Two southeast Michigan natives in formation with the Order of Preachers in Washington



WASHINGTON — For the Order of Preachers, commonly known as the Dominicans, prayer and study are inherently linked.

Following in the footsteps of St. Thomas Aquinas, Dominicans live a life of community focused on expanding one’s mind and self-reflection, all in the name of better understanding God.

For two southeast Michigan natives, this calling has led to the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., where they’re discerning whether to become members of the order. And true to St. Thomas Aquinas’ legacy, both felt their calling during their time at university.

Bro. Martin Davis of Monroe, who converted to Catholicism while a student at Hillsdale College, was working in finance after graduation when he felt a calling to consecrated life. Bro. Davis said his conversion came after studying the history of western civilization at the non-sectarian school. It was that same passion for study that led him to the Dominicans.

“I got interested in the consecrated life and the Dominicans’ balance between the active and contemplative life,” Bro. Davis said. “I like the combination that existed there. There seemed to be a middle ground between the ecclesiastic lifestyle and the active apostolate.”



Bro. Davis is in his second year at the Dominican House of Studies, where he will live for three years before making his simple vows. Before coming to Washington, Bro. Davis completed his year of novitiate in Cincinnati. If all goes to plan, he will study for another year before renewing his simple vows, then another year before making his solemn vows.

“We only take an explicit vow of obedience, and with that poverty and chastity follow under obedience,” Bro. Davis said. “We conform to the will of our superior. Chastity means we give up our right to marry and have a family, and poverty means we can’t hold property. It’s about joining yourself to God, conforming oneself to Christ.”

A convert to Catholicism, Bro. Davis it was a little awkward explaining his desire to become a Dominican friar to his family, but after a while he said they’ve come to support his decision.

“They have learned more about who it is I’m becoming,” Bro. Davis. “They at first asked questions as to what a friar is and what I would be doing. It’s a different thing to do after studying finance and math. But they saw that I found happiness here.”



Bro. Anthony VanBerkum of St. Paul on the Lake Parish in Grosse Pointe Farms was also in college when he experienced a calling to the Dominicans, who were running the campus ministry at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. While Bro. Davis is pursuing a calling as a religious brother, Bro. VanBerkum is also discerning a call to the Dominican priesthood.

“I was attracted to the liturgy, which drew me to the priesthood, but I wanted some kind of communal life, leading me to a religious order,” Bro. VanBerkum said. “There were a lot of factors I was considering when I ended up joining, but the moment I decided was at a priesthood ordination of one of the Dominicans out in California.”

Bro. VanBerkum said the daily focus on prayer and contemplation is an integral part of the life he was seeking when he decided to join the order.

“We pray the liturgy of the hours together as a community, starting with Mass and morning prayer, midday prayer, vespers in the evening and prayer at night,” Bro. VanBerkum said. “Then when we’re not praying, we’re doing our studies. We eat our meals together as a community, which sort of doubles as recreation time.”

That sense of community closeness is why Bro. VanBerkum decided to become a Dominican priest as opposed to a more traditional route as a diocesan priest.

“Each person joins the Dominican order for a different reason, but a common factor that draws us today is the intentional community life,” Bro. VanBerkum said. “Also, the identity of the Dominican order across history and around the world, there is a real sense of brotherhood.”

That sense of Dominican brotherhood traces back to 1216, when St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers, dedicated to its motto Laudare, Benedicere, Praedicare (“To Praise, To Bless, To Preach.”)



The tradition of studying and spreading truth is what Bro. Davis finds most appealing about the Dominican charisms.

“With the Dominicans, studying the sacred truths and handing them on to others is important,” Bro.

Davis said. “I felt a deficiency in the world of high school and college, with understanding the basics of the faith. There was this sense that to be intellectual meant to cease to be religious, and I felt a need to study the sacred truth. And I feel a great need for that on college campuses, that’s what really attracted me; faith seems often to be losing the battle.”

All Dominicans, whether brothers, priests or sisters, take solemn vows to follow the will of their superior, but Bro. Davis hopes his ministry offers a capacity where he can spread truth to others — perhaps on a college campus — in the spirit of St. Thomas Aquinas.

“That’s another personal aspect of the charism I felt,” Bro. Davis said. “Dominicans can minister to that in a particular way, part of life that is kind of counter-cultural, but rooted in truth.”