Dominican Vocation of Trinbago

Feastday: January 28 St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church, patron of all universities and of students. His feast day is January 28th. He was born toward the end of the year 1226. He was the son of Landulph, Count of Aquino, who, when St. Thomas was five years old, placed him under the care of the Benedictines of Monte Casino. His teachers were surprised at the progress he made, for he surpassed all his fellow pupils in learning as well as in the practice of virtue. When he became of age to choose his state of life, St. Thomas renounced the things of this world and resolved to enter the Order of St. Dominic in spite of the opposition of his family. In 1243, at the age of seventeen, he joined the Dominicans of Naples. Some members of his family resorted to all manner of means over a two year period to break his constancy. They even went so far as to send an impure woman to tempt him. But all their efforts were in vain and St. Thomas persevered in his vocation. As a reward

The Conversion of St. Paul is an important event in the life of Christianity. As the Acts of the apostles tell us that St. Paul was not always a lover of Christians. He was involved in the persecution of our early Christians. The miracle of the conversion of St. Paul was not his own conversion but the conversion of the Christian community. Through their obedience of God they were able to receive St. Paul into their community. The community forgave St. Paul. Some it payer for our conversion and others.

Margaret, the daughter of King Bela IV of Hungary, was offered to God before her birth, in petition that the country would be delivered from the terrible scourge of the Tartars. The prayer having been answered, the king and queen made good their promise by placing the little girl in the Dominican convent at Vesprim. Margaret was three years old. Here, in company with other children of the nobility, she was trained in the arts thought fitting for royalty. Margaret was not content with simply living in the house of God; she demanded the religious habit and received it at the age of four. Furthermore, she took upon herself the austerities practiced by the other sisters fasting, hairshirts, the discipline, and night vigils. She soon learned the Divine Office by heart and chanted it happily to herself as she went about her play. No one but Margaret seemed to take seriously the idea that she would one day make profession and remain as a sister, for it would be of great advantage to her fathe

Dear brothers and sisters, This night is the night of the greatest mystery. “A child is given to us, whom you will find wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” This is given to us as a sign. How can such an ordinary reality of a new-born baby, how can such a fragile sign of a child who depends for everything on those who welcome him, how can this be the news of salvation that has been expected for centuries? On this night, precisely, it is the coming of this child “begging” for hospitality from humankind that becomes the holy dawn, the dawn that, with all its weaknesses, will overcome the darkness of the night. This little beggar, this child of dawn, he is the sign that is given to us in order to recognize, wait for and welcome the new world that God, through Him, wants to bring on earth. Brothers and sisters, this is the profession of faith that we carry in our hearts, that can fill us with emotion on Christmas night. Like the shepherds, the news of this holy dawn reaches

Today we the Dominicans of the Irish-vicariate of Trinidad and Tobago began our chapter. This is etymology of the word chapter: Middle English chapiter < Old French chapitre < Latin capitulum (“a chapter of a book, in Medieval Latin also a synod or council”), diminutive of caput (“a head”); see chapiter and capital, which are doublets of chapter. Base on this etymology from a Dominican point of view a chapter is a synod or council. A synod is an ecclesiastic council or meeting to consult on church matters. At this garthering the brothers first elect a new superior and other important govenmental post. Secondly the brothers set particular goals for the vicariate for the next four years.