Dominican Nuns Ireland

Launch of Prayer intitiative for Vocations

2012-01-15T18:10:00.006Z

Fr Gerard Dunne OP (vocations promoter for the Irish Dominican Province) celebrated our Sunday Eucharist this morning and launched the prayer initiative for vocations to all branches of the Order i.e. friars, sisters, contemplative nuns and Lay Dominicans. Recently he had an icon of St Dominic commissioned which he will now bring to all the Dominican priories and houses throughout Ireland to encourage the people who attend our churches to join us in praying for vocations. We felt privileged that this initiative was launched here and the icon will remain in our chapel during the coming two weeeks.

Second Sunday of the Year – Year B

Mass Readings
1Samuel 3:3-10, 19
Psalm 39: 2-4, 7-10,
1Cor 6:13-15;17-20
Gospel John 1:35-42

“I waited, I waited for the Lord
And he stooped down to me;
He heard my cry
He put a new song into my mouth
Praise of our God”

When I read these words of today’s responsorial psalm as I sat beside Sr Mary Paul’s death bed earlier this week I could not help but relate them to her life and death. Yes she had waited these 91 years and now the Lord was about to “put a new song in her mouth – praise of our God”

The palm continues:

“You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings
but an open ear.
You do not ask for holocaust and victim.
Instead here am I”

How true this was now as Sr Mary Paul lay there helpless – all she had to offer was herself and no doubt she had generously offered herself to the Lord throughout her life - her one focus was to delight in His law in the depth of her heart.” Often we forget that what the Lord is seeking is our heart – indeed unless He has got our heart all our feverish activity - no matter how good in itself - matters little in His sight.

“You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings but an open ear” –Sr Mary Paul frequently repeated a phrase from a retreat conference – ‘we, contemplatives, listen so that others may hear’. The two disciples in the Gospel follow Jesus and ask where he lives? Jesus invites them to “Come and see”. This invitation is also extended to us but where do we find Him? The second reading provides an answer. St Paul tells us that our “bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit” and “are members making up the body of Christ”. We do not need to move outside our own heart to find Him. We are always in His presence – held by His right hand. Our contemplative life is a journey inward – a journey of faith as, more often than not, the Lord is asleep, unnoticed. He is also hidden in the hearts of all whom we meet and with whom we associate for we are members of the same body. Our spiritual ears need to be attuned to His voice and our spiritual sight sharpened in order to recognise His presence under whatever guise He chooses to present Himself. Just as Andrew brought his brother, Simon, to Jesus so today we must bring others to Jesus in our prayer and sacrifice on their behalf.

“I waited, I waited for the Lord
And he stooped down to me;
He heard my cry
He put a new song into my mouth
Praise of our God”

Hapy New Year

2011-12-31T16:36:00.010Z

We wish all our readers many graces and blessings during the coming year. May 2012 -the year of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress - be a year of grace for our Irish Church in particular.

To highlight our preparation for this great event, our sister artists designed our chapel crib in a Eucharistic setting - photo here.

As we assure you of our continued prayer for all your intentions we ask to be remembered in yours. This year, 2012 is the 290th annivarsary of our foundation in Drogheda. As we give thanks for almost three centuries of prayer, we ask you to join us in praying for those young women who are considering vocations to our community and that many more may be inspired to dedicate themselves to our life of prayer and Eucharistic Adoration for the glory of God and for the needs of our Church and world.

Happy Christmas

2011-12-25T17:13:00.004Z

We wish all our readers the peace and joy which our Saviour brings during the Christmas season and throughout the coming New Year. We remember all of you and your loved ones in our prayers and ask to be remembered in yours.

Christmas Reflection

2011-12-25T17:07:00.005Z

Below is the text of a Christmas reflection given by one of our sisters.(If you prefer to listen, click the 'play' button in the box below).

“With the Lord there is unfailing love; great is His power to set us free” – Vespers II of Christmas.

The human heart longs for freedom – it is boundless in its aspirations for we were made in the image and likeness of God and are destined to live eternally with Him in love. He has made us for Himself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. (cf Confessions of St Augustine). A glance at our newspapers or TV news demonstrates this restlessness – this past year has witnessed the eruption of violence in many parts of our world – all seeking freedom of one sort or another. Left to ourselves, we humans, seek freedom apart from God and in the wrong places. Adam and Eve wanted to be like God – yet through fear, they hid from God.

I have been very struck by the frequency of this theme of ‘freedom’ in our Advent liturgy – where we cry out to the Lord in such phrases as: “come and set us free”; Lord may your Son bring us freedom”; Come Lord, make no delay! Release your people from their bonds”. This theme of freedom resonates with the vision of monastic life as being “free for God alone”. Freedom always implies a ‘freedom from something’ and a ‘freedom for something’. We have a good example in the Book of Exodus: Moses asked Pharaoh to set the people free so that they could go to the desert to worship God. St Paul describes Baptism as dying to sin so that we might live for God. (Rom 6).

Tonight we celebrate the birth of the One who brings us true freedom – the Saviour, Jesus, who will “save his people from their sins” (Mt 1) – the freedom to give oneself away – to surrender in love to Another after the example which He has given us – the radical, reckless kind of giving which we see in the self-emptying of the Eternal Word who lowers Himself to become one of us in order to raise us up to share in the very life of the Trinity.

True freedom is not about ‘doing my own thing’ – on the contrary Jesus, who was the freest person that ever lived on this earth, was always attentive to the Will of His Father – ‘I do always what please Him’. Perhaps freedom has as much to do with the ability to listen and receive as about giving and doing. Because Jesus, and like him Mary, were always open to receive the gift of the Father’s love they also radiated that love to others. Sometimes we can be frantically trying to ‘serve’ God while forgetting the truth that “the most fruitful activity of the human person is to be able to receive God”. Mary was not inert or totally passive when she said her ‘yes’ to the Word taking flesh in her womb - rather “her entire being as a person is offered, given and handed over to the Holy Spirit” (cf Jean Corbon: The Wellspring of Worship)
As we celebrate this great feast of Christmas we pray that we may be among a great multitude of those who lay aside pride and selfishness or whatever blocks us and in stillness and emptiness will open ourselves to receive this wondrous gift – Mary’s Son who alone can set us free and teach us the way of love.

With the Lord there is unfailing love; great is His power to set us free. Stand steadfast! You will see the saving power of God.

Reflection on the 'O Antiphon' - 23rd December

2011-12-23T19:59:00.010Z

Below is the text of a reflection given by one of our sisters on today's Magnificat Antiphon, which invokes Christ as Emmanuel (God with us).(If you prefer to listen, click the 'play' button in the box below).

O Emmanuel, you are our King and judge
the one whom the peoples await and their Saviour,
O Come and save us, Lord our God.

Emmanuel means 'God with us'. Can we believe that God entered the womb of Mary, took flesh from her and became man? Do we really believe this? What greater thing has ever happened to all of us who believe, that Mary herself believing, received the Word concerning Him faithfully in her heart.

When we to acknowledge Him in faith and obtain forgiveness for our sins, then immediately - just as God the Word and Second Person of the Blessed Trinity entered into the Virgin's womb - even so do we receive the Word in us as a kind of seed.

Be amazed on hearing this wondrous mystery and welcome this Word with assurance and faith. (1)

St. John tells us in his Gospel, "If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come and make our home in him". (Jn 14)

If we only knew the gift that is being offered to us this Christmas night. We have a mystery in our hearts bigger than ourselves, built as we are like a tabernacle around this most Sacred Presence.(2)

The longer one gazes into this mystery the more one longs to go on gazing in silent wonder. But of course, as St. Thomas told us, there is no adequate picture of God to catch our eyes and hold them spellbound. Yet the little that we can see of the infinite perfection of God is an entrancing picture - a babe nestling in the arms of his virgin mother.

Is there anything that can open our eyes to the Presence of the Infinite everywhere?

I think perhaps nature speaks volumes - when we look at the austere cleanliness of winter, the sharp tints of divine energy in the eager promise of Spring, "a host of Golden Daffodils dancing in the breeze", how can we doubt. Think of the minute details of natures organisation, they stagger our minds with their multitude and complexity, and so give an insight into the horizons of Divine Wisdom. We can miss little signs like the sparkle in a child's eyes at the thought of the gifts Santa will bring or the freshness of sky and countryside after a Spring Rain.

But we could say so much more and still fall short. Many mysteries remain even greater than these, for we have seen only a few of His works (Eccl 43). And the greatest of all is that God loved this world so much that He sent His only Son to redeem us and He did this with the consent of a young jewish girl. The desired of all nations knocked at your door Mary and you said your Yes. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me according to your word"

Dare we to say our Yes to whatever His will hold for us in the coming year, allowing ourselves to be infinitely loved by our Emmanuel, and experience in the darkness of faith this intimate, personal and tender Love that Jesus has for each one.

Come my love,

my lovely one come.

Show me your face,

let me hear your voice

for your voice is sweet

and your face is beautiful.

(Song of Songs 2)

(1) cf. Simon the New Theologian

(2) cf. Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Prayer

Reflection on the 'O Antiphon' - 22nd December

2011-12-23T11:14:00.004Z

Below is the text of a reflection given by one of our sisters on yesterday's Magnificat Antiphon, which invokes Christ as King. (If you prefer to listen, click the 'play' button in the box below).

O King, whom all the peoples desire,
you are the cornerstone which makes all one.
O come and save us whom you made from clay.
Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus come.

Whom you made from clay. In Genesis we receive two accounts of the creation of man. "God said, Let us make man in our own image in the likeness of ourselves .God created man in the image of Himself, in the Image of God he created him". And again it is said "God fashioned man of dust from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life and thus man became a living being". There is therefore inherent in the very fabric of our being God’s stamp, a likeness to Him, and the very breath we draw holds the memory of whence it came and the promise of its ultimate destiny. Some call it ‘Capax Dei’, others the divine spark; a secret knowledge that we are made for more than this world has to offer imprinted in us at the moment of our creation. St Augustine’s way of putting it gives voice to what many do not even realise. ‘You have made us for yourself O God and our hearts are restless until they rest in you’.

In our age as in every age our hearts get set on lesser things. We think the restless ache at the core of our being will be satisfied by wealth, by power, by pleasure, by learning; but no particular good even the most noble, lofty or idealistic can perfectly satisfy us. Only in the vision of God can our longings be stilled. And so deep within each person expressed in our relentless pursuit of happiness is a longing for Him whom all peoples desire - Jesus who will reveal to us what or Who it is we are really seeking. He is the cornerstone come to reveal the Father’s love, and come to make possible our return to the Father. In Him we see our God made visible. In Him the loving kindness of our God has appeared and no one can come to the Father except through Him. Jesus died to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad, to share with us all his unique relationship with the Father

We have been privileged to know this and have been entrusted, as Paul was, with the task of fully proclaiming this message, which is the secret kept hidden through all the ages from all humankind, but which he has now revealed to his people. It was God’s purpose to reveal it to us and to show the rich glory of this mystery to pagans. The secret is this Christ is in us which means that we will share the glory of God (Col).

So as we look into our own hearts this Christmas and at our broken, wounded, sinful Church and world let us not see a hopeless situation but rather redemption waiting to happen and let us enter into Christ’s own desire to come to save his people. Let us, as I read so beautifully recently, hold the mission of Jesus, the Christfication of the whole universe as an uncompromised priority. Now is our time of grace.

Reflection on the 'O Antiphon' - 21st December

2011-12-22T10:14:00.003Z

Below is the text of a reflection given by one of our sisters on yesterday's Magnificat Antiphon, which invokes Christ as the Rising Sun. (If you prefer to listen, click the 'play' button in the box below).

O Rising Sun, You are the splendour of eternal light and the Sun of Justice.
O come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

By living in Ireland I have learned to see the Sun, even if it is raining. Our whole business in this life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God can be seen.

Each of the antiphons contains the words "O" and "COME", expressive of longing, pleading, heart-felt desire. In them we beg God to BE with us and SAVE us.

The longing for God expressed in the antiphons is the pale human shadow of God’s longing for us. They are based on words in the Bible which promise exactly that, or even state that God has already COME and delivered us.

The petition ‘’Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death’’ echoes the Christmas reading ’’they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shone’’ ‘’The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light’’(Is 9:2)

‘’God is light’’(1Jn 1:5). And every light we know, whether a candle, or sun will eventually burn itself out in self giving. Light from light (cf. Jn 1 ) ‘’God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life’’ (Jn 3:16)

Today's antiphon brings out a special aspect of the light of Christ by its use of the word Oriens / rising Sun / day-spring / dawn. It is new light, light after darkness, light which has conquered darkness.

Jesus is the dawn which we long for above all things. He is the new light that fills us with hope, putting to flight the darkness of despair, bringing us to communion with God. It is important to look at the context in which Jesus calls himself "the Light of the world" in John’s Gospel (Jn 8:1-12). "Early in the morning Jesus arrived again in the temple area…Then scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle…Jesus straightened up and said to her, 'Woman,where are they? Has no one condemned you?'. She replied 'No one, sir.' Then Jesus said 'Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more'." Jesus spoke to them again, saying "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life". This happens in the early morning. There is still darkness, the darkness of judgment and injustice. Jesus comes into this darkened world as LIGHT. His mercy enlightens the darkness.

Dwelling in the light of Christ, we are transformed by that light, so that we become what our baptism declared us to be, the children of light. By baptism we become the light within the LIGHT, who is Christ, just as Christ is "Light from Light". Once a rabbi asked his students, "How can you tell day from night?" The first student answered "When you look at a person walking in the distance and can tell whether it’s a man or a woman, it’s day". The second student answered, "When you look at a tree and can tell whether the fruit on it is an orange or a grapefruit, it’s day". The third student answered, "When you look at a string of thread held at arm’s length and can tell what colour it is, it’s day". Then the students asked the rabbi the same question. He answered, "When you look at a man or woman and recognise that person as a brother or sister, it’s day. But if you look at a man or a woman, and do not recognise them as a brother or sister, it’s night, no matter what time it is."

Love brings light and it is in God’s light we see light. Come JESUS, Come and in the midst of our darkness show us the Fathers Love.

Reflection on the 'O Antiphon' - 20th December

2011-12-20T18:11:00.007Z

Below is the text of a reflection given by one of our sisters on today's Magnificat Antiphon, which invokes Christ as the Key of David.(If you prefer to listen, click the 'play' button in the box below).

O come now key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home,
make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice, Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to you O Israel.

Reflecting on this Antiphon alongside today’s Gospel, (Lk.1:26-38), we have highlighted for us the Presence of God in our lives.

A few verses before today’s Gospel passage, the Archangel Gabriel, tells Zachary: “my name is Gabriel and my place is in God’s Presence. What a truly stupendous statement! Further on in the same Gospel passage, we are told of this same Archangel when he visits Mary with the tidings of the Incarnation….’into her presence the angel came’. (R.Knox translation)

Surely we are left in breathless awe, as we picture this great Archangel whose place is in the Presence of God Himself, bowing low in the presence of this humble Virgin, who never-the-less, was a creature like ourselves, as he awaited her consent to become the mother of God’s Son – the Key of David.

A key we know, both locks and unlocks - and today, we are called to pray to Christ, the Key of David, to unlock, to open wide our heavenly home and to make safe the way that leads on high, where our destiny too, is to dwell in God’s Presence for all eternity.

In the meantime, so long as our pilgrimage on earth lasts, we are so utterly privileged to have the Real Presence of Christ, the Key of David, continually with us in the Holy Eucharist. Christ dwells too in all our hearts, where in a spirit of Faith, we must endeavour to be constantly pre-occupied with him. May Mary help us to give him our loving attention in all the ups and downs of daily life, as she gave Him hers those precious nine months when she carried his sacred Presence in her womb.

Yes, as Isaiah foretold so long ago – ‘the Virgin is with Child and He will be called Emmanuel – a name which means – ‘God is with us’! Yes, he really is. Let us then rejoice in the Presence of the Lord in the land of the living, then one day as the Psalmist tells us, we too, in the presence of the angels, will bless our loving God for all eternity. cf Ps.137(138)

O Key of David, we thank you for the wonder of our being and the miracle of your Presence in us.

Reflection on the 'O Antiphon' - 19th December

2011-12-19T20:12:00.008Z

Below is the text of a reflection given by one of our sisters on today's Magnificat Antiphon, which invokes Christ as the Root of Jesse.(If you prefer to listen, click the 'play' button in the box below)

O Root of Jesse, you stand as a sign for the nations;
Kings fall silent before you whom the peoples acclaim.
O come to deliver us, and do not delay.

The Holy Spirit speaking through the prophet Isaiah over 700 years before Christ said "a shoot springs from the stump of Jesse, a scion thrusts from his roots, on him the spirit of the Lord rests". Jesse was the father of King David. Isaiah must have seen in a vision a sapling springing from the apparently dead stump of Jesse. He lived about 300 years after David and the Davidic dynasty did not appear very hopeful. So it is on a future king that Isaiah sees the Spirit of the Lord come down.

This future King, whom we know to be the Lord Jesus, Son of David, is to be "a sign for the nations" but "a sign of contradiction" as Simeon prophesied about the child Jesus, which is borne out in Isaiah Chapter 53, "Like a sapling he grew up in front of us, like a root in arid ground ... a thing despised and rejected by men" - as indeed he was in his Passion. In the life of Jesus the ordinary people acclaimed him. He healed and fed multitudes but the "Kings", the authorities did not acclaim him - they were "silent before him" as the antiphon says, not acknowledging him even despising him.

In our own day his Church has come under censure and is suffering. But the Holy Spirit is at work in the Church and in the world. To give one example - he is bringing the leaders of Religions together to unite against the secularising forces at work in Europe today. Recently the British Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, spoke at the Gregorian University in Rome calling for Jews and Christians to unite to save the soul of Europe. He said "the political leaders of Europe are coming together to try to save the Euro, the religious leaders must do so for Europe's soul". Let us implore the Holy Spirit that this may come about as we cry out to the Root of Jesse, Jesus Son of David, "O come and deliver us and do not delay".

O Radix Jesse

Reflection on the 'O Antiphon' - 18th December

2011-12-18T12:00:00.012Z

Below is the text of a reflection give by one of our sisters on today's Magnificat Antiphon, which speaks of Christ appearing to Moses in the burning bush. (If you prefer to listen, click the 'play' button in the box below)

O Adonai and leader of Israel, you appeared to Moses in a burning bush and you gave him the Law on Sinai. O come and save us with your mighty power.

Today’s ‘O Antiphon’ refers to God’s coming to His people while they were living in slavery in Egypt. He reveals Himself as the ‘Holy One’, the ‘Transcendent One’ as He calls out to Moses: “Come no nearer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Yet He is not aloof from His people’s plight. He says: “I have seen the misery of my people. I have heard their cries for help – I have come down to rescue them and bring them to a land rich and broad, a country flowing with milk and honey.” (cf Ex 3:1-6)

It is this same God who approaches Mary through the Angel and asks her consent to be the mother of the “child who will be holy” (Lk1:36) and who “will save His people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). It is the same Holy One who is with us on our altar, under the signs of bread and wine – and the One whom we meet in the least of our sisters and brothers!

As I reflected on this antiphon, it was the image of fire and the burning bush which held my attention. Fire cannot be hidden, cannot be contained – otherwise it is extinguished. It gives light and warmth. Fire draws and consumes everything within its reach – it knows no boundaries but transforms into fire everything with which it comes in contact. It is never satisfied, for the more it consumes, the fiercer are the flames and the greater its capacity to consume more. Think of the forest fires which become uncontrollable in dry weather!

This image of fire is a very good image of our God – no wonder our innate selfishness fills us with fear of saying ‘yes’ to Him – fear that if we give Him an inch He may take a mile! “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29) – even if at times we experience this fire as darkness - while He is always drawing us into His love, so too our selfishness is being consumed in the fire of that love. Yet His message is always one of liberation – not just for ourselves but for all His people. The more we surrender to His plan for us, the more we experience true freedom.

Just as He needed Moses and Mary, so today He stands at the door of our hearts inviting us to His co-workers. Will we respond as Mary did with: “behold here I am; let it be done unto me”? Will we allow Him to possess us in such a way that we might radiate His living, loving presence in our troubled and darkened world? St Catherine said: “if you are what you are meant to be, you would set fire to the whole of Europe”.

O Adonai and leader of Israel, you appeared to Moses in a burning bush and you gave him the Law on Sinai. O come and save us with your mighty power.

Reflection on the 'O' Antiphon - 17th December

2011-12-17T14:24:00.013Z

Below is the text of a reflection give by one of our sisters on today's Magnificat Antiphon, which invokes Christ as Wisdom. (If you prefer to listen, click the 'play' button in the box below)

O Wisdom, You come forth from the mouth of the Most High.
You fill the universe and hold all things together in a strong yet gentle manner. O come, to teach us the way of truth.

In the Magnificat Antiphon today we begin the first of the great “O Antiphons” rejoicing in our expectation of the Saviour’s coming and asking him to come to us under the particular manifestation of each Old Testament title. In this first Antiphon we address Christ as Wisdom and ask him to “teach us the way of truth”.

In praying and reflecting on this text, I have been particularly struck by the fact that, as St Paul says, Christ is “our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1Cor 1:30). Is my search for wisdom and knowledge done as a search for Christ, done in his company, or is it a search for my wisdom, my knowledge, for my own satisfaction? As I prepare to welcome Christ this Christmas, do I welcome him as Wisdom - am I willing to let him teach me?

Christian wisdom is not simply having great knowledge but having great knowledge in Christ; so that Christ, who is Wisdom, “lives in me” (Gal 2:20) and my life involves seeing, understanding and reacting to the world around me in union with Him and as he shows us in his life and teaching. Study etc. can give me a great knowledge of Christ but unless I am living in his presence and actively seeking his guidance that knowledge will not be fruitful; it will not be wisdom. As we read in James’ Letter, “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity.” (Jas 3:17)

I also think that this wisdom Christ brings is “secret and hidden” (1Cor 2:7). In fact, it is so secret and hidden that we will often not be aware that we are receiving it; it may only be seen in the fruit it bears in our lives. For as we grow in wisdom we become more and more conformed to Christ, who is Wisdom.

And so I pray that this Christmas our minds and lives will be open to welcome Christ, the Wisdom who comes forth from the mouth of the Most High.

Third Sunday of Advent

2011-12-11T17:55:00.006Z

‘Rejoice in the Lord always….the Lord is near’. Phil 4:4-5.
St. Paul may well have been referring to the end times when he uttered these joyful words in today’s liturgy, but they also have a deeper meaning as we read in today’s Gospel, when St. John the Baptist says to the Priests and Levites who were sent by the Jews to question him, …’there is one standing in your midst of whom you know nothing’ Jn1:27. ***

Numerous times in the Gospels, we are confronted in the sacred texts with the Presence of Jesus passing unrecognised – surely our Lord intends us to penetrate something of the depth of this mystery – his unrecognisable Presence in our midst!

With the exception of the loss and finding of Jesus in the Temple at the age of 12 years, the Gospels give us no further details of Jesus’ life until he begins his public ministry. But we are given to understand that his life in the intervening years was a very ordinary one, so much so that when Jesus began his teaching in the synagogue at Nazareth, the people were astonished and said: ‘what is this wisdom that has been granted him and these miracles worked through him, this is the carpenter surely, the son of Mary, are not his brothers and sisters here with us?’ and they would not accept him. (Mk.6 3-4). In other words they thought they knew him well, they could not perceive anything to indicate his Divinity in their midst.

Similarly when we reflect on Jesus’ words concerning the last judgement, Mt.25 – the just ask ‘when did we see you hungry or thirsty, sick or in prison…and minister to you?’ and the unjust in their turn will ask the same questions, ‘when did we see you and not minister to you’? Jesus then gives his profound and beautiful teaching: ‘Amen, I say to you, as long as you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me’- and to the unjust ‘as long as you did not do it to one of these who are mine, you did not do it to me’. Here indeed is the precious jewel we must never let go of – the astonishing thing here for us to reflect on is that neither the just nor the unjust realised that they were, or were not, serving the Lord in others.

In the Old Testament too, we read of many occasions in which God brings his people to an awareness of his Presence in their midst. The Prophet, Jeremiah, cries out ‘Lord, you are in our midst…do not desert us Lord, our God’ Jer 14.9. In the Book of Genesis C.28;17, God tells the Patriarch, Jacob in a dream. ‘be sure I am with you, I will keep you safe wherever you go’. When Jacob awakes from his beautiful experience of God, he has become so aware of God’s Presence that he cries out in sheer joy – ‘truly God is in this place and I did not know it’! This was centuries before John the Baptist’s same proclamation to the Priests and Levites! And Isaiah C.45 tells us – ‘Truly God of Israel, the Saviour, you are a God who lies hidden.’.

Surely, these sacred texts and so many others in both the Old and New Testaments are a strong reminder to us that our Lord does indeed dwell in our midst and in all those who touch our lives, near and far away. Today’s Liturgy invites us, indeed, prompts us strongly, to prayerfully ponder and strengthen our faith in this great mystery, and to frequently ask ourselves ‘how many times do we let golden opportunities pass us bye, of living as fully as possible in this Divine loving Presence in and around us, and in all peoples, however unrecognisable? This precious jewel highlights for us the sacredness of every single person – no wonder St. Paul cried out – ‘Rejoice in the Lord always …. the Lord is near’.
‘I am with you always, yes, even to the end of the world’.

