Becoming a Lay Dominican required a great deal of thought in order for me to understand what it meant. From the start I saw it as a Vocation, a specific calling from God but in order to respond I needed to decide who and what I was and what I could do. The Dominican Life is based upon Four Pillars that I am going to list in the order Community, Study, Prayer and Work and each of these needed to be considered in turn.

I am a convert and I was received into the Church by Herbert McCabe. I am rather proud of that. I once heard him say, during a homily, that the point of the Friars’ Community Life was to demonstrate if they could live together without killing each other the laity in general should be doing a much better job of getting with each other than we were doing. I am a Lay Dominican and so part of the Laity but I take a lead from the Friars and Sisters. Obviously, I can regard myself as part of the Dominican Family and describe my fellows as brothers and sisters but what exactly does that mean? I have two siblings but while neither of them counts as Best Friends they are special. If they have problems, I am there for them. I just am. Surely that is what Family means? Unfortunately, it is not always that simple and too often people just don’t bother trying. I had no choice about being an Owens and had to make the most of what I was lumbered with. On the other hand, I actively went out of my way to become a Dominican so I must go out of my way to get to know and support this extra Family. Do I succeed perfectly? – of course not, but I do at least try. I cannot honestly say that I have never met a Dominican that I did not like but then I must insist that I have never met a Dominican that did not repay the effort I made to know them better. I hope that Herbert would be satisfied with that.

Study is both the easiest and the most difficult pillar. People who are drawn to the Order are usually the ones who were described as “academic” at school. I understand that the actress Emilia Clarke was advised not to trust anyone with a television bigger than their bookcase. Would-be Dominicans do not need to be told this. The point is, being a Lay Dominican is more than joining a book club. (Although the history of our dear Brothers and Sisters in the Tamar Fraternity prove it is a possible start.) Our study needs to have a point. I learned to read using a scheme called Reading to Some Purpose. I think that makes a good, extra motto for the order. Our studies need to have applications.

Prayer really is, in fact, the easy one. A drowning man we are told has no difficulty praying and even though I am comfortably retired, Lay Life regularly feels like drowning. I was once told, by yet another Dominican, that “if all you can do is pray don’t think that is all you are doing”. I continue to meditate on this but the basic idea that prayer must be more than empty wishes seems clear. The complication comes when prayer blurs with the would-be beauty queen whose ambition is to Work for World Peace. The question must be asked: what am I doing as well as praying? This brings me to Work.

An AI search of the Four Pillars gave Work as “Service”. It is more usually described as Preaching. We are, after all, the Order of Preachers. But preaching as it is generally understood, is associated with priests rather than the Laity. To be honest I prefer the word Mission but Work is more ‘everyday’ and so more appropriate to the Laity. I was once on the borderline of a very unpleasant argument between two groups in a Baptist church. My group regarded the others as “Pew-warmers”. All our opponents expected to do was sing hymns, be inspired by the sermon and put cash in the collection. But someone, other than the stipended clergy, had to do the preparation. My spokesperson was described as the sort of Christian who goes around with a bible in one hand and a brush in the other. As my friend said, he thought it was intended as an insult. I am terrible at sitting still so could not be a pew-warmer if Gabriel flew in with a written message from God telling me it was my Vocation. It would be my Calvary. I cannot therefore claim any moral superiority for not being one. There are so many jobs to be done in the Church from Extraordinary Eucharistic Minister to the dusting by way of helping with the music, readings and prayers and of course flower-arranging. Then there are the often-over-looked acts of visiting and supporting friends whether they are in need or not. The Tamar Group include various chaplaincies in their Mission and at Christmas invite late-night shoppers to have a short break in a town centre church and say a prayer and light a candle. Tamar is very special but they have been blessed with both an inclination to Service plus opportunities to carry this out. Opportunities are available for us all, whether it is within our Church, our Family or our Employment.

As St Matthew points out “by their Works they (the Lay Dominicans) shall be known”.

The purpose of my Formation was to understand myself better. I then realised why, when I decided to become a Catholic, a friend of mine who knew me rather well insisted on introducing me to the Prior of Blackfriars, Oxford. Being a Dominican makes sense of my life and I try to do what I can to be useful even though I know I am just a minor character in the story of the Church.

Philip Owens (Oxford)

Autumn 2025