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When Fr Tom Cassidy OP, as the Prior of Our Lady of Graces Parish, Carina, asked the local chapter of Lay Dominicans whether there was interest in writing brief biographies of some saintly Dominicans to accompany the art works of Fr Maurice Keating OP, the Lay Dominicans unanimously agreed. They were well aware that among the priory’s Dominican priests, indeed acting as their Lay Dominican chaplain, was an artist with a natural talent. Furthermore it was already 2016 with the mood of the Dominican octocentenary in the air, and the book to emerge would commemorate this anniversary.
Early in the thirteenth century, St Dominic de Guzman showed a zeal for correcting heresy and spreading truth that could bring people into God’s kingdom. ‘Truth’ has remained an essential element of the Dominican Order and remains one of three significant mottos of the Order. Dominic spent many hours in quiet prayer, and it was said that he spoke only to God and about God. Fittingly two other principal mottos of the Order are ‘To contemplate and hand on to others the fruits of contemplation’ and ‘To praise, to bless, to preach’. These three mottos are clearly interrelated and are reflected in the lives of the Dominican Saints and Blesseds.
