My First Christmas with the Dominicans
By: Brother Carl Paustian
One of the greatest blessings that the Church has given to us is the Advent Season in preparation for Christmas. Advent helps us to prepare our hearts so that we can receive Christ with joy. The effects of properly utilizing of this season of preparation made the starkest difference for my first Christmas with the Dominican Order and Christmases past. Rather than busying myself with holiday parties, endless traffic jams and crowded shopping malls, I found myself in quiet prayer that allowed the Lord to open my heart for his Incarnation. This quiet prayerful attitude that the Novitiate supports made all the difference for my first Christmas – I was able to wait with joyful expectation instead of fretting over an endless to-do list.
At the same time though, this Christmas was very similar to years past in regards to family traditions. I attended a beautiful Midnight Mass but instead of sitting with my mother and father, I sat with my novice brothers. On Christmas evening, all of the friars at St. Dominic’s in San Francisco and several other guests from the Parish gathered in the priory refectory to share a delicious meal with lively conversation. It was Christmas that really helped me to see the Dominicans as my new family – gathered together to share each other’s company and express our joy for Christ’s coming.
Christmas Day also served as a great time to reflect of my vocation to the Order of Preachers. It was, after all, the first anniversary of when I decided to apply to the Southern Dominicans. I was able to step back with a thankful glance reflect on the many changes and blessings of the past year: receiving the Dominican habit, sharing and growing with my novice brothers, tutoring underprivileged students at a local Catholic middle school, and deepening my interior and prayer life through the Novitiate schedule.
