Cooperator Brother: A Vocation Unto Its Own
June 12th, 2008 by Fr. Gabriel Gillen, O.P.
Vocations & Formation by Brother Ignatius Perkins, O.P.
A Cooperator Brother is a friar who is called to live a life of prayer and service in the Order of Preachers. Referred to by the title of “Brother,” he relates to the people he ministers to in a direct and fraternal way. He lives a full religious life, as an equal with his brother priests. Together they share in the preaching mission of the Order, but unlike his ordained brothers is freed from the demands of a sacramental ministry. While a Dominican priest preaches primarily through his sacramental ministry, the Cooperator Brother uses a variety of other opportunities, using his particular set of gifts, to preach Christ’s love in ministering to the needs of those around him. Regardless of his ministry – whether leading the community in prayer, teaching a theology course at a University, or in meeting the homeless on the street – the Cooperator Brother is first and foremost a preacher. For more information on the vocation of Cooperator Brother, visit the section above marked “Brother”.
Brother Damian McCarthy, O.P. and the ‘Dominican Moment’
In today’s culture, life-long commitments for many are often considered an experience found in the dustbins of antiquity. The Golden Jubilee of Religious Profession of Brother Damian McCarthy, O.P., celebrated on Sunday, June 1 at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in New York, portrayed a dramatic counter-cultural witness to the world that a life-long commitment as a Dominican Friar works!
Brother Damian’s call to Dominican life as a cooperator brother in 1957 was not of his own doing. God determined his life as a Dominican Friar before time began. Through Baptism, Confirmation and the consecration of his life through the profession of Solemn Vows, Brother Damian was given the freedom, the joy and indeed the responsibility to help others come to understand and to cooperate with God’s Word through his life in community and in the many ministries entrusted to him. Brother Damian responded to God’s call by saying “yes” and the lived expression of this “yes” continues with vibrancy and confidence. For him this continues to be the Dominican Moment!
Like other Dominican Cooperator Brothers, he fulfills his vocation as a Friar Preacher from a different pulpit. In addition to his ministry to the Friars of his community, his preaching as a Dominican Brother comes in the form of administering and caring for Dominican churches and sanctuaries, the sacred places in the life of the Church, which gather people to hear Holy Preaching and to receive the Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist. The care of physical structures, however, is merely an important means to the end of Brother Damian’s preaching ministry - to bring people close to God. His unique charism is in his gift of welcoming all – young people, the aged and the poor, the disenfranchised and the unwanted, persons of color and of different cultures, to the House of the Lord. He engages people wherever they are and assures them that in the House of the Lord, all are welcome in their journey in search of hope and no one will be left behind.
These are but a few examples of how Brother Damian lives out his response to the call to preach the Gospel as a Dominican friar. Whether it was at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, St. Pius V Church in Providence, Rhode Island, St. Thomas Aquinas Priory at Providence College and more recently at St. Vincent Ferrer Church and Priory in New York, his Dominican life and ministry as a Friar in the Order of Preachers has been marked by grace in his life and his ministry to preach to the world, to engage the culture of the day and to evangelize it. May his next 50 years of Dominican life and ministry continue to be a witness among men seeking to make a lifetime commitment as a Dominican Friar and to continue to welcome all to the House of the Lord. Amen.
Brother Ignatius Perkins, O.P.
At the Noon Mass on Sunday, June 1, the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer celebrated the Golden Jubilee of Br. McCarthy, O.P. See the post
Golden Jubilee
to hear the homily delivered by Fr. William Holt, O.P., prior of the community.
