The Monthly Note
JAugust 2011
«When you pray, this is what to say: Our Father... »(Luke 11,2)
by Jacques Lauzier, O.P.
Like every month of the liturgical year, August is full of feast days of more or less known saints.
For a Dominican, August 8th is, of course, the most important date because on that date we celebrate the feast of Saint Dominic of Guzman, the founder of the Order of Preachers, known as the Dominicans. Our father Saint Dominic was an apostle of the Word of God. We could say that he preached all the time. Not only by word but also by example. He was truly a man of God. During his canonization proceedings, it was said of him that « when he was not talking to God, he was talking about God». According to some testimony, after an apparition of Mary in 1208, he became an apostle and propagator of the Rosary and of the Virgin Mary. Even today, the Dominican family (brothers, sisters, lay people) consists of thousands of people spread out in dozens of countries.
But among all these feasts, there is one that shines by its absence. Not only during the month of August, but throughout the year. We know that at Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity. At Pentecost, we remember the coming of the third person of the Pentecost (the Holy Spirit) on the first Christians (the Apostles and Mary) reunited at the Cenacle. But for the Father, the first person of the Trinity: nothing! Since many centuries, many mystics were «approached» by the Father so that the Church updates the presence of the Father so that the world knows His ineffable love. To a mystic sister of the 20th century, the Father asked that the first Sunday of August be in His honour. So, why not take advantage of the Sunday, August 7th, to remember in our heart the feats of our Heavenly Father, the One that Jesus called Dad, «Abba»!
