Memoria of St. Dominic, Priest (August 08)

We celebrate the Memorial of St. Dominic, the founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), which is dedicated to the improvement of morals, the extirpation of heresy, and the strengthening of the faith.

St. Dominic once taught; “A man who governs his passions is master of the world”. Feelings or passions are emotions or movements of the sensitive appetite (internal & external senses) that incline us to act or not to act in regard to something felt or imagined to be good or evil (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1763). The sensitive appetite leads us to desire pleasant things we do not have, e.g. the desire to eat when we are hungry, or to warm ourselves when we are cold. These desires are good in themselves, but often they exceed the limits of reason and drive us to greed, avarice and concupiscence. The effects of greed can be obesity, avarice arising from the passion of riches and power. And we can take an old incident in the United States i.e. the Clinton & Lewinsky’s scandal as an example for concupiscence. Clinton tried to take over the world but his passions took over him. I’m sure in our local political scene, this example can be relevant too (You know who I am referring to right? – we shall wait for the decisions of the courts).

So we pray that we may discern what is good and bad for us and pray for God’s strength to govern our passions. For Jesus too became human like each one of us.

“A man who governs his passions is master of the world”.