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. Justin Charles Gable, OP
I attended Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California, where I spent several years wrestling with the truths of the faith. Under the guidance of the Norbertine Fathers of St. Michael’s Abbey, I found my way back to the Catholic Church. I went on to attend the University of San Francisco and the St. Ignatius Institute, where my mind and heart were fed by studying the Church Fathers, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the great philosophers. I continued my studies in philosophy at Fordham University, where I received my Ph.D. in 2007.
I had been discerning a call to religious life since my last year of high school. God had been calling me for more than a few years! I was drawn to the Dominicans because of their mission to spread the Gospel, and was attracted by the Dominican life of study, prayer, and fraternity which supports this mission. I count myself especially blessed, then, to be called a Dominican and to share in the teaching, preaching, and the celebration of the sacraments which brings Christ to the world. [updated 7-11-10]