Province Ministries
The Dominican friars of the Province of St. Joseph engage in four primary ministries: preaching the Word through various forms of evangelization; teaching and scholarship; parochial service; and foreign missionary work.
Preaching the Word
St. Dominic was famous for always speaking with God or about God. In all of their words and actions, Dominican friars “must conduct themselves honorably and religiously as men who want to obtain their salvation and the salvation of others, following in the footsteps of the Savior as evangelical men speaking among themselves or their neighbors either with God or about God” (Primitive Constitutions, quoted in the Fundamental Constitution).
Friars live out the charism of preaching the Word through a variety of modes. Some friars are itinerant preachers, going from parish to parish or city to city offering their distinctive mode of Dominican preaching to communities that are regularly served by diocesan priests or other religious orders. Some friars work to help lay people share in the fruits of the Dominican charism through the Confraternities of the Order, such as the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary and the Angelic Warfare Confraternity. Other friars engage in media evangelization, writing for websites and popular magazines or giving expert commentary on radio and TV shows. Through the Thomistic Institute, our friars give presentations at universities and other settings throughout the country. Through Dominicana Journal and Dominicana Audio, the student brothers of the Province evangelize by means of the internet and social media. The friars of the Hillbilly Thomists use their musical gifts to evangelize and engage the culture in creative ways. While only a few friars devote themselves full-time to itinerant preaching or media work, many friars are able to maintain an engagement in these areas while serving in other full- or part-time ministries in the Province.
Friars of the Province regularly contribute to the following media outlets:
- Godsplaining podcast
- Catholic Information Service
- Cluny Media
- EWTN Morning Glory
- First Things
- Magnificat
- Sacred Heart Radio
- Sirius XM The Catholic Channel
- St. Gabriel Radio
- Our Sunday Visitor
- Aleteia
Friars of the Province preach the word by engaging in campus ministry on the following campuses:
- Brown University
- Catholic University of America
- Dartmouth College
- New York University
- Providence College
- Johns Hopkins University
- University of Louisville
- University of Virginia
- Youngstown State University
Friars of the Province encourage the devotion of the faithful by administering several shrines:
- The Rosary Shrine of St. Jude (Washington, DC)
- Saint John Paul II Society and Shrine (New York, NY)
- The Province of St. Joseph hosts the national Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage on the last Saturday of September to kick off the month of the Rosary at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.
Friars from the Province also engage in Health Care Ministry, preaching the Word to the sick and suffering.
Teaching and Scholarship
According to the Dominican Constitutions, “before all else, our study should aim principally and ardently at this that we might be able to be useful to the souls of our neighbors.” For Dominican friars, the contemplation of the mysteries of God and of God’s creation overflows into preaching and teaching that shares the fruits of one’s contemplation with others.
Dominican friars of the Province of St. Joseph give special emphasis to teaching at the two institutions of higher education sponsored by the Province: the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, and Providence College in Providence, RI. In addition, friars serve at Rome’s Dominican University, the Angelicum, and other universities such as The Catholic University of America and seminaries such as the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, OH. As well as serving as faculty and staff at these institutions, the friars also have developed a form of “itinerant lecturing” through the Thomistic Institute, which sponsors lectures by Dominican friars and other scholars at Catholic and non-Catholic universities around the country.
Many friars of the Province also publish widely in academic journals, including The Thomist, published by the friars in Washington, DC. In addition, many friars participate in learned societies such as the Academy of Catholic Theology, the Catholic Theological Society of America, the Society for Biblical Literature, and the Society for Catholic Liturgy.
Parochial Service
Since the foundation of the Province, our friars have engaged in parochial service as an instantiation of the Dominican charism of preaching for the salvation of souls.
This is presently carried out in the following parishes:
- Holy Innocents Parish (Pleasantville, NY)
- Holy Rosary Church (Springfield, KY)
- Holy Trinity Parish (Somerset, OH)
- Sts. Philip and James Parish (Baltimore, MD)
- St. Denis Parish (Hanover, NH)
- St. Dominic Parish (Washington, DC)
- St. Dominic Parish (Youngstown, OH)
- St. Gertrude Parish (Cincinnati, OH)
- St. Joseph Parish (Somerset, OH)
- St. Joseph Parish in Greenwich Village (New York, NY)
- St. Louis Bertrand Parish (Louisville, KY)
- St. Patrick Parish (Columbus, OH)
- St. Patrick Parish (Philadelphia, PA)
- St. Pius V Parish (Providence, RI)
- St. Rose Priory Church (Springfield, KY)
- St. Thomas Aquinas Parish (Charlottesville, VA)
- The Parish of St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Catherine of Siena (New York, NY)
Foreign Missionary Work
The Province of St. Joseph presently sponsors the Vicariate of Eastern Africa, with friars from the Province andVicariate serving Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Sudan. In the past, the Province had missions in Peru, Pakistan, and China.
