August 8, 2026

(Image is a watercolor of St. Dominic by John Gerlach, OP)

How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the one bringing good news,
Announcing peace, bearing good news,
announcing salvation, saying to Zion,
“Your God is King!”

Listen! Your sentinels raise a cry,
together they shout for joy,
For they see directly, before their eyes,
the Lord’s return to Zion.
Break out together in song,
O ruins of Jerusalem!
For the Lord has comforted his people,
has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord has bared his holy arm
in the sight of all the nations;
All the ends of the earth can see
the salvation of our God.

Matthew 5:13-19

Jesus said to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
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When I was a young Dominican, several student brothers at Aquinas Institute of Theology, which was then at St. Rose Priory in Dubuque, Iowa, volunteered to start a summer camp for Hispanic kids from the South Side of Chicago. Camp Tamarack took over an old Dominican summer getaway of log buildings in Upper Michigan, and thanks to several volunteers and benefactors, the camp thrived for several summers.
A high point came each summer on August 8th, St. Dominic’s Day. St. Dominic, of course, is the founder of the Order of Preachers, and the Dominican Family celebrates his feast day with solemnity. At Camp Tamarack, the annual festivities on August 8th included Baked Alaska for breakfast, a Mass with handcrafted candles, and an evening campfire with storytelling. As enthusiastic young volunteers, we were discovering and celebrating deeper meanings of Christian life in the words and actions of community and service.
The Dominican Family often proclaims a passage from Isaiah 52 on St. Dominic’s Day: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, brings good news, and announces salvation.” Dominicans experience and announce the good news of the Gospel in the context of community. We are aware that not all communities in our world are communities of faith. Nevertheless, we believe that all communities require authentic human connection to thrive, and authentic connection requires dialogue, discernment, and truth-telling. The Greek word for this is parrhesia, which literally means speaking into relationship. Each of us in our world today needs this sinuous speech. We are salt and light for the world when we build communities of transparent and bold speech. And we long for God to knit an interconnecting web of authentic human communities into a city on a hill, God’s beloved community.
To celebrate St. Dominic’s Day is to celebrate the gift and challenge of all communities in which good news is spoken and heard and in which we hope for humanity’s transformation according to the communal image and likeness of God. Happy St. Dominic’s Day!