Reflections on St Dominic - a man of prayer

We sing the following antiphon at Lauds on the feast of St Dominic: “Dominic prayed, prayed without ceasing, prayed both night and day.”  Dominic as we know is the founder of a preaching Order but the most striking characteristics, highlighted in the process of canonisation and in Blessed Jordan’s account of the beginnings of the Order, the Libellus, describe Dominic, first and foremost, as a man of prayer – prayer was the source from which his preaching flowed.  Dominic preached by his way of life long before he founded his Order and even while devoting himself to preaching the Gospel throughout Europe he continued his practice of unceasing prayer.  It comes as no great surprise then that ten years before he gathered together his friars preachers he had already gathered, in the monastery of Blessed Mary of Prouilhe, a group of women converts whom he associated with his ‘holy preaching’ by their prayer and penance.  Throughout the eight hundred years of the Order’s existence down to the present day Dominican contemplative nuns have been associated with the preaching of their brothers and sisters who ‘preach the name of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the world.’

“Imitation of Blessed Dominic as he imitated Christ” is the ideal set before us Dominican Nuns in our Constitutions and we are urged to perpetuate his “fervour and spirit of prayer” by harmoniously ordering our whole life to preserving the continual remembrance  of God while striving to have the same mind as Christ Jesus.  Dominic’s unceasing prayer led him to have the same mind as Christ – fruit of the gift of the Holy Spirit - Blessed Jordan says that Master Dominic always communed with God and the angels even while living in this mortal flesh.  This unceasing communing with God flowed from his study of sacred truth especially the Holy Scriptures – he always carried with him the Gospel of Matthew and the Epistles of St Paul and knew them by heart.  Blessed Jordan tells us that Dominic was “adept at keeping God’s Word” for he “warmly accepted the Lord’s commands” and “welcomed the voice of his Lover with loyalty and pleasure” – Jordan uses the lovely image of comparing Dominic’s memory to a “kind of barn for storing God’s Word” but he did not just hold on to it for himself - no it bore fruit in his way of life – “his external behaviour and actions broadcast publicly the treasure that lay hidden in his holy breast.”

Dominic “haunted the church by day and by night, devoting himself ceaselessly to prayer – weeping and interceding on behalf of sinners, the afflicted and oppressed whose distress he bore in the inmost shrine of his compassion.”  His special prayer was for the gift of true charity which would enable him to “spend himself utterly in winning souls” in imitation of the Lord Jesus who offered himself entirely for our salvation.  Frequently on his travels he would suggest to his brothers that they would think about the Saviour and Fra Angelico, one of the early friars, frequently depicted Dominic at the foot of the Cross – the book of the art of love - meditating on the sufferings of the Saviour.   Just as Dominic’s apostolic zeal sprang from his contemplation of the Cross so too we the nuns of the Order invited take our place with Mary and Dominic at the foot of the Cross, embrace the Cross in our daily lives and unceasingly beg for God’s mercy for ourselves and the whole world.

In his recent Apostolic Constitution to Contemplative women, Pope Francis tells us that our prayer and contemplation is chiefly “nourished by the ‘scandalous beauty’ of the Cross” and says that the Church counts on the life of prayer and self-sacrifice in bringing the Good news to the men and women of our time. 

As we celebrate this Jubilee Year of the Order and that of Diving Mercy, may our holy Father St Dominic intercede for us that we may remain faithful to our life of prayer and self-sacrifice in the heart of the Order and of the Church in the midst of our modern world.

Preparing for the Feast of St Dominic during this Jubilee Year

It is our custom to have a novena of prayer each year in preparation for the feast of our father Dominic - in recent years this consists of a short reflection on some aspect of St Dominic's life followed by the following beatiful antiphon to St Dominic before Vespers each evening:

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 prayer.

You shone on the bodies of so many 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 prayer.

We are  happy to share with our readers some of our reflections

A reflection on the ‘ O Lumen’ (an antiphon which we sing to St Dominic daily at Night Prayer after the Salve Regina)

O light of the Church,

 Doctor of truth,

 Rose of patience,

Ivory of chastity,

Water of wisdom freely given

 Preacher of grace lead us to the blessed.

2016--------Wake up the world !

1216--------Dominic did just that !

 Dare we dream to be as he was?:

A flaming torch setting the world ablaze

   With God the Father’s love, mercy and compassion.

A lover of truth, who speaks the truth, acts truthfully

And walks with The Truth, Christ.

