Not long after moving back home after college, I began to attend Mass at a neighboring parish. I didn’t really care for they way things were done at mine, and there were many Sundays when the 5:30pm Mass came in handy. It was also at this parish where I would first meet priests dressed in white habits known as the Dominican Friars, the Order of Preachers.
I didn’t attend Mass there every Sunday, I would also attend the closest TLM, I would be there frequently. I was always impressed with the quality of the preaching. I appreciated the care that went into celebrating the liturgy, and the availability of confession and Eucharistic Adoration. At this time I kept going back and forth about what I felt my vocation was, I looked at a few religious orders, including the Dominicans. Although I was attracted to their charism and dedication to preaching the Truth, I did not feel like community life was for me. I kept on searching for a while, and eventually, I knew that God was calling me to the Diocesan priesthood. Part of the application process includes a letter from your parish priest. I had a meeting with my pastor, and it didn’t go well. Even though he was willing to support me, I walked out of there feeling unwelcome at the place where I grew up. It just didn’t feel right. It was then I realized that I had been to St Vincent much more often than I did my home parish, so I then contacted the parish office and set up a meeting with Fr. Tom. Even though it was my first time formally meeting him, he was very supportive and that day wrote me a letter of support for my application, registered me as a parishioner, and signed up me to be a lector.
In the fall of that year, I moved into Mundelein Seminary and began my studies for the priesthood. I would keep in touch with Fr Tom, who would invite me back for dinner and Christmas and Easter Masses. He and the other friars would of course try to persuade me to join the Dominicans, but after a few months of seminary, I was sure community life wasn’t for me. That said, I began to develop a devotion to Saint Dominic, as well as an appreciation for the teachings of Saint Thomas Aquinas. It was in these early years of seminary I would also learn that there are more ways one can be a Dominican other than becoming a friar. Fr Tom was at the time the provincial promoter of the Priestly Fraternity of St Dominic, the Dominican Third Order for diocesan priests. I found this idea very interesting and it was something I would have in the back of my mind as I moved forward.
Fast forward to 2020, I was ready for my Diaconate Ordination, but then this COVID thing happened and our ordination was postponed. While I had hoped to begin formation with the Priestly Fraternity as a transitional deacon, all of this was put on hold. I would be ordained a deacon that August, but my priestly Ordination was pushed back a year. Throughout that time and into my first year as a priest I didn’t really think about the Priestly Fraternity at all, but over the last year, it kept coming back up in various ways. Eventually, I would figure out God was giving all sorts of signs pointing towards it. I decided that I would use my annual retreat to reflect on this, and unless God clearly told me otherwise, I was sure this was where he wanted me to go. At the end of that week, I knew that the Lord wanted me to be a son of Saint Dominic.
On the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, I along with one of my best friends since kindergarten, Fr. Dominic, and another of our Chicago brothers, Fr. Matthew were received into the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Dominic at St. Valentine Church in Peru, IL. We received the Dominican scapular and a religious name (to be used within the order, not publicly). I received the name Brother Vincent Ferrer, in honor of the parish that sponsored me during my seminary formation. It was fitting that the name I received would be connected to the place where my Dominican journey began a decade prior.
Hound of the Lord 