(Ebook) St. Dominic - The Story of a Preaching Friar by Donald J. Goergen ISBN 9781587685538, 1587685531, 2015035270, 2015039682

(Ebook) St. Dominic - The Story of a Preaching Friar by Donald J. Goergen ISBN 9781587685538, 1587685531, 2015035270, 2015039682

Dominic is a saint. That much is clear. Sometimes that fact can obscure howdifficult it is to know someone from the inside out, so to speak. We confineour understanding to historically determinable facts. But this does little tobring someone, especially a saint, to life—there is more to the story of asaint than historical facts alone. My desire here is not so much to write alife of Dominic but to bring him to life. While desiring to be as faithful as Ican to the historical data available to us, I have nevertheless had to interpretthe data, even what I might choose to emphasize. I have attempted abalance between the historical and the interpretative, knowing that theformer without the latter betrays what history itself is, or pretends anobjectivity unavailable to us, while the latter without the former can lead toa purely personal report that will be corrected by the facts themselves.Deeply grounded in the Lord, Dominic was a person who sustained aremarkably contemplative equanimity in the face of the challenges lifebrought his way. He trusted God as governing the universe providentiallywith wisdom and love. He saw grace in all things. Gratitude, or joy, wascharacteristic of him, as was humility, the other side of the coin of gratitude.In his so-called last will to his followers, his brothers and sisters, heenjoined upon them to be humble. He was loved, and he knew himself to beloved, both by God and by friends whom he wove into the fabric of his life.But this is beginning to paint the portrait, or tell the story, too soon.