By Fr Martin Ganeri o.p

Today we celebrate and give thanks for the fifty years of professed religious life that Sr Mary Teresa (Terry) has lived.  And in doing so, we celebrate and give thanks for the commitment and perseverance in religious life – in our Dominican religious life – that this represents.  A commitment and perseverance that encourages us to celebrate that Dominican life itself – our Dominican mission – as we have all lived it – and as we commit ourselves to continue to live it in the years to come.  Although there are many and very great challenges that face us in the present, our Dominican life is a wonderful thing – it’s wonderful because by its nature it remains every vital and ever necessary – because preaching and living out the truth of the Gospel remains every vital and ever necessary – and because those of us who have given our lives to this can realize what it means to preach and live out the truth of the Gospel in so many ways.  

In the Summa Theologiae, St Thomas Aquinas starts that great work of theology with a discussion of sacra doctrina, sacred teaching (ST 1.1).   This is the subject matter of the Summa, the subject matter of Dominican study and the basis for Dominican life and mission.

Sacra doctrina, sacred teaching, is in the first place the revelation given to us by God – the Word or Truth revealed to us by God and embodied in Christ.  And then, by extension, sacra doctrina is the reflection on and application of that revealed Word and Truth – in the intellectual apostolate of theology and preaching, and then the practical application of that in all the other forms of apostolate in which we seek to manifest that saving Word and Truth to others in showing charity or merciful love to them.