Happy Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary!
Here follows a reflection on the second joyful mystery - the Mystery of the Visitation of Our Lady to St Elizabeth.

We are 'opening' our Christmas shop, it's that time of year again!

This year, we are selling our cards in variety packs of either 6 or 12, or, as in previous years,
you can order packs of just one design, according to your preference.

Our sisters are also busy designing and making Christmas candles which will be available to order shortly.

Please feel free to download and share copies of this poster.

If you are interested in attending, or have any inquiries, please click (here).

Last Thursday (21st August) we had the privilege of hosting a very special tree planting, as part of the "St. Oliver 400" celebration of the National Heritage Week. The Oak sapling that was planted had been grown from an acorn taken from one of the Oak trees, which stood on the grounds of the house that St Oliver Plunkett lived in in the 1660s, in Ardpatrick, Co. Louth.

Towards the end of his life, when the disciples of St Anthony, the father of monasticism, asked for a word of advice he replied with three words – always breathe Christ. Breathing and respiration is a double movement – in and out. St Dominic was certainly always breathing Christ. His life, in its nights and its days, was an incessant rhythm of praying and preaching. And even Dominic’s prayer had this rhythmic quality.

Mother of Mercy

One of the oldest prayers to the Virgin Mary is the ancient antiphon titled in Latin Sub Tuum Praesidium. By soom accounts this prayer dates to the third century. The beautiful words, first written in Greek, present the Blessed Mother as one who intercedes for us.

The theme of my reflection is: Reverence

I was very struck by the talks given by Fr. Paul Murray, O.P., to the Dominican Novices in Caleruega, Spain this year ( 2025), and I would like to quote a portion of one of his talks, in which he highlights St. Dominic’s reverence in praying, shown in the Nine Ways of Prayer, in teaching the brethren to be reverent to one another and in the reverence and veneration he shows to the Scriptures themselves.

THE MIRACLES OF ST. DOMINIC
Narrated by SISTER CECILIA

Of the Bread and Wine Miraculously Multiplied and Distributed to the Brethren Through His Prayers

On this fifth day of our novena to St Dominic, we began our Mass with the prayer:
Draw near to your servants, O Lord,
and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness,
that, for those who glory in you as their Creator and guide,
you may restore what you have created
and keep safe what you have restored.

What is impressive about St Dominic? His simplicity, I think.