A FRANCISCAN friar emphasized the importance of communication among the religious congregations to be “effective and relatable” preachers during the Mass for the feast of St. Dominic de Guzman on Aug. 8 at the Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City.
“That’s why Jesus let the Apostles preach by two. They would have a companion in their journey. They would be more effective and more relatable if they had someone whom they could talk to,” Fr. Dexter Toledo, O.F.M. said in his homily.
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He said the Church needs constant reform to spread the message of the Gospel by living a simple life, like the mendicant orders of old.
Echoing St. Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers, Toledo said “effective preachers” must always go back to their community after preaching, to celebrate communal prayer.
“As we celebrate the memory of our Holy founder St. Dominic, we celebrate more than just a friendship [between him and St. Francis], it is also a mission in the past that we need to share,” Toledo said.
Toledo, provincial secretary of San Pedro Bautista Philippine Province of the Franciscans, also said today’s youth need “authentic preachers” whom they could relate to, to better understand the Word of God.
“Kapag hindi nakaka-relate ang mga tao, kahit gaano pa kaganda, hindi nila naiintindihan. [T]o be effective preachers and teachers, especially to the youth today, we must speak of the truth in a much more acceptable story,” Toledo emphasized.
Top Filipino Franciscan Cielito Almazan O.F.M. was the main presider of the Eucharistic celebration.
It is a tradition among the Dominicans and Franciscans for a friar of the other order to preside over Mass for the feast of their own founder, to commemorate the friendship between Saints Dominic de Guzman and Francis of Assisi.
