Vocation Discernment
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Vocation Office
Western Dominican Province
5890 Birch Court
Oakland, CA 94618-1626
(510)-596-1821
Our Vocations require a great deal of support, from the first moment they begin their novitiate until the last moments of their retirement. Please do conside visiting our donation page and helping form and sustain the priests and brothers who will serve you in the future, serve you now and have served you in the past.
Saints and Blesseds
The Order of Friars Preachers,
The Dominican Order,
has a beautiful history of learning, service and holiness manifested in its saints and blesseds of every age since its foundation by St. Dominic de Guzman. Do enjoy the periodic postings of such stories as are available from various sources, especially our own archives.
Religious Retirement
Our elderly and infirm friars receive the best care we have available to us, as in any family. We rely heavily on the donations of others for our own existence and thus when one of our own becomes incapable of further ministry due to age or infirmity, those same donations help us support the sometimes necessary special care required by such members of our communities.
We prefer to care for our elderly and infirm in our own houses so that the life of a religious community can be a part of a friars life as long as possible. This is also the most economical in many ways. We strive to use donations wisely. But sometimes a care facility is essential. As we, as a Province, do not benefit from the national collection for retired religious, we ask that you assist us in caring for these friars who have prayed, taught, served and ministered for so many years amomg the people of the Western United States and beyond.
Please, in your kindness, consider assisting us in this work of brotherly love.
Many thanks in advance.
Catholicism
It's just the right thing
Br. Norbert Dale Fihn, OP
Brother Norbert was born in LaGrande, Oregon and joined the Western Dominicans as a cooperator brother in 1962. His many organizational skills made him a valuable assistant to several Priors Provincial of the Western Province, and the Dominican Laity flourished under his direction from 1990 to 1994, but Norbert was best known as a teacher, and teaching remained his first love through his religious life.
From 1968 until 1971, and again from 1976 until 1981, first as a teacher and later as principal, Norbert was a familiar face at the Western Dominicans' Daniel Murphy High School in Los Angeles. He also taught in Vallejo, San Diego, Santa Ana, and at St. Dominic School in Eagle Rock. Brother Norbert was ordained deacon in 1987, while working at Holy Rosary Parish, the Dominicans' church in Antioch, California. The following year he was assigned to Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage, where he directed the parish's baptismal and marriage preparation programs and served as an assistant to Archbishop Francis Hurley.
In 1990, Brother Norbert joined the Dominican community at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California, and taught in the college's Great Books Seminar and Extended Education Division. Although he generally led seminars in Greek and Roman thought at St. Mary's, Norbert most admired Geoffrey Chaucer, the subject of his graduate study at the University of San Diego.
Brother Norbert died May 30, 1994. At the Office of the Dead at St. Albert's, on June 1st, Anne Regan, president of the Oakland chapter of the Dominican Laity, expressed thanks for the loving and challenging service Norbert offered the lay Dominicans during his term as Promoter. Br. John Adams delivered the eulogy, and spoke of Norbert's prayerful patience and resignation during the days he spent at Siena House. Fr. David Bello preached the funeral homily the following morning, at Holy Rosary Parish in Antioch. He, too, recalled Norbert's gentle patience in his last days.
--Reginald Martin, O.P
|
Date of Birth |
Date of Profession |
Diaconate Ordination |
Date of Death |
|
November 1, 1939 |
March 19, 1963 |
November 8, 1987 |
May 30, 1994 |
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