Congratulations to our Dominican brothers Alphonso, Augustine, and Orlando for their solemn profession! On June 21, amidst the harmonious hymns led by our community of student brothers during the Eucharistic celebration, the three were consecrated to God until death, as friar Jesús María Hernandez, the Socius of the Prior Provincial, received their profession on behalf of the Master of the Order. The whole attending congregation exulted in joy!
“The total commitment of the Preachers to the proclamation of the Gospel by word and work is shown by the fact that at solemn profession they are united fully and permanently with Christ’s life and mission” (LCO, “The Fundamental Constitution” VI). When the three brothers, therefore, vowed to lovingly surrender their whole lives to God, in the footstep of St. Dominic, they were permanently united with Christ as consecrated preachers in the Order. Such is a profound deepening and a rich flowering of their baptismal grace. Such is how they felt the total self-giving of the Lord Jesus to themselves. And such is how they are inspired to respond by a total self-giving in their turn to the Lord in a more direct consecration.
Let us rejoice with these three brothers and pray for them and for ourselves, too, that we may ever grow in faith in and love for God!
Brother Marcus Tan, OP.