Novena to St. Dominic-Day Two
Bl. Juana with St. Dominic and his brother, Bl. Mannes (Procession of our Lady of the Rosary, Naval, Philippines)
From the Libellus of Bl. Jordan of Saxony
During this time a boy named Dominic was born in this diocese in the town of Caleruega. Before his mother conceived him, she saw in a vision that she would bear in her womb a dog who, with a burning torch in his mouth and leaping from her womb, seemed to set the whole earth on fire. This was to signify that her child would be an eminent preacher who, by "barking" sacred knowledge, would rouse to vigilance souls drowsy with sin, as well as scatter throughout the world the fire which the Lord Jesus Christ came to cast upon the earth. From infancy this child was carefully reared by his parents and a maternal uncle, an archpriest who lost no time training him in the practices of the Church. In this way the child, whom God had destined to be a vessel of election, was from his earliest years pervaded with an odor of holiness which always clung to him.
His father's name was Felix and his mother's Jane.
Pray for us, blessed father, St. Dominic,
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray, O Holy Father St. Dominic, true lover of humility, the greater you appeared in the sight of men, the more you humbled yourself before God. Be to us a loving guide, that, following in your footsteps we may be enabled to withstand all the snares of the enemy, and spending our lives in earnest prayer, self-denial and humility, we may, at the hour of death, be received with you into heaven. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
