Meeting of Dominican Nuns in Krakow

From the 5th to the 10th of September Dominican nuns from the region of Europe which is outside Italy, France and Spain met at a Vincentian retreat centre at Krzeszowice near Krakow.  We came from the monasteries of Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Vilnius, Oslo, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal (Fatima) and Srs Mairead and Breda from our community in Drogheda.  fr Brian Pierce OP the promoter for the Dominican  nuns was present throughout the meeting.  fr Viktor Hofstetter OP, a former promoter gave some of the conferences and fr Józef Zborzil, Promotor of the Nuns in Poland, fr Krzysztof Popławski, the Polish Provincial were present as invited guests and for the last two days we were privileged to have fr Bruno Cadoré, the Master of the Order with us - we greatly appreciated the fact that fr Bruno interrupted his work in S Sabina, Rome in order to come to share these days with us.

This is the third such meeting in recent years - the first being in Prague in 2005 and the second in Sthrhlfeld, Germany in 2008. Our biggest problem in this region is the language barrier but we had an excellent group of Dominican brothers and sisters who provided us with simultaneous translation.  One sister suggested that we spoke four languages - Polish, English, German and the language of the heart!  The liturgy was celebrated in a different language each day and we ended the day with a silent Eucharistic Hour.

 

 

Nodoubt this beautifully refurbished retreat centre was an ideal setting for our meeting - with the possiblity for walks on the grounds and in a nearby wooded park and along a river bank.  Of course the beatiful sunshine and warm weather was an added bonus for us coming from Ireland where we have been waiting for summer since last June but it never arrived!!!

 

The theme of the meeting was 'Obedience and Freedom'- we were fortunate that all the conferences were in English.  fr Bruno's input was encouraging and inspiring as he presented his vision of the place of the nuns at the heart of the Order - a life centred on the Word of God - a life given for the mission of the Order - to preach and bear witness to the coming down among us of God's Son to the people He loves.

 

We had discussions in language groups with some plenary sessions as well as informal gatherings during free time. We spoke about how we can care for our elderly sisters and how to provide a good formation for the young women who join us. It is encouraging that while a number of monasteries in our region have closed in recent years others are receiving vocations again after a gap of several years. 

 

On Saturday evening we were treated to a festive supper followed by song and dance and lots of fun.

 

After lunch on Sunday we went by bus to the shrine of Divine Mercy and afterwards to the Dominican Priory where we received a most interesting talk about the history of the Domincans in this very house for almost 800 years - we then joined the brothers for Vespers followed by supper. The following morning it was time to say our good-byes promising to keep in contact with each other.

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to our Dominican Brothers

Our congratulations, prayers and best wishes to the five men who were accepted into the Order yesterday (September 14th is the feast of the Triumph of the Cross and is also the feast day of the Irish Dominican Province). Also to the two Brothers who made First Profession today. May God continue to bless you all in your formation as Friars Preaachers.

(Images from www.irishdominicanvocations.blogspot.ie)

Br Ronan O Dubhghaill, Br Philip Mulryne, Fr Stephen Hutchinson OP (novice master), Br Jesse Maingot, Br Adam Conroy and Br Matthew Farrell - after the five novices were clothed in the habit of the Dominican Order and began their novitiate in Cork

Fr Gregory Carroll OP (prior provincial), Br Kevin O Reilly OP, Br Murchadh O Madagain OP and Fr Philip McShane OP (outgoing novice master) after the first profession of the two brothers.

With the first profession of our two brothers today and the reception of our five new novices yesterday, the Irish Dominican friars now have 22 in formation at various stages. Please pray for them and those considering joining the Order and the friars who assist them.

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary- 8th September

Athough it is a  little late we feel it is worth while offering you this homily preached by our brother Brian Pierce, (promoter of the Dominican nuns) during a regional meeting of Dominican nuns which took place over the past week in Krakow, Poland.  We will be sharing with you some highlights of this meeting in due course.

 

 Gospel: Mt 1:1-16, 18-23

·        Novels and short stories are two of the most popular kinds of literature. The gospel we have just heard is certainly not a short story!  In fact, it’s a very long novel-like story – one that is still being written and lived today.

