Dominic was born in Spain in 1170 to a Christian family. In 1191, he had a life-altering experience, seeing the devastation of a great famine in his country. He was so moved by what he saw that, like his contemporary St. Francis of Assisi, Dominic gave away all his possessions to the poor. When he did that he derived new clarity and became interested in studying, which he undertook with passion. He was especially concerned with the Albigensian heresy [gnostic] but held that they should be converted through preaching/teaching and not threatened and persecuted. Five intense years later, Dominic was ordained a priest and, after a stint as an austere cathedral canon, and then subdeacon, he went our on preaching tours in Languedoc and Toulouse, attracting many followers.
As a result, he organized he Dominican Order -- the Blackfriars. Like their founder, hey were deeply devoted to study and good preaching. They produced the great intellectual, Saint Thomas Aquinas!
The lesson for me is that disengagement from wealth, reducing our attachment to things (knowing the risk that they can easily own us) allows us to gain clarity and spurs us to greater study. We, then, can become truly effective in preaching and in inspiring ourselves and others to build the Kingdom of God, a world in which God's will is done on the earth as in heaven, the world we are aching for.
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