***Ronald.Knox translation

2nd Sunday of Advent

2011-12-04T20:08:00.006Z

HOPE is the message I garnered from today's Mass Readings.
"Console my people, console them says the Lord." This is a challenging invitation from the Lord to us all who are trying to be faithful to him in these critical times. He is placing his trust in us to reach out in whatever way we can to His people who are being starved of him.

Advent is above all a season of HOPE:
Long the ages rolled and slowly to the coming of the Word
Fervent longings grew more fervent , undismayed by hopes deferred
Weaker spirits sighed and whispered, could the Lord of all forget?
While the prophets scanned the portents and in patience said: Not yet.

Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength but on the help of the grace of the Spirit. It responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has place in every human heart; it takes up the hopes that inspire our activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of Heaven. (Catechism)

So what is the Lord asking of each one of us?
Can we by our Eucharistic Adoration and intercession stir up the hearts of our people to turn back to the Lord. Jesus is present on our altar longing to gather us and those for whom we pray into the peace, joy and blessedness of his Divine Heart; longing to set us on fire with the infinite fire of his love so that you and I can be a channel of his intimate and gracious friendship to those who have grown cold towards him. By imitating him, the Good Shepherd "feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading to their rest the mother ewes", we are instilling hope by our works of mercy. Through us the Lord is carrying out his promise, is being patient with all, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to change his ways. (2Pet 3:9)

Pope Benedict tells us hope, in a Christian sense, is always hope for others as well as for myself. It is an active hope in the sense that we keep the world open to God. He recalls a book of prayers that the late Cardinal Van Thuan wrote while a prisoner for 13 years, in a situation of seemingly utter hopelessness. The fact that the Cardinal could listen and speak to God became for him an increasing power of hope and enabled him after his release to become for people all over the world a Witness to Hope, by his writings. (Spe Salvi)

Advent

2011-11-28T21:28:00.004Z

They shall see the Lord face to face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. It will never be night again and they will not need lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will be shining on them. They will reign for ever and ever. (Rev 22:4-5)

Just over a week ago on the beautiful feast of Christ the King the Lord called our dear Sr Rosaleen to her eternal home, while the community were praying the Office of night prayer around her bedside. As the above scripture passage was being read her breathing began to fail and ever so gently she breathed her last as we sang the response:

“Into your hands I commend my spirit. You have redeemed us Lord God of truth.”

We continued with the canticle of Simeon:

At last, all powerful Master
You give leave to your servant
to go in peace, according to your promise.
For my eyes have seen your salvation
which you have prepared for all nations,
the light to enlighten the Gentiles
and give glory to Israel your people.

No doubt her passing made a deep impression on us and brought home to each of us the mysterious presence and closeness of the Lord in our lives. Sr Rosaleen at 97 had a long wait before seeing the Lord’s face. We pray that now she is basking in the sunlight of His Presence and interceding for all of us.

As we begin the season of Advent we too are waiting with longing for the coming of the Lord:

O that you would teat the heavens open and come down!(Is 63)

The emphasis in the readings for this first Sunday of Advent is on Jesus’ second coming at the end of time – as we come nearer to Christmas we remember his coming in the flesh over 2,000 years ago. But as we try to be faithful disciples of Jesus it is even more important for us to recognise his coming at every moment in every person we meet, in every circumstance in which we find ourselves. In the Gospel Jesus invites us to "stay awake" and "be on the watch".

Let us live this Advent in preparation for our celebration of Christmas in the sure knowledge that we are always in His Presence – held by His right hand as with the psalmist we pray:

God of Hosts bring us back
Let your face shine on us and we shall be saved (Ps 79)

Then we shall be ready, as our dear Sr Rosaleen was, to go forth to meet the Lord when He eventually calls us to our eternal home, to be with him and our loved ones for ever.

Dominican Calendar for 2012 Published

2011-11-15T10:07:00.007Z

As we celebrate the 50th International Eucharistic Congress, 10th - 17th June 2012, the vocation promoters of the Domincan Family, Ireland, have prepared this calendar for 2012 on the theme of the Eucharist to promote a greater awareness the coming International Eucharistic Congress and of the Dominican charism. The calendar is available in our Monastery and from Dominican priories throughout Ireland.

Master of the Order speaks on Dominican Life and Vocation

2011-10-14T11:26:00.005+01:00

The Master of the Order, Bro Bruno Cadore OP, spent a week in South Africa visiting all the Dominican brethren and nuns, and spoke on Radio Veritas to Bro Emil Blaser OP about his life, vocation and the Order. This interview with Bro Emil was broadcast on Sunday 14 August at 18h00 on Radio Veritas. (For more information click here). We include the Interview below.

Belated Congratulations

2011-10-14T11:06:00.007+01:00

Our congratulations to our Dominican Brethren on the Ordination of three brothers to the priesthood in September - Fr. Maurice Colgan OP, Fr Brian Doyle OP, and Fr. Denis Murphy OP. Our apologies for the delay in posting - due mainly to time given to the preparation of our 2012 Dominican Calendar. Last week we had the great pleasure of welcoming one of the new priests, Fr Maurice Colgan OP, who came to celebrate the Eucharist for us and meet the community afterwards in the parlour. A very nice video of Fr Maurice's Ordination has been produced by Dominicans Interactive (see below).

25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

2011-09-19T16:38:00.003+01:00

What, for me, is the parable of the Vineyard labourers saying?
Firstly, it is a parable about the Kingdom of Heaven. It is telling us the kind of God our God is - the God revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father in the person of his Son Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is a God who seeks us his fallen human creatures from dawn to dusk i.e. from the dawn of creation to the end of time. His one desire is to reunite the whole human race to Himself in Christ. It is through the Church in the Sacrament of Baptism that we enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

In the parable we see those called at daybread and right through the day to the 11th hour. At the close of the parable we see how the words of the 1st Reading at Mass are borne out - that God's ways are not our ways. We see the utter generosity and love of God in His payment of the workers - the last comers receiving one denarius like those called at daybreak and receiving it first! The first comers who had borne the heat of the day compared their lot with those who had come at the 11th hour and became very dissatisfied to the point of almost scorning the denarius on which they had agreed. Some of us might have a sneaking sympathy for them!

Where did they, and if so ourselves, go wrong? They were working out of strict duty, obligation and rights - love was lacking. They had not come to know, in the biblical sense, their Master, so did not love Him or His ways. Our brother, St Albert the Great, speaks of the denarius of Eternal Life, which is sheer gift. Listen to St Paul to the Ephesians (2:8) "It is by grace that you have been saved through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift of God; not by anything you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit".

St Paul's response to God's grace was total. As he tells us in the 2nd reading for this Mass, "life to me, of course, is Christ but then death would bring me something more" - eternal life with Christ. He was torn between "wanting to be gone and be with Christ" and staying behind to spread the Gospel "which is a more urgent need for your sake". We too are called to "long to be with Christ" but we have to realise the great opportunity our time on earth gives us to bring others to Christ and to Eternal Life by the grace of God. We must remember especially in prayer the labourers who were called at "daybreak", that is the Chosen People,the Jews, that the Lord will hasten the day when they will be grafted on again to the True Vine, Jesus Christ.

I will leave the final word to St Paul again, "glory be to Him whose power working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to Him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen."

Feast of St Augustine - 28th August

2011-08-28T21:08:00.001+01:00

“You have seduced me, Lord, and I have let myself be seduced;
you have overpowered me: you were the stronger.”

(Jer 20:7)

These words from the prophet Jeremiah which we heard this morning at Mass prompted me to reflect on St Augustine whose feast day is to-day but was not celebrated.

Both Jeremiah and Augustine wrote what are known as their ‘confessions’ – accounts which describe their inner struggles and suffering, their loneliness and yearning for God. Their anger, complaints and disappointments betray the heart of a lover. Here I will focus on Augustine.

In his Confessions Augustine gives us a very moving account of his search for God or perhaps more correctly God’s search for him! - which reaches a climax when he exclaims “too late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient and so new, too late have I loved you.” (10:27)

From his earliest years Augustine had a very sensitive heart, with a great capacity for love but yet was prevented from recognising and accepting God as his true and ultimate joy because as he explains - although “he loved the happy life” and sought after truth he “feared to find it in God’s abode and so fled from it even as he sought it.” (cf 6:11). As Francis Thompson puts it “he feared lest having Him he must have naught beside.” (The Hound of Heaven).

God is a jealous lover and He is not satisfied till we surrender our inmost heart to Him. He is also a patient lover who knows how to wait while at the same time being a persistent lover who does not give up on us! Augustine describes the many ways in which God was secretly at work trying to detach his heart from earthly attractions. He says “Little by little I was drawing closer to you although I did not know it”. During this time Augustine experienced God’s action as a “piercing of the very nerve within the wound of his soul, so that he might leave all things and be converted to God” (cf 6:6).

The turning point came when as he tells us “he entered into his inmost being with God as his helper.” (7:10). We have the key to Augustine’s spirituality when he says “I sought for a way of gaining strength sufficient for me to have joy in You but did not find it until I embraced the Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.” (7:18). God’s search for humankind finds its ultimate expression in the humble self-emptying love of Jesus through whom we find our way back to the Father. Our love is but a response to God’s infinite love for us. Once we truly experience His love in the self-emptying of Jesus we are freed to let go of our attachments to sin and creatures and surrender ourselves in humility and obedience to Him who first loved us.

However although the “way of the Saviour had become pleasing” to Augustine he “was still bound by his love of women”. He wanted so much to surrender, yet he feared to let go. (cf 8: 11) until Continence says to him “Why do you stand on yourself and thus stand not at all? Cast yourself on Him. Have no fear. He will not draw back and let you fall. Cast yourself trustfully on him and He will receive you and He will heal you.” Thus he describes his conversion in terms of humility, letting go of his dependence on self and his attachments to creatures and surrendering himself totally to God’s mercy “bending his neck to the mild yoke and his shoulders to the light burden” of Jesus Christ (cf 9:1) and in that moment he exclaims “How sweet did it suddenly become ….things I once feared to lose it was now a joy to put away ….in their stead You entered in sweeter than any pleasure.”

We could imagine that all Augustine’s struggles ended here but in the next chapter he describes his continuing struggles with sin and selfishness - but his hope in the Saviour never wavers. In the face of his “many and great infirmities he will not despair because the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (10:43). He is content to be “but a little one but his Father lives forever and his Protector is sufficient for him.” (10:14). Here we have a picture of Augustine as humble and little in the hands of God his Father – secure in His love, detached from creatures and trusting utterly in the Father’s providence. Yet he is not aloof from his brothers and sisters, his fellow citizens and pilgrims; rather in God’s providence he wishes to be of service to them and share with them the love and mercy he has experienced in his own life (10:4).

Augustine could well identify with Jeremiah:

“You have seduced me, Lord, and I have let myself be seduced;
you have overpowered me: you were the stronger.”

(Jer 20:7)

May he intercede on our behalf that we may be truly converted to the Lord and server our sisters and brothers.

21st Sunday - Cycle A

2011-08-24T21:12:00.002+01:00

In today’s Gospel Mt 16:13 – 20, we hear one of the most important questions asked by Jesus: “Who do people say the Son of Man is? And we know the answer: “Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” but Jesus turns to Peter and asks him “But you, who do you say I am? We see the same direct, personal questions asked by Jesus on other occasions: “Do you also want to go away? Do you love Me more than these other do? You follow Me”. Peter’s response to Jesus is brief – only 10 words – “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God”. Peter acknowledges Jesus both as Christ / Messiah and Son of the living God – i.e. the God who is life, give and sustains life here and promises eternal life hereafter.
Then Jesus makes a triple response to Simon Peter - each response being itself a triple statement. The responses are respectively a beatitude, a conferring of a title and a granting of authority.
a) Blessed are you Simon, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my Father in heaven.
b) Then the title “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
c) The authority – “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven – whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Peter’s response comprised only 10 words and words are very easy to say but Peter had to live out that great profession of faith in Jesus. In the title Jesus gave him ‘you are Rock’ and “on you, the Rock I will build my Church.”

The Gospels are realistic in their memory of Peter. As well as being the one who confesses who Jesus is, he is also the one who denies Jesus 3 times. He is not only the one who expresses faith in Jesus – he also falters in his faith. He has to be helped by Jesus in all that he does but the Gospels clearly indicate that Peter is Jesus’ choice to lead the community in the future. He is the one who will return and strengthen his brothers. In giving authority to the man who denied him, Jesus wanted to show that He was establishing His Church not on human strength, but on His own love and faithfulness. The Church’s true foundation is Christ Himself. But Jesus saw Peter’s great qualities – his heart full of love, which in the end would lead him to die a martyr.

Jesus is asking you and me today the same question: “Who do you say I am?” What will our answer be?
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to say
To me Jesus is my GOD
Jesus is my SPOUSE – Jesus is my LIFE
Jesus is my only LOVE – Jesus is my ALL in ALL
Jesus is my EVERYTHING

We all have to bear witness to Christ and help others to recognise Him and come to Him. We need above all to live with Him and stay with Him and this is what we call Prayer. As Pope Benedict bade farewell to the youth in Madrid today he asked them (and we can take these words to ourselves)

to preach Christ, to be rooted and built on Him. Respond with joy to Him and His call; fix your eyes on Him - He is the Wisdom of God. You have met Christ here. Very often you will be swimming against the tide, but through your faith and your personal relationship with Christ and your love for Him you can witness to Him.

Let us Pray:

Lord our God
all truth is from You
and You alone bring oneness of heart.
give Your people the joy
of hearing Your word in every sound
and of longing for Your presence more than for life itself
May all the attractions of a changing world
serve only to bring us
the peace of yor kingdom which this world does not give.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.

Novena to St Dominic - Day 9

2011-08-07T20:58:00.000+01:00

While reading the Libellus - on the beginnings of the Order - during the past week my attention was drawn to Bl Jordan’s description of our holy Father, Dominic, as someone who “accepted the Lord’s commands so warmly” and whose “will welcomed the voice of his Lover with such loyalty and pleasure”, that he was able “ penetrate the mysteries of difficult theological questions with the humble understanding of his heart.”

“Dominic welcomed the voice of his Lover”
We live in a world where it is becoming increasingly more difficult to discern the voice of our Lover – the voice of the one who has brought us into existence and who loved us so much that He died for us on the Cross. In the 13th century, as in our own 21st century, there were many false prophets proclaiming a message contrary to the Christian viewpoint and many people were confused and led astray. However, Dominic was able to discern and welcome the voice of his Lover – first of all at Osma where was “adept at keeping God’s word – his memory being a kind of ‘barn’ for God while his external behaviour and actions broadcast publicly the treasure that lay hidden in his holy breast.” Later he would hear the voice of the Lover in very different circumstances - as he argued with the innkeeper in Languedoc and as he travelled the roads of Europe.

The readings for this 19th Sunday (Cycle A) provide us with other examples of people who listened and discerned the voice of the Lover calling them to do a seemingly impossible task. Elijah, while fleeing for his life encounters his Lover in the gentle breeze – this must have taken a great leap of faith for him when we remember that traditionally God manifested Himself in the fire and thunder and lightening on Sinai during the Exodus. Yet Elijah was able to break with the past and recognise God revealing Himself now in the gentle breeze.

In the Gospel Peter is asked to step out of the boat and walk on the stormy sea in response to Jesus’ invitation: “Come”. While Peter keeps his eyes fixed on Jesus he succeeds but once he focuses on the storm he begins to sink.

As we celebrate this feast of our holy father Dominic we pray that we too may welcome the voice of our Lover with the same loyalty and pleasure as he did and so be enabled to penetrate the great mystery of our faith with the humble understanding of our heart. In the midst of the storm may we always hear His voice saying “It is I! Do not be afraid! Come!” Like Mary may we treasure the Word in our heart and respond with our ‘yes’ – “let it be done unto me according to your Word”

Novena to St Dominic - Day 8

2011-08-06T18:18:00.004+01:00

Continuing our reflection on St Dominic in preparation for his feast, here is an extract from "The Genius of St Dominic" by Marie Humbert Vicaire OP.

The Liberty of the 'Poor Man'
The Bull of Recommendation of the Order to the bishops of December 8, 1219, which already contained the essential terms of the Bull to the brethern of December 12, added a precision. It said that the Preachers 'reject the burden of worldly riches so as to be able to run more freely (expeditius) in the field of this world'. Some months later the text in the Bologna Constitutions that is expressly attributed to Dominic would use the same word. If those who are deputed to study and preaching are set free from every temporal charge, it is 'so that they can better fulfil their spiritual mission in a greater liberty (expeditius).' The image behind the word is that of the expeditus, the light infantryman, more rapid and more efficacious than the one weighed down by a heavy equipment. From then on the image became current.

Mendicany was a source first of all of mobility. Like the beggar, the Preacher was not tied down to any place or domain on which he depended for his living. He lived on his poverty just as much on his travels as when at home. It also meant a greater facility for getting occasions to preach. The first type of papal Bull of Recommendation that Dominic obtained for his Order already made it clear that 'they preach the Word of the Lord faithfully and gratis', 'presenting themselves in the title of poverty'. The same disinterestedness would facilitate their installation in the towns, for if a church were assigned to them they would take it without the tithes and revenues which would go to the diocese or to other patrons.

Mendicany also meant a greater interior liberty through the extinction of carnal appetites, attachments and vanities by which men are enchained. Here it is relevant to recall those adjectives: sobrius, parcus sibi, and the epithets: vilis, mediocris, humilis, which signified Dominic's poverty and the simplicity of his life-style which he inculated in his brethren, but without any kind of narrowness. Is there anything more free and liberal than his attitude during a hot spring evening at San Sisto when he passed around a goblet of wine amongst his brethren, and then amongst the sisters at the other side of the grill: 'Drink to your heart's content, my daughters'...

Such a liberty, so close to charity, could not but lead to joy which all the witnesses of his life were at one in observing in St Dominic. Here it would be necessary to write a long chapter on the radiant joy which was characteristic not only of Dominic but of the mendicant religious in general. Whilst the byzantine saint, whose model had come down and was still largely the fashion in the West in the eleventh and twelfth centuries was ascetic, lean and severe, and with the eyes of a visionary, the saint of the mendicants, whatever may have been his private austerity, presented men with a face that was open, sympathetic and radiant with joy. In Dominic this joy was born especially from the awareness of his weakness which turned him towards God; knowing that he was unarmed in the midst of dangers and threats, experiencing a real penury as regards food and comfort, suffering but independent, he abandoned himself more completely to providence and fled to her more willingly by means of prayer; the culmination of his joy was in being able to share in the redemptive poverty and suffering of Christ.

Novena to St Dominic - Day 7

2011-08-05T20:59:00.002+01:00

Dominic, Man of Prayer, and Man of the Gospel: Preacher of Grace and Truth.

Blessed Raymond tells us in the Life of Catherine “St.Catherine saw the Co-Eternal Son proceeding from the mouth of The Eternal Father and while she was contemplating Him, she saw the Blessed Patriarch, St. Dominic come forth from the breast of the Father all resplendent with brightness. My Son by nature, who is the Eternal Word proceeding from my mouth, preached publicly to the world, whatever I charged him to say. My adopted son Dominic also preached to the world the truth of my Words”. He is still preaching in his successors today 800 years later.

The radiance from Dominic’s demeanor and life wholly rooted in Christ captured those who met him, even the most bigoted of Albigensian heretics. His mission was to bring the light of God to the whole world by word and example. His first band of followers saw in Dominic a man specially chosen by God. Blessed Jordan of Saxony spoke of Dominic as a person of exceptional integrity of character, with extraordinary energy of divine zeal. Contemplative at heart, Dominic spoke of God or about God and told his companions to do the same in humility and poverty. He befriended so many along the high ways and bye ways, in the inns and taverns; he just overflowed with inspiring words of God or about God. Blessed Jordan spoke of Dominic’s great charity, mercy and compassion, for the poor, the lowly and marginalized. Everybody was enfolded in the wide embrace of charity.

The Eternal Father revealed to Catherine of Siena “Your Father was a light that I gave to the world by means of Mary, and he does not wish his sons to apply themselves to anything but remaining at the table of the cross to seek with the light of Science the Glory and praise of my Name alone, and the salvation of souls”. To contemplate and share the fruits of contemplation is at the heart of the vocation of every Dominican.

At the Friar’s General Chapter in Rome 1983, Pope John Paul II said “You Dominicans have the mission of proclaiming that our God is alive, that he is the God of life and that in Him exists the root of dignity and the hope of all who are called to life.”

In 2006, the former Master General, Bro.Carlos Aspiroz o.p. Marked the 8th. Centenary of the founding of the first Monastery of Nuns at Prouille, the cradle of the Order, which all the Contemplatives of the cloistered life marked with celebrations in their own locations, inviting our Dominican Friars, Dominican Sisters and Dominican laity, family and friends to share in the liturgies etc. “Let us walk faithful to the love we had at first” words of Bro. Carlos Aspioz o.p. to all The Dominican Family,by way of renewal during the novena of years till 2016 the 8th.centenary of the institution of the Order of Friars Preachers, receiving it’s confirmation from Pope Honorius III in 1216. Bro. Bruno Cadore, elected as new Master General of the Order September 2010, said “My first dream is that each of our communities be a sign of faith, joy, and freedom for the people, and of the truth of The Word of God, of a God who comes to us and who wants to dialogue with us.”

Pope Benedict XVI invited Dominican delegates among others to the world Synod of Bishops on The Word of God In The Life and Mission of The Church. This gave fresh renewal and zeal to the followers of St. Dominic to be men of the Gospel in word and deed in the mission of the church. Pope Benedict at the closing of that Synod in 2008 said, “Let us walk Together guided by the Word of God”. We the nuns seek, ponder and call upon our Lord Jesus in our vocation as contemplatives in our life of prayer, Lectio Divina and Liturgical prayer so that the word proceeding from the mouth of God may not return to him empty, but may accomplish those things for which it was sent, thus supporting the Friar Preachers in their mission of preaching the Word of God in the life and mission of the church. The spirit of Dominic lives on.

Novena to St Dominic - Day 6

2011-08-04T10:22:00.003+01:00

On this 6th day of our Novena in preparation for St. Dominic’s Feast day, a few thoughts on his spirit of ZEAL in dedicating himself totally to the salvation of souls through the spreading of the Good News of God’s Word are surely vital.

Our Lord’s own words in John Ch.2 “Zeal for your house devours me” can also apply so aptly to our father, Dominic.
In his Divine Comedy, Dante describes St. Dominic as a ‘friend fast-knit to Christ’ - how very true, for Dominic was indeed one with Christ in his intense life of prayer, in his thirst for the salvation of souls and in his love for the poor, the sick, the troubled.
We read in the Book of Numbers Ch.25, “the Lord said to Moses: ‘Phinehas, the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, my people, because he was the only one among them to have the same zeal as I have…’”. How appropriately these words too, can also be applied to St. Dominic.

It was his zeal that led St. Dominic to spend his nights and much of his day in prayer, pleading for the salvation of souls even to the point of offering himself to be cut in pieces to be placed at the gates of hell. How he longed and longed to bring Christ’s Compassion to the suffering people of his time, and the light of God’s truth to those led astray by heresy.

And so it was that in his zeal, he founded his Order specifically for the salvation of souls. It is no wonder that he is addressed in one of the hymns as ‘a burning ardent lover’.

Each member of the Dominican Family is called to imitate this same zeal for the salvation of souls – those of us in the cloistered life, are called ‘to devote ourselves without hindrance to praying and pleading with God for the salvation of all peoples’ - called to be devoured by the same zeal as Dominic, and by frequent contact with the furnace of love as he was, we too are set on fire with ardour for the spreading of God’s Kingdom on earth and the salvation of souls.

Novena to St Dominic - Day 5

2011-08-04T10:19:00.003+01:00

One of the things that strikes me about Dominic is his openness to God’s will and his willingness to take the step he sees in faith without a clear vision of where it will finally lead. As Augusta Drane says in her account of his life:

“His call was not sudden, or miraculous, or even extraordinary; it was that which is the likeliest to come to people like ourselves; particular impressions of mind were given just at the time when circumstances combined together gradually to develop the way in which those impressions could be carried out. He was always being led forward, not knowing there whither he went. As sub-prior of Osma he probably saw nothing before him but the ordinary community life of the cathedral chapter. Then came the journey to Denmark, on a mission whose ostensible object was a failure, but whose real end in the design of God was accomplished when it brought him into the presence of the heresy which it was his destiny to destroy. Yet though we have reason to believe that from the time of his first collision with the Albigenses a very clear and distinct idea was formed in his mind of some future apostolate of preaching, it is evident that he had no equally clear and determinate view in what direction he was to work; … He was on the road back to his old home, preparing to take up again the old duties and the old life which had been interrupted by two years, rich with new thoughts and hopes now, it seemed, to be forever abandoned; and then when he had made what was probably a painful sacrifice of great desires, those mysterious orderings of Providence, which we call chance and coincidence, had prepared for him, under the walls of Montpellier, a combination of events which was to make all clear.” And mark the beginning of his preaching mission.

