This is the time of the year when we are usually planning our Vocation Weekends for the Autumn/Winter. Unfortunately due to COVID-19 we are unable to host any Vocation Discernment Weekends for the present. If, however, you are interested in exploring more about our way of life we would be happy to answer your questions or accompany you via (Zoom etc). Depending of the level of interest we could organize a virtual Vocation Weekend with Conferences (Questions and Answers) via Zoom (or Googlemeet).

We are raffling this lovely hand-knit 'Noah's Ark Set' as part of our ongoing fundraising efforts in respect of our Funding Appeal to recover the costs incurred in replacing the Monastery Roof (in 2019) and necessary work on our heating system (including replacing the 230kw central heating boiler in 2020).

The raffle tickets are €5 each and the draw will be held on the Feast of Christ the King (22nd November; in time to make a nice Christmas present for someone).

Those of you who admired our art and crafts display on the 15th of August will be pleased to know that most of those items are now available for sale through our online shop. We have kept some of the items to use as gifts etc. If, however, there is something that you particularly wanted and you can't see it in our shop, please don't hesitate to contact us and we will try to facilitate you.

As some of you may be aware by now, as part of our celebration of the Feast of the Assumption we have our annual 'art & craft display', where we all get to see and admire what our sisters have been working on over the past year. Enjoy the pics😊

It is a happy coincidence that the Feast of the Transfiguration occurs during the Novena to St. Dominic. Because I was thinking about the Mystery of the Transfiguration I was more alert to some elements of Dominic’s life than I might otherwise have been. Two things in particular caught my attention. In St. Dominic’s nine ways of prayer there is the following observation, to quote:
At other times he, Dominic, would remain quietly on his knees, his mind caught up in wonder, and this sometimes lasted a long time. Sometimes it seemed from the way he looked that he had penetrated heaven in his mind, and then he would suddenly appear radiant with joy, wiping away the abundant tears running down his face.

As we continue our Novena to St Dominic, let us reflect on a tradition of love and devotion of Our Father Dominic to our Blessed Mother and how his order of preachers influenced the growth, devotion and spread of the Most Holy Rosary.

Dialogue of night and day

When my youngest niece saw me
for first time in our Dominican habit ,
she stared at me and asked...

Do you always have dreams in white and black? Do We?

I love this question, children always look more deeply than we do.

I think that all of us privileged to belong to St. Dominic’s family have a great love for the hymn that concludes our Liturgy at nightfall – “The O Lumen”- after joyfully praising our father Dominic as LIGHT of the Church and Doctor of TRUTH, we move on to highlight him as ROSE OF PATIENCE.

There are so many facets associated with this vibrant virtue of patience –but we may ask why “Rose of patience” – what is the connection?

In recent weeks I have been asking myself what does it mean when we say “I give my life to the Lord”? Yes I’m sure that we all want to give Him our ALL – after all this was the guiding light which led us to the monastery. But how do I give my ALL? If I focus my attention on my giving I can become very discouraged and perhaps there is a danger that I can become oblivious to what the Lord wants to give me? Ultimately the Lord is seeking our hearts to possess them in such a way that He can pray his prayer and radiate His love in and through us. Once He has our hearts we can trust Him to do that rest

As we continue our short reflections on St Dominic in our Novena, I would like to say a word on St Dominic and Prayer. The following lines from the psalms are significant:
"I have called to you Lord: hasten to help me! Hear my voice when I cry to you;
Lord let my prayer rise before you like incense,
The raising of my hands like an evening oblation." (Ps 14:1-2)
This sums up for me so well St Dominic's prayer.

As we continue our Novena to St Dominic, I would like to share an extract from the book "15 Days with St Dominic" by Alain Quilici O.P.

It was from the gospel that Saint Dominic drew the ardor for his preaching. He had received it from his predecessors, tranmitted it to his brothers and sisters, and practiced it through lectio divina. The tireless preacher of the gospel was also a fervent reader of the gospels. For there was but one Word of God. That same one that must be proclaimed from the roof-tops must also be sung in choir, read and meditated in prayer, contemplated in preaching, and shared in fraternal life.

