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. Patrick Leo LaBelle, OP
I am one of a long line of Dominicans coming out of St. Vincent's Parish and Schools in Vallejo, California. I left Vallejo to do my undergraduate work at Saint Mary's College of California. The greatest influence on my life relative to a Dominican vocation came, not from the friars, but from the San Rafael Dominican Sisters. I was blessed to spend twelve years at the feet of these brilliant and devoted women and, along with my wonderful family, discovered the beauty of priesthood and Dominican life. My relationship with and love for Saint Mary's College and the De La Salle Christian Brothers began during undergraduate days and continues even to this moment -- more than fifty years later. I have been the Alumni Chaplain, a faculty member, lived twelve years in student residence halls, Director of Campus Ministry, Dean of Students and serve at this time as a member of the College Board of Trustees.
My novitiate was in Kentfield, California. We called it Ross then, and my first philosophical and theological studies were at St. Albert's College and Priory in Oakland, California. We were formed while the Vatican Council was in process and our first steps into the Graduate Theological Union were taking place. Much as with Saint Mary's, little did I know that I would return to St. Albert's to teach on the faculty, be the President and to serve the province as Regent of Studies. Among my tasks were the re-naming of the school and moving the administration offices and the rest to Berkeley in the late seventies and early eighties.
Virtually all of my life as a Dominican has been in and around academics. My first assignment was to be a Newman Chaplain a the University of Oregon. From there it was on to the University of Washington, Saint Mary's College, my work in formation and education of our Studium (seminary), back to Oregon and then to Saint Mary's as Dean. I served on brief term as Pastor of St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Berkeley, but taught preaching and liturgy once again at our Dominican graduate school at the Graduate Theological Union. For the past thirteen years I have been the Director of the Catholic Community at Stanford University and now serve as Director of Vallombrosa Retreat and Conference Center in Menlo Park, CA. As well as being the Director of the Office of Ongoing Formation and Education for the clergy of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Most of my years of service have also been involved in leadership within the local communities and within the Western Dominican Province. I have served in many local, national and even international Dominican leadership roles and I am blessed even at this ancient age to be the local superior of our community founded to support our work at Stanford. I would not trade one day of my life for anything other than my Dominican priesthood.
2008 (thumbnail) | 2007 (thumbnail)
Preaching by Fr. Patrick at "The Word"
Fr. Patrick LaBelle, O.P.: A Campus Perspective on the Papal Visit, Religion & Ethics News Weekly, April 25, 2008
Catholicism on campus – How faith is presented at secular universities, Commonweal Magazine, April 5, 2006
The pain of service during crisis, The Stanford Daily, March 13, 2002
Born: July 1, 1939
Received the habit: September 8, 1959
First Profession: September 9, 1960
Ordained Priest: April 23, 1965