12th Tuesday in honor of St. Dominic

On this twelfth Tuesday in the series of 15 Tuesdays in honor of our Holy Father St. Dominic, our reflection considers the Ascension of Our Lord and relates it to St. Dominic's yearning for and being received into heaven.

If you are joining us now towards the end of 15 Tuesdays, don’t worry! These fifteen weeks have been a delightful opportunity for us to share our reflections, which you can read at any point to grow in love of God and devotion to St. Dominic.

Yearning for Heaven

Meditating on the 2^nd Glorious Mystery of the Rosary, our hearts are full of joy and yearning.  Why joy?  Because the Lord by His death and Resurrection has made it possible for us to enter heaven, opening the door of heaven whose entrance was closed to us by the sin of our first parents.  For the forty days after His Resurrection, Christ instructed His apostles, giving them laws and ordinances for His Mystical Body, the Church.  He raised His hands and blessed them as He ascended into heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father.

Blessed Guala, an early Dominican friar, had a vision of St. Dominic on the day of the Saint’s death.  “Having prayed for St. Dominic on the 6^th of August, A.D. 1221, believing him to be still lying sick at Bologna, Blessed Guala fell asleep, leaning against the belfry of the church, and he seemed to see two ladders let down from an opening in the sky above him.  At the top of one stood our Divine Lord, and His Blessed Mother was at the summit of the other.  Angels were going up and down the ladders, and at their foot was seated one clothed in the habit of the Order, but his face was covered with his hood, in the manner in which the Friars were wont to cover the face of the dead when carried out for burial.  The ladders were drawn up into heaven, and he saw the unknown Friar received into the company of angels, surrounded by dazzling glory, and borne to the very feet of Jesus.”  When he journeyed to Bologna he learned, of course, that this friar was St. Dominic himself. (From Short Lives of the Dominican Saints by a Sister of the Congregation of St. Catharine of Siena, 1901.)

During his life, St. Dominic yearned for heaven.  And he brought this to fruition by his preaching and the example of his life.  Hoping to join our Holy Father one day in heaven we earnestly strive with all our might with Our Lady’s prayers to live according to the laws and ordinances of the new life Jesus gave us.  May Our Lord fulfill our yearning by bringing us also through the open doors of heaven to join Him and all the saints in joy and peace forever.

Additional Prayers

If you would like to observe this day with additional devotions, we have posted the following prayers in the past:

• Bl. Jordan’s Prayer to St. Dominic
• Litany of St. Dominic