The Feast of St. Dominic, Sunday, August 8, 1999. We have been getting ready for this day all Summer; planning, preparing, inviting. Much of the Dominican family is here and we have been celebrating three days already with talks on preaching, family, and theology and masses of the Triduum. Now the day is here and the church is jammed with people.
Immediately before mass people are making their last minute preparation. Here is the all-dominican choir. They paused their rehearsal for a moment so I could get a group photo.
When they were finished going over the songs with the congregation, a group of dancers performed traditional Peruvian dances while singing...
Meanwhile, the priests and brothers were busy getting ready in the sacristy. As is tradition in many places, the Franciscans joined us for the Feast. Here before mass, one of the brothers proclaimed a formal greeting and ...
Of course, we weren't the only ones celebrating St. Dominic. We were joined by the saints and the angels.
All around the church are paintings and statues of the saints, many of them excellent works of art in their own right. For the feast, though, they seemed to come alive and sing with us. At the right is one of the many visages of St. Rose of Lima. At the right is a photo of a very large painting of St. Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata. Variations of this theme are very common here in Perú, but this one in the sanctuary of Sto Domingo is the best I have seen.