This, I think, is reflected in our Lord’s teaching "Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have shown you are trustworthy in small things; I will trust you with greater; (Mt 25:21) As we proceed step by step doing (and seeking) God’s will, we are drawn more fully into His plan. While this is particularly important in discerning a Vocation it is necessary at all times and for everyone. In this dark time in Ireland we do well to remember that the first 10 years of Dominic’s preaching mission were marked by little or no progress or success. He committed himself to living what he recognised as God’s will and waited further guidance. It is that faithfulness to God’s will that counts and bears fruit in ways we might never even see: “one sows, another reaps” (Jn 4:37)

Novena to St Dominic - Day 4

2011-08-04T10:02:00.003+01:00

From "On the Beginnings of the Order of Preachers" by Jordan of Saxony OP:

Far more impressive and splendid than all his miracles, though, wre the exceptional intergity of his character and the extraordinary energy of divine zeal which carried him along; these proved beyond all doubt that he was a vessel of honour and grace, adorned with every kind of "precious stone". Hi mind was always steady and calm, except when he was stirred by a feeling of compassion and mercy; and, since a happy heart makes for a cheerful face, the tranquil composure of the inner man was revealed outwardly by the kindliness and cheerfulness of his expression. He never allowed himself to become angry. In every reasonable purpose his mind conceived, in accordance with God's will, he maintained such constancy that he hardly ever, if ever, consented to change any plan which he had formulated with due deliberation. And though, as has been said, he face was always radiant with a cheerfulness which revealed the good conscience he bore within him, "the light of his face never fell to the ground". By his cheerfulness he easily won the love of everybody. Without difficulty he found his way into people's hearts as soon as they saw him.

Wherever he went, whether he was on the road with his companions or in some house, with his host and the rest of the household, or among important people and rulers and prelates, he always overflowed with inspiring words. He had an abundant supply of edifying stories, with which he directed people's minds to the love of Christ and contempt for the world. Everywhere, in word and in deed, he showed himself to be a man of the gospel. ...

It was his very frequent habit to spend the whole night in church, so that he hardly ever seemed to have any fixed bed of his own to sleep in. He used to pray and keep vigil at night to the very limit of what he could force his body to endure. When at last weariness overtook him and his spirit succumbed, so that he had to sleep for a while, he rested briefly before the altar or absolutely anywhere, sometimes even leaning his head against a stone, like the patriarch Jacob. But then he would soon be awake again, rallying his spirit to resume his fervent prayer.

Everybody was enfolded in the wide embrace of his charity, and since he loved everyone, everyone loved him. He made it his business to rejoice with those who were rejoicing and to weep with those who wept. He was full of affection and gave himself utterly to caring for his neighbours and to showing sympathy for the unfortunate.

Another thing which made him so attractive to everybody was his straightforwardness; there was never a hint of guile or duplicity in anything he said of did.

Novena to St Dominic - Day 3

2011-08-04T09:32:00.006+01:00

Dominic and Prayer
The Nine Ways of Prayer of St Dominic was written by an anonymous author, probably at Bologna, sometime between 1260 and 1288. The source of his information was Sr Cecilia of the Monastery of St Agnes at Bologna (who had been received to the habit by St Dominic) and others who had been in contact with the Holy Founder. This venerable document testifies to the eminent holiness of the Saint, showing something of his intimate life and intense love of God.

The Fourth Way of Prayer
St Dominic would remain before the altar or in the chapter room with his gaze fixed on the Crucified One, looking upon Him with perfect attention. He genuflected frequently, again and again. He would continue sometimes from after Compline until midnight, now rising, now kneeling again, like the Apostle St James, or the leper of the gospel who said on bended knee: "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean" (Mt 8:2). He was like St Stephen who knelt and called out with a loud cry: "Lord, do not lay this sin against them" (Acts 7:60).

Thus there was formed in our holy father, St Dominic, a great confidence in God's mercy towards himself, all sinners, and for the perseverance of the younger brethren whom he sent forth to preach to souls. Sometimes he could not restrain his voice, and the friars would hear him murmuring: "Unto thee will I cry, O Lord: O my God, be not thou silent to me: lest if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit" (Ps27:1)and comparable phrases from the Sacred Scripture.

At other times, however, he spoke within himself and his voice could not be heard. He would remain in genuflection for a long while, rapt in spirit; on occasion, while in this position, it appeared from his face that his mind had penetrated heaven and soon he reflected an intense joy as he wiped away the flowing tears. He was in a stage of longing and anticipation like a thirsty man who has reached a spring, and like a traveler who is at last approaching his homeland.Then he would become more absorbed and ardent as he moved in an agile manner but with great grace, now rising, now genuflecting. He was so accustomed to bend his knees to God in this way that when he traveled, in the inns after a weary journey, or along the wayside while his companions rested or slept, he would return to these genuflections, his own intimate and personal form of worship. This way of prayer he taught his brethren more by example than by words.

Novena to St. Dominic - Day 2

2011-07-31T20:07:00.001+01:00

Reflecting on the life, character and example of St. Dominic during this Novena and simultaneously aware of the Mass Readings this morning focusing so strongly on the Eucharist, I was struck again, as I have been before, on how deeply St. Dominic seemed to have understood the extraordinary mystery of the Eucharist. We know this from several witnesses who gave testimonies at the process of canonization-for example:

Brother Bonvisus said: “Sometimes I served his Mass. I would then watch his expression, and I used to see so many tears running down his face that the drops ran in a stream.”

Brother Stephen testified “ that very frequently he saw him celebrate Mass, and noticed that his eyes and cheeks were wet with tears during the Canon. It was quite easy for those present to perceive this devotion from his great fervour during Mass and the way that he said the Pater Noster . He never remembers having seen him say Mass with dry eyes.”

Brother Paul of Venice said that “ if Dominic could find a suitable church, he wanted to celebrate a High Mass every day.”

We know that in the 12th & 13th Centuries it was both unusual and exceptional for priests to celebrate Mass daily and yet we know that Dominic did. The historian, William Hinnebusch, says of Dominic in reference to his love of the Eucharist:

“ Endowed with a charm and compassion that drew both men and women
into the orbit of his love, his dominant trait was a priestliness that was
marked by a profound love of Christ and the Eucharistic Mystery.”

It seems to me that St. Dominic was graced with an understanding of the deepest reality of this Mystery, having put into practice the words of the first reading from Isaiah this morning calling us ‘ to come to the Lord, to listen to Him, and so receive life for our souls ‘ – spiritual nourishment- which is given above all in the Eucharist and prefigured in the Gospel today when Jesus feeds the multitudes after taking, blessing, breaking and giving the loaves and fish- the exact verbs- to take, to bless, to break and to give - used at the consecration during Mass when Jesus gives his own body and blood for our salvation and for our continuous spiritual nourishment on our earthly journey.

Later in the 13th Century St. Thomas elaborates on this spiritual nourishment given in the Eucharist, articulating what St. Dominic truly realised and what we also are in need of being reminded of, so that we can enter more deeply into this extraordinary Mystery and not take it for granted. St. Thomas says :

“ This sacrament, the Eucharist, does for the life of the spirit all that material food does for the life of the body, by sustaining, building up, restoring and contenting.”

“ What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life, by preserving, increasing and renewing the life of grace in us, received at Baptism. The growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, the bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will be given to us as viaticum.”
( CCC 1392)

In his encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Blessed John Paul II said that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian Life and from it the Church draws her very life- because, he says:

“ The most holy Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our living bread. Through his own flesh, now made living and life-giving by the Holy Spirit, he offers life to us.” ( No 1)

Through the intercession of St. Dominic may we all be granted a greater appreciation, reverence and love for Christ in the Eucharist, becoming more and more receptive to this inflow of divine love and life, so that in the words of the Father to Catherine in the Dialogue “we may not slacken our pace because of weakness, nor forget the blessing of the blood poured forth for us with such burning love, but may be constantly strengthened and filled with pleasure as we walk.” ( Dialogue 78)

Novena to St Dominic, Day One

2011-07-30T21:38:00.004+01:00

In reflecting on St Dominic, as we approach his Feast Day on the 8th August, I was impressed by something Simon Tugwell, O.P. wrote in his introduction to Bl Jordan of Saxony's "Libellus". He wrote,

In the 'Libellus', Jordan shows us how the Order of Preachers arose, not simply as the brainchild of one man, Dominic, but as a providential response to the needs of the time ... If it was, in fact, Dominic who actually brought the Order to birth, he did not create it out of nothing. The church was ready and waiting for it, and there were people waiting to join it even before it existed. ...
"The relationship between Dominic and his Order cannot be understood simply in terms of some uniquely inventive capacity in Dominic himself. Essentially he is the father of the Order because he gave it its job to do, and because he supports it with his prayers. ...
The true 'Life of Dominic' was not to be found in the past, it was to be found in the present, in the continuing preaching of his followers. As St Catherine saw so clearly, Dominic lives on in the work of his Order. ..."

"... a providential response to the needs of the time ..."

"... the church was ready and waiting ..."

"... the life of Dominic [is] to be found in the present ..."

I wondered what job Dominic would give us to do today, when our church has such great needs now, and is ready and waiting ... for us?

Nothing new.
"Everybody was enfolded in the wide embrace of his charity, and since he loved everyone, everyone loved him." At a time, now, during these days, when it is so much more easy to criticise and condemn and cut ourselves off from people who committed unspeakable, unforgiveable acts and destroyed the lives of the innocent - Dominic prays for us, pleads before the Father for us who seek to continue to do the job he gave his Order to do: that we be love now.

Love to those who suffer
and love to those who cause so much suffering.

That we come to God at the foot of the Cross, look up, and see that healing comes only through love and mercy ... divine love ... supernatural mercy.
Remember that we have committed ourselves to Jesus, our brother and our God.
Trust, when we pray as Dominic prayed - 'Lord, what will become of sinners?', that the Lord has already won for them the answer.

We are all a part of one another and so we need to be love; love every part of ourselves. The church is waiting for us and there are people waiting for us to be what Dominic was, in imitation of the Lord whom he so passionately loved - that they may find their way home.

Novena in preparation for the Feast of St Dominic

2011-07-30T20:57:00.004+01:00

Today the 30th of July we begin the Novena of prayer in preparation for the feast of St Dominic which we will celebrate on the 8th of August.
In our community each evening before Vespers there is a short reflection Prepared by one of the sisters which is followed by the singing of what we Dominicans call the 'O Spem'- a kind of national anthem for the Order. Here is an English translation:
O wonderful Hope which you gave to those who wept for you at the hour of your death, promising that after your decease you would be helpful to your brethren.

Fulfil Father what you have said and help us by your prayers.

You shone on the bodies of the sick by so many miracles, bring us the help of Christ to heal our sick souls.

Fulfil Father what you have said and help us by your prayers.

V.Blessed Father Dominic pray for us
R That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Throughout the week we will publish the various reflections here:

Learning the Art of Flower arrangement

2011-07-28T20:50:00.031+01:00

On Monday and Tuesday of this week our kind friend Mrs Eileen Davey from Belfast gave us some wonderful classes in the art of flower arranging at which most of our community participated - the photos which follow are self-explanatory!

In the Lord's providence some of our kind friends and benefactors provided us with some beautiful gifts of flowers just in time for these classes - we are most grateful for their constant support and generosity.

A big 'thank-you' to Eileen for the joy of these days! and we have also learned a lot!

St Mary Magdalene - 22nd July

2011-07-22T10:35:00.002+01:00

Today is the feast-day of St Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, and Patroness of the Order of Preachers. We're lucky to have her! As I think about her now, you know, she's quite an inspiration, a good teacher.

In the Gospel according to John, we read:

"Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb, ..."
(John 20:8-11)

Just these few verses got me thinking - about how the disciples left and she stayed. They went home, but she had no home to go to.
JESUS was her home - that's why.
The disciples had left everything to follow JESUS, but I suppose here you could say that as yet JESUS didn't wholly possess them - they had left everything, but as yet they hadn't given Him their very selves, they didn't realise that they couldn't do without Him. So they went home ... sad? yes; ...lost? yes, probably; ...confused? surely; ...disappointed? I think definitely so. They didn't have JESUS any longer, He was gone. Where were they to go? What to do now? They had homes, they could pick up their lives again, the lives - the everything - they had left and try to keep going ... that would fill the void that JESUS had left in them.

But when JESUS reached out to Mary that first time, and saved her - she had been about as far away from Him as it is possible to be - had given up even on herself. It was a miracle, a wondrous miracle that He would even look at her, not to mind want her. But she saw that He did, and when she saw Him, she saw that He was everything and that now, knowing Him, her life would be nothing ... she would be nothing ... without Him, apart from Him.

He was her home.

He is our home.

He is my home. The ground beneath my feet.

Thank God for St Mary Magdalene, may she pray for us that we may find our way home.

Video of the Solemn Profession of Sr Mary Teresa

2011-07-09T17:09:00.004+01:00

Below is a short video clip of some scenes from the Solemn Profession of Sr Mary Teresa Dunphy. We hope you enjoy it.

Solemn Profession of Sr Mary Teresa OP

2011-07-04T19:36:00.016+01:00

On the 29th June Sr Mary Teresa's solemn profession was a wonderful celebration of joy and thanksgiving for our community. The profession took place during the celebration of the Eucharist at which Fr Laurence Collins OP, vicar of the Master of the Order for our community presided. Fr Noonan from Sr Mary Teresa's home parish, concelebrated as well as several Dominican friars - some of whom travelled from as far away as Cork and Limerick in order to be with us on this special occasion. Also in the congregation were some Dominican student brothers, sisters from the Cabra Congregation of Dominican Sisters and local Lay Dominicans and friends. Of course Teresa's proud parents,Nuala and Brian Dunphy, her sister and her seven brothers were present and participated in the Readings, Prayers of the Faithful and Offertory procession. Fr John Harris OP preached the homily which we are happy to share with you here.

According to our 800 years' Dominican tradition we make our profession in the hands of the prioress while holding the Book of the Constitutions of the Nuns of the Order.

Here we share a few photos but shortly we hope to be able to share more of this joyful occasion through video - so keep your eye out for it!

Fr John Harris preached the following homily
Anyone who knows Sister Teresa will know that if you ask her a question you will get a quick, clear and intelligent answer. An answer that leaves you in no doubt about what she is thinking. Never in her life has she given such a clear answer to a question as she does today. To the question of questions, “who do you say I am?” today Sister Teresa says in reply to Our Blessed Lord with her whole life “you are my all”. For this is the meaning of solemn profession. One could easily use the words of St. Paul in today’s second reading “My life is being poured away as a libation”. Today Sr. Teresa in a solemn act of Holy Church offers herself totally to God in an act of perfect love. She does so in this community, following a way of life blessed by the Church which can lead her to true holiness of life.

Today Teresa is saying to God first and foremost, but also to us present and to the world “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as so much rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him... I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection”. (Phil 3:8-10)

Is she doing a foolish thing? Absolutely not! She is answering the deepest longings in the human heart, loving God with all her mind, all her will, all her body and all her soul. She is reminding us all of our own precious calling, to love God and to come to know ourselves truly in this Love. If one tries to know oneself outside of this love one searches in the darkness and never attains true happiness. Love of God is not the denial of humanity but its highest calling and its truest expression.

Today Sr. Teresa you are the freest creature on the face of the earth.

To make an act of solemn profession to love God is to make the freest act possible for a human being. Your voice today as you make your solemn profession is a making present of Christ’s voice in the Garden of Gethsemane, echoed in the voice of Mary at the Annunciation. To say yes to God is to be fully human.

Today in Rome the new archbishops will receive the Pallium from the Pope, a circular band of lamb’s wool, worn about the neck, breast, and shoulders (one could say our religious scapular is a development of the Pallium), said to have been originally a brace which kept slaves together as they were being transported from one place to another: Pope Benedict XVI says that “this may be considered an image of the yoke of Christ, which one takes upon one’s shoulders. God’s yoke is God’s will, which we accept. And this will does not weigh down on us, oppressing us and taking away our freedom. To know what God wants, to know where the path of life is found – this was Israel’s joy, this was her great privilege. It is also our joy: God’s will does not alienate us, it purifies us – even if this can be painful – and so it leads us to ourselves. In this way, we serve not only him, but the salvation of the whole world, of all history”. Today Teresa takes on this yoke of freedom. “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1).

Teresa’s yes of today will be lived out her whole life long as she prays to God unremittingly, continuing the prayer we read about in today’s first reading. Her life of prayer here in Siena monastery will be a source of life and freedom for the whole Church. Just as the prayers offered for Peter in today’s reading set him free to preach the word of God so the prayers offered in this holy place is the real heart of the preaching of the Dominicans on these islands. From prayer, from contemplation comes the preaching of the Gospel as we pray in psalm 67: The Lord gives the word to the bearers of good tidings. The Lord is the source of all our preaching and the Nuns here in Siena not only remind of this truth but also are active in that public preaching by their prayers. Without the prayers offered unremittingly for Peter he would have stayed in prison and could not have continued his ministry of preaching so without the prayers offered in this monastery no Dominican could preach a homily, no teacher could give class, no confessor would hear confessions, no writer would write books. The life lived here silently in Siena is no quaint curiosity adjacent to the story or the work of the Order of Preachers it is a vital component of the holy preaching.

Today Teresa, daughter of Brian and Nuala, you are a happy woman, blessed are you Teresa, for it was not flesh and blood which revealed the beauty of this life to you, but it is your calling from God, to a life of intimacy and love. A life lived in freedom for the good of the Holy Church and the preaching of the Good News.

My final words to you come not from me, words that were given to me many years ago by Fr, William Barden (a great friend of this community and all that it stands for) words from the other great Teresa, Teresa of Avila:

“Let nothing disturb thee; Let nothing dismay thee; All thing pass; God never changes. Patience attains all that it strives for. The one who has God finds she lacks nothing: God alone suffices.”

14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

2011-07-04T09:37:00.001+01:00

In today’s Gospel, we hear those gracious words of Jesus: ‘Learn from me to be gentle and humble in heart’. The ‘heart’ that is the secret Jesus is revealing to us in these encouraging words – if our heart is not at rights with God, then our thoughts and words and actions cannot be rightly motivated. These words of Jesus recorded in today’s Gospel seem to be the only ones recorded in which Jesus says specifically – ‘Learn from me…’.

Rather surprisingly, he doesn’t say; ‘Learn from me how to pray or how to spread the Good News’, BUT ‘Learn from me to be gentle and humble in heart’.

True gentleness and humility are qualities so precious and so beautiful, so awe inspiring as to defy adequate definition in any dictionary. They are not sentimental watery qualities, on the contrary, the truly gentle and humble, possess great strength of character and are very genuine and wholesome people.

There are so many instances in the Gospels of the gentleness of Jesus in the way we normally conceive of this virtue – but when we reflect on Jesus calling Herod a fox, or addressing Peter as Satan, and the Pharisees as hypocrites, we wonder what kind of gentleness is this? This is where we see the ‘balance’ of the genuinely gentle and humble person coming into play – Jesus says ‘learn from me. Learning requires a strong application of our mind and will but especially it needs a good teacher – and as Cardinal Hume once said: ‘example is the best of teachers. Meditating on the life of Jesus and that of so many of his faithful followers in all walks of life through the centuries, is a great encouragement to us. In our own lives too, many of us have been touched by the true gentleness of others - this fills us with deep gratitude to God and inspires in us the courage we need to respond to Jesus’ invitation in today’s Gospel.

Each day, let us dedicate ourselves anew to walk hand in hand with Jesus, so that listening with our heart to his words, we may learn to know his immense love which calls us to live his gentleness and humility in joy as well as in pain. Thus we carry within us the whole world which has so much pain in it. As has been wisely said, it is the heart not the head that is the home of the Gospel.
What truly blessed words of Jesus, what an immense plea from his own most Sacred Heart - ‘Learn from me…’. and you will find rest for your souls.

Solemn Profession of Sr Mary Teresa

2011-06-26T12:02:00.005+01:00

We invite all our readers to join us in spirit on Wednesday the 29th June as Sr Mary Teresa makes her solemn profession as a Dominican nun. In the above photo the Master of the Dominican Order, Bro Bruno Cadoré OP, extends his best wishes to Sr Mary Teresa on his recent visit to our monastery.

Those of you who live close by are welcome to join us in the chapel. Mass begins at 12.30 p.m.

We hope to share with you later in the week the highlights of this special day.

Feast of Corpus Christi

2011-06-26T11:42:00.004+01:00

Reflecting on the Gospel of John (6:51-58) for this Corpus Christi Sunday, what struck me forcibly was the word ‘life’ and ‘living’. In the Gospel this word appears 11 times. The opening line contains it:

I am the living bread which has come down from Heaven.

And the last line contains it:
anyone who eats this bread will live forever

In his encyclical letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Bl Pope John Paul II takes up this theme of life:
The Church draws her life from the Eucharist

and again:
Proclaiming the death of the Lord ‘until he comes’ entails that all who take part in the Eucharist be committed to changing their lives and making them in a certain way completely ‘ Eucharistic’
.

Each day and every day we are privileged to receive this ‘living bread’. I ask myself am I truly and consciously aware of the ‘life’ that should be growing in me, that should be changing me?

If I am receiving this ‘life’ what growth is taking place in me? These questions have challenged me over the last couple weeks.

Jesus himself encourages us to draw life from Him in this Gospel:

As I, who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father,so whoever eats me will draw life from me

And to quote Bl Pope John Paul II again:

From this living bread the Church draws her nourishment (7)

When referring to ‘life’ I have to keep reminding myself that it is supernatural life we are speaking of - the life of grace and not natural physical life.

St. Thomas distinguishes and compares these two types of ‘life’ – the life of the body and the life of the spirit in his treatise on the effects of the Eucharist when he says:

Our spiritual life is sustained, built up, restored and contented by the Eucharist in the same way that the physical body is nourished by food.

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.

People have different views about what ‘life’ and really ‘living’ mean. In the secular world it might include having a good time, having plenty of money, taking regular holidays abroad, having a great variety of entertainment. If only people would give as much attention to their spiritual needs as they do to all their other needs I’m sure they would be happier. Today there is this great lack, imbalance and disorder in people’s lives. We need to reclaim the great truth of the Eucharist as Bl Pope John Paul II expressed so well:

The Eucharist, as Christ’s saving presence in the community of the faithful and its spiritual food, is the most precious possession which the Church can have in her journey through history.(9)

and :

The Eucharist is the gift par excellence, for it is the gift of Himself, of His Person in his sacred humanity, as well as the gift of his saving work.(11)

and:
Truly, in the Eucharist, Jesus shows us a love which goes “to the end” - a Love which knows no measure.(11)

Realizing all this and living out of it and from it is true life. Again St. Thomas reminds us:

How precious and wonderful is this banquet, which brings us salvation and is full of all delight!

No sacrament contributes more to our salvation than this; for it purges away our sins, increases our virtues, and nourishes our minds with an abundance of all the spiritual gifts. (Pg. 31, V.III)

There exists a union between God and people which is thoroughly real and continuous, a union in which Christians share in the life of God, who is the Father’s giving of himself.

We are offered so much of this true life in the Eucharist for Jesus Himself has said elsewhere:
I am the Way the Truth and the Life.

The only way I can gauge that this life is growing in me is if the fruits of the spirit are evident in my life – I ask myself am I growing in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control? (Gal 5:22) Receiving the Eucharist daily I have really no excuse not to.

And so we pray in the second opening prayer of the Mass for this feast of Corpus Christi:

Lord Jesus Christ,
we worship you living among us
in the sacrament of your body and blood.

May we offer to our Father in heaven
a solemn pledge of undivided love.
May we offer to our brothers and sisters
a life poured out in loving service of that Kingdom
where you live with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever. Amen.

Visit of the Master of the Order

2011-06-23T11:21:00.019+01:00

On Thursday 16th June we had the joy of welcoming to our monastery, the Master of the Dominican Order, Frere Bruno Cadoré OP, who was on a short visit to the Irish Province of Dominican friars. He was accompanied by the provincial Pat Lucey, OP, Larry Collins OP, the vicar of the Master for our Monastery and Gregory Carroll OP the prior of St Saviour's Dublin. Our brothers from the local priory, Dermot Brennan OP, Joseph Heffernan OP and Christopher O'Brien OP joined us for the occasion. After a short meeting in the parlour we celebrated Vespers at which Frere Bruno preached - some of the local Lay Dominicans were present in our chapel for this. Afterwards we had a meal in the community room. we are happy to share some photos of the occasion with readers of this blog.

Trinity Sunday

2011-06-19T16:18:00.005+01:00

Recently I awakened around 4 a.m. to a howling south west wind knocking furiously against the window, the large drops of rain are running 'pit pat' and I marvel at its power and playfulness. Then through all this – guess? - the single voice of a lone bird penetrates clearly this cascade of sound. I listen hardly daring to breathe when suddenly within moments the great dawn chorus breaks out, filling the air with beauty and joy, and harmony. The words of the Psalm we would sing later come to mind: 'The Lord fills the earth with His love'

I too marvel at the majesty of our God and remember the time that Moses asked Yahweh: 'Show me your glory’ and Yahweh replied ‘I will let my splendour pass in front of you ------ here in a place beside me, you must stand on the rock. And when my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and shield you as I pass by. (Exodus 33)

And here I am being made aware of the 'glory' of my God at play outside my window-pane.!

