One Sunday afternoon every month, our Lay Dominican group meets at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Charlotte, NC. This monthly meeting is where our formation takes place and where the culture and charism of the Dominican life is learned and practiced.
Here’s what the schedule of a monthly meeting looks like:
Our group meets at St. Matthew Church in Charlotte which is largest (or second largest) Catholic parish in the US. It’s a beautiful place with great facilities.
Most members of the group attend the 10:45 Mass at St. Matthew, but Dania and I attend at our own parish on Saturday evenings with our children. We join the group at noon on Sunday, after Mass.
We begin our meeting by reciting the Angelus together, which brings us together and focuses us on the Incarnation and commits us to the intercession of the Virgin Mary.
We then pray Morning Prayer together from the Liturgy of the Hours. This is done for the sake of praying together, but also so that all group members can learn how to pray the divine office properly. As Lay Dominicans, we promise to pray Morning and Evening prayer daily, so understanding how to do so is important.
At our meetings, all members are present–
- Inquirers – vsitors learning about the Dominican life
- Candidates – preparing to make Temporary (3 year) Professions
- Temporary Professed – Lay Dominicans who have made temporary professions
- Fully Professed – Lay Dominicans professed for life
Each group has its own formation, which consists of monthly studies that are discussed in small groups at our group meetings. If you look on the schedule you will see that Sandy (who served as formation guide when Dania and I joined) is teaching the Inquirer group, I am leading the Candidates and Dania is leading the group of Temporary Professed members. Dania and I don’t normally lead these groups, but a few members are away on vacation this month, so we’re filling in.
After our formation groups, we read a section from the Rule of the Dominican Order. This helps us all to understand the Dominican life and makes us all accountable directly to the Rule.
Then, we pray one decade of the Dominican Rosary so that all members can learn to pray the Rosary according to the method followed by the Dominican Order, which is different from the popular way it is prayed.
Before the Latin recitation of the Dominican Rosary, you’ll see I’m teaching a brief Latin lesson to help group members pronounce the language correctly and understand its meaning.
After reciting the Dominican Rosary, one of the group members reads a biography of Dominican saint from a collection titled “St. Dominic’s Family“.
We take some time at this point to discuss our own “apostolates”, or preaching activity as Dominicans. My apostolate is, obviously, the Classical Liberal Arts Academy. We share updates and pray for one another.
Near the end of the meeting, Fr. Matlak gives a lecture on an assigned reading for all members of the group, currently being St. Thomas Aquinas’ commentary on the Gospels. These lectures are very rich and edifying. Fr. Matlak, who is our group’s spiritual director, is the same Fr. Matlak whom you’ll find on YouTube–a great teacher.
Lastly, we sing the Salve Regina (in Latin) to wrap up our meeting.
Mr. William C. Michael, O.P.
Headmaster
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
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