The process of becoming a lay member of the Order of Preachers—the Dominican Order, or Order of St. Dominic—is not short. First you spend a year as an inquirer, or postulant in the older terminology. During that time you are learning about the Order and the Dominican rule, and discerning whether you are in fact called to be a lay Dominican. In your second year, as a candidate, or novice, you try to live according to the rule, and you continue your discernment process. In the meantime, the chapter leadership are doing the same, discerning whether in their view you are called to join the order.

At the end of these two years, assuming that you still wish to and that the chapter council agrees, you are eligible to make your first profession—that is, to promise for the first time to live according to the Dominican rule. First profession is always for a particular period of time; and your period of temporary profession can last (with renewals) for three to seven years. At the end of that, you either leave the order or promise to live according to the rule for life.

This morning, I and four others in my chapter made our first professions as Lay Dominicans. Three others made their life professions; and one fellow was received and is consequently now a candidate, or novice. It was quite a morning.

May St. Dominic, St. Catherine of Siena, and St. Thomas Aquinas pray for us!