Vita Consacrata – Iubilaeum 2025
The joy of Cardinal Ratzinger’s words has not lost its relevance.
It was the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, and I was walking near the Vatican with a fellow sister. A white-haired man carrying a leather briefcase walked toward us. I asked, “Isn’t that Cardinal Ratzinger?” She replied, “Yes, and I know him. Would you like to meet him?” I enthusiastically affirmed that I would, and she introduced me by name. I thanked him for his tireless service to the Church. He saw my white habit and immediately asked, “Are you a Dominican and from Nashville?” When I answered that I was, he looked directly into my eyes.
I had been taught by Nashville Dominicans as a student and loved their joyful fidelity to Christ and their faithful preaching of the Word, but I was also somewhat divided. Mother Teresa of Calcutta had been a central inspiration in my time of discernment. I often questioned whether I was on the path God had chosen for me.
Cardinal Ratzinger spoke to me, as if reading my heart, “Do not think that you have to do everything in the Church. God will raise up those who will care for the poor. He called you to be a Dominican, and the world has never needed the charism of the Dominican Order as much as now. Go and be a good, faithful Dominican.” Truly, I felt that God himself had confirmed my calling to the rich life of prayer, contemplative study, community, and preaching founded by Saint Dominic.
In that same summer, I was blessed to go on pilgrimage in the footsteps of Saint Dominic. Caleruega, the place of Dominic’s childhood, captivated me with its rugged landscape and enveloping silence. As I looked at the vast horizon where the dry land met the open sky, it was easy to enter into contemplation of God. When we left Spain and headed by bus to France, we traveled to Toulouse, where the Order was planted near the urban university. At first I found the riotous streets, full of crowds and noise, confronting and unsettling. I longed to return to the silence and solitude of Caleruega.
Then a realization came to me that has never left my mind and heart. It was precisely for Toulouse that Dominic was prepared in Caleruega. Dominic’s deep prayer made him so one with God, so full of the riches of God’s Word, that he could go forth to the crowds and hectic life of the cities with transforming grace. He could preach so effectively because he had pondered God’s Word so profoundly.
In the 25 years since that Great Jubilee, I have reflected on how each day Dominicans are called from Caleruega to Toulouse. We listen to God in the prayer and study of the cloister and in the wisdom gained from our life in common. Then we are sent to meet those we encounter with a message of grace and peace. We begin from the contemplative depths of Caleruega and go forth to the apostolic adventures of Toulouse each day and in each season of our Dominican lives.
As we celebrate the Jubilee of 2025, we are invited to journey together in hope. Our Dominican contemplation of the Word gives us every reason to hope as we reflect on God’s fidelity to His promises, not only throughout salvation history, but also in the history of the Order of Preachers. Saint Dominic was aflame with hope, certain that prayer, penance, and preaching could glorify God and contribute to the salvation of souls. At a time when an overabundance of conflicting words and a growing sense of isolation lead many to question life’s purpose and meaning, the Dominican preaching of the Word of God and the call to live in communion with God and one another offer just what seeking souls need. What Cardinal Ratzinger said to me 25 years ago has lost none of its relevance: “The world has never needed the charism of the Dominican Order as much as now.”
May the great Saints of the Order of Preachers pray for us, that all in the Dominican family may radiate the joy and passion of Saint Dominic and preach Christ anew by our lives and our words.
Biographical Sketch: Sister Mary Madeline Todd, O.P. is a Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, Tennessee. She earned her Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Angelicum in Rome. She has enjoyed over three decades of Dominican life and service through teaching, speaking, writing, and leading retreats.
