Dominicans in the World Today

Dominicans are preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.Dominicans in Today’s World

The motto of the Order is veritas (a Latin word meaning “truth”).

We are therefore charged by the Church with preaching the truth of the Gospel message. Since the Dominican Order was founded almost 800 years ago, Dominicans have been at the forefront of this mission of searching for the truth.

All the great names of the Dominican tradition including Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, Catherine of Siena, Meister Eckhart, Martin de Porres, Bartolomeo de las Casas, Henri Lacordaire and many more, have shown by their lives and legacies that the mission of the Dominican Order throughout the centuries has sought, and continues to seek this truth, in order that people might more fully understand the mystery of God in their lives.

In our modern world, this constant search for truth and goodness and right is as essential as it was in St. Dominic’s time – perhaps even more so.
We live in the era called the intangible economy. Our Western society is consumption driven and it is becoming less and less clear to people from where their desire to consume is coming.

In the midst of all this, the search for God continues …

There is a great yearning to understand, document and use the complexity of life in all its forms – and a great yearning to understand God as well.
The Dominicans in Ireland and throughout the world are at the forefront in this search. To this end, we are active in various ministries in third level institutes of learning, engaged in pastoral ministry in parishes and local communities, involved in teaching the disciplines of philosophy, theology and scripture, in dialogue with new religious movements and sects and involved in the areas of justice and peace and many other ministries besides.

We have a missionary dimension to our lives also. Ultimately, we are where the people need to hear the Word of God most!