We could say much more and still fall short: to put it concisely 'He is all'
Many mysteries remain even greater than these,
for we have seen only a few of his works,
the Lord himself having made all things.
(Eccles 43)

Today on Trinity Sunday our first Reading at Mass presents us with another scene from the Book of Exodus where God reveals himself to Moses as “a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness”.
This is the same God who revealed himself in human form in the Person of Jesus Christ. St John’s Gospel which we read this morning tells us:

God loved the world so much
that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost
but may have eternal life.
For God sent his Son into the world
not to condemn the world,
but so that through him the world might be saved.

(Jn 3:16 – 18)

St Paul in the second Reading reminds us that the God of love and peace will be with us if try to be helpful to each other and live in peace and harmony with each other.

We remember Blessed Pope John Paul II's exhortation Novo Millennio Ineunte at the beginning of this century:

To make the Church the home and the school of communion: that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God's plan and respond to the world's deepest yearnings.

But what does this mean in practice? Here too, our thoughts could run immediately to the action to be undertaken, but that would not be the right impulse to follow. Before making practical plans, we need to promote a spirituality of communion, making it the guiding principle of education wherever individuals and Christians are formed, wherever ministers of the altar, consecrated persons, and pastoral workers are trained, wherever families and communities are being built up.

A spirituality of communion indicates above all the heart's contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity dwelling in us, and whose light we must also be able to see shining on the face of the brothers and sisters around us.

A spirituality of communion also means an ability to think of our brothers and sisters in faith within the profound unity of the Mystical Body, and therefore as "those who are a part of me". This makes us able to share their joys and sufferings, to sense their desires and attend to their needs, to offer them deep and genuine friendship.

A spirituality of communion implies also the ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God: not only as a gift for the brother or sister who has received it directly, but also as a "gift for me".

A spirituality of communion means, finally, to know how to "make room" for our brothers and sisters, bearing "each other's burdens" (Gal 6:2) and resisting the selfish temptations which constantly beset us and provoke competition, careerism, distrust and jealousy. Let us have no illusions: unless we follow this spiritual path, external structures of communion will serve very little purpose. They would become mechanisms without a soul, "masks" of communion rather than its means of expression and growth.

Video of the Eucharistic Congress Bell

2011-06-16T10:25:00.004+01:00

Below is a fifteen minute video clip of what happened with the Bell throughout the Armagh Archdiocese - it includes footage of the Bell's visit to our Monastary (at 8.16min) and to our Dominican brethren in Drogheda (at 5.30 min)

You might also be interested in the reflection given by one of our nuns on the occasion of the visit - click here

5th Sunday of Easter

2011-05-23T14:01:00.006+01:00

Gospel: Jn.14:1-12

Jesus said to his disciples:
Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God and trust in me.
There are many rooms in my Father's house;
if there were not I should have told you.
I am going now to prepare a place for you
and after I have gone and prepared a place,
I shall return to take you with me;
so that where I am you may be too.

In the above few sentences from today's Gospel according to St. John, we are being prepared for the forthcoming celebration of our Lord's Ascension in two weeks time. Jesus is telling us that he is going to prepare a place for us, yes, for each of us individually.

This is truly an amazing statement from Jesus when we really think it through.
We know so well those beautiful and encouraging words of holy Scripture - 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered the human heart what things God has prepared for those who love him' - but in today's Gospel passage we receive a new emphasis on that text - Jesus makes it so personal when he tells us 'I am going now to prepare a place for you' - yes, for each one of us individually.
He goes on to add 'in my Father's house, there are many mansions'
Isn't that a very precious and wonderful thought to meditate on? Jesus continues - 'after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too'.

This is Jesus telling us as clearly as the stars shining in the mid-night sky, how deep and personal his love is for each and every one of us, no matter what we have or have not done to hurt him during our lifetime. It is all too easy when we read this passage of Scripture to overlook the deep longing Jesus has for us, for you, for me, for every one, no exceptions. Let us ponder and treasure in our hearts these consoling words of our loving Lord and Master.

When someone dear to us has been away for a long time, we go out of our way to prepare for their home-coming in every conceivable way - nothing is too much trouble. Finally comes the moment of the arrival of our loved one - who of us can express in words the joy of such a re-union? One of the psalms expresses such an emotion so well 'Cry out with joy to the Lord'.

This is how it is with Jesus, he longs so ardently for us to be with him for ever in a blessed eternity - but we do not have to wait until the next life to enjoy this union - he is with us now in this life, every step of the way, every day, every minute.

Further on in our Gospel passage, Jesus says to Thomas 'you know where I am going and you know the way' ... poor Thomas in his exasperation says: 'Lord, we do not know where you are going so how can we know the way'?

No doubt each one of us feels the frustration of Thomas many times in our lives - as Christians, we set out to follow Jesus in whatever calling he has given us in life, yet the way is seldom clear in the tangle of life with all its ups and downs, joys, sorrows, heartaches,, misunderstandings, to name but a few. Pere Caussade S.J. has some encouraging words to help us when he says:
'God is always at work in our lives in and through other people, unpleasant, no less than pleasant - in and through circumstances distasteful as well as those to our taste. Indeed, God so often uses the most unlikely people and circumstances as a special channel of His Grace and Blessing.

Fr. Caussade goes on to say: If we only knew','the merit hidden in what each moment of the day brings, how much happier we should be. What consolation, what courage we can draw from the fact that in order to live in God's friendship and be welcomed to the home he has prepared for us in heaven, we need neither do nor suffer anything more that we are already doing or suffering'. At times this can be bordering on more than we can bear - it is not easy, Jesus never said it would be - but he is always with us, and how much we need him - he has told us 'I am with you always, yes, even unto the end of the world.

So let us live in the joy that God is with us, we need him not as an instrument but for our full life, for existence, for love. In order that we may meet him, we need to be very attentive, having open hearts rather than eyes. He travels incognito. Let us live constantly as a child before its father. 'Do not let your hearts be troubled' he pleads ' trust in God and trust in me'.

As we conclude this reflection perhaps we could do no better than pray the last verse of that beautiful hymn: Be thou my vision -
High King of Heaven, thou heaven's bright Sun,
Grant me its joys after victory is won,
Christ of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too.

Vocation's Sunday

2011-05-15T08:00:00.004+01:00

On this Vocations' Sunday we would like to share with our readers a talk on Vocation Discernment by Sr Mary Teresa - in particular her method of discerning her own vocation and what attracted her to our Order and Monastery - with images from our monastic life. Sr Mary Teresa is currently preparing to make her solemn profession on the 29th of June.

Mary Kept all these things in her heart

2011-05-10T12:17:00.005+01:00

Since Easter our readings at Mass have been recounting the different appearances of Jesus----That morning on the shore after returning from a nights fishing, the apostles found Him preparing breakfast for them, and heard him call: ' Friends come and have breakfast' (Jh.21). The time he came to the two Apostles on their journey to Emmaus and explained the scriptures to them. The beautiful meeting with Mary Magdelen in the garden in the hush of the silent morning dew when He spoke her name with such tenderness: Mary Why weepest thou? and her glad cry of recognition-----Rabboni ( Jh 20)

Many other appearances are also recorded for us. But what about His own dear Mother? She wasn't with the other women who come early that Easter morning to anoint the Body of Jesus in the tomb. Let us listen to the following extracts taken from A woman wrapped in silence by the poet John W. Lynch:

'------We do not discover she was there
we do not find
her name. She is not mentioned, she who stood
until the last pain passed from Him who had
not failed, nor flagged, nor even made delay
To any need in all His years, she was
not there, who gave him birth, who is his mother
was not there!'

Here in John's home she must wait for Him, as David wrote so long ago
'For God alone my soul in stillness waits' (Psalm 61)

'lonely in the silence and the trust
of silence in her heart that did not seek
or cry or search, but only waited him'

And can we doubt that this Son of so much love did not come to her in the first light of dawn

'when she first lifted
up her eyes, and quiet, unamazed,
saw him near, this is her own, this moment
when he came----will be her own---'

We do not know what words they exchanged or indeed if any words were needed-----'words so deep and intimate that go beyond all words'. Both knew what the other had suffered and their union as redeemer and co-redemptrix will be honoured forever. And now in John's home, Mary continued to keep all these things in her heart, Her soul in stillness, believed and prayed for the young Church entrusted to her maternal care.

What were the thoughts and sentiments of Peter and John and the other 'lads' during these early days and weeks as they looked at this quiet woman walking so bravely among them? They loved her, this dear lady who kept for them all that was precious to them. The memory of the Man who entrusted to them - poor fishermen--- the mission of bringing His good news to the world, "Go out to the whole world proclaiming the good news { Mk. 16}

The memory of the Man who came through closed doors and breathed on them saying: "receive the Holy Spirit {Jh.20} Would they recognise the part Mary played in those days in the words of the poet Gerald M Hopkins The blessed Virgin compared to the air we breathe - perhaps making their sentiments his?

World air, world mothering air
nestling me everywhere-------
she now had this one work to do,
let all Gods glory through.
Gods glory which would go
through her and from her flow off-----
If I have understood
she holds high motherhood
towards all our ghostly good’

And we what are our sentiments? Can we too tune in to these lines and maybe we also wherever we may be
have this one work to do: ‘let all Gods glory through’.

3rd Sunday of Easter - Jesus meets the disciples on the Road to Emmaus

2011-05-09T16:16:00.003+01:00

In the story of the journey to Emmaus we encounter two despondent disciples, all hope gone, aimlessly wandering the road, moving as far from the source of their pain as their weary legs would carry them. We encounter too the one who walks with them, gently present to their pain, the one who having met them where they were at, brings the Word of God to bear on their situation, leading them gradually to FAITH which makes it possible for them to recognise Him in the Breaking of Bread.

What this Gospel passage does is to take us on a journey from the darkness of unbelief and incomprehension of God’s ways to the light of faith and to joy in the Risen Lord, a joy to be shared with all the people.

The story of Emmaus shows the disciples profoundly disheartened by the events of the Passion and abandoning Jerusalem the place of their dead dreams. There was in fact no reason for their discouragement. JESUS WAS WITH THEM. But they were unable to recognise him. These two disciples had their minds still fixed on “Jesus the Nazarene, the one who would save them from their Roman occupiers. Jesus had in fact prophesised his resurrection and it had been foretold in Scripture that the Christ should suffer to redeem his people but focused only on their own vision of an earthly liberator they couldn’t go beyond their limited perspective. Jesus wasn’t who he claimed to be because he didn’t meet their immediate needs and expectations they had of Him. They lost all hope because they had no faith. They didn’t believe that Jesus had risen and without faith in the resurrection every thing is meaningless.

Does not this happen to us too? Are there not times when we too become so engrossed in our daily problems that we cannot see a bigger picture or a different solution to the one we envisage? We too can lose faith. We too can fail to see that there is no need for discouragement. Jesus is risen. He is with us.
But thank God the story does not end there. The Risen Jesus is willing to seek out the lost. He joins them and us on the road. He is walking with them but because they don’t believe he is Risen, there is no possibility of their recognising Him. The Risen Jesus can only be encountered through faith. His physical presence is not enough. He cannot be recognised with our physical senses.

He walks with them and joins in their conversation. Is it here that the first movement of grace begins? in an openness to an outsider, a third party, a different viewpoint to our own ?
Jesus joins the disciples and us not because we are good or faithful. The disciples had neither trusted him nor stood by him. He joins them precisely because they are weak and confused, afraid and angry, despondent, rudderless.
Jesus joins his disciples and walks with them at their pace and in their direction. They are heading away from Jerusalem going towards Emmaus. Now Jesus actually wants them in Jerusalem with the others, ready for the mission he is going to entrust to them but he does not stop them or try to turn them round. They are not yet ready to go back. When they are ready they will go back freely and joyfully. And they will only be ready when having exposed the full depth and extent of their betrayal they raise their eyes and encountering that look of infinite tenderness and compassion they recognise Him and know Him to be truly risen.
That encounter only happened because Jesus brought their story and His story together. Jesus takes up their story, changing nothing in it, but gently leads them through the events of Scripture into a new understanding of these same events. In that light the place of Crucifixion becomes the place of Resurrection; the place of death becomes an opening to new life. This is the gift of Faith. In their eyes Jesus Passion and death was a disaster caused by evil people. Now Jesus uncovers for them a deeper reality hiding under these same events. Jesus victory over death is the real liberation. It frees us not only from earthly despots but it sets us free from the tyranny of sin and death. Now as they see this hidden reality with God’s eyes, their hearts begin to burn within them. As Jesus opened the Scripture to them revealing every thing concerning himself, their eyes are opened, and their faith restored they are able to recognise Him in the breaking of bread.
Then he vanished from their sight. He is gone again. Just as when the women went to the tomb and found it empty but of him there was no sign. But what a change. They had left Jerusalem in despair all hope gone. Now they return full of joy. They have experienced the Risen Lord, an experience of the heart, an experience of love, of presence. They no longer need any tangible visible presence of Jesus. They know with the eyes of faith that he is with them. They are indeed a new creation in Christ. They are ready to return to Jerusalem. They have a new inner life and just can’t wait to share their faith .They set out immediately, their hearts burning within them. They do not leave Jesus in Emmaus. They do not leave him anywhere. He is with them, He is in them.

Mercy Sunday

2011-05-01T20:03:00.014+01:00

We apologise to our readers for our silence during the past few weeks and belatedly we wish you a blessed Eastertide.

During the last weeks of Lent we spend a lot of time preparing our liturgy. We were very happy to have Fr Gerard Dunne OP, to preside at our celebrations on Palm Sunday, Holy Week ceremonies and Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday morning Eucharist - all of which were very prayerful and inspiring - thanks to the hard work of preparation.

We were not able to celebrate our patronal feast of St Catherine of Siena on the 29th of April as it fell during the Easter Octave - so we celebrate it tomorrow the 2nd of May.

We offer the following reflection which one of our sisters shared at Vespers this evening:

“In the evening of that same day, the doors were closed …Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them ‘Peace be with you’” (Jn 20:19)

Whenever I read this account of the Resurrection, to which we listened at this morning’s Mass, what catches my attention is the fact that Jesus comes to his disciples who are behind locked doors – they are frightened and full of fear – perhaps feeling hurt, let down and isolated – too afraid to reach out to anyone or to let anyone reach them. But into their pain, without any invitation, Jesus appears, shows Himself, reveals Himself, bestows His peace, breathes on them His Spirit and gives them a mission.

In all the Resurrection stories one perceives that Jesus is present to His disciples – though He remains unrecognised until He chooses the moment to reveal Himself and then He vanishes again! – we think of Mary Magdalen, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus; the group on the shore of Tiberius. So too in our own lives – our faith assures us that the Risen Jesus is with His Church and with each of us individually and collectively but we only get glimpses of His Presence – and often we are called to walk in darkness. Often too we are too frightened to invite Him in – just in case He might upset our plans! Or ask too much of us!

In his homily at the beatification this morning Pope Benedict reminded us of Blessed Pope John Paul II’s invitation at his inaugural homily in 1978 when he said:
“Do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power. Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, cultures and civilisations.”

At the same inaugural homily he prayed the following “humble and trusting” prayer for himself:
“Christ make me become and remain the servant of your unique power, the servant of your sweet power, the servant of your power that knows no eventide.”

No doubt the sweet and gentle power of Christ is His merciful love which is offered to each of us without reserve but He waits for our acceptance.

During the past two weeks since Palm Sunday we have been celebrating and reflecting on this great love and mercy. It is fitting that today Mercy Sunday should fall this year on the eve of our celebration of the feast of St Catherine (which had to be postponed until after the Easter Octave) who had such faith and trust in God’s mercy and who offered her life for the renewal of the Church. No doubt she is rejoicing in heaven at the beatification of Pope John Paul II – the second pope, in recent history, whose sanctity has been recognised.

Through the intercession of St Catherine and Blessed Pope John Paul II may the Lord be pleased to shower His mercy on our Church and our world and renew in each of us the grace of our Baptism that we may open the doors of our hearts and lives, without reserve, to Jesus who has loved us so much that He died for us and is now risen and walks with us and who lives and loves in and through us!

Eucharistic Congress Bell

2011-04-12T10:16:00.005+01:00

On Tuesday the 29th of March we had the privilege of welcoming the Eucharistic Congress Bell during its tour of Armagh Diocese in preparation for the International Eucharistic Congress 2012. Below are the texts of two reflections given by our Sisters during the welcoming ceremony. The first is an short Introduction and the second is based on the icon of Our Lady of Refuge, which accompanies the Bell (see photo).

Introduction
For Christians the bell has long been associated with the invitation to gather, the sound being perceived as God’s voice, God’s call which draws people to assemble.

Our day here in this monastery is punctuated by the sound of the bell calling us to leave our work and assemble in God’s presence to sing His praises and intercede for our Church and our world – begging for His mercy on ourselves and on people everywhere.

A bell is a symbol both visible and audible. As we hear this bell being rung tonight may we respond wholeheartedly to the invitation to begin our pilgrim journey of preparation for the forthcoming Eucharistic congress. We pray that it will be a time of grace – a time of healing and renewal for all of us and for the whole Irish Church – a time when we grow in awareness of the abiding Presence of our Risen Saviour.

Speak Lord, you have the message of Eternal life and may we hear and respond following the example of Mary, your mother and ours.

Our Lady of Refuge (Reflection)
Near the Cross of Jesus stood His mother

At the cross her station keeping
stood the mournful mother weeping
close to Jesus to the end.

Christ above in torment hangs
she beneath beholds the pangs
of her dying glorious Son.

Make me feel as thou hast felt
make my soul to grow and melt
with the love of Christ my Lord.

To be with you Mary in this place where you are at the feet of your dying Son – to say nothing - to gaze at your face, - to say nothing, but only to sing because my heart is too full, because you are beautiful Mary even in your grief, because you are a women of courage and fortitude, a woman of such faith that did not waver in the darkness.

Dear Holy Spirit who once overshadowed Mary we ask you during this year of preparation for our Eucharistic Congress to come and brood over us and let your power overshadow once again our Irish people. Come into our hearts with fire and love and make them one with Mary's love and Mary's will to save the world so that we with her, His Mother, may bring Jesus to the world and to the souls who hunger for Him, so that they and we, renewed through the power of his Sacred Passion, may once again become a missionary nation. And then when the battle is won may we reign with her forever in the Glory of the Trinity.
Our Lady of Refuge we thank you.

Fourth Sunday of Lent

2011-04-03T20:14:00.003+01:00

The Spirit if the Lord seized on David, and stayed with him. (first reading at Mass)

“The Spirit of the Lord seized on David.” This is the strength that is given to great hearts, this is the light of brave and faithful souls, that unhesitatingly can believe what they cannot see with the eyes of the body and direct their longings beyond the range of human sight.

In 1 John 4.16 we read: "We have known and believed the love that God has for us.”
If we believe and know that the Spirit is love, then we have a means to return love with love.

If we know and believe in our heart that we too have been seized by this same Spirit at Baptism and Confirmation then we will know that this great love is above us, and around us and in us. It will make no difference whether we sense God’s Presence or not, it should make no difference whether He sends us joy or pain, because we believe in His personal love for each one. Indeed the more we are tested the more our faith grows, because faith in this Spirit Who has seized us pushes through all obstacles, until we are completely captivated by Him and unable to break out of the circle of His radiance.

It is true that David broke away from the Spirit's grasp from time to time, but in experiencing his own weakness he gave us, who are weak and sinful, that deeply repentant Psalm 50:

Have mercy on me God in your kindness
in your compassion blot out my offence,
O wash me more and more from my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.

It is so true, the Spirit of the Lord seizes us and helps us somehow in our very blindness to keep our gaze fixed on Jesus. With the man in to-day’s Gospel we beg the Spirit that we may see. He can change our cowardice through His gift of fortitude - we can see how the disciples experienced this. The Spirit became their armour so that they did not yield to the attacks of their persecutors, but held fast to the love of their Master and Teacher.

As our thoughts are with David we must not forget another heart which was also seized by the Spirit - Mary
"The Holy Spirit will came upon you Mary and the power of the most high will overshadow you"

Just as David left us his wonderful psalms, Mary gave us with THE WORD MADE FLESH through of the power of the Holy Spirit who seized her and stayed with her throughout her life.

Mary pray that we too may be seized more and more by this same Spirit.

“O consuming Fire, Spirit of love descend within me and reproduce in me as it were an incarnation of the Word that I may be to Him another humanity wherein he renews all His Mysteries.” (cf Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity).

Sr Mary Teresa accepted for Solemn Profession – 24th March 2011.

2011-03-30T10:40:00.004+01:00

It is our custom the all the memebers of our community vote on accepting each sister for postulancy, novitiate and for profession. The following is a homily given by the prioress on the 24th March when the community accepted Sr Mary Teresa for solemn profession. Sr Mary Teresa will make her solemn profession on the 29th June

Sr Mary Teresa, it is significant and providential that the community accepts you for Solemn Profession on the eve of this great feast of the Annunciation of the Lord when we commemorate the moment when the Eternal Word took flesh in Mary’s womb - when Mary responded with her ‘yes’ to God the Father’s invitation.

At that moment the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary. While Mary’s ‘yes’ is important she is pure capacity for the working of the Holy Spirit in her – it is all His doing and Mary said: “Let it be done unto me”. Pope John Paul II in Vita Consecrata emphasises the role of the Holy Spirit in the vocation to consecrated life. The following is adapted from Nos 19 and 39 of that document.

It is the Spirit who enables us to recognise the appeal of such a demanding choice. Through His power, we relive, in a way, the experience of the Prophet Jeremiah: ‘You have seduced me, Lord and I have let myself be seduced.’ (Jer 20:7). It is the Spirit who awakens the desire to respond fully; it is He who guides the growth of this desire, helping it to mature into a positive response and sustaining it as it is faithfully translated into action; it is He who shapes and moulds our hearts, configuring us to Christ, the chaste, poor and obedient One, and prompting us to make his mission their own. By allowing ourselves to be guided by the Spirit on an endless journey of purification we become, day after day, conformed to Christ, the prolongation in history of a special presence of the Risen Lord.

With penetrating insight, the Fathers of the Church have called this spiritual path philokalia or love of the divine beauty, which is the reflection of the divine goodness. Those who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, are led progressively into full configuration to Christ reflect in themselves a ray of the unapproachable light. During their earthly pilgrimage, they press on towards the inexhaustible Source of light. The consecrated life thus becomes a particularly profound expression of the Church as the Bride who, prompted by the Spirit to imitate her Spouse, stands before Him in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Eph 5:27).

The same Spirit, far from removing us from the life of humanity, inserts us more deeply into the life of the Church – as Dominican nuns we are called to intercede unceasingly for the needs of the whole human family. At the deepest level of our being we are caught up in the dynamism of the Church’s life, which is thirsty for the divine Absolute and called to holiness – it is to this holiness that we are called to bear witness.

The vocation to the consecrated life is, despite its renunciations and trials, and indeed because of them, a path of light over which the Redeemer keeps constant watch: ‘Rise and have no fear’. Sr Mary Teresa, as you begin your preparation for making this total gift of yourself to the Lord in Solemn Profession, you can count on the support of our prayer during the coming weeks. A solemn profession is a time for renewal for all of us when we fan into flame the gift of vocation which God has given us.

Third Sunday of Lent – Year A

2011-03-28T21:32:00.005+01:00

All three readings today have rich baptismal overtones. From earliest times they have been used, especially the Gospel of the Samaritan woman, in the catechesis during Lent of adult candidates for Baptism, which took place during the Easter Vigil. So now the Church prays and exhorts us through the Word of God to be renewed in spirit so that we can renew our Baptismal promises with renewed dedication during the Easter Vigil.

In today’s first reading, the Israelites ‘tormented by thirst’ in the wilderness were crying out for water. God told Moses to strike the rock at Horeb and water gushed forth. In the second reading St Paul reminds us that ‘it is by faith and through Jesus that we have entered this state of grace in which we can boast about looking forward to God’s glory. This hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.’ We receive this surpassing grace at our Baptism.

In the Gospel we have the marvellous account of Jesus, the Word made flesh, with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Jesus was tired and thirsty from His journey and asked her for a drink. But as St Augustine says His real thirst was for this woman’s faith and salvation. We are all present in this woman - enslaved by her natural desires or perhaps somebody else’s; estranged from God, ourselves and others because of the sin of our first parents. To quote St Paul again ‘we were still helpless when at the appointed moment Christ died for sinful humankind'. (cf Rom 5:6). Jesus revealed to this woman His intimate knowledge of her. By doing so in such a non-judgmental and accepting way He liberated her from her past. He aroused her thirst for the living waters of the Spirit which He was offering her. He revealed to her in the most personal and moving way that He was the Christ. He used the words ‘I am He’ which recall God’s Name to Moses ‘I am who I am’ and thus that He is God.

