Blessed Jordan’s Preaching

Day 8: Blessed Jordan’s Preaching

We pray to St. Dominic as the “preacher of grace.” He received a special charism of effective preaching for the salvation of souls, and we pray to him to obtain something of that grace for us. Blessed Jordan shared in that Dominican grace of preaching in special way. The Lives of the Brethren, a text which compiles stories about the early Order, speaks of Blessed Jordan’s grace of preaching in this way:

As for the word of God and the office of preaching, Father Jordan was so pleasing and powerful that hardly anyone could be compared to him. For the Lord gave him a special prerogative and grace not only in preaching, but also in conversation, so that wherever and with whomever he was he would never be at a loss for stirring words and pointed illustrations; whatever the condition of his listeners, each one found satisfaction, and his preaching became well known. Therefore the devil was envious and tried many ways to divert him from preaching…

Whatever that grace of preaching was, we cannot narrowly interpret it as the grace of being especially nimble with words or rhetorically powerful, although Blessed Jordan was. Nor can we simply reduce it to being able to preach a good homily: this story recounts that Blessed Jordan had this grace in conversation as well. Although St. Paul was a rhetorical genius, he said that, “my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor 2:4). His true effectiveness came through being an instrument of the Holy Spirit in his preaching of the Gospel. Bl. Jordan was also able to reach his listeners through the words which were needed just for them. In our day, as ever, we also need preachers of grace to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. We pray through Blessed Jordan that God will raise up many preachers of grace:

Blessed Jordan of Saxony, worthy successor of St. Dominic, in the early days of the Order, your example and zeal prompted many men and women to follow Christ in the white habit of Our Holy Father. As patron of Dominican vocations, continue to stimulate talented and devoted men and women to consecrate their lives to God. Through your intercession, lead to the Order of Preachers generous and sacrificing persons, willing to give themselves fervently to the apostolate of Truth. Help them to prepare themselves to be worthy of the grace of a Dominican vocation. Inspire their hearts to become learned of God, that with firm determination they might aspire to be “champions of the Faith and true lights of the world.”

Last Day 9 of the Novena (or Day 7)

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Image: Andrea di Bonaiuto, Exaltación de la Orden Dominica