Full Speed Ahead

The Rosary is a set of prayers widely said by Catholics. It is made up of traditional prayers well known to most: The Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, said in a particular sequence. 

But there are variations. Most folks, when they say prayers, say them with a certain pacing. 'Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee'. So it is with the Rosary generally.

Yet me Pops, having grown up in a parish staffed by Dominican priests, always said there were Rosaries, and then there was the Dominican Rosary. It was said very, very fast, almost at a machine gun rate. HailMaryfullofgracetheLordiswiththeblessedartThouamongsywomenandblessedisthefruitofthywombJesus.

Could you follow that? Then you might be a Dominican.

The Almost Robbery

Father Thomas Smith was one of the Dominican priests whom I remember and admire. 

Five or six blocks away from St. Dominic, where Fr. Smith was pastor in the Seventies, was St. Leo, at that time headed by Fr. John Morrell. Sadly one night, and thankfully he was not seriously hurt, two men broke into the St. Leo Rectory one evening and took what cash he had and a few other items. He called Fr. Smith about the incident right after it occurred.

In hearing the tale, Fr. Smith was properly sympathetic and asked what he might do to help. "Double bolt your doors," Fr. Morrell replied.

"Why?" Father Smith asked incredulously.

Fr. Morrell continued, "Because they demanded to know where the next nearest Church was, and I panicked and told them St. Dominic."

Thanks a lot, thought Fr. Smith. But fortunately nothing came of it.

Blah Blah Right, Blah Blah Wrong

Believe me, I have heard far too many times in my life What gives you the right to call blah blah wrong? Well, the best retort I know to that came from a Dominican priest, Father Jim Murray. He said you throw the question right back at the accuser: What gives you the right to call blah blah right?

He's, ahem, right. If I don't have the right, to the best of my knowledge and understanding, to call something wrong, why do you have the right to call it right? Or even just to assert it doesn't matter or is none of my business? Why can you use your judgement but I can't use mine? 

We're talking about an issue (in this case blah blah) about which I have as much right to an opinion (right or wrong) as you do (right or wrong). You're essentially saying I'm wrong for no reason except that you apparently don't want me to be right.

It's really a form of the ad hominem argument, attacking the speaker instead of the speaker's points. It dodges the question at hand by trying to claim I have no right to express my position. And blah blah is, I assure you, a critical question.

Father Murray foils the robber

With a lead-in like yesterday's (where I spoke of the Dominican priests I've known) I figure I pretty much have to follow up today with a story about one of them.

Fr. Murray was small man, maybe cracking five-foot-two. I don't mean that he was frail looking, only that he was, well, short. But he could take care of himself.

He liked to walk around Matthei Field, the athletics area for the university next door to St. Dominic where he was stationed for awhile. Early one morning he was accosted by a ne'er do well who demanded his wallet. Father refused and the man attacked him, even shoving Father to the ground. Yet the brave and by then thoroughly incensed little padre fought all the way. He kicked like a mule, using the ground as a steady to enhance his blows. He put a hurt to his assailant, until the thief finally gave up and ran off.

Relating the story to someone after he had returned to the rectory, Father was asked what was in his wallet. "A dollar," he answered.

"A dollar? Why didn't you just give it to him rather than risk something worse?"

"It was my dollar," Father Murray replied emphatically.

You gotta love that spunk.