The Good Shepherd has found His lost sheep and carries it home rejoicing. The immediate response of the Samaritan woman was to hurry back to the town and she could say ‘rejoice with me I am found! Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did. I wonder is he the Christ?’ Like St Mary Magdalene who after the Lord’s Resurrection became ‘the apostle to the apostles’ this woman became an apostle to her own townspeople and was the means of bringing many of them to believe in Jesus. Unlike some of the towns in Galilee Jesus could not resist their desire for Him, the openness and faith of these Samaritans and stayed for two days preaching the word to them. Many more came to believe and hailed Jesus not only as the Messiah but as the Saviour of the world. Do we hear Jesus say “go and do likewise”?

Second Sunday of Lent – Year A

2011-03-20T21:15:00.000Z

Today’s Gospel reading at Mass gave us a lovely account of the transfiguration of the Lord according to Matthew - an event in the Lord’s life of light, life, radiance, beauty, majesty, silence and awe as the writer Michael Hewlett put it:
“Once on a mountain top there stood three startled men and watched the wheels of nature stop and heaven break in.”

Just before the account of the Transfiguration which we read to-day from chapter 17 we find the first prophecy of the Passion at the end of chapter 16:
“From that time on Jesus began to make it clear to the disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be put to death and to be raised up on the third day.”
Immediately after that – the condition of our following Christ is given: “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine”, Jesus says “he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”

It seems quite obvious why Jesus leads Peter, James and John – the three chosen witnesses who accompanied Him to Gethsemanie and on other special occasions, up the mountain to experience this extraordinary event in His life, was to help them accept the revelation He had just made regarding His forthcoming Passion and death or to avoid them being scandalised in their hearts by the Cross. We know that Peter in no uncertain terms, up to now refused to accept that fact “Heaven preserve you Lord, this must not happen to you.” But Jesus replies: “get behind me Satan”.

Here on the mountain we are very familiar with the account of the Transfiguration
Jesus is transfigured
His face shines like the sun
His garments become white as light
Then they see Moses and Elijah who represent the Law and the Prophets. St john Chrysostom explains why it is these two men who appeared – Jesus was always being accused of breaking the Law and blaspheming so it is important by Moses’ presence here that Jesus prove himself guiltless and then Elijah because the multitudes thought Jesus was Elijah or one of the prophets. He brings with Him the chief of the Prophets that hence at least may be seen the difference between the servants and their Lord.

It is in Luke’s account that the answer to our curious minds’ question is answered. What were Moses, Elijah and Jesus talking about? Luke says: “They spoke of His departure/ His Passing – in other words His death which He was to accomplish in Jerusalem (Lk 9:30). Passover through Death to Life.

Then Peter says: “Lord it is wonderful for us to be here – if you wish I will make three tabernacles – one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. St John Chrysostom says: “Peter yet fears for Christ going up to Jerusalem and thought this place of quietude and solitude would be a fit place to take up their abode and concluded that if Jesus did this He would not go up to Jerusalem and therefore He would not die”. But St Jerome says: “Thou art wrong Peter – think not of three tabernacles when there is but one tabernacle of the Gospel in which both Law and Prophets are to be repeated – just make one tabernacle in thy bosom for Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

Then the bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased – listen to Him.” The Father makes it quite clear to the apostles that Jesus is the One to whom they must listen – to obey and follow.

The three Apostles are filled with fear but Jesus gently touches them and speaks words of comfort: “Stand up and do not be afraid” - they raised their eyes and saw no one only Jesus – the Law and prophets are now found in the Gospel.

We all have our Mount Tabor experiences and we too have to stand and descend the mountain with Jesus to the plain – holding His hand at all times knowing that in the words of the hymn: “Christ leads me through no darker rooms than He went through before.” I cannot forget, as Peter was tempted, that I am mortal and cannot come to eternal happiness without the taste of death and only then reach eternal life.
Today’s Prayer sums up the mystery very well:
God our Father,
You bid us listen to your Son, the well-beloved.
Nourish our hearts on your work,
Purify the eyes of our mind
And fill us with joy at the vision of your glory.

First Sunday of Lent - Year A

2011-03-13T17:39:00.001Z

“Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil”

The Church in her liturgy presents Lent as a time of ‘grace’; a ‘springtime’ – a time of conversion when we open our eyes or rather let our eyes be opened to all the Lord wants to give us instead of being content to live an impoverished life with eyes half closed.

At every stage of our lives we are always in need of radical conversion, of a change of heart, whereby we turn away from all that alienates us from God - from all that blinds us to His Presence – and open ourselves to receive the Holy Spirit and all His gifts of love, peace and joy so that we become more truly the people He created us to be, always doing the will of our Father. This ‘doing’ of the Father’s will is not so much about our great effort at our doing and achieving – it is rather a ‘let it be done unto me’.

When we look at the example of Jesus and Mary in the Gospel their doing of the Father’s will was more a surrender than the taking of any initiative on their part. Mary’s response to the Angel was ‘be it done unto me according to thy word’. Jesus’ prayer in the garden was ‘Father not my will but Thine be done’. They simply surrendered to what the present moment presented, believing that they were in Someone’s grip. This Someone had a plan which would be revealed moment by moment and they were being invited to surrender, to let go of their own cherished plans.

In today’s Gospel we see Jesus being led by the Spirit into the desert. This abandonment to the Father does not guarantee a life free from suffering (as we see in the lives of Jesus and Mary); neither does it mean that we will necessarily suffer more but when we embrace each moment, with whatever suffering or difficulty it brings, as coming from the hand of One who loves us, then we are held in the embrace of the One who alone can fill us deep peace and joy even in the midst of suffering and hardship.

At times this abandonment may appear like falling off a cliff and into an abyss and yet when we have the courage to let go we can discover that we are standing on a foundation of solid rock – held in the arms of a loving Father.

Because Jesus lived continually in the Presence of His Father, content with whatever each moment brought, He was able to overcome all the temptations of the devil. May He teach us this Lent to live in the present – without regrets about the past or worry for the future. May He grant us the grace to joyfully accept what each moment may bring and so to live in the Presence of Him who loves us so much that He died to restore us to His friendship.

Dominican Family Vocations Day - March 26th, 2011

2011-03-01T11:38:00.003Z

Young women interested in attending this informative event are very welcome to contact me at siena3@eircom.net as soon as possible.Participants will have an opportunity to hear vocation stories from a member of each of the four branches - a friar, lay Dominican, apostolic sister and contemplative nun.As prayer is central to this day, we will pray Lauds/Morning Prayer together shortly after arriving and we will have the celebration of the Eucharist before we leave.

More information about this day is available from the Friars Vocations Blog here

To view/download poster click here.

A great Challenge; A great Consolation - 6th Sunday Year A

2011-02-14T20:11:00.007Z

Sunday's gospel contained a great challenge and a great consolation. To look at the challenge first - "For I tell you, if your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven". We might be inclined to pass over that quickly 'they were just hypocrites', but if we look at how they lived (according to the bible) how many of us are even half as concerned with what is due to God and our neighbour? Prayer, fasting, almsgiving, moral conduct - and look at St Paul the "Pharisee of Pharisees". Jesus doesn't say to stop doing any of this but to do MORE, to go DEEPER. I spent some time praying with this text: What is Jesus asking of us? How is Christian virtue different?

I think the central difference is Christ. In other words I need to see Christ/God in others, "whatever you did for the least of these who are mine you did for me". Christian charity must flow from this awareness of God's presence in the other person. This is what made Mother Teresa's charity so special. It might be worthwhile to ask ourselves now and then during the day, 'is this how I would react to Jesus?'.

Having looked at the great Challenge, let us turn to the great Consolation: "Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven". Notice those words, "the least in the kingdom of heaven". So the sinner, the one who breaks the commandments is the least in the kingdom of heaven, BUT is not kicked out of the Kingdom. This is a very hopeful text, I may be the least but I am still a child of the Kingdom, and this sheds some light on why the Church is so slow to expel members.

Dominican Social Life

2011-02-12T11:34:00.002Z

On Thursday the 3rd of February 2011 we had the great pleasure of entertaining our Dominican brothers for the afternoon, or rather I should say we had the pleasure of being entertained by them. Nine of the student brothers from St Saviours, Dublin, came to visit, together with their Student Master Fr Dineen, and provided us with an afternoon of music, drama and song. A highlight of the afternoon was their singing “Consider yourself one of the family” (from the musical ‘Oliver’) to welcome/congratulate Sr Mary Cathy who had received the habit the previous day. (We suspect they deferred their customary Christmas visit until the 3rd so as to be able to congratulate Sr Mary Cathy). It was a wonderful afternoon and ended with their joining us for Vespers.
Some photos from the day:

Gospel Reflection: 5th Sunday of the Year

2011-02-07T20:16:00.000Z

In today's Gospel, Jesus makes two rather startling and thought provoking statements - the passage from St. Matthew's Gospel Chapter 5: vv 13-16 reads: 'Jesus said to his disciples - 'you are the salt of the earth - your are the light of the world'. How easy it can be for us to pass over that initial phrase- 'Jesus said to his disciples' without much notice - yet when we hear those words, and we hear them often in the Gospels, we must cock our ears and listen attentively with our hearts, for Jesus is addressing each of us who are his disciples, individually, this very day in this year of 2011.

Sometimes we hear it said of a person, he or she is truly the salt of the earth, volumes could be filled with the names of such people from the past and in the present, our holy father, Pope Benedict XVI, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta, Martin Luther King, to give just a few examples, but also people who have touched our own lives. It is a beautiful characteristic of a person and a wonderful compliment indicating that such a person has a great sensitivity, accomplishing kind and thoughtful deeds and acts of concern in a quiet, unobtrusive way, giving encouragement and affirmation in their own unique way, just as salt used in food disappears from sight as it brings out the goodness in that food. Salt is used in numerous processes in this day and age but in itself, always disappears in the process - for Jesus to speak of his disciples as 'salt of the earth' is astonishing and a magnificent sign of the trust he places in us to spread his message of love.

Jesus also says of himself in St. John's Gospel C8 v12 - 'I am the light of the world' and we believe that of course, with all our heart, but when we hear Jesus saying to those of us who are his disciples, 'you are the light of the world' most of us may wonder if we are hearing aright!
Again, we could write an endless list of such people, we do not usually go around thinking of ourselves individually as 'a light of the world'! Perhaps in being so affirming, Jesus is giving us a little prod, a renewed reminder, that he relies on us as we journey through life to be his light among those whom we meet on life's pathway. We, no less than the famous people, like our father, St. Dominic, who has inherited the very title of 'light of the Church' are called to be a light in the little bit of the world in which we have been placed, here in Drogheda or elsewhere, as the case may be. Most of us are not called to be a blinding light but a gentle soft light.

We will never know in this life the light others, even one other, may have received from us simply because we do our humble best to respond to God's call of love daily.
It may be a little act of kindness, a thoughtful word, a smile a gentle understanding hug and silent prayer when words would be of no avail.
And what is the purpose of all this? Jesus tells us in today's Gospel - '..so that our Father in heaven may be praised - that is the amazing and truly wonderful reality of it all.

Blessed John Henry Newman has captured this theme so well in his well known prayer- I quote just a few phrases: 'Beloved Jesus...penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may be only a radiance of yours...stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine...so to shine as to be a light for others...the light will be you shining on others through me...let me preach you by the evident fullness of the love my heart bears you - give light to the others as well as to me. Let me find you shining in them'.

So Jesus, in calling his disciples salt and light for the world, is surely pleading with us to lose ourselves in him so that he may be free to work through us the wonders of his love in the hearts of those whose lives we touch.

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord - World Day for Consecrated Life

2011-02-03T10:44:00.010Z

Today was a wonderful day of celebration for our community as Sr Mary Cathy became a novice and received the habit of a Domincan nun. During the next two years she will participate more fully in our community life as she discerns if the Lord is calling her to profession.

Prioress' homily at the ceremony of Reception of the habit of Sr Mary Cathy

Cathy, as you are clothed in the habit of the Order we welcome you into the great family of St Dominic.

Today’s feast is a very fitting occasion for this step on your journey in following the Lord's call. It is a great feast of light and fire – a feast of light and joy, bringing to a climax our celebration of the Incarnation of the Word of God – of His sharing in our flesh and blood. It is also a feast of fire for Simeon’s prophecy points to the Passion of which Jesus would later say: “I have come to cast fire on the earth and how I wish it were blazing already”.

Great joy and great pain can exist side by side for they are but two sides of the same coin – namely love. We see examples of this in the lives of Jesus and Mary, of Dominic and Catherine. The greater the love the deeper the joy but also the more one is called to let go of self, to sacrifice all for the sake of the Beloved. With Mary who comes to the Temple to offer herself with her baby Son to the Father you come to offer yourself today. We can trust the One into Whose Hands we entrust ourselves, with all that we are and have – He will not test us beyond our strength but will give us grace and strength in time of need – “because He has himself been through temptation he is able to help those who are tempted.” Like the refiner who sits and watches the precious metal, not allowing the temperature to get too hot or too cold, until he can see his very image in it – so too the Lord purifies us until we are transformed into His own image and likeness – we become another Himself, associated with him in His work of redemption. As we were reminded last week through our baptism and religious consecration Jesus associates us with His priestly work of intercession, interceding on behalf of the Church and the world.

In the Dialogue the heavenly Father says to Catherine “Dominic wanted his children to stand at the table of the Cross seeking only the glory and praise of God and the salvation of souls” (cf ch 158). Through her contemplation of the Cross of Jesus Catherine understood the immense love of God for the human family – she was bold in crying out for mercy: “O Eternal Father I know well that mercy is proper to you. Do not delay any longer in granting your mercy to the world. It is you who make them cry out”. Does this not echo Dominic’s own cry “O Lord what will become of sinners?” This is the cry which we as nuns of the Order of Preachers are asked to perpetuate as our constitutions expresses so well: “In the cloister the nuns devote themselves totally to God and perpetuate that singular gift which the blessed Father had to bearing sinners, the down-trodden and the afflicted in the inmost sanctuary of his compassion”. (LCM 35: I)

My prayer for you today, Cathy, and indeed for all of us is that we continue to say our ‘yes’ day by day, moment by moment, and allow ourselves to be transformed into His likeness for the greater glory of the Holy Trinity and the salvation of the our brothers and sisters.

Gospel Reflection: 3rd Sunday of the Year

2011-01-25T11:44:00.004Z

The Communion Antiphon for this 3rd Sunday of the year urges us to "Look up to the Lord with gladness and smile ...".

Julian of Norwich, in the 15th Century, also reminds us that it is "in this, Our Lord wills that we be occupied - having joy in him for he has joy in us".If joy, as has been said, "is gladness of heart in the presence of the Beloved" then "greatly ought we to rejoice that our soul dwells in him".
"For our courteous Lord wills that we be be as homely with him as heart can think or soul desire. But we must beware lest we take this homeliness so recklessly as to forsake courtesy.

And he wants to have us, who will be with him in heaven without end, like himself in all things.
If we do not know how we shall do all this, let us desire it from our Lord, and he will teach us, for that is his own delight and his glory."

We know that "he is the ground of all our life in love; he is our everlasting keeper and mightily defends us against our enemies. When we come to him in our weaknesses the says to each of us - 'my dear darling I am glad that you have come to me; in all thy woe I have been with you. And now you see me in my love and we are one in bliss."

Blessed Henry Suso expresses a similar thought,when he wrote, "Be glad dear daughter, because you have found God whom you sought so long and so earnestly. Turn to him with shining eyes, smiling face and happy heart. Embrace him with the outstretched arems of your soul."

cf. The Revelation of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich

"May this message in all its richness find a home in you" Col.3:16

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

2011-01-10T15:56:00.003Z

The following is a homily which fr Terence Crotty OP preached during the celebration of our Sunday Eucharist in our monastery chapel - 9th January, 2011.

We hear a lot about power in the Church nowadays. Laypeople say that priests have all the power in the Church while priests say the bishops have all the power and so some priests recently formed an association, the “Association of Catholic Priest,” so as to get their hands on a bit of it. So the bishops seem to have all the power but, you know, when you look at them they seem completely powerless. The long and the short of it is that we’d better warn the ESB to start rationing the national grid before it collapses under the strain of so many people looking for power.

The Bible too speaks of power: when Jesus is about to ascend into heaven he tells the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they are “clothed with power from on high” (Lk 24:49). What is the content of this power? Well, St. John tells us that “to all who did accept [Jesus], he gave power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12). This is the power a Christian looks for: not the power to dominate and rule, but the power to become children of God. For St. Luke, that promise of Jesus to clothe his disciples with power from on high is fulfilled in the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. For St. Paul, the primary effect of receiving the Holy Spirit is that we can call God Father (Rom 8:15, Gal 4:6), so that St. John, St. Luke and St. Paul are all in agreement that the Holy Spirit gives us power, and the primary effect of this power is the ability to call God Father, to be children of God.

After his resurrection from the dead, Jesus suddenly begins to call his disciples by a new name, and that is “brother” (cf. Mt 28:10). So, in Jn 15 he tells them that he no longer calls them servants but friends, but a few chapters later, after the resurrection, he says to St. Mary Magdalene, “Go to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (Jn 20:17). And just as he is about to die, he gives Our Blessed Lady to the Beloved Disciple as his mother (Jn 19:27). So we see that, whatever the mechanics, in his death and resurrection, Jesus forges a family out of his disciples, a family in which God himself is Father and Our Blessed Lady is Mother.

Today the Church speaks to us about the institution of the sacrament of baptism by Jesus in the Jordan. We are often told that baptism primarily has the effect of making us children of God. And so we see that baptism and the death of Christ are like a nut and bolt that fit together to create an effect, baptism from our side and the death of Christ from God’s side, to make us part of this family forged by Jesus in his death and resurrection. In the Mass too we see the same thing. First the body and blood of Jesus are made present in the consecration and then, in the prayer Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, Almighty Father, we offer Jesus to the Father, just like in his self-offering on the cross. And then immediately, what do we call God? “Our Father, who art in heaven...” So the Mass not only makes present and renews the self-offering of Christ to the Father made on Calvary, but also renews one of the main effects of that self-offering, the forging of his disciples into a family who can call God “Father.”

When I was in school, many moons ago, we had a teacher who was only learning and, God help him, he couldn’t control the class to save his life, and one day he called out “Gentlemen, gentlemen! I call you gentlemen, even though you are not.” Cue a half-muffled laugh in the corner as someone said, “Teacher, teacher, we call you teacher, though you are not.” What’s in a name?! In Mass we are frequently addressed as “Brothers and sisters”, and so we are, because the Creator has, through the death of Christ and our own baptism, recreated us as brothers and sisters, children of God in his Church. Last Friday in this monastery chapel we had an hour of prayer for Ireland, as takes place in most churches in Ireland this year in response to the pope’s request. And I noticed that it was attended not only by the Irish sisters, but by those who come from many countries, Malta, France, England, Scotland, Belarus, Ukraine. As an Irishman I was very grateful for their charity, but we are all united in this irrespective of our countries, precisely because God has given us power to be his children. Every act of charity between us, and most especially the missionaries who give their lives to the poorest of the poor throughout the world, in some way acknowledge this reality which comes to us through our baptism.

Today, therefore, the Church invites us to look again at our baptism, to thank god for this gift and to think how we might improve our response to this sacrament which gives us power to really become brothers and sisters even of those we have never met, children of God, filled with the Spirit who calls God “Father.”

Congratulations

2011-01-05T17:58:00.002Z

Congratulations to our three Dominican brothers: Maurice Colgan OP, Brian Doyle OP and Denis Murphy OP, who were ordained deacons on the 2nd of January. The Irish Dominican Vocations blog has some very good pictures of the ceremony, here.

1st January: Octave Day of Christmas

2011-01-04T10:58:00.002Z

Arms outstreched to save. This image of the babe in the crib with arms outstretched to save has been with me all week. “You shall call his name Jesus because He is the one to save his people from their sins”. All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. What an extraordinary definition of sin and its consequences- a falling short of the glory of God.

All of us have sinned. And what is God’s response to our rejection of Him? Is it as we would expect one of criticism, of judgment, of condemnation, of banishment, of exclusion? No, rather wonder of wonders, God’s response to our disobedience is one of concern, concern for us. He doesn’t want us to be deprived of the happiness union of life with Him would bring us.

Because of our sin we have forfeited the glory God had destined for us. Our sin excludes us from participating in the fullness of the Divine Love. And so that we who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God could regain access to that glory, God sent his Son in a mortal nature like ours to do away with sin by nailing it to the Cross in His very person, thereby enabling us to be adopted as children of God.

How much love is contained in God’s decision to become Man. What depth of yearning for us to participate in his divine life provoked such a drastic solution. The All Holy, All powerful unseen God, Creator of the heavens and the Earth and all they contain sends his Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity to take flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary and to become one like us, for us. In Jesus, the babe in the manger we see our God made visible. In Him we see God’s total gift of Himself to us. We see the distance love was prepared to travel. In this is love not that we loved God but that He first loved us and sent His Son so that in Him we might be enabled to make the return journey into the heart of the Trinity. “No one has ever seen God but it is the only Son who is nearest the father’s heart who has made him known”. In Jesus we see the heart of God laid bare. “This is how much I love you” God says to us through the Infant in the Manger.

Is it by chance or by some hidden design of God that the Infant in the Crib is so often depicted with arms wide open as if He is asking to be taken up and embraced? I am deeply struck by this. It looks as if he is willing to go to anyone, to everyone. How symbolic. Here we see the unconditional love of God. He makes no demands, no conditions. He leaves himself vulnerable, willing to be taken to anyone’s heart, more than that even, yearning, almost in supplication, to be taken to every one’s heart. As at birth so also in life and death Jesus surrenders himself into the hands of others.
It seems that all we have to do is to be willing to receive Him. He asks nothing more of us than that we be willing to take him into our arms. And yet to reach out and clasp Him to ourselves, we have to let go of anything else in our grasp. We have to drop whatever we are holding on to no matter how small or how light our hold. New born infants are fragile they have to be enfolded completely with an all absorbing attention.

Christ is not whole without the Church so Blessed Isaac of Stella reminded us during Advent. We are His body. And so the challenge is posed – Are my arms opened to embrace Jesus as He comes to me in the guise of another ? Am I prepared to be Jesus open and vulnerable ready to give myself to everyone without reservation?
It is in that embrace that we will encounter the living God and be caught up into the God we do not see.

Mary,

You who not only
Gave God’s infinity,
Dwindled to Infancy
Welcome in womb and breast,
Birth milk and all the rest
But mother each new grace
That does now reach our race.
Come and make new
Nazareths in us,
Where you shall yet conceive
Him, morning noon and eve,
New Bethlems, and he be born
There, evening, noon and morn
G M Hopkins (adapted)

Feast of the Holy Family

2010-12-29T17:02:00.005Z

Sunday within Octave of Christmas
Mass Readings - Cycle A
1st Reading - Eccles 3:2-6;12-14
2nd Reading - Col 3:12-21
Gospel Mt 2:13-15;19-23

"Let the message of Christ, in all its richness, find a home with you".

Who better than Mary and Joseph, who made a home for the Incarnate Word, can teach us to welcome Jesus into our hearts and homes?
Mary and Joseph belonged heart and mind to those who waited expectantly to welcome the Messiah, belonged to the holy remnant foretold by the prophets.
"I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly, who shall take refuge in the name of the Lord: the remnant of Israel.
They shall do no wrong, and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouths a deceitful tongue.
On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem : Fear not, O Sion, be not discouraged! The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty Saviour; He will rejoice over you with gladness and renew you in his love. He will sing joyfully because of you, as one sings at festivals.

Mary and Joseph were imbued with this generous spirit, totally open to the work of God on the nothingness of their being totally trusting and surrendered to God's plan.

'Get up and take the Child and his Mother... So Joseph got up'. Twice, we are given these words in the short passage from the Gospel.

Who can doubt that Jesus mirrored the virtues taught at home - He went down to Nazareth and lived under their authority. Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature and in favour with God and men.

The reading from Ecclesiaticus also describes the obedient caring and loving son giving of his all to help his parents but notice God is already at work with his loving mercy. "Whoever respects his father is atoning for his sins' and again, "kindness to a father shall not be forgotten but will serve as reparation for your sins".

The readings of the Mass are a real antidote to the two seerious problems of our day - the disrespect for life - for each and every living person, the breaking up of family life, and secondly, the sad plight of so, so many refugees all over the world. But let us not lose hope as we ponder like Mary on the Word of God and bring these intentions before the throne of God. Every time we make an effort to reach God, in whatever way, there is an immediate energy on the part of God that rushes our way. (quoted from the 'Gifts of the desert').
"You are God's chosen race, his saints, he loves you. Always be thankful".

Everyone can be born again, the world can be renewed. It is possible to build a future of justice and peace starting today. As long as one is filled with hope that God, through us, is working to shape a new creation. (Christmas letter of the Master of the Dominican Order - Fr Bruno Cadore)

A Christmas Reflection

2010-12-25T17:02:00.007Z

A short reflection given by one of our sisters for the First Vespers of Christmas.

We have just sung the antiphon: “The Word of God born of the Father before time began, humbled himself today for us and became man”. Again at 2nd Vespers we will sing: “The Word was God in the beginning and before all time, today he is born for us, the Saviour of the world”.