·        If we read carefully, we will see that this very loooong story has a colorful list of characters in it.  There’s a lot of brokenness and sin woven through that long list of names … but there is a lot of grace, too.  It is Joseph’s story, but because of God’s mysterious plan, it is also Mary’s story.  And that means it is also our story, too.

 

·        Today we celebrate Mary’s birth.  But our gospel begins long before her birth. Not even Dostoevsky could write a story with so much drama and mystery and passion and pain – and love!

 

·        God’s story is a profound story.  Hundreds of years, thousands of years flowed into a single moment in history: the boy named Joseph grew up to be a man who met the lovely girl named Mary.  God was so patient, so creative.  So many people played a part in this love story.  Abraham married Sarah. Boaz – the son of Rahab – married the Moabite woman, Ruth.  And Ruth – not even an Israelite – became the great-grandmother of King David!  What a story!  What a mystery!  It’s Joseph and Mary’s story, and Jesus’ story.

·        And it is our story, too!  Do we realize what that means?  Do we realize that God has guided this whole journey with love and mercy and forgiveness and grace?  Do we realize that God knew us before we were born?  Are we aware of that river of grace and love that flows through us, that molds us and transforms us?

 

·        As the Psalmist sings:  “Lord, I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! … When I was being made in secret, fashioned in the depths of the earth, your eyes foresaw my actions … my days were shaped, before one came to be.  How precious to me are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them (139: 13-17)!

 

·        God is not in a hurry.  It’s a long story, and we’ve been invited to be part of it, to walk and to dream, to laugh and to have doubts, to love and be forgiven. 

·        We will make mistakes – just like they did.  Just like King David did.  We will be confused – just like Joseph was.  But we will also say “yes.”  We will have moments of clarity and trust and we will say, “Here I am, Lord.  Send me.”

 

·        God is in no hurry.  Grace is like a good cup of tea.  It needs time to steep.  It takes many days and years and generations for God to tell his story.  

 

·        Today we celebrate Mary’s birth.  Holy Mary.  St. Mary.  She was once a little baby – but that was a long time ago.  When she was born, she had no idea what life would bring.  None of us do.  All we are asked to do is let God write the story into our hearts and minds and into our hands and our feet.  Where the story will take us we do not know.  Our task is to say “yes” and keep on walking.  Mary said “yes.”  And Joseph – after a very long and dark night of tears and struggle – also said “yes”.  And Dominic said “yes”.

 

·         And now it is our turn to say “yes”.  Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death.  Amen.

22nd Sunday - Year B

 

“In Him we live and move and have our being” – these words spoken by St Paul to the people of Athens in the Acts of the Apostles came to mind as I reflected on today’s Mass readings.

In the first reading Moses asks the question: “what great nation has its gods so close as the Lord our God is to us when we call upon him?  and what great nation is there that has laws and customs to match this whole Law that I put before you today?  Moses invites the people to listen and to put this Law into practice and he gives the reason why - so that they may have life! and may enter and take possession of the land which the Lord is giving to them.  For the Israelites we know that this land was Canaan or Palestine but for us Christians its meaning has been expanded beyond all imagining – St James in the second reading gives us a clue as he re-echoes a similar message: “it is all that is good, everything that is perfect which is given us from above; it comes down from the Father of all light.  By his own choice he made us his children by the message of the truth” …. And then he invites us to “listen and submit to the word which is planted in us and can save our souls.” Possession of the land in the Old Testament can now be translated as possession all the graces and blessings which have come to us through Christ – in a word the gift of Salvation – belonging to the family of the Trinity – sharing in the very relationship of the Son to the Father.   In the Gospel Jesus warns us against lip-service while our hearts are preoccupied with values contrary to his law – and invites us to listen saying: “listen to me all of you and understand.”

