On Wearing The Dominican Habit

As I have often said throughout my Dominican life, I fully believe in wearing my Dominican habit. In the first place, I love this holy habit. I professed in it, I’ve lived in it, and will someday die in it. I’ve personally seen firsthand the great fruits of being a public religious witness of consecrated life for the people of God. St. Dominic certainly intended that the friar would himself become a holy proclamation of God's Word, a sacred sign and reality of the holy preaching to God’s people in the act of wearing the habit.

At the same time, the habit alone is insufficient for fulfilling this end. The friar cannot become such a proclamation merely by wearing the habit. The habit is only the sacred sensible sign of this proclamation. Consequently, wearing the habit alone cannot sanctify the friar interiorly. On the contrary, the friar sanctifies the habit instrumentally through God’s divine grace by fulfilling or perfecting the end of his interior consecration to God by a life of holiness. In doing so, he formally becomes a sacred sign and reality of the holy preaching to God’s people. This life of holiness involves obedience, the study of Truth, humility, charity, prayer, chastity, community, poverty, mendicancy, itinerancy, and ministry, especially the preaching of God's Word by means of intelligible human words.

All the same, this does not mean that the friar has to be fully perfected in all these virtues to become a holy proclamation of God's Word. On the contrary, all he has to do is begin moving in this direction by humbly opening his heart to God’s divine action. For this reason, he moves increasingly from potency to act as a friar, by learning to say this prayer daily in humility before God, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” In this prayer, the friar is telling God that he desires the fulfillment or end of his consecration to God, his holiness. This interior act of humility through God's divine grace is sufficient to sanctify the friar as a holy preaching, whether he is wearing the habit or not.

Accordingly, on the one hand, without the habit, he is only a sacred sign and reality for those people who know him, who know he is a Dominican friar. Consequently, he is not such a sign for people who do not know him, who do not know he is a Dominican. For without the habit they cannot distinguish him as a consecrated religious from others. Still, he remains a holy preaching and certainly no less a Dominican.

On the other hand, the friar who wears the habit, becomes a sacred sign and reality not only to the people who know him, but also to the people who do not know him. For what is received is received according to the nature of the receiver. The receiver here is man. As a rational and sensible being, he requires sensible and intelligible signs in living his life as man. Through such signs he can develop a knowledge and love of Truth and Goodness in creation. In this sense, the habit is an efficacious means for helping others to know and love the friar as a holy preaching of God’s Truth and Goodness. He becomes a missionary to all peoples by wearing the habit, especially nonbelievers and non-practicing Catholics.

In this understanding, the habit as a sacred sign participates in the holiness of the humble friar who daily confesses his need for God’s merciful grace. In fact, the ancient Dominican rite for profession includes the prayerful plea for mercy. St. Dominic knew well that the friar would have to learn to walk in the humility of Christ by asking for mercy daily. For this reason, as I recall my profession, as my brothers and I were laying prostrate, our Prior Provincial asked us the following question, “What do you seek?” We responded by saying, “God’s mercy and yours.” As such, the great wisdom of St. Dominic and the Order of Preachers teaches the friar that he can only become holy by humbly praying for mercy daily. Accordingly, by wearing the sacred sign of the habit in humility, he publicly and formally communicates to the people of God the inner reality of his consecration to God through a life of holiness. This is a holy proclamation that precedes any spoken proclamation of God's Word to them. In doing so, he raises their minds to God by reminding them that God calls them to fulfill the end of their baptismal consecration to God through a life of holiness.

On this basis, wearing the habit in humility prepares the greatest number of people to receive the spoken Word of God fruitfully. All I desire is to become a holy friar, but each day I have to begin by praying to God in humility, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The humble heart of the imperfect but maturing friar is acceptable to the Living and True God. My life is for God and you. May I become a holy preaching more and more daily as a friar of the Order of Preachers.