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
Fr. Dionysius Joseph Mueller, OP
Joseph Mueller was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 27, 1894. During elementary school, he moved to Los Angeles and went to St. Anthony’s High School in Santa Barbara. In 1915, he entered St. Mary’s College in Oakland but left to enter the Novitiate after two years. Upon entering the Novitiate he took the name Dionysius.
He was an excellent student of languages. In high school he excelled in Greek, Latin and German, and soon added Spanish, Portuguese and French. After his Novitiate in Somerset, Ohio, he was sent to the House of Studies in Springfield, Kentucky and then to Washington, D.C. While a student he wrote an article for Dominicana entitled “Some Influences of St. Thomas on Piety”. He was ordained in St. Dominic’s Church in Washington, D.C. on June 14, 1923.
He was first assigned to Holy Rosary in Portland and then moved three times in four years: Seattle, Eagle Rock, Seattle again, and Vallejo. In 1935 he moved to Ross, California, where he was to stay for 14 years. While there he was chaplain of the San Raphael Sisters’ Novitiate, Master of Lay Brothers, Sacristan, Subprior and Procurator. While at Ross, he translated Denifle’s The Spiritual Life from German. His final assignment was in Benicia, California, but due to failing mental health he was sent to the best possible place, St. Bernard’s Hospital in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he died on June 9, 1962.
Photo: "Some Influences of St. Thomas on Piety" from Dominicana, March, 1920
|
Date of Birth |
Date of Profession |
Date of Ordination |
Date of Death |
|
July 27, 1894 |
September 16, 1917 |
June 14, 1923 |
June 9, 1962 |
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