on February 7th, September 5th, and November 8th. These are celebrated each year and, if superseded by a Sunday (for the latter three), are moved to the next day.
Beyond that, there aren’t any explicit guidelines on when the Office for the Dead can be prayed; but it makes sense to me (and to another liturgist I consulted on this at one point) that it would basically parallel the dates when Masses for the Dead can be offered.* That itself is a little complicated. A summary would be this:
- A Funeral Mass can be celebrated on most days. The only exceptions are holy days of obligation, Sundays of Advent, Lent, and Easter, and the Triduum.
- A Mass for the dead “on the occasion of news of a death, burial, or first anniversary of death” can be used fairly broadly, even over obligatory memorials and the weekdays of most special seasons, but not on Sundays, solemnities, feasts, in Holy Week, or in the Easter Octave.
- A random, “I’d like to pray the Mass for the dead, because it’s on my heart” celebration can only be done on weekdays in Ordinary Time when there is no obligatory memorial.
How might this apply to the Office of the Dead? In my religious community, we would follow the above guidelines in choosing a date for communal recitation of the Office for the Dead. For instance, if a Sister dies, we would usually pray the Office for the Dead on the day of her funeral; upon receiving word of the death of the pope, our local bishop, the Master of the Order, etc. we would pray it on the first available day permitted “on the occasion of news of a death”. But the Office for the Dead as a sort of devotion also seems a beautiful thing. For instance, I’ve gone and prayed this Office privately in the chapel upon receiving news of the death of a grandparent or family friend. It didn’t replace my choral recitation of the Office in community, but it did bring me solace, and I trust God heard those prayers well and applied them to that dear soul.
In a Lay Dominican’s context of private recitation, I would feel free to replace the Office with the Office for the Dead on the days “allowed” above, according to the circumstance of the deceased; but on an impeded day, to feel free to pray the Office of the Dead in addition to the normal Office which would more strictly speaking be one’s “obligation.”
*Note that a Mass for the Dead is a specific option for the liturgical celebration – choice of prayers from the missal, readings, etc. The intention for a Mass can be for a particular deceased person, or for the holy souls in general, on the vast majority of days, even if the liturgy is celebrated in honor of a particular saint or feast. Analogously, we can always offer whatever Office we are celebrating for the souls of our dearly departed!
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Veritas Editorial Team
Mrs. Rebecca Martin, OP — Editor
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Ms. Cathy Lins, OP – Promoter of Preaching
Ms. Mary Reinhardt, OP
Ms. Cheryl Riley – Provincial Secretary
Ms. Renee Valenzuela, OP
Mrs. Katie Willen, OP – Archivist
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