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Br.
Matthew Augustine Miller, OP
The road that led me to the Dominican Order started at Sacred
Heart Parish in Red Bluff, California, when, shortly after my birth, I was
baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ. Though baptized a
Catholic, I was raised an Evangelical Protestant and spent my childhood and
early adolescence in a small town near Klamath Falls, Oregon. Looking for
more work opportunities, my family moved to Vancouver, Washington, where
they live to this day and where I lived up until my departure for college at
Western Washington University.
During my time at Western my curiosity was piqued by a
book which I was assigned to read for a comparative religion class: The
Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich., a 14th
Century English anchoress. For the first time in my life, I was stuck by
the fact that Christianity was a historical phenomenon, and while Julian’s
Christianity was similar in many regards to the Christianity I was raised
with, it also had notable and important differences, and it was these
differences which caught my attention. Shortly thereafter, I would pick up
a copy of St. Augustine’s Confessions, a book which would not only
deepen my interest in the history of Christianity, but also reshape my
entire religious and devotional life. What followed was a year of reading
every Catholic author I could get my hands on. Notable in this regard were
the writings of Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Cardinal Newman, Gerard Manley
Hopkins, GK Chesterton, Flannery O’Connor and, above all, the Early Fathers
of the Church.
Accompanied by these authors, I began exploring the
endless highways and byways of Catholic thought and, in journeying
with these authors, I gradually and quite naturally began believing
with them as well. Having found myself a Catholic, it suddenly seemed
urgent to track down and seek fellowship and communion with other active
(and living) Catholics- beginning with a wonderful elderly Jesuit priest who
patiently listened to my story and heard my first confession, and proceeding
to my University Newman Center where I found myself surrounded by other
young adults who shared with me an enthusiasm and excitement about this
whole Catholic thing.
It was during my time at
the Newman Center (or Shalom Center, as it was called back then) that I
became aware of a desire to throw away my life- or, if you prefer, to lose
my life that I may save it (Lk 9:24); and what better and more spectacular
way of throwing away one’s life can be found then the way modeled by St.
Catherine of Siena, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Dominic? That, at least, is
the conclusion I came to. I expect other Christians will find other
perfectly satisfactory ways of throwing away their lives. However, for
those who find that they share my attraction to the Dominican life and are
tempted to join the Order, I can only say that the experience has been one
of ever deepening gratitude for the grace I’ve been given here. Throwing
away one’s life is not any easy task- it takes years of practice and
dedication. Above all, it requires grace. As of yet, I find that I have
only pretended to throw away my life. There is still a part of me that
stubbornly clings to living- not real living but that discredited
approximation or caricature of living that the Scriptures call sin.
Nevertheless, I also stubbornly cling in hope to Christ’s redemptive love, a
clinging which, if persisted in, cannot fail to lead to life eternal.
Last updated: October 15,
2008
- Interests
Philosophy, Theology, Music, Backpacking, Skiing
- Favorite Music
Bach, Sibelius, Prokofiev, Monteverdi, Pärt, Johnny Cash, Hank
Williams, Sr., Bob Wills, Louvin Brothers
- Favorite Books
Holy Scripture, Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas, Augustine the
Bishop by Frederik van der Meer, Unseen Warfare by Theophan the Recluse,
Ways of Imperfection by Simon Tugwell, Lay People in the Church by Yves
Congar
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Photo 2
- Novice
Class 2003
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