 

All three readings in one way or another invite us to listen - to look beyond the letter of the Law to what God is offering – to enter our hearts and reflect on the nearness of our God – to reflect on what we have received – the treasure which we carry in our hearts often without our being consciously aware of it.  Each and every human being has come forth from the hand of a loving God and is sustained in existence until we return to Him – “His is the breath that is in us and at his own bidding will He take it away.”  But for those of us who are baptised and receive the Eucharist - we live by the very life of Christ - as we have been hearing in the Gospel these past few weeks: “he who eats my flesh and drinks by blood lives in me and I live in him.”  And again “if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you will not have life in you.”  The life which Moses promised the Israelites in return for obeying the Law was only a shadow of the real life which God had in store for his people through Christ.  All growth in prayer and in our relationship with God implies that we become more and more aware of this treasure we carry within us and claim it as our own. 

 

With Moses we too can exclaim: “what great  nation has its gods so near as the Lord is to us” – “for in Him we live and move and have our being”.

Our Lady’s Assumption

A Reflection by one of our Sisters, for the Solemnity of the Assumption

Daughters of Sion - Come and see the maiden of Nazareth as she is borne to Heaven, to receive the crown prepared for her on the day of her heart’s desire. (cf Song of Songs throughout).

Mary, dear one, see where your Son stands behind our wall, he peers through the lattice, your Beloved lifts up his voice and says to you:

‘Come then my love,

my lovely one, come,

For see winter is past,

the rains are over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth –

the wheat fields are all golden for the harvest.

The season of reaping has come.

Ag Criost an Siol

Ag Chriost an Fowhar

in iothalin Dé.

Go dtugtar sinn –

into God’s garnering,

may you, Mary, be drawn,

and he, your Son, repeats his invitation

with growing urgency.

We can sense how God too, is yearning to have his Bride come home.

Come, then my love, my lovely one, come,

my dove hiding in the cleft of the rock

in the home of John the Beloved.

For your voice is sweet and your face comely.

Mary you are indeed wholly beautiful, my love,

and without blemish.

‘Because he that is mighty has done great things in you’. (Lk.1)

“Oh, to be with you Mary in this place where you are. To say nothing, to gaze at your face. To let the heart sing its own language. To say nothing, but only sing because one’s heart is full. Like the blackbird which follows its own idea in sudden bursts of song. Because you are beautiful, because you are immaculate. The woman full of grace at length restored, the creature in her first honour and full bloom. Just as she came forth from God at the dawn of original splendour”. (The Virgin at Noon by Paul Claudel.)

Draw us after you Mater Misericordiae and after this our exile show us too, the Blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus.

Novena to St Dominic - Day 9

At the beginning of the Libellus - Blessed Jordan’s account of the beginnings of the Order, we read: “God’s Providence raised up the Order of Preachers as a remedy for the perils of these latter days.”   Other early biographical documents describe the world into which Dominic was born as a “world wrapped in darkness where the light was sinking” - where Dominic “shone like a new star” and as a “light that would illuminate with its beams the whole world”  - a light not just for his own time but has continued to shine, through the members of his Order, down to our own day when the darkness and confusion seem to grow even more intense and widespread. We are all part of that darkness through our own sinfulness, blindness and stubbornness.  Yet as Christians and followers of Dominic we are also called to be light in the midst of the darkness of our time.

We notice that the darkness grows more intense as God seems to be increasingly forgotten and excluded from our society.  The remedy then is for us to become more aware of the all-encompassing Presence of God and to live our lives bathed in the light of that Presence – to radiate that presence to those around us as Dominic did.  Dominic we are told spoke only to God or about God – yet he was a wonderful companion to his brothers and sisters – always radiating compassion, gentleness and kindness.  

In his recent letter to the Order fr Bruno reminded us that “the Divine Office, the sanctification of the hours, is an act of faith for us that, despite our failings, brings us always into the Presence of God.”  And he continues: “By singing the story of the people of God (as we do in the psalms) in the midst of the world we can open a breach in our contemporary history – we sing of the promise of a Presence and a coming that projects the light of a promise of eternity into ordinary situations” – a promise glimpsed in the Book of Revelation where the heavenly “city is lit by the radiant glory of God and the Lamb was a lighted torch for it.”

