Second Sunday of Advent Year A

 

While reflecting on this Sunday’s Readings I was attracted towards the First Reading from Isaiah- towards the peace and harmony portrayed and established between animals, nature and in this instance little children –to quote some lines;

The wolf lives with the lamb

…with a little boy to lead them.

The cow and the bear make friends.

The infant plays over the cobra’s hole;

into the viper’s lair

the young child puts his hand.

And then the following beautiful words bring us consolation and hope in the midst of our war torn, violent and suffering world:

They do no hurt, no harm,

on all my holy mountain,

for the country is filled with the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters swell the sea. 

If only this were the present reality! Yet, Advent is the season of hope and we are called to keep this hope alive. These beautiful words of Isaiah paint a panorama of the harmony that reigned at the dawn of creation, only to be broken by sin and  they also describe the messianic peace that will come about with the coming of the Messiah- of Jesus, our Saviour. John the Baptist asks us to prepare his way by seeking a change of heart – by repentance.

What struck me especially in this passage from the Old Testament were the three references to children – the little boy, the infant and the young child- children not adults were part of these scenes of peace and harmony. In connecting this  to the repentance and  change of heart recommended in the Gospel I was reminded of Jesus’ saying in Matthew 18:3 “ Unless you turn ( or have a change of heart) and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”. Or the passage in Luke ( 9:46-48)when an argument started between the disciples about which of them was the greatest and Jesus taking a little child, setting him by his side and saying anyone who welcomes this little child in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me. For the least among you all is the one who is the greatest.

What is this saying to me, to us? What can I learn from this?  What are some of the attributes of little children that Jesus had in mind? Would it be perhaps that little children are free because they are not locked in an ivory tower of worldly wisdom? They are free because they are open to receive. Karl Rahner notes that to think in terms of spiritual childhood, as Therese of Lisieux did when she proposed her Little Way, suggests openness – an openness to becoming true disciples of Jesus Christ.

Little children show they are free also by the way they live in the present moment, open to all and everyone around them: without trepidation in regard to the binding forces of the past or in a restricting fear of the future. I noticed that that passage is written in the present tense, even though it can also be interpreted for past and future events. Are we not all called to live in the present moment with full awareness of God’s presence both within and around us.

We could all gain so much if only we followed the way of childlike simplicity advocated by Jesus, the way of humility and trust that He himself modelled – daring to become the one the Lord calls each one of us to be; a vulnerable little child, one who both dares to show love and to allow one’s self to be loved, as only a little child knows how.

Then with all our defences down we can be sure of God’s favour, as in the words of this Sunday’s  psalm;

He, (God) shall save the poor when they cry

and the needy who are helpless.

He will have pity on the weak

and save the lives of the poor.

Lord, teach us all the way of spiritual childhood in simplicity, trust and humility of heart. When we are tempted to want to be in control teach us to realise that we are truly being held by you and cared for, by you. May we always find our true security in you.

 

 

 

Visit of the Master of the Order

On Thursday morning, 5th December, we had a most delightful visit from the Master of the Order, Frere Bruno Cadore OP  - he was accompanied by Fr Dominic Izzo OP and Fr Gerard Dunne, the vicar of the Master for our Monastery.  Fr Bruno and Fr Dominic are on visitation of the Irish Dominican Province at present.

For two hours he answered our questions and provided us with first hand news of the Dominican Order around the world.

 

 

 

 

Before leaving us we prayed together and Fr Bruno gave us his blessing

Our friends Michael and Bernadette (Lay Dominicans) and Mary helped at the reception and at the Eucharistic Adoration so that our community could be undisturbed during the visit - they were happy to have a photo taken with the Master.

 

Dominican Calendar for 2014 Published

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 2014 - which is available in our Monastery and at Dominican priories throughout Ireland.

 

In January 2011 a prayer initiative was launched to encourage prayer for Dominican vocations to all branches of the Order. The focus of this prayer initiative is an icon of Saint Dominic (show above on the front cover of the Calendar) which has been specially commissioned for this purpose. The launch took place in the monastery of the Dominican Nuns, Drogheda and since then this icon has journeyed to various Dominican centres throughout Ireland - each centre takes responsibility for intensive prayer for a period of 4 to 6 weeks. It is hoped that the image of the founder of the Dominican Order will draw people to reflect on his life and legacy and in turn, through his intercession, draw more men and women to follow the Lord in the Dominican way.

First Sunday of Advent - 2013

 

Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5

                 Romans: 13:11-14

                 Mt24:37-44

 



The Mass readings for this first Sunday of Advent provide us with a wake-up call: St Paul tells us “you must wake up now” and in the Gospel Jesus tells us to “stay awake!” while the Prophet Isaias invites us to “walk in the light of the Lord.”  So as we begin a new Church year we are invited to come into the light – to remove the blinds from the windows of our hearts and to let the light shine in – remembering that the true Light is Jesus Himself.  He is the True Light shining on us and who desires to penetrate and posses our inmost being.  

