“Versed in Prayer”

“Versed in Prayer” Dominicans have rhythm. Not Eminem’s gritty Detroit-based rapping style, unless of course you come across Brother Athanasius, O.P., preaching against the heresy of modalism. You are welcome to ask Fr. Austin Litke, O.P., if you need the full explanation of his fellow preacher’s unconventional, word-spinning beat. The Dominican Order’s cadence is in tune with the ultimate Word-contemplating the person of Jesus Christ from morning until evening in prayer, preaching, and sacrament. Exactly one week ago, Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P., offered New Yorkers the gift of reflecting on the presence of Christ in the midst of the bustling chaos that is Manhattan. The poet Rita A. Simmonds rocked Saint Malachy’s, reciting poetry complemented by the photographs of David Galalis and the music of Jonathan Fields. The full house audience in this actor’s chapel at the heart of the theater district listened as she revealed how God really is with us in the deceptively mundane routine of streetscapes and homeless, subways and strangers. Here is Rita’s poem on the Eucharist: I Believe I believe because every day I wait to hold eternity in my hand and I believe that something so small is so much greater, that something so flat has unknown dimensions, that something so light carries the weight of the world, that something that can be broken is indivisible, that something that can be eaten can’t disintegrate that something I can manipulate is my Creator, and so I believe you are here with me forever hidden in the bread. This morning like every morning I held eternity in my hand, then ate It, and tomorrow I will do the same. God has become constant and so believable.