Introduction

For over 800 years, laypeople have, in some form, associated themselves with the Order of Preachers. In that time, some laypeople have been known as Third Order, dressed in a Third Order habit, like St. Martin de Porres, Rose of Lima, or Juan Macias. Others have been members of the Order of Penitents of Saint Dominic. It was not until 1923, directly after the revision of the Code of Canon Law in 1917 that canonically tied members of Third Orders to their respective religious orders, that the secular Third Order of Preachers came about. This is who we are. In all this time, we have been satisfied as the helpers, helping the friars and nuns. The friars have endured the most of the doctrinal mission of the Order – preaching the Gospel.

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This arrangement was fine for most of those eight hundred years in which communications and social change were slow. The new beginning, for us, however, is the instant global communications era, the time for fast and furious social change.

 

We will see a sizable decline in friar vocations, and social change to an era of abject relativism, denying the absolute truth of God Himself.

 

With the decline in friar vocations, as we will see later on this website, the laity of the Order can no longer afford to move so slowly and comfortably, keeping to its once-a-month prescriptions. The world is not inching toward the abyss, the world is roaring, full-bore toward the abyss. Shall we see it happen without lifting a finger to save souls?