A fragrant incense rising up from the sacrifice

    Of a self giving love

A strong, pure presence  reaching out to humanity

With the joy of an undivided heart

A gentle counselor speaking a life-giving word 

that can pierce the ignorance of hearts and minds 

with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit

 An ardent preacher of the beauty and efficacy

of God’s friendship with humanity 

and leading it into the presence of the Blessed Three in One .

Yes ,we dare to dream!      

Holy Father Dominic relying on your intercession 

may our dream come true.

Attending an Online Summer School

Once again, as good Dominicans we are preparing through communal study to celebrate our Founder's feast next week (8th August). We are in the middle of a two week Online Summer School run by the Priory Institute. 

The course is called "Communion - The Church's Self-Understanding"  and it is excellent. We strongly recommend it to anyone reading this. It is given by Fr John Harris OP and deals with "the central teaching of the Second Vatican Council." It is a series of 10 lectures over two weeks and because it is online we can watch the lecture at any time of the day, and if we have to skip a day we can just watch it the next day. 

For more information, or to register, visit the Priory Institute's Summer School page - here.

Reflection on Mass Readings for 13th Sunday, Cycle C

1st Reading: 1Kings 19:16; 19-21

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 15

2nd Reading: Gal 5:1;13-18

Gospel: Luke 9:51-62

The readings for today’s liturgy are very challenging as well as also being inspiring and encouraging.  Their message could be summed up in the opening prayer of the Mass which reads:

“O God who through the grace of adoption, chose us to be children of light, grant that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth.”

In the Gospel we see Jesus ‘resolutely taking the road to Jerusalem’ knowing that it would lead to His Passion and death – which would be the gateway to his Resurrection and glorification.  He sets the example and makes the same demands on us who claim to be his followers: ‘once the hand is laid to the plough’ He does not tolerate any turning back.  His words seem harsh and maybe inhumane according to worldly standards and we may even feel discouraged but the Responsorial Psalm assures us that the prize is high: It reads:

O Lord it is you who are my portion and cup / It is you yourself who are my prize

And continues:

You will show me the path of life / The fullness of joy in your presence.

If we are to avoid the ‘darkness of error’ and ‘live in the bright light of truth’ as the prayer exhorts us, we must always keep our eyes fixed on the goal, the prize – that is union with God – as we remember who we are through our Baptism i.e. beloved children of God, children of light whose home is no other than the divine family of the Holy Trinity. 

In the letter to the Galatians Paul urges us to be guided by the Spirit so that we will no longer yield to self-indulgence.  The Spirit is always inviting us, always drawing us out of our comfort zone into a new freedom – freedom from slavery to our own ego, our whims and self-seeking, freedom from the demands and expectations of an ungodly and faithless world around us.  When we respond with alacrity to the Spirit’s promptings in the little things of life, as Mary did, with ‘let it be done unto me’ we experience a new freedom and joy and are prepared to accept with courage the bigger crosses which come our way from time to time.

The Gospel message today is radical but let us remember that we are never alone – Christ is in us, with us, above us and below us as we sang in our Recessional hymn this morning.  We pray that we may always allow Him to be our Light, to shine in our hearts and shine through the darkness of our lives that we may always radiate the light of His truth in the darkness which often surrounds us.

“I’m going fishing” (Jn 21:3) - 3rd Sunday of Easter

 

Sometimes ‘doing Lectio’ can be very engaging from an imaginative perspective … which can lead to great depth, and very honest conversation with the Lord.

The beginning of the Gospel caught my imagination in this Sunday's Gospel.  It is interesting that St John named five of the seven who were with Peter by the lake of Tiberias, when he got up and said he was going fishing.  Who were the (unnamed) ‘two others’?  And what if I put myself in amongst them as one of the two?  What might the conversation have been?  If I had had the chance to ask a question or to direct the conversation, what would I have said?

You see, a little flight of the imagination, but what it led to was quite absorbing, and instructive … and challenging, as almost all Lectio is.

Here were seven men, who had gone about with Jesus, listened to His teaching and been attracted by the truth He taught; captivated by the hope He was holding out to them of what it meant really to be human and even the fact that they were sons of the Father and destined for an eternity of communion with God in heaven.

And yet, at that moment in time when Jesus most needed the support of their faith in Him, Peter had denied Him three times … but he was not the only one to do so … Jesus had foretold that they would all fall away (Mt 26:31), and indeed they did – spectacularly, if we are to follow Mark’s account (Mk 14:52). 

Maybe, then, they were gathered together, all of them understanding Peter’s sense of having let Jesus down, because they were all equally guilty of having deserted Him to save themselves. 