The struggle between light and darkness is a perennial one - it is the struggle in which we are all engaged – the struggle to keep our hearts free and not to allow ourselves to be enslaved by false attractions – the struggle to keep our hearts free for God alone.  It is the struggle about which Paul speaks in the letter to the Romans: “no drunken orgies, no promiscuity or licentiousness and no wrangling or jealousy.” And he advises us: “Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ; forget about satisfying your bodies with all their cravings.”   Today there is a lot of darkness in the world around us - at times it would seem that the powers of darkness are let loose but we know that the light will eventually triumph.   More than ever before it is necessary for us to “give up all the things we prefer to do under cover of the dark and arm ourselves and appear in the light.” We must let nothing enslave us or captivate our hearts or impede God’s light and love from shining through our lives to a needy world.  We all know how easily we can be enslaved by trifles – holding on to mere nothings.

We remember how Augustine’s life was transformed while reading this passage from the letter to the Romans: After years of struggle and resistance, in one instant he was free to break loose of his past and come into the light – or rather to allow the light to penetrate and show up the darkness.  All his fears fade away and now he is free to let the light shine in – reminding us of what Paul wrote to the Ephesians: ^“for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; ..Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them…..when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.  Therefore it is said,

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,

and Christ shall give you light.”

Just as in the case of Augustine, all our yesterdays lead us to the NOW of today and NOW is always new and different and must mean letting go of whatever hinders us from surrendering to the God who is lovingly awaiting our response.  Can we use these days of Advent to relax in the light of His presence and ask Him to draw back the blinds of our hearts and open our eyes and ears to His love streaming into our hearts?  The following quote from Jean Corbon’s book Path to Freedom seems apt:

“Our ultimate liberation is to open ourselves to a new presence, and the peak of our activity is to relax in the gratuitousness of receiving.  The more He frees us the more He gives Himself.  His gift is a presence of light.  Our task is to open the blinds of our prison and let in the rays of His light.”

 

May this light stream into our hearts this Advent enlightening “the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what is the hope to which He has called us”  and appreciate more deeply what He has already accomplished in us through Baptism – the sacrament of enlightenment - so that a ceaseless hymn of thanksgiving will spring forth from our hearts to “declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.”

I finish with this beautiful prayer of St Columbanus:

“Would that my lamp might ever burn by night in the temple of my Lord, that to all entering the house of my God it might give light. …Lord, grant me that love which knows no fall, so that my lamp may feel the kindling touch and know no quenching, may burn for me and for others may give light.  Do you, Christ, deign to kindle our lamps, that they may shine continually in your temple and receive perpetual light from you the light perpetual, so that our darkness may be enlightened and the world’s darkness may be driven from us.”

 

33rd Sunday - Year C



The beauty of nature – especially the trees – has been quite stunning this autumn – perhaps it is the result of the beautiful summer and autumn weather we have had.  Walking around the garden these past weeks I have watched the leaves change to various hues of green, gold, brown, yellow and red.  As I watched their beauty increase day by day I was drawn to reflect on the example of the tree.  At the very moment when its beauty seemed to be at its zenith, and one would wish it to remain so for ever, I noticed that the leaves gradually began to fall to the ground.

The trees did not resist but allowed their beautiful garments of leaves to fall one by one to the ground – to wither and die in the soil which in turn will nourish the new growth which will blossom in Spring.  If we look closer we will notice that this new life is already in a tiny bud – hidden and well wrapped which pushes the leaves off the branch.  The tree seems totally detached and is prepared to stand in its nakedness to face the cold frost and snow, the wind and rain of winter confident that this new life will spring forth in all its beauty with the warm rays of Spring sunshine.  And so the cycle repeats itself.

Can I learn something from the example of the tree by being prepared to let go of all that I cherish and that I cling to whether it be real or illusory and be willing to expose my naked being to the “Sun of Righteousness” who shines lovingly on me with “healing in its rays?”  Just as the sap hidden and at work in the tree brings about this rhythm of growth and transformation – of dying and rising again – so the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, living in us since our Baptism is always at work within us – even in the midst of all kinds of difficulties, of war and natural disaster, hatred and deception as described in this morning’s Gospel. 

 

This pattern of new birth, growth to full flowering and decay is renewed year after year in nature, and in the process the tree grows in strength and beauty.  Does something analogous to this happen in our spiritual lives if we allow ourselves to be disturbed and guided by God’s Holy Spirit in our day to day lives, confident that we are in His hands and that “not a hair of our head will be lost” as He promised us in this morning’s Gospel.

The Rosary - our Dominican heritage

As October draws to a close it seems fitting to call to mind once again the powerful gift entrusted to us in the Holy Rosary, this extraordinary Gospel prayer in which is so beautifully intertwined our Contemplative gaze on God and our Apostolic outreach to the world and its needs.

