Dominican Rite Mass at DHS


February 14, 2014

On February 13, 2014, a missa cantata was celebrated at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., according to the Dominican Rite, in honor of St. Catherine de’ Ricci, the sixteenth-century Dominican mystic. The mass was celebrated by Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P., and sung by the schola cantorum of the Dominican House of Studies. The celebration helped to mark the harmonious plurality of holiness that is such a distinctive feature of the Dominican Order, represented in the two saintly Dominicans whose feasts are observed on February 13: in the old calendar, St. Catherine de’ Ricci, whose holiness was honored at the mass, and in the new calendar, Bl. Jordan of Saxony, whose holiness was remembered throughout the offices of the day. St. Catherine exemplifies the Order’s unity of action and contemplation, she who lived as an active sister in a semi-cloistered community, performing many charitable works simultaneous with regular, weekly ecstasies of the Passion lasting from Thursday at noon until 4 P.M. on Friday. Bl. Jordan, for his part, embodies the clarity of leadership, abandonment to God, and seamless unity of intellectual, spiritual, and pastoral life that so marks the Order’s greatest saints; not to mention whimsical delight in the goodness of God’s creation. At the mass, many Dominican sisters and members of the Dominican laity joined in prayer with the Dominican friars, helping give visible witness to the communion of the Dominican Order, on earth, in purgatory, and in heaven. A large crowd of other guests, including priests, religious, and lay people of all ages also joined the Dominicans in prayer. St. Catherine de’ Ricci and Bl. Jordan, pray for us! Dominican Friars making the venia prior to receiving communion Fr. Dominic blessing servers

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