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. Dennis William Klein, OP
Br. Dennis Klein grew up in Mobile, Alabama. He was born into a loving family and brought up into the Catholic Faith. The priesthood was not something Dennis was considering while in high school, nor was it something he set out to pursue as he left Mobile for the Naval Academy. While he was there, his sister began discerning a call to religious life and this gently nudged Dennis along on his own discernment to the priesthood and religious life. Over the course of the next few years he began to understand and begin to respond to the Lord's call.
He resigned his commission as a Naval Officer and begin philosophy, theology and scripture studies in Brussels as a lay person while continuing to discern his call to the priesthood.
Earlier, some of his friends acquainted him with the Dominican order when they had decided to enter the novitiate. As his studies and discernment progressed he became more and more drawn towards the Dominicans, although at the time he was discerning a call be a missionary. He began to study Dominican spirituality and the rich writings of various members of the order. Eventually this led to a correspondence with Fr. Steve Maekawa, the Vocations Director of the Holy Name Province on the West Coast. After visiting the province a few times, he eventually petitioned to enter the novitiate. He has been blessed by his time thus far as a novice, and suspects that he is where he belongs.