As we commence the celebration of the Jubilee of the 800th Anniversary of the confirmation of the Order (1216 – 2016), the Master of the Order, fr Bruno Cadoré sends his warmest greetings to all members of the Dominican family.

I am happy to greet all the brothers, sisters and lay Dominicans at this opening of this year of Jubilee of the Order of Preachers, and I am pleased to greet you all from the Basilica of Santa Sabina that was given to Saint Dominic.

Why? First, because Santa Sabina is the place where Dominic’s preaching was rooted. He loved to pray here, he loved to contemplate, to speak to God. He loved to allow the mysteries of Christ’s life to inhabit his own life. And then he also loved, they say, to speak about God to those he met, with whom he spoke about the Gospel of peace.

And here, in this conversation with God, he found the strength to go and preach again. For him to go and preach meant, as is shown in the mosaic of Santa Sabina, to preach unity: the unity between the circumcised and the gentiles, unity among those who believe and those who do not believe, the unity of all, because all are capable of the same communion.

That is what he wanted to announce. He found the conviction for this in his vision of Peter and Paul: Paul gives him the scriptures, the revelation, the unity of God’s plan, and Peter gives him the pilgrim’s staff so he could go forth. So he goes and opens the door!

This is what the Jubilee of the Order is about. He opens the door, and then he looks at the door, and he sees the first representation of the crucifixion. To preach the Gospel of peace is to preach the life given in abundance by a crucified Messiah. Then he goes and he joins all those who, beginning from Christ, have preached this.

The motto for the Jubilee is “Go and preach!”