Jesus hade already manifested Himself to them on two previous occasions, according to St John, yet here they now were, seemingly aimless and waiting; maybe confused?  not quite understanding what all the recent events meant for them?  what were they supposed to do next?  How were they to proclaim and to preach the Gospel and ask people to repent and believe in Jesus, when they had so badly failed Him?  How could their preaching be authentic and true, when they had for a moment turned from it?

A question I thought I might ask, would be something along this train of thought:

“How do you know if you love Jesus, if it is so easy to betray Him?”

What form might the conversation have taken? 

Peter must certainly have felt it: he had been so vehement in asserting the strength of his commitment to Jesus that he said he would go even to death with Him (Lk 22:33).  “And so said all the disciples” (Mt 26:35).

This is the year of mercy, and it seemed that on asking such a question, the response would be one of mutual upbuilding on one level – seeking to encourage one another that their joy at His resurrection now, and their sorrow for having failed Him, must mean something.  Though they had shown themselves that their love had been rather fickle, still it wasn’t lacking; and their desire to be faithful now must count for something too.  The fact that He had shown Himself to them must restore their hope, and give them reason to believe that He would not forsake them, though they had forsaken Him.

In their being together, I think, while they may not have been able to answer the question with conviction, at least they were together.  They could talk about Jesus; remember Him; and together try to work out what it all meant: His breathing the Holy Spirit upon them, giving them the power to forgive sin.  Their whole lives had been turned upside-down by Jesus, and they understood somehow that life could never be the same again; but how must they now live?  How could they recover from their betrayal?  What were they to do and how were they to live?

And in the ordinary simplicity of ‘going fishing,’ Jesus came to them again.  He was after all the only one who could reassure them that He did indeed believe in their love for Him and that they in turn must not doubt it.  Through His forgiveness, He set them free to love Him more faithfully, more deeply, more truly.  And through their acceptance of His mercy, their confidence and hope was restored, and they were enabled after all to lay down their lives for Him (cf Jn 13:37).

There may be a powerful message here for us; for we are not so perfect as to be certain of our unfailing fidelity to God.  Our very tendency to sin is a fair witness to this fact; and it is possible in a world where faith is not held to be a virtue, to lose hope and to allow our failures to dictate the strength (or lack thereof) of our commitment.  It’s easier to fall away and to give up; to stay lying in the dust (Ps 119:25) than to get back on your feet and risk falling again and again and again … …. and again.

But today’s Gospel seems to be one which tells of hope and seeks to strengthen us when we fall: as Jesus so often said, ‘Do not be afraid!’  So let us not be afraid, but embrace the mercy He offers to us at every moment; and let His mercy help us to deepen our faith in Him and in our love for Him, and let it increase in us, so that His light – the light of Christ may never be extinguished.

 

 

16th April - Day of Prayer and Reflection; UPDATE

The 16th of April is fast approaching and below you can see a poster for the day.
Please feel free to download and share this poster. (Download in pdf form, here).

Reflection on the Readings for the 4th Sunday of Lent

“My son, my child, you are with me always and all I have is yours.”

We can never ever fathom this mystery of God’s unbounded love for us. He has given us everything. God who is love saying to each one of us:  “you are the recipient of my infinite love. I have sent my Son to live among you as one of yourselves; to die a most horrible death so that you might be with me forever --- if only you would listen and turn to him and accept our merciful and forgiving love.”

For me this morning’s readings at Mass help me to appreciate this tremendous gift. In the 1^st reading the Lord says to Joshua, “Today I have taken away the shame of Egypt from you.” Yes in this day of your baptism (remember it is always the eternal now within the Blessed Trinity) we too have been snatched away from the evil one and given a participation in the life of God Himself.

In the gospel the prodigal father, when his son repents of his sinful life, takes away the shame of his life of debauchery and the disgrace as a Jew of feeding pigs, so we in our turn as we draw close to Jesus and the Father are forgiven and clothed in the splendid robe of grace. Let us repeat over and over again, “it is all God’s work” for he has chosen us to be his very own by letting us live in Christ “who for our sake God the father made the sinless One Jesus into sin so that we might become the goodness of God.”

The responsorial psalm invites us, “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Blessed Julian of Norwich, the English mystic, in contemplating this mystery expresses it beautifully: “By His grace and help let us in spirit stand and gaze, eternally marvelling at the supreme, surpassing, single-minded, incalculable love that God in his goodness has for us. Then we can ask reverently of our lover whatever we will. For by nature our will wants God and the good will of God wants us. We shall never cease wanting and longing until we possess Him in fullness and joy. Then we shall have no further wants. Meanwhile His will is that we go on knowing and loving until we are perfected in heaven.”