This morning’s Mass readings (Jer 30; Mt 14) provide us with such examples of God’s gracious Presence in the midst of chaos.  The prophet Jeremiah addresses a people whose ‘wound is incurable and whose injury was past healing’ because of their infidelity to the covenant – yet in the midst of their brokenness God promises that their community will be set in His Presence.  In the Gospel Jesus comes in the midst of the storm – “if it is you” cries Peter “bid me come to you across the water.”  Jesus says “come.”  Peter takes the risk and walks on the water for a while but then sinks as soon as he takes his eyes off Jesus and begins to focus on himself – how familiar we all are with this experience!  Yet as soon as he cries for help Jesus stretches out His hand and holds him.  We open every hour of the Divine Office with a similar cry: ‘O God come to our aid! O Lord make haste to help us!’  Do we believe that Jesus is stretching out His hand to save us and those others for whom we offer our lives and carry in our hearts day by day, hour by hour?   To quote fr Bruno again: “To sing the liturgy hour after hour calls us to be convinced that the world is saved and heard even in the midst of its own noise.”  And he continues: “if we celebrate the liturgy of the Hours day after day and throughout the course of each day, it is so that our time is really, strongly, seized by the Presence and becomes a place to recall the mystery”.  No wonder that Dominic placed so much emphasis on the common celebration of the liturgy.  As nuns of the Order of Preachers the celebration of the liturgy is our primary means of preaching.  As we celebrate this feast of our holy Father Dominic we pray that through the worthy celebration of the daily liturgy we may open a breach to allow the radiant light of God’s presence to shine in the darkness of our world.

Novena to St Dominic - Day 8

Today’s liturgy leads us into the great mystery of the Transfiguration of our Lord, Jesus Christ. At Mass, we heard in the Gospel: “this is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him”. (Mk 9:8)

Each line in the Scripture is an expression of the Eternal Father’s Word, calling us to LISTEN to that Word so that we might have “life in abundance” (Jn 10:10).

Our entire existence is really a call to be a hearer and keeper of the Word of God. When we speak of hearing, it is FAITH first of all of which we speak. Thus ‘faith is the organ of hearing,’ and ‘believing and hearing the Word of God’ is one and the same.

For me, St. Dominic is the best teacher of listening and obeying the Living Word.

In the Legenda of St. Cecilia we are told “in the evening time, Dominic used to come to the sisters and give them a conference in his brethren’s presence, and he used to instruct them in the duties of the Order, for they had no other master than himself”.

This one sentence from the first generation of the Order is rich in meaning, it tells us that Dominic took pains to make sure that the nuns received a good formation in the Order, it is also significant that Dominic preached to the nuns in the brethren’s presence, for it tells us that the brethren and the nuns are formed together to be of one mind and heart. The brethren and the nuns were to share the same vocation, striving for the goal of Preaching for the salvation of souls, yet each according to their particular expression.

Dominic himself was formed by constant listening and reflection on the Scriptures. He was a man of freedom because he possessed a listening heart. Because he was totally united to Jesus, he was a man for others.

The Word of God is a living Being. We are called to be God’s presence in the world and we can fulfil that mission through our obedient listening and openness in being formed by the Gospel.

The Bible has been given to us, not for information but for transformation into Christ. It brings us into his own relationship with the Father. Listening is the time for being! It is the way of making full contact with Truth.

Preaching doesn’t so much raise the question “what am I to say? rather it asks “who am I? “Are we friends of God”? A friend refers to who I am, not what I am doing. A Preacher is first and foremost a friend of God.

The desire to know God is also a manifestation of the desire to be known by God, to be known fully, to be embraced and loved totally.

Preaching begins and ends in contemplation and silence. The search for God is at the heart of authentic preaching. Preaching is actually God searching for us. This is the spirituality of the Preacher. (Fr. Simon Tugwell O.P.) In the homily on the feast of the Transfiguration, Origen said: “The garments of Jesus are the expression and letters of the Gospels with which He has clothed Himself, these become white to those who go up into the high mountain along with Jesus”.

If you love Jesus, and do what he said, then you will become the same colour as Jesus!