I would like to focus on the word ‘today’ which occurs so often in our Christmas liturgy. In our celebration of this wonderful feast of Christmas God’s eternal unchanging day breaks into our temporal day and we are caught up in the mystery of God.

The Father eternally begets the Son in an act of total self-emptying love while the Son eternally receives His entire being in an act of total self-surrendering love, totally pouring himself out in response to the total love of the Father. This eternal generation takes place in the bond of loving union who is Himself the Person of the Holy Spirit. This is the mystery, which breaks into our world of time in the human birth of the Word of God. The kenosis, the self-emptying that takes place in the Incarnation of the Word, which will eventually lead to Calvary, mirrors the eternal self-emptying love at the heart of the Trinity.

Eckhart reminds us that Christ’s birth in Bethlehem is of no avail if he is not born in us today – so we can say ‘today Christ is born in me as my Saviour’. All He needs is a welcoming, open heart like Mary’s and an empty space which does not need to be perfect – just as the inn in Bethlehem was not the perfect place for the birth of the Son of God. To quote Gregory Nazianzen: “Christ takes each of us – takes me - whole and entire within Himself, with all my misery in order to destroy in Himself all trace of sin, like fire that dissolves in itself the wax,” thus transforming me into himself, bringing me into his own relationship with the Father in the bosom of the Trinity. Just as there is one God in three Persons, so in Christ, we are all members one of another; there is and we are called to become a single Man in a multitude of persons.

All this takes place in silence – as 15th century author puts it:
Thou shalt know Him when He comes -
Not by any din of drums; Nor the vantage of his airs; Nor by anything He wears
Neither by His crown; Nor His gown
For His presence known shall be by the holy harmony that His coming makes in thee

Yes His presence – His birth - within us creates harmony with our God, with ourselves, with our sisters and brothers and with the whole of creation. Is this not the angels’ message when they sang: “Glory to God in highest heaven and peace on earth to those who enjoy His favour”.

The 'O' Antiphons: 23rd December

2010-12-23T11:45:00.002Z

O Emmanuel – You are our King and Judge,
the one whom the peoples await and their Saviour.
Come and save us Lord Jesus, Come.

The time of waiting is coming to an end. Soon the mystery of the Incarnation will be re-enacted once more in our liturgical celebrations and especially in our hearts. What have we to offer the Christ Child this year? Maybe not much, and yet the whole raison d’être for his coming hinges round the question – why is the Father about to send his own Beloved Son to take on our humanness, our earthiness, our poverty?
God sends his Son for one reason only: because he loves us – in fact he is madly in love with us.

Will we ever fathom this reality? He comes in silence, in lowliness, in poverty to knock at our door and asks us to give him a lodging for the night – for every night.
All he asks of us is an empty space where he can rest and find us waiting and watching for him.
Wouldn’t you think that we should come to God laden with the gold of good deeds? No – definitely no – the gift I must give my God is my brokenness. The thing God is waiting for me to offer him is the point where I am characteristically weak. This is the place, the stable where Jesus knocks with his baby hands and pleads with me -- may I come in? Give me lodgings in your inn.

For the past few weeks the cry Maranatha - Come Lord Jesus has been our spoken and unspoken prayer. But there is another side to this longing desire. While looking for a quotation in my bible I chanced to open Chapter 2 in the Song of Songs, where the Bridegroom speaks to his Bride: “Come my lovely one, come.”
It came home to me very forcibly - not only am I pleading with Jesus to come but far more earnestly is he saying to me:
“Come then my love, my lovely one come,
Show me your face,
Let me hear your voice”
Two hearts were meeting and held momentarily in stillness.

How well Blessed Teresa understood the need Jesus has for our love, when she wrote:
“We need to know deep inside that Jesus thirsts for us.”

And so, when he comes may he find us watching in prayer, our hearts filled with wonder and praise as we look at Mary who bore Jesus in her womb with a love beyond all telling.

My God, what a mystery,
Maranatha - Come Lord Jesus come
Delay no longer.

The 'O' Antiphons: 22nd December

2010-12-22T20:35:00.003Z

Today we have the sixth 'O' Antiphon bringing us nearer to our wonderful celebration.
O King whom all the peoples desire,
you are the cornerstone which makes all one.
O come and save man whom you made from clay.

Jesus is our King, our hearts are waiting for the joy and peace that he brings to each one of us so to pitch his royal tent within us. Are we ready to be part of the building of which Christ is the corner stone? Are we ready to be made one and alive, for Christ is the living stone on which we build our lives. St Paul writes to the Ephesians: In union with him you too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through the Spirit.

We pray "O come" and indeed our King comes to save us who he made from clay. Such is the clay that we have to become in God's hands, clay that is made firm by faith and moulded by God's holy Word. It is only through the events of life that we can progress through the firing kiln of God's creative love and it is only through his Spirit that we become the refined vessels of his living joyful love to be given, poured out and filled again, to be, as St Paul told the Corinthians, as clay pots holding God's spiritual treasure.

It is at this holy time that we come to realize more deeply the wonder of how God the Son took to himself our human clay, and as he lay as a little child in his mother's arms, he showed us just how beautiful our human clay can become.

O come our King, who is all we desire, fill us with yourself, so that we may become your royal, clay vessels to be used for your praise and glory.

The 'O' Antiphons: 21st December

2010-12-21T11:05:00.003Z

“ O Rising Sun, you are the splendour of eternal light and the sun of justice. O come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.”

In this “O” Antiphon the three metaphors- the rising Sun, splendour of the eternal light and sun of justice – all symbolise Christ, the Son of God, the promised Messiah whose birth as our Saviour we will celebrate in four days time.

Jesus calls Himself the ‘Light of the World’ in St. John’s Gospel( 9:5) and St. John, in the Prologue says that He is the “ true light who enlightens all men” and “ a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not overpower”.(1:5)

This assurance gives us courage to turn to Christ in our own various darknesses which may be a darkness of : prejudice; lack of compassion; judging and condemning others; resentment; anger; envy; selfishness or the darkness which blinds us to the awareness of our own sins, shortcomings and failures. We acknowledge that we are in great need of light and healing from Christ, the source of light and the singing of this antiphon in a few minutes time will give us the opportunity to turn to Him in earnest prayer asking Him to shed His light on us and on all humanity so that the darkness of sin may be dispelled from our hearts and we may be healed and renewed by His love.

We can call upon the Saints and Blesseds to intercede for us for they mirrored this light of Christ in their own lives, radiated it and reflected it to others. I am thinking especially of Mother Teresa of Calcutta – now Blessed Teresa – whom Jesus asked to be His light to the poorest of the poor.
“Come, be My light”, he said to her. She did become His light and radiated His light and love to others, especially to the poor. Paradoxically while she radiated Christ’s light and love to others she herself experienced a painful spiritual darkness in her inmost being. St. John of the Cross, in explaining this dark night of the soul using the metaphor of the sun, says –“the more one looks at the brilliant sun the more the sun darkens the faculty of sight, deprives it and overwhelms it in its weakness” Similarly, Mother Teresa’s interior darkness was not due to the absence of God but rather to the intense proximate presence of God in her soul, God, whose brightest light is total darkness to us in this life.

In one of her letters to Father van der Peet, she wrote:
“God is in love with us and keeps giving Himself to the world – through you – through me..
May you continue to be the sunshine of His love to your people and thus make your life
something truly beautiful for God.”

This prayer can be directed to each one of us too.

May Mother Teresa, intercede for us now as we call upon the Lord to enlighten us, for she said and promised “If I ever become a saint, I will surely be one of ‘darkness’. I will continually be absent from Heaven, to light the light of those in darkness on earth.”

O Rising Sun, you are the splendour of eternal light and the sun of justice. O come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

The 'O' Antiphons: 20th December

2010-12-20T21:18:00.002Z

O Key of David and sceptre of Israel
what you open no one can close again;
what you close no one can open.
O come to lead the captive from prison;
free those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Todays "O Antiphon" is almost directly taken from various parts of scripture (cf Rev 3:7ff; Lk 1:79a). In this "O Antiphon" we have reference again to King David. Our Lord is addressed as "Key of David and sceptre of Israel", which are symbols of royal power and authority. We read in St Matthews Gospel Mt 16:13ff, in that well known passage at Caesarea Philippi, where in answer to Jesus' question "who do you say I am?" Simon Peter spoke up, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God". Jesus replied, "Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: you are Peter and on this rock i will build my Church and the gates of the underworld will never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven."

So Jesus has conferred his power and authority to his Church in the person of Peter and his successors. The Church is all about forgiving sin - salvation. It is through the Church at our Baptism that we gain entrance into the kingdom of heaven. At our Baptism we are freed from Original Sin and all personal sins. We become members of Christ's Body and through his Holy Spirit dwelling in us we can address God as our Father. What a wonderful gift Baptism is!

We receive the theological virtues of faith, hope and love; as well as the gifts of the Holy Spirit - but our faith, hope and love need to be nurtured by prayer and the Sacraments. "By her relationship with Christ", to quote from 'The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church' of Vatican II, "the Church is a kind of sacrament or sing of intimate union with God and of the unity of all mankind". What a gift the Church is and how we should love her! Henri de Lubac, speaking on his death bed about the two great loves of his life, Christ and the Church, said "For what would I ever know of him without her". Recently the Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, speaking at the 6th los Angeles Catholic Prayer Breakfast, said "the largest Christian demomination in our country today are former Catholics. We are living in an era whare people want to have Christ without his Church". Perhaps the same could be said of Europe?

In "The Prayer for the Church in Ireland" Pope Benedict opened with the words "God of our fathers, renew us in the faith which is our life and salvation". Our own St Catherine of Siena constantly prayed for and spoke of "the light of holy faith". So in today's "O Antiphon" we beseech Our Lord - the Key of David - to open our hearts and minds to the light of holy faith; to lead the captive from prison - the prison of unbelief, of sin, of shame; and to quote the Intercession at Evening Prayer "You are Life and the enemy of death - rescue us and all the faithful departed from eternal darkness. AMEN"

The 'O' Antiphons: 19th December

2010-12-19T11:50:00.005Z

O Radix Jesse

O stock of Jesse, you stand as a signal for the nations;
kings fall silent before you whom the people acclaim.
O come to deliver us, and do not delay.

Today we address our awaited Saviour with the title ‘stock of Jesse’ – as Isaias foretold:
“A root shall grow from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall spring from his roots
and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him”.

Jesse was the father of King David from whose royal line the future Messiah would be born. When we read the genealogy of Jesus most of the characters mentioned were not very praise worthy according to human standards. Yet God’s infinite, all powerful wisdom, compassion and merciful love were at work throughout salvation history not allowing human failure, sin, malice nor indifference to interfere or thwart His divine plan. The promised Messiah will indeed come from David’s line – but in a manner which will leave us in no doubt that it is wholly God’s work. Joseph, the just man, comes from David’s line but he remains the silent spectator of God’s marvellous power. Mary’s role too is passive – receiving, cherishing, pondering the Word which is made flesh in her womb, through the power of the Holy Spirit, without any human intervention.

The Child, the fruit of her womb, will be a sign to the nations – a ‘sign of contradiction’ as Simeon prophesied. Kings fall silent before Him – they remain powerless. At his Passion, the intention of his enemies was to “destroy the tree in its strength” (Jer 11:19). What they, in fact, accomplished was to raise aloft the ‘Tree of Life’ whose leaves will have power to heal the nations (cf Rev 22:1) – the unique sign of God’s power at work in human weakness and fulfilling Jesus own prediction:

“when I am lifted up from the earth
I will draw all things to myself”

God’s power is always at work in human weakness. As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Saviour, let us take heart and remain steadfast in our faith and trust in the power of God who today is at work in the apparent catastrophes and contradictions of human life, bringing to fulfilment His divine, all-wise plan.

O stock of Jesse, you stand as a signal for the nations;
kings fall silent before you whom the people acclaim.
O come to deliver us, and do not delay.

The 'O' Antiphons: 18th December

2010-12-18T14:47:00.003Z

‘O Adonai, Ruler of the house of Israel, who gave the Law to Moses on Sinai,
come to save us with out-stretched arm, Alleluia’.

This is a prayer made from a truly humble and trusting heart, that knows its need of our heavenly Father to save us.

The theme of God’s outstretched arm to help his people is found frequently in Scripture and must surely touch us deeply. For example Psalm 97 – ‘His right hand and his holy arm have brought salvation’.

There is something comforting in arms outstretched towards us, we feel needed and loved and this gives us an inner security.
In daily life, we often see a loving mother or father stretch out their arms to save their child from some danger or simply to swoop the child up to give a hug.

When we return from a journey after a long absence, what a joy it is to be welcomed home by a loved one running to meet us with outstretched arms. It cannot be less so with our heavenly Father, he is always, and everywhere stretching out his arms to welcome us and to save us. We have only to reflect on the parable of the Prodigal son in St. Luke’s Gospel (Chapter 15). Who could fail to be deeply touched as in our mind’s eye we watch that loving father run with outstretched arms to welcome and embrace his wayward son. The Gospels are full of occasions where Jesus stretches out his arms, his hands, to bring life, healing and salvation by his divine touch.

During this Advent Season, as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, we are surely filled anew with wonder at the depths of love that led our heavenly father with those same outstretched arms to send his only begotten Son as our Redeemer – that Son who some 30 years later, stretched out his arms on the Cross in an immense act of love and died for our salvation.

Such unconditional love means God is summoning us forth with the loudest of calls, stirring up our hidden being, pleading with us to return love for love – ‘I have loved you’ he tells us ‘with an everlasting love, therefore I have drawn you to myself’. How right it is then that each evening before we sleep, the Church invites us, in her night prayer of Compline, to place ourselves trustfully in the outstretched arms and hands of our Father as we pray: ‘Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit’.

O Ruler of the house of Israel, come and save us with outstretched arm.

The 'O' Antiphons: 17th December

2010-12-17T21:17:00.005Z

“O Sapientia” – 17th December

Advent, as we all know, is a time of longing, expecting – waiting and hoping that Jesus will come anew to each of us.

Yesterday we began our 9-day Novena for the great feast of Christmas, and today and for the next six days we accentuate that longing and find its expression most beautifully in the great Vesper antiphons for the Magnificat, called the “O” antiphons, because they all begin with ‘O’. These antiphons will be used each evening before and after the Magnificat, and as the Gospel Acclamation at Mass, daily, for the next 7 days.

The initials of each antiphon in Latin, in reverse order are:

E = Emmanuel

R = Rex (King)
O = Oriens (Rising Sun)
C = Clavis (Key of David)
R = Radix (Root of Jesse)
A = Adonai (Leader of Israel)
S = Sapientia (Wisdom)
They create the acrostic : EROCRAS – the translation of which is : ‘Tomorrow I shall be there’ – and this is seen as the answer of Christ to the intensity of the longing prayer, and the yearning of the one praying the antiphons during the seven days.

The ‘O’ antiphons are thought to have been composed in the 8th Century by some anonymous cantor, and they achieved great popularity in the Middle Ages. Great solemnity attended their intonation in the monasteries. They were sung in the solemn tone of the great feasts, the great bell of the abbey was tolled and beginning with the abbot, they were intoned by the chief holders of the monastery.

The antiphons are mosaics of Scripture texts, expressing a longing for salvation and liberation; they express the theology of Advent and are the season’s brightest jewels. It is said our recently beatified Cardinal John Newman prayed one of these antiphons on his visits to the Blessed Sacrament.

In a few moments we will sing the first ‘O’ antiphon in Latin – O Sapientia so I will give one English translation of it:

O Wisdom
You come forth form the mouth of the Most High.
You fill the universe and hold all things together
in a strong yet gentle manner.
O come
to teach us the way of truth.

It’s an antiphon full of Biblical references. The Wisdom books of the Old Testament contain many passages in praise of wisdom. We read of Wisdom as proceeding from God, as being begotten by Him, as the breath of His power. Wisdom is the beloved daughter who at the beginning of creation stood before God assisting in the creation of the visible universe. From the concept of wisdom there later developed the doctrine of the Logos - the Word in St John’s Gospel:

All things were made by Him
And without Him was made nothing that was made.

As St Paul says, ‘Christ is the wisdom of God’ – He is our wisdom.

So the first ‘O’ antiphon cries out to Jesus, God’s Wisdom incarnate and the Eternal Word of God, who upholds and governs all creation and orders all things powerfully yet gently (sweetly) to

come and teach us Truth
(or prudence as the Latin has).

Yes, Christ is always faithful – ‘ERO CRAS’ – ‘Tomorrow I shall be there’.Will I be there to meet Him?

Will you take the time to meet Him?

Salve Regina Procession

2010-12-16T11:39:00.002Z

It is the custom in the Dominican Order (as in many other religious orders) to sing the "Salve Regina" (the "Hail Holy Queen") every day after Compline (Night Prayer). Here is a short video of our Salve Regina Procession.

Third Sunday of Advent

2010-12-12T20:28:00.003Z

Today’s Gospel from St. Matthew Chapter 11: v 2-11 begins with the words: ‘John in his prison had heard what Christ was doing… John in his prison … the word ‘his’ strikes me very forcefully – John the Baptist who for his great courage in telling no less a person than the King of his sin, was imprisoned and eventually beheaded.

Through the centuries thousands of people, men, women and children have suffered and continue to suffer in our day, the most horrendous imprisonment, torture and often, death, for their faithfulness to God’s law.

But there are many kinds of imprisonment, and indeed we can all at one time or another in our lives, be in some kind of prison. The prison of fear, insecurity, selfishness, depression, pride or prejudice, illness of mind, spirit or body, unbelief – the list is endless.

John had heard in his prison all that Christ was doing, the Gospel tells us.

In my life, in all our lives, we have read and heard through the Scriptures, what Christ did on earth concerning every form of suffering of his people – it is important to remember that this is not only in the past, two thousand years ago, but in the present, and this will be so until the end of time.

If we take time to reflect on and to listen to the gentle inner voice of Jesus, we will hear and perceive all he has done and is doing in our own lives, and in the lives of those who touch our lives. His Word is ‘alive and active’ and always will be. How often do we hear those blessed words: ‘O that today you would listen to his voice…’(Ps.94). ‘Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened and you will find rest for your souls (Mt.11: 28-30).

Advent is a time of quiet prayer, a time for awaiting Christ’s coming, a time for drawing closer to God- when we do this, love grows in our hearts, we will then feel the need to share this love with others, especially those near and dear to us whom we perceive to be in some kind of inner imprisonment. To love someone is to bid him or her to grow, to meet them at the level where they withdrew into themselves because they thought they were alone and no one cared, people have to feel they are loved very deeply before they can begin to emerge from their inner prison, let us gently bring them to Jesus, the greatest Lover - all He wants in order to free us from whatever imprisons us is that we do not loose our faith and confidence in Him.
Then truly, we can pray in the words of St. Paul to the Phil.4: 4-5, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice, the Lord is close at hand.

Second Sunday of Advent

2010-12-05T18:03:00.007Z

Mass Readings Year A
1st Reading: Isaias 11:1-10
2nd Reading: Romans 15: 4-9
Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12

In our Gospel today St John the Baptist calls on us to:
“prepare a way for the Lord –
make his paths straight!”

In our second Reading St Paul encourages us not to lose hope but to keep on trying – reminding us that “people in the past who did not give up hope were helped by God”. And Paul prays: “may He who helps us when we refuse to give up, help you all to be tolerant with each other, following the example of Christ Jesus, so that united in mind and voice you may give glory to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Paul seems to imply that in our efforts to be tolerant with each other we can expect to fail often but we must not lose hope – trusting that “God will help us if we refuse to give up”. This seems to be a good Advent programme for a monastic community like ours. During this season we pay very careful attention to preparing the liturgy and indeed the Advent chants are beautiful but to ensure that our daily celebration of the liturgy truly gives glory to God we also need to be attentive to our relationships with our sisters in community. Paul continues “it can only be to God’s glory for you to treat each other in the same friendly way as Christ treated you”.

Pope Paul VI described fraternal charity as “an active hope for what others can become through my co-operation” – a very high ideal it is true but the One whom we await during the Advent season will “baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire”. It is the same Spirit whom Isaias prophesied would rest on the future Messiah (as described in our first reading)
“The spirit of wisdom and insight
a spirit of counsel and power
a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord”
So that:
“He does not judge by appearances
gives no verdict on hearsay
but judges the wretched with integrity.”

In his days peace will reign on earth – Isaias describes the tolerance of the animals as diverse as a cow, an ox, lamb, panther, wolf, lion, viper and little child all at play!
“They do no hurt or harm
on all my holy mountain
for the country is filled with the knowledge of the Lord”

And so we pray in the words of the hymn we used at Office of Readings today:
“Make straight our way O Lamb of God
that we in joy may live on earth
reflecting your incarnate love.”

1st Sunday of Advent

2010-11-28T19:35:00.004Z

Today’s Mass readings invite us to ‘wake up’ from our slumber, to ‘stay awake’ and ‘to walk in the light of the Lord’.
During Advent we are preparing for the threefold coming of the Lord
As we remember His first coming at Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago, we are invited to prepare for His final coming in glory at the end of time and we celebrate His coming in grace at every moment but especially at Christmas.

The main focus of attention on this first Sunday of Advent is His final coming in glory. Regarding when this final coming will take place nobody knows the day or hour but Jesus invites us to be ready – to be prepared! More important for each of us is the moment of our death when the Lord will come to take us to himself – many who celebrated last Advent are no longer with us and there are others for whom this will be their last Advent.

The Church begins each liturgical year with this time of preparation reminding us that the Lord has already come but that He is also coming. At a time like this we tend to make good resolutions regarding what we will do or not do – however we have learned from our experience over the years that often our efforts come to naught and we get discouraged. Is this because the focus of our attention is on our efforts and on what we are doing instead of focusing on who we are and what the Lord is doing and wants to do in our lives? On Christmas night we will hear Pope St Leo telling us “O Christian recognise your dignity!”

In a conference shortly before his death earlier this year Andre Louf reminded us that the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of every baptised person – always interceding for us – therefore we can say that if we are in a state of grace we are in a state of prayer! Whether we are conscious of it or not the Spirit is always praying within us ‘Abba, Father’ and we know that His prayer is always heard. Prayer in this sense does not depend so much on our efforts - or perhaps our effort lies in letting go of our anxieties, and feverish activity in order to tune in to the Spirit’s prayer.

It is the same Spirit who calls out ‘Come Lord Jesus, come soon’. So instead of focusing too much on our own efforts, this time of Advent invites us to be still and empty while with Mary we make our hearts ready for His coming as we say with her at every moment and in every circumstance: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your Word.”

"Watching Jesus"

2010-11-21T20:28:00.003Z

Reflection 1
Curious that the celebration of Jesus Christ as Universal King should call us to remember Him hanging crucified on the cross.

Kings are powerful, mighty, commanding respect and admiration. They are men who hold their peoples together, in unity – men by whom nations are identified and in whom their subjects take pride. Kings fight for the safety of their people, to protect and defend them against all manner of enemies.

We can watch Jesus in one of two ways, there as He hangs on the cross. We can see a weak, bloody man, running out of breath; not able any longer to hold His head up; not able to see clearly through the blood flowing from the wounds the thorns have made; a coward, who won’t answer the words of abuse and mockery being shouted at Him; He doesn’t even seem to pay any heed to the bare handful of His friends who have remained to see Him so humiliated.

King indeed! What kind of king is this, who would let such lies be tossed about, without even trying to defend Himself?

But His Father – what does He see?

Could it be … LOVE? How can we learn love, from One who is barely alive – how can He be teaching us and showing us the way … from the cross?!

Let us stand there, watching Jesus.

Jesus – in the midst of all the evil to which He is subjected …

… absorbs every ounce of it, silently He takes it to Himself and watch …

Watch how He doesn’t pass it on.

Listen to the lies and the abusive words ringing in His ears – and watch how when they are absorbs into Him, they die … not leaving even an echo behind. … And the criminal, who says to Him, ‘save yourself and us as well’.

But watch Jesus – and see a King indeed –

Who indeed is fighting. He is standing firm and unafraid, not nourishing and giving life to the evil, but soaking up every last drop of it, even as His blood is being poured out. He is fighting against the evil which every one of us can be tempted to give in to, and watching Jesus – we learn what we must do when we think we are overcome. We can be people who refuse to give in to the malice and hatred we encounter; we can be people who will not give up hope, who will not let go of the joy of our faith in Jesus,Who has so mightily, so majestically, so powerfully saved us.

We can fight back, by loving – loving those who do not love us in return or as they should; loving those whose pain or anger or suffering has led them to turn away from Christ’s Body – by absorbing their pain, their hurt, their anger, their suffering, bearing it within ourselves and giving it to the Lord, confident that His words to the thief are true for us too … “I promise you … you will be with me in Paradise”.

Let us prove ourselves to be truly His, by watching Jesus, seeing Him silently fighting and winning, as He gives up His life for us – shamelessly and confidently holding fast to the joy that is ours in our faith in Him.

Let not His head be hanging sorrowfully because we are losing hope in His power to heal and renew us, because we who believe in Him are ashamed of our King.

