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.

With the world as it is these days, and knowing that St Catherine – having lived through a devastating plague – should be a good saint to turn to in a time of distress, I looked about in her ‘Dialogue’ to see what wisdom I might find. And the following – on Divine Providence – seemed to be an answer, so to speak: hopefully offering words of encouragement and of hope.

I want to quote a prayer of St Catherine, published in a helpful little book “From Holy Communion to the Blessed Trinity” by M.V. Bernadot O.P.

First a petition in St Catherine’s own words:

“O Eternal Trinity, our supreme love and true light enlighten me.”

O Eternal Trinity, All Powerful God, we are dead trees, whilst You are the Tree of life.

How does one enter into the Event that we call Holy Week single-mindedly and prayerfully?

With JESUS of course – but then again, so much is happening to Him that it is hard to hold to any one moment intensely, if you want to live all of them. It seems too much like floating on the surface without being immersed in the mystery.

This year, maybe a good word to sit with and to carry through the week might be: Truth.

Do you believe this?

The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you
Rom 8.11

We see in today’s Gospel reading, the friends of Jesus dealing with anxiety, sickness and death, part of life’s experience for each and every person in our day.

Aren’t we all Lazarus?

Are there not parts in each one of us, in me, that are dead, infected by the viruses of sins?

We are now in our final stretch of Lent which is a relief because, personally, I find Lent difficult. I find the fasting hard, but I came across a quotation from the ‘Magnificat’ which I found encouraging.

Fasting is a form of self deprivation of and a longing for the food we really need. We fast in order to seek Him day after day, the better to know His ways. We fast to make space for Christ, so that He may fill our emptiness with His redeeming presence.

This Sunday’s Gospel, John 4:5-42, is about Jesus who made a journey to a Samaritan town (it is always He who makes first move toward us) and was waiting at the well for the arrival of the Samaritan woman. Her thirst and longing bring her towards Him, though she wasn’t aware of it.

Recently my friend, was encouraging me with these words:

Always watch the mind, what it is thinking about, and always bring it back to Him from wherever it wanders off.

We are now in the middle of the second week of Lent and I’m sure some of us have already broken our Lenten Resolutions (repeatedly!!) and are feeling very discouraged about it all and tempted to just give up the attempt and pick something easier.

But maybe we should view these not as failures but as something that can be beneficial. It’s a bit like distractions during prayer. You might feel, ‘oh, I didn’t pray at all, I had so many distractions,’ but each time you realised that you had been distracted and turned back to God that was something good; that was prayer. It can be the same with our Lenten Resolutions.

God made the sinless one into sin, our sin, my sin, that in him we might become the goodness of God. And yet since the beginning of creation we have been denying our sin, that sin for which He emptied himself of his divinity, became man and endured His passion and death. We have been covering our nakedness up, hiding our reality from God, from ourselves and from one another.

While praying my Lectio Divina for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time the words that struck me were ‘Your light will shine like the dawn and your wound quickly healed over’.

The word ‘Light’ is repeated in the first reading, the psalm and the Gospel. Elsewhere, in St John’s Gospel, Jesus tells us ‘I am the light of the world.’ Turning to us, his disciples, He reminds us in today’s Gospel we too are the ‘light of the world.’