What we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have communion with us.
And our communion is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.   -1 Jn 1:3

Communio

Our group is centered around the concept of Communio​.   Communio (a Latin term) translates koinonia (a Greek term) in the New Testament. Communio is where we get the English words "communion" and "community" from.   Communio is a very rich and beautiful concept in the New Testament that expresses the harmony that the early Christians experienced in being deeply united to God through Christ (1 Cor 1:9; 1 Jn 1:3), to the Holy Spirit (Phil 2:1), to one another in community (Acts 2:42), to the Church and her leaders (Gal 2:9), in the Eucharist (1 Cor 10:16; Acts 2:42), in prayer (Acts 2:42), in the Gospel (Phil 1:5), in faith (Philem 6), in goodness and right living (2 Cor 6:14; 1 Jn 1:6), in participation in the sufferings and resurrection of Jesus (Phil 3:10), and in service (Rom 15:26; 2 Cor 8:4; 9:13; Heb 13:6).
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The mystery of God can be described as a Communio: God is one in three divine Persons. The Church can be called a communio.  In the Apostles’ Creed, we say that we believe in the communio sanctorum, the Communion of the Saints.  We call the Eucharist Communio when received. 
Communio combines both love of God and neighbor in one concept.  Communio is spiritual community suffused with God’s Trinitarian love and destined to share in the inner love and life of God forever.  Even heaven is an eternal communio with God.  The word communio can be seen to capture and incorporate all aspects of our faith in one single, yet rich, concept. Communio, thought of in this way, captures what we, St. Dominic’s young adults, are trying to be. Our communio is with Jesus Christ and one another.   We invite you into this communio.  
In 2018 Saint Dominic Young Adults hosted our very first retreat at Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, VA. The subject of the retreat was Communio, you can listen to the conferences from that retreat and learn more about Communio below. 

History of the Group

Olivia Hnat started a young professionals group at St. Dominic in 2014.  When Fr. Hyacinth Cordell, OP was assigned as the parish's new parochial vicar (assistant pastor), he proposed to Olivia and others to develop the group into the present model, based on a model used at the Frassati Cincinnati Fellowship at St. Gertrude in Cincinnati, OH and at St. Pius V in Providence, RI.  All agreed on this new direction at St. Dominic's, and the present group then started with this vision, a core group of interested young adults, and prayer and conversation. The core group decided to launch meetings with the current format on October 1, 2015, on the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux, and the week immediately after Pope Francis's visit to Washington, DC.  The core team prayed a novena to St. Therese and advertised, not knowing what to expect.  We were utterly surprised, and little overwhelmed, when about fifty people came to our first meeting!  We didn't know if we would have that many people regularly.  At present, an average of 20-25 young adults attend weekly meetings.

For our meetings, we decide in advance upon  monthly themes, and then our weekly meetings are all centered on a sub-topic of the monthly theme. The works of mercy we have been involved with so far include preparing and passing out food to the homeless, helping prepare Thanksgiving baskets for poor families, visiting a nursing home, helping religious sisters with gardening, and advocating for the preborn in the annual March for Life.  Our approach is holistic, seeking to regularly include prayer and the sacraments, discussion and instruction on all aspects of our faith,  service opportunities to live out our faith, and fellowship.  The story continues:  you are invited to be a part of it.  

Previous Monthly Themes
October 2015: Communio  
November 2015: Christ as Priest, Prophet & King
December 2015:  Mercy
January 2016: Holiness
February 2016: The Spirituality of Lent
March 2016: The Difficult Emotions (Anger, Fear & Sorrow)
April 2016: The Risen Jesus
May 2016:  Devotion to Mary
June 2016: God’s Existence
July 2016: Popular Media
August 2016: Dominican Spirituality 
September 2016:  Faith & Dating
October 2016: Respect Life
November 2016: The Last Things
December 2016: Advent
January 2017: Prayer
February 2017: The Teachings of Pope St. John Paul II
March 2017: Persecuted Christians
April 2017: Holy Week and Witness
May 2017: Marian Apparitions 
June 2017: Catholic Art 
​July 2017: Leisure 
August 2017: Gifts of the Holy Spirit Part I
September 2017: Gifts of the Holy Spirit Part II
​October 2017: Angels and Demons
November 2017: Scripture 101
December 2017: The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary Part I
January 2018: The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary Part II
February 2018: Three States of the Church
March 2018: The Women Doctors of the Church
​April 2018: The Three Kinds of Love
​May 2018: Vocation
June 2018: Catholic Social Teaching
July 2018: Faith and Work
August 2018: The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic
September 2018: Sacred Scripture
October 2018: Sin in The Church
​November 2018: Saints and Souls
December 2018: Three Comings of Christ
​January 2019: Counter-Cultural Catholic
February 2019: Preaching 101
March 2019: Temptations and Temperaments