Reflections of the Kingdom

  Let's Get this Party Started ... The process to become a Deacon in the Archdiocese of Boston begins with the "Inquirer Stage" ... which is really just three (3) to four (4) information sessions that are open to everybody, usually in the fall: Who is the Deacon, and am I one who is called? How does diaconate ministry fit into marriage and family life? Application process, Canon Law, Formation from the wives' perspective. Half-day discernment retreat on Saturday The Application Process ... After you complete all four (4), you can begin the Application Process ... The actual application was fourteen (14) pages of questions in three (3) sections: The Applicant Questionnaire, The Pastor Evaluation, and The Spouse .  Attached to the application are two (2) essays : a brief (2-3 page) autobiography and a similar "spiritual" autobiography about your spiritual life that brought you to this point.  Included is a list of canonical issues or impediments that must be a...

  Introduction : St. Dominic was originally a priest, a canon regular, who was already bound to live by the Rule of St. Augustine, and the statutes of St. Norbert.  St. Dominic renounced the worldly power that he had been born to, and could have laid claim to even as a member of the clergy, and went around on foot like the ordinary people, living a poor and penitential life.  His primary objective was to counter the heresy promoted by the Albigenses/Cathars and eventually founded the  Dominican Order Of Preachers to bring the dedication and education of the monastic orders into the active defense of orthodoxy.  He believed that parochial clergy were too poorly educated and poorly formed (spiritually) to make their rudimentary preaching effective in such apologetics.  St Dominics innovation was to propose a community of priests that would share in the preaching office of the bishop.  It was nearly 400 years AFTER Dominic when the Council of Trent began...