Reflection 2

Jesus said, “I came not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me.”

Mary said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord be it done to me according to your Word”

Our parents, grandparents and all our Irish loved ones in the faith, in one way or another made the sentiments of the great Irish hymn their own:

Christ the King and Lord of all,
Find me ready at thy call,
Christ receive my service whole,
Mind and body, heart and soul.

All of them surrendered themselves to the will of God. Today The Church in her Sacred Liturgy invites us to enter into the Mystery of Christ the King and to renew our desire and willingness to allow Him to have full reign over our lives- mind and body, heart and soul.

The Gospel given to us for today’s Feast could have been subtitled ‘A Treatise on Conversion’ or perhaps in more modern parlance ‘A how to Gospel’. How to be converted in three easy steps.

Step one: Look at Jesus. In Him we see what conversion looks like. I ask myself, do I remotely resemble Him? As he hangs on the Cross stripped of all human glory, a man despised and rejected, he retains a quiet dignity. Totally free, He meets brutal jeers and belittlements with serenity. He feels no need to defend himself or point out the error of their ways to others, no need to prove Himself or show His power. There is in Him no anxiety because he is being misjudged, no sense of threat. What is his secret? How is it possible for Him to respond with love to some much hatred and meanness?
Jesus knows Himself to be the Beloved of the Father. He knows Himself to be doing the Father’s will. Nothing else has any power over Him. The Father’s will alone consumes Him.

Step two: Look at the crowd, the leaders, the soldiers, and the criminal. In them we see the obstacles we place in the way of conversion. Right now Jesus is as present with us as He was to them on Calvary. He is loving us just as He was loving them. What prevented them and what prevent us from experiencing that love? It would seem to be hardness of heart, anger, bitterness, resentment, calumny, false judgement, a need to blame others for the way we are instead of taking responsibility for our own sins and weakness. Jesus love sometimes doesn’t reach us simply because we haven’t come home to ourselves. Jesus is loving us just as we are but if we are ‘lost in sins own blindness’, hitting out at others and failing to see ourselves, unable to acknowledge or accept the truth of ourselves we are not present to receive that love. But the wonder is that this very place can also be a place of redemption. This place of death can become the place of Resurrection . Because of Jesus there lies the opportunity of grace within every sin. Any sin once acknowledged is a spring board to union with Jesus. It becomes the place of a loving encounter with Jesus. And that brings us to step three.

Step three: In the good thief we see what needs to happen if we are to be converted. Both thieves are guilty, both have committed crimes but the good thief acknowledges his sin, owns it, takes personal responsibility for it and in that moment, which too is a moment of grace, the scales drop from his eyes and he is able to see Jesus and an encounter can take place. The encounter Jesus has lived and died for. Jesus the friend of sinners befriends him and assures him of a place with him always not because he is good but simply because he repented and turned to Jesus.

The late Abbot Kevin O’Farrell of Tarrawarra insists that to accept the gifts God continually offers there must be a corresponding letting go, and that without that letting go there can be no growth, no conversion. This will apply all our lives and the last thing we will be asked to let go of will be life itself. Without death there will be no Resurrection. It would seem that in this Gospel the required disposition is a letting go of all pretences, all self justification, a movement out of denial and projection into acceptance of our reality as sinners. This will be an on going process all our lives. As we are more and more transformed into Jesus He will continue to reveal to us that we are sinners in need of his mercy. So perhaps he is encouraging us not to be downhearted when we see new unredeemed areas in ourselves. Every moment of repentance is an opportunity to receive Jesus’ love anew until he has complete possession of us and truly reigns as sovereign Lord in our hearts
To Mary and with Mary we pray. Loose the bonds that bind us lost in sins own blindness that with eyes now opened God’s own love may guide us.

Dominican Calendar for 2011 Published

2010-11-18T16:41:00.003Z

As part of the ongoing effort of the vocations promoters of the Dominican Family in Ireland (friars, sisters, contemplative nuns and lay) to promote a greater awareness of the Dominican charism, we have published a Dominican Family Calendar for 2011 - which will be available in our Dominican priories throughout Ireland.

There are many Dominican Symbols: the habit, the shield, the dog at Dominic’s feet with the torch in its mouth. However, there is only one distinctive mark, a sort of genetic code, for the members of the Order, for the Dominican Family. It is preaching for the salvation of humanity, the ministry of the Word, the mission of evangelisation. The General Chapter, celebrated in Rome wished to remind the whole Dominican Family, Nuns, Friars, Apostolic Sisters and the Lay Dominicans, of this sign of our identity as we approach the Jubilee of 2016. The nuns who dedicate themselves preferentially to prayer participate in the preaching ministry by listening to the Word, celebrating it and proclaiming the Gospel through the example of their lives. Similarly, co-operator brothers join in the preaching ministry through the faithful living out of their profession in the Order.
(Prologue: Acts of the General Chapter, Rome, 2010)

The Sun of Righteousness

2010-11-15T14:50:00.002Z

"For you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will shine out with healing in its rays." Malachi 3.20

Blessed John H. Newman has a word to say to us on this last line of to-days first reading.

If Christ is our sole hope, and Christ is given us by the Spirit, and the Spirit be an inward presence, our sole hope is in an inward change. As a light placed in a room pours out its rays on all sides, so the presence of the Holy Spirit imbues is with life,strength, holiness, love, acceptableness, righteousness.....That divine influence, which has the fullness of Christs grace to purify us, has also the power of Christs blood to justify. Let us never lose sight of this great and simple view.....Christ himself vouchsafes to repeat in each of us in figure and mystery all that he did and suffered in the flesh.He is formed in us, born in us, suffers in us, rises again in us.....and this divine presence constitutes the title of each one of us to heaven........
Are you living in the conviction of Gods presence ?
Do you believe, and act on the belief, that his light penetrates and shines through your heart, as the sun beams through a room ? You know how things look when the suns beams are on it...Let us then beg him to teach us the mystery of his presence in us, that, by acknowledging it,we may possess it fruitfully.....In all circumstances of joy or sorrow, hope or fear, let us aim at having him in our inmost heart; let us have no secret apart from him. Let us acknowledge him as enthroned within us at the very springs of thought and affection. Let us submit ourselves to his guidance and sovereign direction; let us come to him that he may forgive us cleanse us guide us and save us.

Stay at a Sinner's House

2010-10-31T11:33:00.002Z

CCC 1127: “… As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the
Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to its power.”

2 Thess 1:11-12
“We pray continually that God will make you worthy of his call, and by his power fulfil all your desires for goodness and complete all that you have been doing through faith; because in this way the name of our Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in you and you in him, by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
We are tempted at every moment to do without God, as though it were a sign of weakness that we should be creatures who have need of others and of God to be happy, and to come to be the fullness of what we have been given life to grow to be.
In all our wandering, in all our encounters with others, in all that we achieve and acquire however, there is always something lacking – a little emptiness, a little loneliness, a little missing.
But we are ones who were, and who constantly strive to be – open to the touch of God. All of us who were baptised into the divine life of the Blessed Trinity, have been given this grace, if we would but receive it, welcome it joyfully. When I realise that only God can fill the emptiness, that not the deepest most intimate human love can understand – when this I see, then He will come – He does come – in fact, He is there already.

We are all of us like Zacchaeus – ‘too short’ in our own sight, yet … wanting to come out of ourselves, to reach beyond ourselves, to grow out of what we are at the moment .. into that person that we could be, if only Someone would reach into us and draw us out. Because, on my own, I will never be more or better or more complete that the one I am now, and I am sadly lacking.

But the grace of God in me, His gift of faith and of hope, He has kept alive and active, and by it I have been kept open to Him, and so I ‘know’ Him. He, Jesus, is all I need, the answer to all the loneliness, the emptiness. He speaks and shows me what Way I am to walk, what I can do with His help, who I am in the sight of God – how, in the life of the Blessed Trinity I am caught up in and surrounded on every side by Infinite Love.

The Lord is my light and my help, my strength and my song: His power will fulfil in me all my desires for goodness, complete all I strive to do through faith: His grace.

And if I lay my life, all my desires and loves at His feet – with all that I am – He will be glorified in me and I in Him.
And after all, Lord, if there was only one thing that I could ask of You – it would be that one thing. Take my life, and me with it: all my love that is Yours, all my desires that are all for You – “stay at a sinner’s house” and let Your Name be glorified in me and I in You.

A Little (Late) News

2010-10-24T20:26:00.002+01:00

I know we're a bit late telling you this, but our Dominican Brothers recently became something of a 'news item'. A journalist from one of our national radio shows went along on the Dominican Pilgimmage to Knock a few weeks ago. She was very impressed with the Dominicans. I attach a link to the relevant segment of the show, for anyone interested. Click Here. (It's only eleven minutes). You might enjoy it!

Something Precious

2010-10-04T17:41:00.003+01:00

“You have been trusted
to look after something precious,
guard it
with the help of the Holy Spirit
who lives in us.”

How many things have been entrusted to us to look after, and is not every one of them ‘something precious’?

More than any other ‘something’, nothing can compare with the gift of God – and of faith in Him, that God Himself has given us. It is amazing to know that God – Who is infinitely beyond our reach and understanding – could have desired to become small and ‘contain-able’, so that we might have the ability to contain Him. It’s amazing to know that His desire in our regard is that we might know Him, seek Him and be in Him – that we might share in His Divine Life. And that is His will – He wants us, His creatures, to know Him … and we do. He has revealed Himself to us, has made Himself approachable, so much so that we can even call Him ‘Father’ – for so He is.

And, knowing what we are capable of – our wilfulness and our sinfulness – still, He has given Himself to us: has trusted us with the gift of His very self, and if we turn to the Holy Spirit who lives in us – His own spirit – we can guard and protect, nourish this gift, this precious gift we have been given.

We have been baptised into Christ’s body – the Church – in which God wholly abides. Another precious something with which we have been entrusted, that we might look after it.

This contemplative life, it seems to me, is a place where we should be most mindful of this precious gift. The Church in her history, has come near sometimes to disappearing, even dying; but miraculously has always recovered. In the middle ages, the dark ages, it was the monasteries, where the ‘re-birth’ began and overflowed into the world, renewing confidence and inspiring a return to fidelity to Christ and the gift of Himself He gave us – the gift of the Holy Spirit.

It seems to me that more than anything, we need always to be vigilant, to be discerning, so that this gift – this something precious – we have been entrusted to look after, may ever be the gift that Jesus gave us – and not stained by new ways of thinking or behaving or believing. When people are lost, we need to be a place where they meet Jesus, and are found.

Listen to His word; cherish every word He spoke, for He spoke only and always Himself. Love His word and live by it – by Him – and no other.

“In him is life, and the life is the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness has not overcome it.”

The darkness cannot overcome it.

“Lord, increase our faith.”

Icons - A Path to Contemplation

2010-09-11T14:07:00.005+01:00

Last week our monasterary hosted a one day gathering of monastic women. Some of our sisters presented reflections based on the theme "Icons - a Path to Contemplation". Below is the text of one of the reflections. (The other three reflections have been posted on the reflections section of our website - Click here to view them)

It is not by accident that we have chosen the Icon of the Transfiguration, written by Theophan the Greek, for our sharing at this gathering. All ancient tradition saw in the Prayer of Jesus on the mountain, depicted in this Icon, the blue print for contemplative life. In the exhortation Vita Consecrata, Pope John Paul II invites us, consecrated religious, to contemplate the transfigured face of Jesus.

In The Eastern theological tradition, man is seen to be on a mystical journey that leads to “Theosis” or deification. Icons represent this union between God and man. The Icon is a manifestation of the presence of God. It draws and brings us into this Presence so that we can experience God in our soul. In this way we become a living icon of God.

For Byzantine theology, the Transfiguration as a “Teofania”, theophany, is on the one hand, a key to the understanding of the Divinity of Christ, and on the other, it is a very concrete model for the spiritual transformation of man.
The Transfiguration has taken a central place in the mystical theology of Byzantine’s monastic world. Whatever method of meditation the monks used, its purpose was always to lead to enlightenment, that is, prayerful immersion in the rays of Divine energy.

An orthodox monk and iconographer, Grigorij Krug, says that
“the disciples did not immediately witness the Transfiguration of Jesus, when they first met him, but only after a long hard climb to the top of Mount Tabor, that is, only through the great effort of climbing to the top of SILENCE.”

Or ,as we would say, entering into the depths of silence.

In Vita Consecrata we read :
We must confess that we all have need of this silence, filled with the presence of him who is adored : in theology, so as to exploit fully its own sapiential and spiritual soul; in prayer, so that we may never forget that seeing God means coming down the mountain with a face so radiant that we are obliged to cover it with a veil (Ex 34.33); in commitment, so that we will refuse to be locked in a struggle without love and forgiveness. All, believers and non-believers alike, need to learn a silence that allows the other to speak when and how he wishes, and allows us to understand his words”

And John Main tells us:
"All of us have to learn…….that we do not have to create silence. The silence is there within us. What we have to do is to enter it, to become silent, to become silence.”

Silence, as Meister Eckhart tells us, is a privileged entry into the realm of God… There is a huge silence inside each of us that beckons us into itself… For silence is a language that is infinitely deeper, more far reaching, more understanding, more compassionate and more eternal than any other language… There is nothing in the whole world that resembles God as much as silence”

Whereas St. Benedict, who has set the tone for the spirituality of the West, calls us, first of all, to listen, the Byzantine Fathers focus on gazing. This is especially evident in the liturgical life of the Eastern Church as the 2nd Ecumenical council in 787 makes clear, when it says :
“What is communicated through the Word is revealed silently through the Image.”

In Byzantine Liturgy therefore, Word and Icon complement each other. Incompetent listening makes us spiritually blind.
“The eye with which I see God, is exactly the same eye with which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowledge, and one love” (Meister Eckhart, sermon 16).

And thus, we can make bold to say, echoing the first letter of St. John :
“This is contemplation- this is contemplative love- not so much that we contemplate God, but that God has first contemplated us, and that now in us, in some sense, and even through us, as part of the mystery of his Risen Life in the Church, he contemplates the world” (Paul Murray op)

While the world is an icon of God, created and held in existence by Him, man, created in the “likeness of God” is, in a unique way, God’s Icon. So each of us is an icon of God. It is impossible to look at God, without seeing our brothers and sisters as He sees them. If we don’t look at God, then we see only ourselves, and we judge others only by our own eyes.

On the question of how to pray before an Icon or with an Icon, I want to coin a phrase from John Main. He says :
“We must learn to BE and then we will learn to DO.”

If we do this, the icon will begin to speak to us in the unique way God has chosen to love each of us individually.

In the Icon the three rays coming from the transfigured Lord, strike the apostles in three different ways. This is how the Icon writer expresses his understanding of the Divinity. Each person is loved by God in a uniquely personal way. We all receive and accept the rays of God’s love but those rays penetrate each one individually and differently from anyone else.

Trans – Formation

At the core of the Gospel is the invitation to be changed, made into a new person, and it is the experience of that transformation which gives the writings of the new testament their power. This is how John Main talks about it, in “Word into Silence”. He has just quoted a favourite passage from Romans 12.2 :

“Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern of this present world but let your minds be remade and your whole nature thus transformed”

He then goes on to say,
“This is the essential Christian experience of being born again in the Holy Spirit. Being born again happens as we realize the power of the living Spirit of God within us. We all know that we have to change, because we cannot grow without changing and we cannot be really alive in any meaningful or certainly any enjoyable way unless we are growing. To grow, means to go forward into the unknown and obviously, therefore, to leave the past behind.

We need to reflect on the words of Jesus “Leave self behind” (Mk 8.34) to understand what we are created for. We fear letting go of the past, we resist living fully in the present, and so we find it difficult to pray. But in the teaching of Jesus we lose self, only in order to find self, and by losing self, we are transformed. What we are changed into is not, as we fear, something other than what we are. We fear that if we lose self, we will become someone else, someone different. But this fear is totally cast out of our hearts, when we open ourselves to the love of God, that has flooded us, through the Spirit of Christ who dwells in our hearts. It is then, that we experience ourselves being changed, simply into who we really are. We become, through God’s transforming love, truly ourselves for the first time. This is our transfiguration. In the heart of our humanity which we fear to lose, we find the humanity of Jesus, transformed by his utter openness to God.

In the Transfiguration, Jesus is not becoming somebody new, but he is revealing to us who He always is, and he is telling us something about our deepest selves. Our real lives are hidden with Christ in God.

This gradual work of transformation takes place in the ordinariness of our lives. As we journey through life we encounter many problems- problems from the past, problems of integration, adaptation, problems about facing the future. So many things worry us. It seems to us that, in order to solve the problems arising within us in the process of transformation, we have to find solutions outside of ourselves. We think we need to acquire information, increase our knowledge, discover new techniques. The teaching of the Gospel, however, is that our problems are solved, and there is no need for us to multiply ways of dealing with them. What we need to do, is to learn to be poor and to accept our poverty. Poverty confronts our resistance to change more effectively than any mere “solution”

Jesus’ kenosis to the point of becoming “nothingness” out of love, is the climax of God’s self-revelation – it is the icon of the Eternal Love, which is at the heart of the Trinity. This is what we, in our turn, are called to become – “nothingness” out of love for our brothers and sisters, as we share in the self emptying of Jesus, that we may be one with him in his Resurrection.

To him, whose power at work in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine, to Him, be Glory forever and ever. Amen

New Master of the Dominican Order

2010-09-06T10:06:00.004+01:00

Sunday, 5th September, the General Chapter of the Order of Preachers, founded by Saint Dominic, elected Bro. Bruno Cadoré as new Master of the Order. Elected for a nine year term of office, he succeeds Bro. Carlos Azpiroz Costa, an Argentinean, who was Master of the Order from 2001 to 2010, and before him Bro. Timothy Radcliffe, a friar from England, well known all over the world for his publications and preaching. The last Frenchman to occupy this post was Bro Vincent de Couesnongle, Master of the Order from 1974 to 1983.

Meeting in Rome since the first of September, the General Chapter of the Order is made up of 127 delegates from all the continents. Prior Provincials are members of the Chapter and also the Delegates elected by the friars themselves according to the democratic tradition of the Dominican Order. The General Chapter, which is the sovereign governing body, shall be working for the next two weeks to give the Order some important guidelines which the newly elected Master is expected to put into practice during his term of office.

Aged 56, Bro. Bruno Cadoré was up till now the Provincial for the Dominicans of the Province of France. He served in this office for the past eight years, after having been in charge of the formation of the young friars, especially in Lille. He was a medical doctor when he started his novitiate, and he worked for two years in Haiti before starting his Dominican studies. He is a Doctor in theology and he taught biomedical ethics at the Catholic University of Lille where he was director of the centre for Medical Ethics until he was elected Prior Provincial in 2002. From January 2008 onwards he is a member of the National Aids Council.

During his term of office, the Province of France welcomed many young friars. Bruno Cadoré has also helped develop the Dominican way of life in many countries, from Scandinavia to the Congo passing through Cairo and Iraq which he visited many times.

We pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit on all the deliberations of the Chapter and on Fr Bruno as he begins his task as Master of the Order. Fr Bruno spent three weeks with us in our guest room some years ago! so his election comes as a great joy for all of us.

Some Scenes from the Solemn Profession

2010-08-31T11:30:00.005+01:00

Below is a short video from the Solemn Profession in May. We hope you enjoy it.

‘Ah! … My Little Finger!’

2010-08-22T11:49:00.002+01:00

THE NARROW DOOR .............

Luke 13: 22 - 30

Today’s Gospel reading from St Luke is ‘worrying’, to put it mildly – at least the thought that there are many who try to enter by the narrow door but will not succeed, isn’t what would be inclined to inspire hope, is it? … As I say, a bit worrying!

In thinking about it, though, and in trying to see behind the words, it has occurred to me that the challenge should be seen rather as an invitation – and then the hope has free reign and we can be confident, but not presumptive, in God’s mercy and His love for us, and as St Paul writes – that God wants all men to be saved. (1Tim 2:5)

So briefly – hopefully! – I was reflecting on the words of the Lord, when he says ‘I do not know where you come from’ and wondering how it might be that He would be able to say instead, ‘I know you, I know where you come from’ What can I do to make Him recognise me? More, that is, than merely claiming to have eaten and drank with him and have been on the streets where he taught?

It seems to me that it’s basically about attachment and detachment. I can say ‘I know Jesus’, and ‘I’ve heard of Him’, ‘a great man, worked miracles, saved people, forgave their sins, was crucified’ … and more – but none of that means a whole lot if I don’t commit myself to Him, attach myself to Him. And that’s not easy, because as soon as I acknowledge that He is God, it means I have to begin to really listen to Him and try to live as He invites us to. I can sit at His table, and everything He says can wash over me: in one ear, out the other – and if that’s the way I live, then He will be justified in saying ‘I do not know where you come from’.

But if I sit there – if you sit there – and let His words sink in, let them transform you and become your whole way of living in the world – then what will happen? He will recognise you, you will have become like Him; He will look at you and see reflected in you … Himself! Isn’t that amazing? I think it’s astonishingly amazing! And then He will say to me and to you ‘I do know you, I do know where you come from’. We will be acknowledging that we are children of God, that this is what we want to be, and God Who is our Father will draw us to Himself and keep us close to Him, will Himself keep close to us, in all our need of Him and in all our joy. We will be truly members of His body, … even His little finger!

Feast of St Dominic - 8th August

2010-08-08T08:32:00.009+01:00

“Dominic prayed, prayed without ceasing, prayed by day and by night”

This beautiful antiphon, which we sang at morning prayer on this joyful feast of our holy father and founder, gives us a beautiful portrait of Dominic. Before all else he was a man of the Gospel and a man of prayer.

The following is a quotation taken from brievary for the Office of Readings for today's feast.

Everywhere, in word and in deed, Dominic showed himself to be a herald of the Gospel. By day no one was more affable, more friendly than he with his brothers and companions, no one more fervent than he in vigils and prayer at night. His conversation was always either with God or about God; rarely did he speak on other matters, and this practice he commended to his disciples.

Dominic’s frequent and special prayer for himself was to beg from God true and efficacious charity for the salvation of all people, for he was convinced that just as our Saviour, the Lord Jesus, gave Himself totally for our salvation, only when he, Dominic, had devoted himself to the winning of souls would he be truly a member of Christ

May St Dominic intercede for all of us today and always.

The Transfiguration of the Lord

2010-08-05T20:46:00.007+01:00

Gospel: Luke 9:28-36

Today's feast fills us with hope as we contemplate the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain in the presence of the three apostles, Peter, John and James. Luke tells us that as Jesus prayed "the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as lightning." We may well ask if this was a regular occurrence during prayer time for Jesus? and on this occasion he let his disciples in on his secret? Perhaps this is the only time it happened! We know from Peter's comment that it was a wonderful experience for them! "Master it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah". Peter would have liked Jesus to stay on the mountain and forget all that talk about suffering and dying and suggesting that those who follow should take up their cross daily (Lk 9:23-26)!! He had no desire to come down the mountain again and face reality!

Can we all identify with Peter in some way or other? We are all happy to be in the Lord's presence while we are experiencing good feelings of joy and peace and so escape the harsh realities surrounding us. Not so for Jesus. This experience was meant to strenghten him and his disciples to face the harsh reality ahead with courage and love in obedience to the Father's will.

Jesus was always tuned into his Father's will - "His food was to do the Will of his Father". The Father in turn bears witness to his Son - a voice comes from the cloud: "This is my Son, the Chosen One. Listen to him" - Yes listen to him as he speaks to you about the Cross and suffering! and the need to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily!

All Christian prayer is prayer in Christ - through Baptism we are in Christ and share his relationship with his Father. When we pray in Him we too are transfigured (though it is hidden from our eyes) and the Father speaks to each of us as He addressed His Beloved Son: "You are my beloved son (or daughter)". True prayer is never escape from real life - rather it inserts us more deeply into the human situation and like Jesus, gives us the love, the strength and the courage work for the greater glory of God and to make this world a better place for our brothers and sisters while we wait in joyful hope for day when we shall behold the glorious face of our God.

O souls crated for these grandeurs and called thereto! What are you doing? Wherein do you occupy yourselves? O wretched blindness of the sons of Adam, who are blind to so great a light and deaf to so clear a voice.
(St John of the Cross: Spiritual Canticle)

Pope Benedict's Homily During Recent Visit to Dominican Cloister

2010-07-12T10:25:00.004+01:00

"You Were Consecrated to Jesus, to Belong to Him Exclusively"

The following is the homily of Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the Dominican cloistered nuns of Santa Maria del Rosario in Rome's Monte Mario district. He lightlights the values and importance of our contemplative life. (Zenit.org).-

Dear Sisters,

I address to each one of you the words of Psalm 124 (125), which we just prayed: "Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts!" (v. 4). I greet you above all with this wish: the goodness of the Lord be upon you. In particular, I greet your Mother Prioress and thank her from my heart for the kind expressions she addressed to me in the name of the community. With great joy I accepted the invitation to visit this convent, to be able to pause with you at the feet of the image of St. Sixtus' acheropita Virgin, now protector of the Roman convents of St. Mary in Tempulo and of St. Sixtus.

