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. Daniel Michael Thomas, OP
Born in Oakland, California in 1941 "Michael Anthony" attended Catholic grammar and high schools and entered the Dominicans in 1959 being given the name, "Daniel" by Fr. Gerald Albert Buckley. When none of the names that I submitted were available, Fr. Buckley took a big copy of Buttler's Lives of the Saints and started going through it. He called out names, "Abraham, Balthasar, Ceslaus, Daniel, Daniel, Daniel Thomas, Danny Thomas. Yes, that's it. Danny Thomas!" And my life, name and identity was forever changed. I became a cooperator brother for our province.
I was involved in a variety of jobs in my early years and cooked for awhile, helped in the library at St. Albert's Priory and took care of some of the elderly friars when the Brothers Formation House was established at Kentfield, Marin County, California.
My professional training was in printing and I worked in the Albertus Magnus Press in the basement of St. Albert's Priory until the early 70's when I moved into campus ministry at Arizona State University in Tempe.
Since that time I have done parish work in Ashland, more campus ministry at Riverside and there began my Liturgy Training Workshops called "Beyond Banners." A brief, but happy assignment at St. Dominic's in San Francisco preceded my assignment to McKenzie Bridge in 1991. I remained in that assignment as Director of St. Benedict Lodge Dominican Retreat and Conference Center until the summer of 2005 when I left for my current assignment in Kenya, East Africa.
My primary job description in Africa is to assist at the fairly newly established parish of St. Catherine of Siena in Nairobi. There I help in the liturgy celebrations, train lectors and musicians, teach adult catecheses and conduct liturgy and public speaking workshops around the Diocese of Nairobi.
Since Africans - and in fact most younger people in general - don't have any awareness with the connection of the name, "Danny Thomas" to the late entertainer and TV personality in the US, I have become known in Africa simply as, "Brother D." [updated: May 23, 2008]
Photo: 2006 300dpi
http://brotherdaniel.opwest.org: Brother Daniel's Homepage with many more experiences, letters, photos, etc.
International Meeting of Cooperator Brothers, 1998
Article: On Being A Brother: Beginnings
Article: On Being A Brother: The First Crisis
Article: On Being A Brother: The Charismatic Years
Article: On Being A Brother: A Crash Landing