One of the most appealing aspects of the Rosary is its versatility. It is truly a prayer for all seasons of life, all stages of growth, all moods and humours.

Through it we can be brought into wrapt attention, lost in God, as the rhythmic cadence of the repetitive Hail Mary stills our bodies, quietens our minds and brings us into the depths of our own being where God simply is and we are simply present with Him.

There are other times when the mysteries themselves hold our attention, coming alive for us. These are times of great reflective fruitfulness when new insights into God and his ways light up our path and renew our enthusiasm for God and the things of God, making it possible for the Word to become flesh in us.

Then there are the days when we feel lost and lonely, anguished and confused and the Rosary becomes our lifeline. We don’t know how to pray .We are too agitated and distressed to quieten down but by picking up the beads and just vocally repeating the prayers we are expressing with our bodies our desire to be one with Jesus in His Sufferings. At these times we are perhaps most truly Mary’s children, sick wounded hurting, fearful for ourselves or for others, but holding on to mammy’s hand and leaving it to her to explain to Jesus the Divine Physician  of our bodies minds and spirits what ails us and what grace we need from each mystery. In each hail Mary we pray ‘pray for us sinners’ but at times like this Mary not only intercedes for us but we leave her to pray for us, do our praying for us. I learnt to pray like this when I was very ill and was too weak to concentrate. Like all loving mothers except much more so, Mary knows us better than we know ourselves and if we just somehow remain there, she will untangle all the knots and the very chains that bind us will be the same ones that draw us with her into Heaven.

At all times the Rosary can be a powerful prayer of intercession but especially in times of suffering and neediness it can move us out of our preoccupation with our selves. We may begin off focusing on the mysteries longing for them to bring us relief but gradually something inside us changes. As we unite our suffering with those of Jesus He gives us his awareness of the needs of all for whom He suffered. He expands our hearts to care for others, to desire their salvation, to want relief for them in their pain, to want them to know as we ourselves know the compassion and comfort of our loving Saviour. In our anguish we can look around us and ask that by his wounds someone else in anguish may have the peace our hearts long for. Our pain becomes a gift when it opens us to the pain of others. It becomes something to be grateful for, something we can even choose to accept if our suffering united to those of Jesus can be of help to someone else. This is the transforming power of the Rosary, this is the mysteries being active in us.

When we have been hurt or when we have hurt others lingering with the sorrowful mysteries can bring healing and penitence. They can teach us how to love, how to forgive, how to understand.

There are times when we are aware of receiving great grace and insight as we pray our Rosary but there are too the long days of simply being faithful to our recitation, allowing the mysteries to unconsciously create the atmosphere in which we live, the very familiarity of the prayer almost imperceptibly making God present, as it were. I always think of my grand parents in this context. At night they would sit together watching TV and as bedtime approached they would turn off the TV and take out their beads. Still sitting together on the sofa they would begin their prayer. By that simply act of taking up the beads, an act as routine as brushing their teeth, a ritual done daily without fail, they changed a place of recreation into a place of deep prayer. To be with them at that time was to be in the presence of God.

As the years begin to creep up on us and old age manifests itself in numerous little ways, making us a little fearful if not of death then perhaps at least of the process of dying, the Glorious mysteries may become specially precious. It is good to reflect on the home coming that awaits us. It helps to look forward in certain hope to the joys of the Resurrection. The Glorious Mysteries remind us that our life is the story of our return to the Father’s house. Jesus has gone before us to prepare a place for us and at the right time He will come to take us to Himself. The assurance that Jesus is coming closer, reaching out to draw us into his embrace where we will be with Him forever provides comfort and brings peace.

Queen of the most Holy Rosary, in life and in death, show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus

 

 

In Praise of the Riches of Autumn

 

The world is charged with the glory of God – so wrote the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins – glory to Him for all the beauty of creation.

For simple things that we take so much for granted – water supply and food and air, for lions and tigers and grass-hoppers alike – spiders and peacocks and swallows “on the run”.

For giving us food from the soil, brown bread from an ear of corn and wine from the vine to keep us cheerful.

Now in these autumn days we thank you Father for the berries in black-berry bushes and fruits and hazel-nuts – for the beauty of autumn colours with their variety of hues of soft browns and golden yellow orange tints – bright reds to catch the little birds eye.  Praise to you too for those glorious sunrises and sunsets that artists and poets never tire of proclaiming by word or brush.

The eye marvels at all the richness, our minds are stilled and amazed as after the summer heat falls the reviving dew.  Eccl.43

“Harvester God, as the Autumn suns ripen the grain – Ripen our souls too.
As the brown leaves fall and the sheaves of corn are stored away,
help us to leave behind the cares of Summer
and go forward with deepening compassion and trust” – Sr.Marie O.S.U.

“The heavens and the earth are indeed telling of the glory of God,

and all creation is singing for joy - -

Come, come dance through the leaves that scatter our paths

and sing, sing to the glory of God”.

“cf. Canticle of the Sun’’ Marty Haugen