The presence of St Dominic in Trinidad

St Dominic's Chapel which is located at 34b Belmont Circular Road in  Belmont serves as the chapel for the members of  St Dominic's Home. The Home was founded in 1871 by Fr. Mariano Forestier O.P, a Domincan priest. Here Domincan refers to the Order of Preachers  as the priests and friars of the Order are called.  In Trinidad the Dominican Family consists of several branches: friars, nuns (contemplative), sisters (share an active apostolate) and the laity (who share the Order's way of life). Currently  there are Sinsinawa Domincan Congregation of the Most Holy Rosary, the Dominican Sisters of the Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena and Rosary Monastery  located in different parts of Trinidad. Rosary Monastery is devoted to contemplative life and for a number of years, one of the by products of the Monsatery was the  bread for the altar..  http://www.catholicnews-tt.net/joomla/othersupp/157-50th-anniversary-of-independence-/3936-the-contemplative-life-in-rosary-monastery

Rosary Monastery

Rosary Monastery  - another time

A little more on the Domincans  from the  website  by the Domincan's http://dominicanstnt.weebly.com/signs-of-a-vocation.html states that:

"Dominicans are men and women who are consumed with the desire to be holy and to make all other people holy also. They try to live like Christ who was chaste, poor and obedient to his Father’s will. That is why they take the three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience."

"Dominicans were established by St. Dominic because he was filled with the idea of a special aspect of Christ’s life. He wished to imitate Christ as an itinerant preacher. Christ never settled down in any one place and Dominic was like him. Dominicans have to be “mobile’, ready to go where the Church or the Order needs them. They go for the salvation of souls through preaching."

Years ago, in our parish of St Mary's Mucurapo, we had a Domincan Priest, Fr. Michael Hayden, who was orignally from Ireland. I loved hearing his sermons, whether it was for the lilt in his voice,  or the gentleness of his tone. Usually there was  a hush in the church, quiet expectation when it was time for  the sermon.   While Fr Hayden was serving in our parish,  I did not know that he was a Domincan, I thought that all Irish priests had those qualities probably as a result of growing up with mainly Irish priests,  However in looking at the website http://dominicanstnt.weebly.com/bible-study.html, where you see information on the Bible such as the following, which you would not have access to unless you went searching or did a course on Bible Study do you realise the part of the basis for the  Dominicans being excellent preachers:

"These seventy three book were written in a time spanning about 1200 years. The time beginning in 1100BC to about 100AD and during this time the landscape of the Bible flowered with many literary forms such as wisdom sayings, parables, letters, sermons, laws, sermons, history, etc.

The "Origins"of the Bible. The Bible has its origins in three languages, these are as follows: Hebrew and Aramaic for the First Testament (Old Testament) and Greek for the Second Testament. This means that the Bible was just a number of lose books around the Jewish religious landscape. The also means that the Bible was not divide it to clear chapters and verses as we know is today. These divisions in terms chapters were added only in the thirteenth century and chapters into verses in the sixteenth century.

In addition to the information on the Bible, there is  a list of  "26 Papal Documents on the Rosary"  which were issued during the period 1883 to 2002 http://dominicanstnt.weebly.com/26-papal-documents-on-the-rosary.html. 

There are many wonderful, positive qualities  and benefits which are attributed to those who belong to St Dominic's which range from the making of the bread which reaches the altar at mass, to caring for the children who have no one to take care of them, to providing knowledge and inspiration on the life of Christ.