Together we have prayed the midday prayer, a small part of this Liturgical Prayer that, as cloistered, marks the rhythm of your days and makes you interpreters of the Church-Bride which unites her, in a special way, with her Lord. With this choral prayer, which finds its culmination in the daily participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, your consecration to the Lord in silence and seclusion becomes fecund and full of fruits, not only for the path of sanctification and purification, but also for the apostolate of intercession that you carry out for the whole Church, so that it can appear pure and holy in the presence of the Lord. You, who know well the efficacy of prayer, experience every day the many graces of holiness it can obtain in the Church.

Dear Sisters, the community you make up is a place where you can dwell in the Lord; it is for you the New Jerusalem, to which the tribes of the Lord go up to praise the name of the Lord (cf. Psalm121:4). Be grateful to Divine Providence for the sublime and gratuitous gift of the monastic vocation, to which the Lord has called you without any merit of yours. With Isaiah, you can affirm "the Lord formed me from the womb" (Isaiah 49:5). Even before you were born, the Lord had kept your heart for himself to be able to fill it with his love. Through the sacrament of baptism you received Divine grace in yourselves, immersed in his Death and Resurrection, you were consecrated to Jesus, to belong to him exclusively. The way of contemplative life, which you received from St. Dominic in the form of cloister, places you, as living and vital members, in the heart of the Lord's Mystical Body, which is the Church; and as the heart makes the blood circulate and maintains the whole body alive, so your hidden existence with Christ, interlaced with work and prayer, contributes to sustain the Church, instrument of salvation for every man whom the Lord redeemed with his blood.

It is this inexhaustible source that you approach with prayer, presenting in the presence of the Most High the spiritual and material needs of so many brothers in difficulty, the strayed life of all those who separate themselves from the Lord. How can one not be moved by compassion for those who seem to wander aimlessly? How can one not wish that in their life they will encounter Jesus, the only one who gives meaning to existence? The holy desire that the Kingdom of God be established in the heart of every man, is identified with prayer itself, as St. Augustine teaches us: because of this, as fire that burns and is never extinguished, the heart remains alert, it never ceases to desire and it always raises a hymn of praise to God.

Recognize because of this, Dear Sisters, that in everything you do, beyond the personal moments of prayer, your heart continues to be led by the desire to love God. With the Bishop of Hippo, acknowledge that the Lord has put his love in your hearts, desire that dilates the heart, until it makes it capable of receiving God himself (cf. In. O. Ev. tr. 40, 10). This is the horizon of the earthly pilgrimage! This is your goal! This is why you have chosen to live in obscurity and in the renunciation of earthly goods: to desire above all that good which has no equal, that precious pearl that merits the renunciation of any other good to enter into its possession.

May you be able to pronounce every day your "yes" to God's designs, with the same humility with which the Holy Virgin said her "yes." May she, who in silence received the Word of God, guide you in your daily virginal consecration, so that you will be able to experience in obscurity the profound intimacy she lived with Jesus. Invoking her maternal protection, together with that of St. Dominic, St. Catherine of Siena and of the many men and women saints of the Dominican Order, I impart to you all a special Apostolic blessing, which I willingly extend to the persons who entrust themselves to your prayers.

Our Preaching Story - Nuns of the Order of Preachers

2010-07-05T19:28:00.003+01:00

The following is a presentation by one of our sisters at a recent Dominican Family Day

Our preaching story both differs from, and incorporates the preaching stories of the other branches of the Order. “As the friars, sisters and laity are called to preach the name of our Lord Jesus Christ throughout the world; the nuns are to seek, ponder and call upon Jesus in solitude so that the word – (the saving- word, the grace-filled word) proceeding from the mouth of God (and preached by you our brothers and sisters)may not return to him empty, but may accomplish those things for which it was sent.” (Is 55:10)

Our Constitutions tell us that St. Dominic in founding the Nuns wanted us “to be free for God alone” and he associated us with his “holy preaching” specifically through our prayer and penance. They also tell us that we are ‘commissioned by God primarily for prayer'. The Constitutions of the Friars, LCO 142, states that “St. Dominic intended the nuns of the Order to dedicate themselves wholly, in the contemplative religious life, to that communion with God, which nourishes the apostolic life of the brothers and of the other branches of the Dominican Family, the nuns providing a witness of prayer, silence and penance.” Three weeks ago on the 31st May 2010, Sr. Niamh made solemn profession and I would like to quote a little part of this ceremony as it is very beautiful and emphasises our place in the preaching mission of the Order:

By this solemn profession you have given yourself to God and to His will: God Himself, therefore, has consecrated you to Himself through the ministry of the Church, to be associated, through a life of prayer and penance, with the ‘holy preaching’ of St. Dominic, so that you may be His own heritage and that He may be your heritage forever.

And the prayer with the blessing of the veil reads;

Lord, bless this veil which Sr. Niamh Muireann wears for love of you and your blessed Mother Mary, ever Virgin, as a sign of her consecration to you. Through your help and protection may she always preserve the purity of heart it mystically signifies. In wearing it may she be recognised as a house of prayer and a temple of intercession for all people. Clothe with your grace her entire being, so that she may love you with all her heart. May she always live in this love and be introduced one day to the joy of your kingdom, through Christ our Lord.

‘A house of prayer and a temple of intercession for all people.’ Prayer really is our life and is always intimately and essentially connected with love - God’s love for us and our response in love - however fragile that response may be. “In the midst of the Church our growth in love, is mysteriously fruitful for the whole people of God,” - which means that our vocation in not for ourselves alone but transcends the limits of the monastery and is of benefit to the Order, the Church and the whole world.

Due to limited time I will focus only on personal prayer.

Prayer is a gift of God that we receive. It is fundamentally not what we do but what God does in us, how God loves us, addresses us, looks at us, enlightens us, forgives us, heals us, purifies us and eventually transforms us – if we let Him! We are on the receiving end. In prayer God gives us Himself in love and God’s love is total and unconditional:

‘I have loved you with an everlasting love and so I am constant in my affection for you’(Jer 31:3)

and

‘You are precious in my eyes and I love you’ ( Is. 43:4)

Words cannot express the Reality of God or the lived experience of praying - of communing with God in the silence of our hearts. God will always remain the great Mystery, Awesome, Transcendent, and Incomprehensible – beyond words, ideas and images. Yet, thankfully we have Jesus, the revelation of the Father and through baptism it is in him that we ‘live and move and have our being’(Acts 17:28). Union with God is not something we have to acquire; God is already the ground of our being. ‘God is your being and what you are you are in God’ – as the author of the Book of Privy Counselling assures us. It is more a question of realising this in our lives and living out of the truth of this realisation.

For many years now I have been very taken with, and influenced by Ruth Burrow’s understanding of prayer and the mystical life. (she is a contemplative Carmelite nun and writer) In her book, Essence of Prayer, she says:

‘The mystical life is the human person becoming more and more receptive to the inflowing of divine love, which as it enters, of necessity, purifies and transforms.’

– but the mystical life is not basically other than the Christian life, says our own Fr. Marie-Dominque Chenu OP.

In prayer, this emphasis on our participation through ‘ receiving’ leads to my own conviction that it is at the time of personal prayer when, as the psalmist instructs, we must try to:
‘ Be still and know that I am God’

when our bodies become still and our minds become silent, through whatever means is helpful to us, -that God can achieve in us the greatest purification and transformation that is so necessary through the inflowing of divine love – as I quoted earlier ’the human person becoming more and more receptive to the inflowing of divine love which, as it enters, of necessity purifies and transforms’. In allowing ourselves just to ‘be’ there for God, - not doing anything, not ‘saying’ prayers or making petitions (good as this is but not at this particular time) – just being silently aware of God’s presence and allowing Him to heal us and love us - receiving this love passively and surrendering our whole being to this powerful, silent, hidden, secret action of God - this type of prayer, I firmly believe, is of vital importance in all our lives. Fidelity to it and persevering in it is, as contemplatives, our greatest contribution to the preaching mission of the Order, the Church and the world.

True prayer means wanting God not self. Our own documents on the Contemplative Life affirms this when it says:

“withdrawal from the world for the sake of leading a more intense life of prayer in solitude is nothing other than a very particular way of living and expressing the paschal mystery of Christ, which is death ordained towards resurrection”(Venite Seorsum 1)

The more we pray, the more time and commitment we give to being with God, the more we are purified within and this inevitably is painful. Direct contact with divine love is deeply disturbing. The love of God, all self-giving, confronts our terrified self-protecting, would-be self-reliant, autonomous self and this produces deep pain. Accepting and surrendering to this pain, this process of purification, by staying with God in prayer, is a tremendous challenge and a great grace. It would be all too easy to avoid this painful encounter by distracting ourselves by doing things, becoming involved in projects that are good in themselves, multiplying contacts, etc but to do that in our life, to avoid this stark encounter with God during this particular time of prayer, would be a form of escape, - that is how I see it.

Meister Eckhart encourages us :
‘Do not waver from your emptiness’

Yes, prayer requires great poverty of spirit. It is helpful to remember that prayer takes place at the deepest level of our person and escapes direct knowledge and indeed is beyond our understanding; therefore we can make no judgement about it. Where it takes place, in our deepest self is God’s holy domain and we have to trust it utterly to Him. This is one of the principal ways in which we surrender control.

We must be ready to believe that ‘nothingness’ is the presence of divine Reality; emptiness is a holy void that Divine Love is filling. We must give up wanting assurances either from within or without. The inflowing of God into our secret depths of its very nature must remain secret as John of the Cross tirelessly insists: ‘…. it happens secretly in darkness, hidden from the faculties….so hidden that the soul cannot speak of it.’ But its effect on our life as a whole will be marked – chiefly by growth in love and selflessness.

On this subject of love Fr Anselm Moynihan OP has written;

‘The contemplative life is truly par excellence the vocation of love, that which gives the highest expression to our love for God and at the same time provides the greatest stimulus to the increase of that love. That is why it is so vital to the Church, for it nourishes the very heart of the Church, the life-spring of all its work of bearing witness to God’s glory and the saving of souls.’

In nourishing the heart of the Church it nourishes the preaching heart of the Order and indeed the heart of the world. In Pope Benedict’s Pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland (no. 14) he asks that monasteries organise periods of Eucharistic Adoration so that:

“through intense prayer before the Real Presence of the Lord, you can make reparation for the sins of abuse that have done so much harm, at the same time imploring the grace of renewed strength and a deeper sense of mission on the part of all bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful. I am confident that this programme will lead to a rebirth of the Church in Ireland in the fullness of God’s own truth, for it is the truth that sets us free.”

In response to this request by Pope Benedict, we have one hour each Friday, 4:45pm – 5:45pm of silent Eucharistic Adoration for this intention, when all the community are present and as many of the faithful as possible. The invitation is open to all.

I would just like to finish with a quote from letter IV of Blessed Jordan to Blessed Diana, which helps to explain how our preaching stories complement one another: Jordan writes to Diana:

“What you achieve in your stillness, I achieve by moving from place to place: all this we do for love of Him. He is our sole end.”

Indeed no matter what branch of the Order we belong to, we, like St. Dominic, whose deepest source of inspiration was his love of Jesus Christ, do all for love of Him. Love of Jesus is the source and goal of our lives.

Monastery Open Days

2010-06-28T10:43:00.003+01:00

We plan to hold a few open days during the coming months. Please click on the Poster below view a larger version.

The Rosary and Dominican Nuns

2010-06-17T21:11:00.004+01:00

The following is a short reflection on my vocation as a contemplative Dominican nun, in the light of the five joyful mysteries of the Rosary - text of a presentation given recently to a group of young people .

The Annunciation

St Thomas Aquinas likes to maintain that Jesus was the first Dominican, and I’m not saying that he was wrong! But we know that St Dominic established the nuns before his brother preachers, and in the first joyful mystery, we see Mary, called by God, invited to be His mother, to be the one through whom He would come into the world, and give Himself - entirely - to us and for us. You see, Mary … before Jesus!

I was thinking about this over the past while, and I think it is true to say that joining the Legion of Mary was the first thing I did for myself, as being something I really wanted to do. We were at Mass one Sunday, and a Legionary had got up to speak a bit about their mission, to encourage us to think about joining them. I had wanted to do something more for God than just go to Mass on Sundays, and this seemed to be a way that I could make some kind of return to Him for all He had done for me. It was a pretty amazing foundation – being among people for whom God is supremely important. The Lord had blessed me with a strong sense of Himself, I would even say a desire for Him, and this was how I thought I could express that, live it out. In the Legion, I could at last let Him in more, show Him how much He mattered to me. And it was a place where I could learn to love Mary – freely and deeply.

My first contact with the Dominicans came through the Legion – and they seemed to be able to reach or touch me deepest need for God – to awaken a string desire for Him that only He could satisfy. My ‘Annunciation’ came at a ‘Credo’ weekend, hosted by the Dominicans, during a lecture on the ‘Four Last Things’ (!) And so, I eventually arrived here, in Siena: full of wonder, amazement, joy – that God wanted only me, but all of me, for Himself. Mary, before she set out, said ‘yes’ to God’s will and I’m sure she must have spent some amount of deep, deep time in prayer with the Lord, utterly humbled and grateful for such a tremendous gift.

The Visitation

But she set out – as quickly as she could – to visit Elizabeth – to share her joy – to share God: because no matter how full of grace she was – no one can contain God. None of us; I think if we tried we’d explode – even Mary, whose capacity for Him was far beyond ours. And in the monastery, this is our second joyful mystery too. Initially, the coming is a personal response to God for us ourselves; but, like Mary, we can’t be touched by His love and not want to give it away- to the whole world. We are invited to love like God – to give ourselves away, and more, to give God away – to others and for others. And even though it leaves you empty – there’s tremendous richness in the emptiness, great joy – a gift that God in His love helps you to accept. (But you have to learn how to accept it!)

The Nativity

And the Word was made flesh … I think this mystery is too great, you could spend a lifetime trying to come to appreciate the wonder that God came to live and move among us, out of sheer love.
He Whom Mary had been promised, was now, after so long waiting to meet Him, was in her arms – He Whom she had been able to shelter and protect, was now born. All that time of waiting was her time with Him, but now she must begin to give Him away, because we are in such desperate need of Him.

The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

I think Mary, in this mystery, is amazingly courageous, a great teacher and example. Watch her, carrying her Life in her arms, and returning it to God. Her love for this Baby must have been so all-consuming; all her hope, her love, her life, was bound to this Baby, and what did she do? … Gave Him away – gave Him back to God.
This too is our life in the monastery, always to acknowledge the greatness of God – to take all that He has given us – our whole lives- everyone we have been given to love: family, friends, people we’ve been asked to pray for – every day, to come to God and to entrust them all to Him, in thanksgiving and in love. To be that empty – to give Him our very breath – this is our life. The most amazing gift He has given me, is that sharing a little in His vision – that I can see that I have nothing if I don’t have God first; but if I give the Lord everything: all my desire, all my love, all my hope - if I let Him take everything I am, so that I am left empty – then I can be stretched and He makes room in me for more … of Himself. And I have discovered powerfully that He is doing that all the time.

Mary finds Jesus in the Temple

What can I say? The Eucharist is the heart and centre of our whole life – and however empty we are, how ever long the emptiness lasts – the Lord never fails to find us. There are, of course, times when we’re hanging on by the skin of our teeth – but He never lets us go. And I am blessed, because I know, that when I am lost, I am lost in God. I may not always be able to see Him, but I can hang on because He is nearer to me – deeper in me - than I am to myself.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

Sr Niamh's Profession - photos

2010-06-10T20:35:00.030+01:00

We are sorry that it has taken us so long to share Sr Niamh's profession photos - the ones taken in the chapel are rather dark -due mainly to the fact that our chapel is extremely bright and therefore photos tend to come out dark!

Prostration at beginning of ceremony when the sister being professed asks for God's mercy and that of the community.

Sr Mairead, Prioress, questions Sr Niamh regarding her readiness to make profession.

Sr Niamh makes profession in the hands of Sr Mairead, prioress.

Sr Niamh's veil is blessed and she receives a ring.

Afterwards with some of our sisters and some Dominican friars

Sr Niamh planting a tree which her family presented her in memory of the occasion: pictured here with Jos our gardener and Micheal who is giving a helping hand in the garden during his summer holidays from college

Sr Niamh shares a joke with Sr M Teresa and Cathy

Later in the week we celebrated as a community - Sr Niamh and Sr M Teresa (her novitiate companion), dressed in work clothes, treated us all to afternoon tea with samples of their homemade delicious confectionary while at the same time entertaining us with funny skits.
And of course our celebrations would not be complete without a party in the novitiate in honour of the occasion

Pope Benedict XVI on St Thomas Aquinas

2010-06-03T20:46:00.002+01:00

We share with our readers Pope's Benedict's catechesis on the great Dominican saint and doctor of the Church, St Thomas Aquinas. It is worth quoting in full:

After a few catecheses on the priesthood and my latest trips, we return today to our principal theme, namely, to the meditation on some of the great thinkers of the Middle Ages. We saw recently the great figure of St. Bonaventure, Franciscan, and today I would like to speak of him whom the Church calls the Doctor Communis, namely St. Thomas Aquinas.

In his encyclical "Fides et Ratio," my venerated predecessor, Pope John Paul II recalled that "the Church has been justified in consistently proposing St. Thomas a master of thought and a model of the right way to do theology" (No. 43). It is not surprising that, after St. Augustine, among the writers mentioned in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, St. Thomas is quoted more than any other -- some 61 times! He was also called the Doctor Angelicus, perhaps because of his virtues, in particular the loftiness of his thought and purity of life.

Thomas was born between 1224 and 1225 in the castle that his family, noble and wealthy, owned in Roccasecca, on the outskirts of Aquino and near the famous abbey of Montecassino where he was sent by his parents to receive the first elements of his instruction. A year or so later he transferred to Naples, the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily, where Frederick II had founded a prestigious university. There he was taught, without the limitations in force elsewhere, the thought of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, to whom the young Thomas was introduced, and whose great value he intuited immediately.

But above all, during those years spent in Naples, his Dominican vocation was born. In fact, Thomas was attracted by the ideal of the order founded not many years earlier by St. Dominic. However, when he was clothed in the Dominican habit, his family opposed this choice, and he was obliged to leave the convent and spend some time with the family.

In 1245, now older, he was able to take up again his path of response to God's call. He was sent to Paris to study theology under the guidance of another saint, Albert the Great, about whom I spoke recently. Albert and Thomas forged a true and profound friendship and they learned to esteem and wish one another well, to the point that Albert wanted his disciple to follow him also to Cologne, where he had been invited by the superiors of the order to found a theological study. Thomas now made contact with all of Aristotle's works and with his Arab commentators, which Albert illustrated and explained.

In that period, the culture of the Latin world was profoundly stimulated by the encounter with Aristotle's works, which had been ignored for a long time. They were writings on the nature of knowledge, on the natural sciences, on metaphysics, on the soul and on ethics, rich in information and intuition that seemed valid and convincing. It was a whole complete vision of the world developed without and before Christ, with pure reason, and it seemed to impose itself on reason as "the" vision itself; hence, it was an incredible fascination for young people to see and know this philosophy. Many received with enthusiasm, and some with acritical enthusiasm, this enormous baggage of ancient learning, which seemed to be able to renew the culture advantageously, to open totally new horizons. Others, however, feared that Aristotle's pagan thought was in opposition to the Christian faith, and they refused to study him. Two cultures met: the pre-Christian culture of Aristotle, with his radical rationality, and the classic Christian culture.

Certain environments were led to refuse Aristotle, as well as the presentation that was made of this philosopher by the Arab commentators Avicenna and Averroes. In fact, they were the ones who transmitted Aristotelian philosophy to the Latin world. For example, these commentators had taught that men do not have a personal intelligence, but that there is only one universal intellect, a common spiritual substance for all, which operates in all as "the only one," hence, a de-personalization of man. Another disputed point made by the Arab commentators was that the world is eternal like God. Understandably, endless disputes were unleashed in the university and ecclesiastical realms. Aristotelian philosophy was being spread, even among simple people.

Thomas Aquinas, in the school of Albert the Great, carried out an operation of fundamental importance for the history of philosophy and theology, I would say for the history of culture: He studied Aristotle and his interpreters in depth, obtaining new Latin translations of the original texts in Greek. Thus, he no longer relied only on the Arab commentators, but could read the original texts personally, and he commented on a great part of the Aristotelian works, distinguishing what was valid from what was doubtful or to be refuted all together, showing the consonance with events of Christian revelation and using Aristotelian thought at length and acutely in the exposition of the theological writings he composed. In short, Thomas Aquinas showed there is a natural harmony between Christian faith and reason. And this was the great work of Thomas, who in that moment of encounter between two cultures -- that moment in which it seemed that faith should surrender before reason -- showed that they go together, that what seemed to be reason incompatible with faith was not reason, and what seemed to be faith was not faith, in so far as it was opposed to true rationality; thus he created a new synthesis, which shaped the culture of the following centuries.

Because of his excellent intellectual gifts, Thomas was recalled to Paris as professor of theology in the Dominican chair. Here he also began his literary production, which he continued until his death, and which is something prodigious: commentaries on sacred Scripture, because the professor of theology was above all interpreter of Scripture, commentaries on Aristotle's writings, powerful systematic works, among which excels the Summa Theologiae, treatises and discourses on several arguments. For the composition of his writings, he was helped by some secretaries, among whom was Brother Reginald of Piperno, who followed him faithfully and to whom he was tied by a fraternal and sincere friendship, characterized by great confidence and trust. This is a characteristic of saints -- they cultivate friendship, because it is one of the most noble manifestations of the human heart and has in itself something of the divine. Thomas himself explained this in the Summa Theologiae, in which he wrote: "Charity is man's friendship with God primarily, and with the beings that belong to him" (II, q. 23, a.1).

He did not stay a long and stable time in Paris. In 1259, he participated in the General Chapter of the Dominicans at Valenciennes where he was member of a commission that established the program of studies for the order. Then, from 1261 to 1265 Thomas was in Orvieto. Pope Urban IV, who greatly esteemed him, commissioned him to compose the liturgical texts for the feast of Corpus Domini, which we celebrate tomorrow, instituted after the Eucharistic miracle of Bolsena. Thomas had an exquisitely Eucharistic soul. The very beautiful hymns that the liturgy of the Church sings to celebrate the mystery of the real presence of the Body and Blood of the Lord in the Eucharist are attributed to his faith and his theological wisdom. From 1265 until 1268, Thomas resided in Rome, where, probably, he directed a Studium, namely a House of Study of the Order, and where he began to write his Summa Theologiae (cf. Jean Pierre Torrell, "Tommaso d'Aquino. L'uomo e il teologo" [Thomas Aquinas: The Man and the Theologian], Casale Monf., 1994, pp. 118-184).

In 1269 he was recalled to Paris for a second cycle of teaching. The students -- understandably -- were enthusiastic about his lessons. A former student of his said that a great multitude of students followed Thomas' courses, so much so that the classrooms barely succeeded in containing them. He added, with a personal annotation, that "to listen to [Aquinas] was for him a profound happiness." The interpretation of Aristotle given by Thomas was not accepted by everyone, but even his adversaries in the academic field, such as Goffredo di Fontaines, for example, admitted that the doctrine of Brother Thomas was superior to that of others for usefulness and value, and that it served as a corrective to those of all the other doctors. Perhaps to extricate him from the lively discussions under way, his superiors sent him once again to Naples, to be at the disposition of King Charles I, who intended to reorganize university studies.

In addition to studying and teaching, Thomas was also dedicated to preaching to the people. And the people willingly went to hear him. I would say that it is truly a great grace when theologians are able to speak with simplicity and fervor to the faithful. The ministry of preaching, moreover, helps the scholars of theology themselves to a healthy pastoral realism, and enriches their research by lively stimulation.

The last months of Thomas' earthly life remained surrounded by a particular atmosphere -- I would say a mysterious atmosphere. In December 1273, he called his friend and secretary Reginald to communicate to him the decision to interrupt all work because, during the celebration of Mass, he had understood, following a supernatural revelation, that all he had written up to then was only "a heap of straw." It is a mysterious episode, which helps us to understand not only Thomas' personal humility, but also the fact that all that we succeed in thinking and saying about the faith, no matter how lofty and pure, is infinitely exceeded by the grandeur and beauty of God, which will be revealed to us fully in Paradise. A few months later, always more absorbed in a thoughtful meditation, Thomas died while traveling to Lyon, where he was going to take part in the ecumenical council called by Pope Gregory X. He died in the Cistercian Abbey of Fossanova, after having received the Viaticum with sentiments of great piety.

The life and teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas could be summarized in an episode handed down by the ancient biographers. While the saint, as was his custom, was praying in the morning before the crucifix in the Chapel of St. Nicholas in Naples, the sacristan of the church, Domenico da Caserta, heard a dialogue unfolding. Thomas was asking, worried, if what he had written on the mysteries of the Christian faith was right. And the Crucifix responded: "You have spoken well of me, Thomas. What will be your recompense?" And the answer that Thomas gave is that which all of us, friends and disciples of Christ, would always wants to give: "Nothing other than You, Lord!" (Ibid., 320).