Order of Preachers
Preaching is at the heart of the Dominican vocation. The command of Jesus recorded in Matthew's Gospel "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" is directed to all Christians. Luke writes that disciples are to proclaim repentance and forgiveness; that 
the followers of Jesus are witnesses to the good news of the Gospel. Proclaiming and witnessing describe the work of preaching, a work not limited to the ordained, nor to the pulpit. In all that we do and say; in all of our works, the Gospel must be preached. Christians must witness to one another and to the world that God is love, that the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ gives life to the world and hope to all who suffer. Because every culture hears the Gospel in a new way and all peoples hear in their own language, preachers must be sent to every generation. From the beginning Dominicans have been called to preach not only through their ministries but also through the way they live their lives of vowed consecration .
Dominic de Guzman founded a religious order of women and men to preach the Gospel to a world afflicted with widespread misinterpretations of God, of nature, and of the Church. A group of nine women were the first to gather around Dominic and to share his vision. Ten years later in 1216, his Order was approved for the specific purpose of preaching. Prayer, study, and poverty for the sake of the mission characterized the lives of these early women and men.
In the beginning, the women were cloistered, but groups of lay women--members of the Third Order--were also inspired to follow Dominic's vision, among them, Catherine of Siena, later declared a doctor of the Church. The men were sent out two by two to every part of Europe and eventually the world. Scholars, mystics, contemplatives, and preachers--Dominicans struggled to live out lives described by their brother Thomas Aquinas as giving to others the fruits of contemplation.
