Stay at a Sinner's House

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

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

“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.”