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. Dominic Dennis DeLay, OP
Although I’m originally from Connecticut, I mostly grew up in California. We never missed Mass on Sunday when I was a kid. And I was bored stiff. So I think the seeds were planted early for a desire to one day have a prayerful and meaningful celebration of the Mass. (The Sunday family ritual I liked was going out to breakfast after Mass.)
Music planted another seed. We always sang growing up, and when I was a music student at Occidental College in Los Angeles, I wanted to do something weird my last summer before graduation. I ended up studying Gregorian chant in France, and I was fascinated by the monks’ life.
I thought I wanted to be a monk and sing (and eat) all day. But then I realized I needed to be a bit more social. Besides, the monks worked too much. I met the Dominican friars at my college, and they seemed like a real joyful bunch.
Most Dominican friars are also priests. Sounded good to me, and still does. As a priest there’s nothing I like better than leading people in the celebration of the Eucharist. And then there’s the privilege of living out the meaning of the Eucharist with everyone the rest of the week, with all the ups and downs that life brings.
I also love to preach and teach – I love to challenge people to use the brains God gave us. I also love to study, something really important to Dominicans, who gave me a great foundation at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. In recent years, I’ve brought together my interest in music, theater, liturgy, and preaching/storytelling by studying and making movies. I am currently making films fulltime in Los Angeles, where I live with my Dominic brothers at St. Dominic's. Please visit me at www.mudpuddlefilms.com.
In addition to the filmmaking ministry, my Dominican classmate and I sing “The Black and White Concert: A Friendship in Song," www.BlackandWhiteOP.org. Beginning with black and white spirituals, we share the music that brought us together and that has brought other black and white Americans together through the centuries. I am also currently chaplain for the Dominican contemplative nuns in Hollywood.
I’m also blessed that my brother, my sister, their families, my parents, and I have all miraculously converged in Southern California.