Drinking with Dominicans has been running strong for four summers in a row! Join us this July for another insightful four-week speaker series entitled, "Timely Issues, Timeless Wisdom."
Here's everything you need to know about the series, the speakers, and our new location—Factory 52!
Here's everything you need to know about the series, the speakers, and our new location—Factory 52!
Schedule
July 10, 2025 | 7-8:30 p.m.
Doomsday and Doomscrolling: Finding Hope in a Chaotic World
Father John Paul Walker, O.P.
Amid ongoing wars, political tensions, and more, many people have an impending sense of doom about the future of the world. Doomscrolling--spending excessive time online scrolling through news or other content that makes one feel sad, anxious, angry, etc.—compounds and feeds the issue. Father John Paul shares the solution to this doom and gloom and provides a sense of hope
July 17, 2025 | 7-8:30 p.m.
You Do You: Seeking Truth in a Relative World
Father Titus Sanchez, O.P.
We live in a culture of self-invention, autonomy, and relativism—there's no objective truth, so I'm going to do what's right for me and makes me happy. Two thousand years ago, Pontius Pilot asked Jesus, "What is truth?" In this talk, Father Titus explains what (or who) Truth is and how to find freedom in obedience to the Truth.
July 24, 2025 | 7-8:30 p.m.
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: Finding Rest in a Fast-Paced World
Brother Raphael Arteaga, O.P.
Do you—consciously or subconsciously—fill every moment of your day with activities? Are you a workaholic, an over-scheduler, or always on the go? Do you make time for rest and leisure? For prayer? As Brother Raphael reveals, it's in the silence that we hear the voice of God in our lives. So how do we slow down and make time for real, restorative recreation with God.
August 31, 2025 | 7-8:30 p.m.
Together, Alone: Building True Communion in a World of Isolation
Father Reginald Hoefer, O.P.
More and more people are feeling lonely, isolated, and depressed. Whether these feelings are due to changing family structures, urbanization, technology, work culture, or other factors, loneliness and isolation can have negative impacts on mental and physical health. Human beings are social creatures, and we need community. In this talk, Father Reginald shares how to form the strongest of communities and why true communion is found in the Church.
July 10, 2025 | 7-8:30 p.m.
Doomsday and Doomscrolling: Finding Hope in a Chaotic World
Father John Paul Walker, O.P.
Amid ongoing wars, political tensions, and more, many people have an impending sense of doom about the future of the world. Doomscrolling--spending excessive time online scrolling through news or other content that makes one feel sad, anxious, angry, etc.—compounds and feeds the issue. Father John Paul shares the solution to this doom and gloom and provides a sense of hope
July 17, 2025 | 7-8:30 p.m.
You Do You: Seeking Truth in a Relative World
Father Titus Sanchez, O.P.
We live in a culture of self-invention, autonomy, and relativism—there's no objective truth, so I'm going to do what's right for me and makes me happy. Two thousand years ago, Pontius Pilot asked Jesus, "What is truth?" In this talk, Father Titus explains what (or who) Truth is and how to find freedom in obedience to the Truth.
July 24, 2025 | 7-8:30 p.m.
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: Finding Rest in a Fast-Paced World
Brother Raphael Arteaga, O.P.
Do you—consciously or subconsciously—fill every moment of your day with activities? Are you a workaholic, an over-scheduler, or always on the go? Do you make time for rest and leisure? For prayer? As Brother Raphael reveals, it's in the silence that we hear the voice of God in our lives. So how do we slow down and make time for real, restorative recreation with God.
August 31, 2025 | 7-8:30 p.m.
Together, Alone: Building True Communion in a World of Isolation
Father Reginald Hoefer, O.P.
More and more people are feeling lonely, isolated, and depressed. Whether these feelings are due to changing family structures, urbanization, technology, work culture, or other factors, loneliness and isolation can have negative impacts on mental and physical health. Human beings are social creatures, and we need community. In this talk, Father Reginald shares how to form the strongest of communities and why true communion is found in the Church.