Here we are again, at the beginning of another novena to St Dominic, in anticipation of his feast, with whom we have, so to speak, ‘thrown in our lot.’

What have we done and what does it all mean?
What can we ask of St Dominic, as we daily take up the task of fidelity, of perseverance and of trust in the love and mercy of God?
... This Order of Preachers could be very much likened to a potter’s house, in which we present ourselves to the LORD, under the protection and through the unfailing, ceaseless intercession of St Dominic.

We share with you the good news that Sr Maria Breidge has been accepted by our community to make her first Profession. The following is a reflection by our prioress, Sr Mairéad, for the occasion. References to the Scripture Readings are for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A.

One of our sisters received the following quote which from a friend some time ago regarding the temptation to respond to the needs of our world during this Pandemic of Covid 19 – yes there is a great need for nurses, doctors, social workers, carers of every kind. So why do you, Dominican Nuns, continue to be heedless to the cry of broken humankind at this time? Why are you not out doing something useful?

Edith Stein (now St Benedicta of the Cross) was faced with the same dilemma at the beginning of World War II – she had been a Red Cross nurse in World War 1 and so was obviously recalling that time. Now a Carmelite Nun, here is how she responds and encourages her sisters:

Check out our new look website, complete with Online Shop!
All our own work – both the website and the products in the Shop.

In late February we discovered a Website creation software programme (Incomedia Website X5 Evo) that seemed to be just what we needed to work on our website. We had for some time thought that we needed to ‘freshen-up’ our website (and we wanted to add an Online Shop) so this seemed ‘God-sent’.

With St. John Paul II, on his 100 Birthday we look at Mary, through his eyes …

Mary is a “woman of the Eucharist” in her whole life.

If we wish to rediscover in all its richness the profound relationship between the Church and the Eucharist, we cannot neglect Mary, Mother and model of the Church.

To mark Vocations' Sunday, you might like this Vocation Story from the oldest sister in our monastery.

God speaks in many and varied ways. I knew at the age of 12 or 13 that someday, sometime I would be a nun and give my life to Him. It was 6 years later that I thought about it again. ...

Saint Catherine had a tremendous love for Jesus in the Eucharist. In her day it was very unusual to receive the Eucharist on a daily basis — one really had to have permission in order to do so and most times this permission was denied. Catherine, however, received very many mystical graces in the Eucharist

CATHERINE ‘WHO IS NOT’

I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses,
That the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Cor. 12, 9)

Our paschal candle reminds me of St. Catherine’s self-giving life. It sheds its light, going out and burning down.

A short reflection in honour of St. Catherine.

We confess in the apostle’s creed, that we believe in the communion of the saints. I always was fascinated, encouraged and gladdened by this truth. Sometimes we imagine the saints to be somewhere far, far away but they encompass/surround us (Heb 12:1).

A couple of days before Sr. Dominic died, she told me that she would never ever forget us and our families when she sees God face to face.

At this time when so many people are deprived of the Eucharist, this passage from St Catherine’s ‘Dialogue’ shows why this deprivation is so hard for so many people.

[God the Father speaking:] Dearest daughter, contemplate the marvelous state of the soul who receives this bread of life, this food of angels,

For many eras, the Church has been truly blessed with saintly and most dedicated Popes – each with his own personality and God given spiritual gifts.

Each responding to his high calling from God with an immense generosity and spirit of sacrifice in an increasingly changing world. Pope Francis no less than his predecessors has faced immense difficulties in our own historical situation both in the Church and in the world just as St. Catherine did in her time.

I offer my life to you Eternal Father, for your Sweet Spouse, unworthy though I am. I ask only to see the Renewal of that Sweet Spouse, your Church. Eternal God, this I ask of you.

I find real joy in singing to myself frequently during the day, this Magnificat Antiphon for Evening Prayer 2 of St Catherine’s Feast.

Although Catherine lived over six hundred years ago, her times were not unlike our own. She lived during a tumultuous period in the Church’s history, when the Black Death decimated Europe. The feudal system was in ruins. Nation states were emerging, with tensions between England and France, Genoa and Venice. The Pope was residing in Avignon and the calibre of members of Religious Communities and that of the diocesan clergy left a lot to be desired.