Wedding season is upon us. This spring, summer, and fall, millions more will be tying the knot, and those of us who are lucky enough to attend a Roman Catholic ceremony will hear a vow formula such as this:

I, ____, take you, ____, to be my lawful husband/wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.

As a friar, I will obviously never take wedding vows. (My until death moment came last August 11th, when I made solemn profession to God in the Order of Preachers.) Yet if you’ll allow me to share the story of a car I once owned, maybe it can shed some light on the beauty of a true, sacramental, indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman.

One evening, about a month ago, I went to use the faucet to wash my hands and no water came out, just a sputtering sound of air and a faint gargle echoed through.

Here at Dominicana, we welcome you to the start of our series on our sisters in St. Dominic, the Dominican nuns in the United States. Throughout this year we will feature posts on individual American monasteries, and today we begin with a brief history of the very first of these foundations. The nuns were established in 1206 by St. Dominic in Prouille, France. From the beginning of their establishment, the prayers of the nuns have served as a treasury of grace to make the friar’s preaching ever more efficacious for the salvation of souls. Six and half centuries after their founding in Prouille, the daughters of St. Dominic and their hidden monastic life finally arrived in the United States of America.

Here at Dominicana we have been waxing poetically on death as the Church remembers the Holy Souls during the month of November. As Christians, we know by faith that when we die, when our immortal souls are separated from our bodies, we will immediately undergo the particular judgment for our entire life’s blood, sweat, and tears. Our soul will then be consigned to one of three “places”: everlasting heaven, purgatory (as a period of purification for heaven), or unending hell. At the resurrection of the dead, all will be raised bodily and experience the Final Judgment. The righteous will share in the bodily glory of the Risen Christ, and the damned will experience bodily suffering due to their sins. The Church will thus enjoy the inexpressible “new heavens and a new earth” (2 Pt 3:13).

This year marks the ninety-fifth anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Mother to three children at Fatima, Portugal. On September 13, 1917, Our Lady appeared for the fifth time at the Cova da Iria (“Irene’s Cove”), where these three children tended sheep. It is a little known fact that a Dominican friar of our Province of St. Joseph enjoyed a unique encounter with one of these child visionaries. The visionary’s name was Sr. Lucia, and the priest was Fr. Thomas McGlynn, O.P. Before recounting how this encounter took place, a little background must be given.

Today we are celebrating the sainthood of Rose of Lima. St. Rose is a fellow Dominican, who died at the age of 31 in the year 1617. She also has the mark of being the first saint canonized from the “New World” or the Americas. St. Rose is most well known for the penances she inflicted upon herself. These included not eating meat or fruit for most of her life, sleeping on a bed strewn with rocks and broken glass when she was not depriving herself of sleep altogether, wearing a crown of thorns concealed by roses or her habit veil, and living in a tiny hermitage in her parents’ backyard.

These are shocking to read about in a way. Why on earth would someone inflict such pain and torture on herself? Her penances might even lead someone to accuse her of abusing her body, her own temple of the Holy Spirit!

My summer assignment as a friar has brought me to the Big Apple, where I first met the Dominican order and discovered a call to the priesthood. The other Sunday evening, I had to run an errand which took me to the west side of Manhattan, near the Hudson River. After I parked the car, I heard music playing and a stream of people coming up from a sloping sidewalk that I didn’t recognize at first.

Like many of my fellow Dominicans, I am an Eagle Scout. I have been blessed to have received over a decade of invaluable character formation in the scouting program, where love of God, love of country, and leadership were foundational. The program instilled in me great gratitude for being an American. The Scout Oath begins with, “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my Country.”

A few weeks ago, I was speaking with a fellow brother about love of neighbor and, specifically, about love of the “neighbors” with whom we happen to live. (In our case here at the House of Studies, that means seventy-nine fellow friars!) We were discussing the great need for self-sacrifice in any vocation, be it religious life or marriage. Agreeing with a comment he had made, I said, “Yes, it goes beyond endearment,” and he responded, “Good point.” Eureka! I knew I had a topic for my next Dominicana post!

Over the past decade I have noticed that everything seems to be offered to consumers with a “V.I.P. upgrade.” There’s the sporting event or concert that has an upgrade to include dinner, valet parking, and a collector’s item from the home team or the band. Then there’s the V.I.P ticket to the amusement park, which lets you bypass the long lines while the average Joe waits for hours. Now that we’re in the digital age, there are many websites that have free content, but if you want the full experience or unlimited access, you can opt for the “platinum” (or V.I.P.) membership. Of course, unless you’re a person with “connections,” all of these upgrades come with a price tag.