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. Richard Joseph Maher, OP
Fulton Sheen speaks about how it is impossible to talk about a vocation story, so subtle are the ways that God speaks to the heart and moves the soul. So, I will not even try to address the many variables and the countless grace filled events that led me to the Dominican Order, less I trivialize His awesome ways. I will, thus, stick to the facts:
I was born in San Francisco and raised in San Francisco’s northern suburbs. My mother is from Mexico and I am third generation Irish on the part of my father. Despite the influences of the surrounding secular culture, my parents and grandparents instilled in me the importance of family and my Catholic schooling helped me internalize the structures necessary to live my faith in the modern world. In fact, I am the product of an entirely Catholic education, a sacrificial gift from my parents and the source of infinite graces. Important to this initial faith formation were the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael and the Brothers of Christian Schools (the De LaSalle Brothers).
By engaging in a wide array of corporal and spiritual works of mercy, I discovered the need for laborers in the Lord’s Vineyard, realizing how necessary the Gospel is for today’s world. Particularly noteworthy is my work with pro-life ministries and my involvement with youth movements. When the idea of religious life was first proposed to me at the age of 16 by the Christian Brothers, the idea remained with me until I entered the Dominican novitiate in August of 2008 at the age of 21. Along the way were very special lay people, priests, religious (sisters and brothers), and a permanent deacon who generously helped to patiently guide, encourage, and support me in my discernment, bringing to fruition and helping me to realize the call I have had since I was a young child.
I made my first profession of vows in September of 2009, and I am currently enrolled in the Master of Divinity program at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, in preparation for the Catholic Priesthood. I am very proud to be part of the Order of Preachers, fascinated by the charism of preaching that is broad enough to encompass a variety of ministries, all of which I hope to explore. I am engaged in ongoing research of Demographic Transition, exploring the rapid decline of Total Fertility Rates throughout the world (especially in the so-called global south) and the related theological implications, an investigation I hope to turn into a Master Thesis.
Among my other ministerial passions are the pastoral care of migrants, lay youth movements, and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. [updated July 18, 2010]