A beacon for 25 years
A beacon for 25 years
St. Dominic Chapel marks anniversary
By Rev. Jordan Zajac, O.P. ’04
Some years ago, it was decided the spotlights which illuminate St. Dominic Chapel should be turned off during the overnight hours. Not long after, the college heard from officials at T.F. Green Airport, requesting they be turned back on. Pilots relied upon the chapel as a checkpoint, they explained, helping guide them to a safe landing.
St. Dom’s has been a beacon guiding many souls over the past 25 years. And it has helped lead me in particularly unique ways.
I didn’t miss a single 8:30 Civ lecture the fall of my first year. All credit for that goes to the chapel. My dorm room in Aquinas overlooked St. Dom’s, which at the time was still under construction. The work that began painfully early each morning proved a highly effective alarm clock.
Junior year I was again living in Aquinas, this time as an RA. Sitting at my desk reading Shakespeare or Aquinas or Bill Simmons’ articles about the Red Sox, I would look away from the text and stare out onto St. Dom’s, turning thoughts over in my mind and admiring the chapel’s quiet strength. I can remember the look of snow gently gathering upon the copper roof — a tranquil backdrop for late-night conversations with my good friend Nathan Everding ’03, who lived one floor above me.
Many years later, it was Holy Orders which called me to St. Dominic Chapel. I had already returned to campus as a deacon to serve as an assistant chaplain for the 2019-2020 academic year. When covid shut the world down that spring, I was prevented from returning to Washington, D.C., to be ordained to the priesthood with my Dominican classmates. But it meant the doors of St. Dom’s were opened for an impromptu Mass of Ordination, celebrated by Most Rev. Robert C. Evans, auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Providence. On May 23, 2020, I became the first Dominican priest ever ordained on the Providence College campus.
That day St. Dominic Chapel was transformed into the Upper Room for me. It was at the Last Supper that Christ entrusted to His Apostles the sacrament of His Most Holy Body and Blood, conferring upon them the priestly duty to celebrate the mystery of the Eucharist. It was at St. Dom’s that Christ made me His priest, bestowing upon me the same power and responsibility.
As part of the ordination Mass, the candidate prostrates himself face down before the altar. It is a posture of profound humility. Of total submission. Of death. And therefore of complete conformity to Christ (Gal 2:20). After the congregation has prayed for the candidate, he rises again for the prayer of ordination, which ontologically changes him into an alter Christus— “another Christ,” one who acts in the person of Christ.
There are many spots on campus that I love. But none holds greater significance for me than the spot in front of the altar at St. Dom’s. Often, I go by the chapel to sit and reflect. I consider all that God has done for me, in His providence; all that He is doing through me, as His priest; and all the ways I fall short, due to my own human weakness and folly (“We hold this treasure in earthen vessels,” St. Paul remarks (2 Cor 4:7)). I serve my Savior, but I will always stand in need of a Savior myself. Returning to St. Dom’s helps remind me of that humbling reality.
My five short years of priestly life have been filled with so many joys that I tell my students often: If I had a hundred lifetimes, I would choose to be a priest for every single one of them (if He willed). But I have also experienced great personal and spiritual trials — days where I just want to leave the cross behind, rather than take it up. Those are the days that teach me the true meaning of a vow. The meaning of unconditional love.
For these reasons, what I have come to love most about being a priest is celebrating wedding Masses, especially at St. Dom’s. To stand there with a bride and groom whom God first brought together here at PC, to welcome them back, and to receive the vows they make to God and one another, as they stand in the same exact spot where I laid down my life for Christ — there is simply nothing better. Standing there, I know better than they do just how much the Lord calls those whom He loves to sacrifice, to keep laying down their lives. I know that authentic love means you keep showing up, no matter what, and keep doing what love requires. And I know that whenever one does what he knows to be the Master’s will, a power will be given him equal to the duty.
St. Dominic Chapel has schooled me in these truths. Over the past 25 years it has become the spiritual heart of campus, possessing an ability to take all that is ordinary about the college experience and fill it with grace. Grace that lasts a lifetime. Grace meant to guide us to our true and lasting home.
Rev. Jordan Zajac, O.P. ’04 is an assistant professor of English and alumni chaplain.