Meet Our Speakers
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Father John Paul Walker, O.P., was raised in the suburbs of Chicago and is the pastor at St. Gertrude Church. He has a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Illinois and an M.S. in chemistry and environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Immediately after his graduate studies, Father John Paul entered the Dominican order and was ordained a priest in 2002. During his 20 years of priesthood, Father John Paul has worked in college campus ministry, taught theology at Providence College, served as the director of Pastoral Formation at the Dominican House of Studies, served as pastor of St. Mary in New Haven, CT, worked with the pro-life movement, had experience in Catholic young adult (20s–30s) ministry, and more.
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Father Titus Sanchez, O.P., was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, where he attended St. Andrew Catholic Church with his family. He studied at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, receiving degrees in marketing and history. He first met the Dominicans through a mission trip to Alaska with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS). “When I first met the Order, I was immediately attracted by the preaching charism. St. Dominic truly lived the apostolic way of life. He learned the great minds of the Church, and allowed his heart to be inflamed with a zeal for souls by the Holy Spirit in prayer. I felt certain that Christ was asking me to become a disciple of St. Dominic.” Newly ordained Father Titus is spending the summer at St. Gertrude Parish.
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Brother Raphael Arteaga, O.P., was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and raised in the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Brother Raphael’s parents, both originally born in Colombia, South America, were committed to providing a Catholic education for him and his sister, which helped to feed the Catholic faith passed on at home. From a young age, Brother Raphael found himself growing in wonder at the Holy Mass and by extension, the priesthood. Yet, it was not until he met the Dominican friars at Providence College, where he earned his bachelors of arts in theology in 2019, that he began to think about religious life in conjunction with the vocation of the priesthood. Recently ordained as a transitional deacon, Brother Raphael will spend the summer at St. Gertrude Parish and be ordained to the priesthood next spring.
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Father Reginald Hoefer, O.P., was born into and raised in a Catholic family in New Orleans and attended Jesuit High School there. After graduating in 2009, he went to The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., to study classics. It was there that he met the Dominicans. Though Father Reginald was close with the friars at the Dominican House of Studies, he was not convinced of a vocation at the end of his college years. He worked for a year in commercial banking in New Orleans before deciding to enter the Dominicans. Like all Dominicans in the Eastern Province, Father Reginald spent his novitiate year (2014-2015) at St. Gertrude Parish. In the summer of 2020, he served here as deacon before being ordained to the priesthood in 2021. Father Reginald is now back as a parochial vicar!
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Why Drinking with Dominicans?
In a May 2021 letter, Pope Francis praised St. Dominic de Guzman (d. August 6, 1221) for answering an urgent need to preach and live as a witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his time. The pope spoke of the charism (spiritual gift) entrusted to St. Dominic, the Church’s “preacher of grace,” which has been refracted through eight centuries in an array of saintly friars, nuns and sisters, and lay men and women called to influence the Church and the world.
The pope then said: “In our own age, characterized by epochal changes and new challenges to the Church's evangelizing mission, St. Dominic can thus serve as an inspiration to all the baptized, who are called, as missionary disciples, to reach every ‘periphery’ of our world with the light of the Gospel and the merciful love of Christ.”
In July 2021, in anticipation of St. Dominic’s feast day on August 8, we launched Drinking with Dominicans. The goal was to provide you with an opportunity to learn about some key Dominican saints and the grace God offers through the Dominican order while enjoying time with friends and sipping on brews. Building upon the success of that first year, we have continued to offer a speaker series every July. New theme, new content, new presenters—same great Dominicans.
The pope then said: “In our own age, characterized by epochal changes and new challenges to the Church's evangelizing mission, St. Dominic can thus serve as an inspiration to all the baptized, who are called, as missionary disciples, to reach every ‘periphery’ of our world with the light of the Gospel and the merciful love of Christ.”
In July 2021, in anticipation of St. Dominic’s feast day on August 8, we launched Drinking with Dominicans. The goal was to provide you with an opportunity to learn about some key Dominican saints and the grace God offers through the Dominican order while enjoying time with friends and sipping on brews. Building upon the success of that first year, we have continued to offer a speaker series every July. New theme, new content, new presenters—same great Dominicans.
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