Join us in our Novena to St Dominic as we prepare to celebrate his Feast Day on August 8.

"The foundation of Dominic’s spiritual and apostolic life was his disciplined life which he led from his earliest youth."

(Artwork: St Dominic, Detail from 'The Mocking of Christ' by Fra Angelico, Convent of San Marco, Florence, Italy)

Join us in our Novena to St Dominic as we prepare to celebrate his Feast Day on August 8.

"It belongs to our Dominican life that we dare to speak truthfully, with discretion and sensitivity and respect. This has nothing to do with being a scholar. It is seeking to live with the clarity of Dominic."

(Artwork: St Dominic, Detail from 'The Mocking of Christ' by Fra Angelico, Convent of San Marco, Florence, Italy)

Join us in our Novena to St Dominic as we prepare to celebrate his Feast Day on August 8.

"This year, our Province commemorates the 800th anniversary of the Dominican presence in Ireland, so I would like to share with you about the first Irish Dominican brother I met thirty-five years ago in in Minsk (Belarus), my friend Father Damian Byrne."

(Artwork: St Dominic, Detail from 'The Mocking of Christ' by Fra Angelico, Convent of San Marco, Florence, Italy)

Join us in our Novena to St Dominic as we prepare to celebrate his Feast Day on August 8.

"Any gardener will tell you that keeping roses is no small affair; from choosing the “right roots” to pruning judiciously, it is a labour of love and an arduous one. Of course, no one who has seen a well-tended rose garden in full bloom will argue that it is not well worth the effort..."

(Artwork: St Dominic, Detail from 'The Mocking of Christ' by Fra Angelico, Convent of San Marco, Florence, Italy)

Join us in our Novena to St Dominic as we prepare to celebrate his Feast Day on August 8.

"St Dominic was enterprising man, a tireless preacher, and the founder of the Order of Preachers. Yet, he was also a simple man with a deep inner life, great equanimity and compassion."

(Artwork: St Dominic, Detail from 'The Mocking of Christ' by Fra Angelico, Convent of San Marco, Florence, Italy)

Join us in our Novena to St Dominic as we prepare to celebrate his Feast Day on August 8.

"The genius of St Dominic was the inspiration to found an Order of Preachers, Friars, Nuns, Sisters and Laity who would by their lives, their prayer and their study, 'rekindle the fire of charity which was being extinguished in the world...'"

(Artwork: St Dominic, Detail from 'The Mocking of Christ' by Fra Angelico, Convent of San Marco, Florence, Italy)

Join us in our Novena to St Dominic as we prepare to celebrate his Feast Day on August 8.

"My reflection was originally going to be on something else entirely, but then I was struck by the text of today’s Mass Readings - the way they seem to be speaking of the current state of the Church and the world and also the links to how St Dominic responded to the crisis of his own time."

(Artwork: St Dominic, Detail from 'The Mocking of Christ' by Fra Angelico, Convent of San Marco, Florence, Italy)

Join us in our Novena to St Catherine of Siena as we prepare to celebrate her Feast Day on April 29.

"In her writings, St Catherine speaks eloquently of this union between Christ and each individual baptised person in the state of grace. She compares it to “the fish in the sea and the sea in the fish” and keeping our vessel in the fountain so that it will not be emptied while we drink."

(Artwork: St. Catherine of Siena by Fr. Henry Flanagan, O.P., Monastery of St Catherine of Siena, Drogheda)

Join us in our Novena to St Catherine of Siena as we prepare to celebrate her Feast Day on April 29.

"How is it that advice given to a young teenager could have such a profound influence on her heart and spirit as to turn her gaze and thoughts to spending the next seventy years in a cloistered monastery?"

(Artwork: St. Catherine of Siena by Fr. Henry Flanagan, O.P., Monastery of St Catherine of Siena, Drogheda)

Join us in our Novena to St Catherine of Siena as we prepare to celebrate her Feast Day on April 29.

"St. Catherine's life is replete with extraordinary circumstances, and Our Lord's particular love for her was manifested in countless ways."

(Artwork: St. Catherine of Siena by Fr. Henry Flanagan, O.P., Monastery of St Catherine of Siena, Drogheda)

Join us in our Novena to St Catherine of Siena as we prepare to celebrate her Feast Day on April 29.

"As when St Peter beheld the transfiguration of Our Lord and wanted to remain there with Him on the mountain, so also St Catherine could not bear the thought of being separated from her Lord, even for a moment."

(Artwork: St. Catherine of Siena by Fr. Henry Flanagan, O.P., Monastery of St Catherine of Siena, Drogheda)

Join us in our Novena to St Catherine of Siena as we prepare to celebrate her Feast Day on April 29.

“Know, daughter, that I am the one who is. You are the one who is not.”

(Artwork: St. Catherine of Siena by Fr. Henry Flanagan, O.P., Monastery of St Catherine of Siena, Drogheda)

Join us in our Novena to St Catherine of Siena as we prepare to celebrate her Feast Day on April 29.

"In her letters St Catherine often encouraged a group of followers that formed around her in Siena. 700 years later, her words are still pertinent for us today."

(Artwork: St. Catherine of Siena by Fr. Henry Flanagan, O.P., Monastery of St Catherine of Siena, Drogheda)

Join us in our Novena to St Catherine of Siena as we prepare to celebrate her Feast Day on April 29.

"Saint Catherine had a tremendous love for Jesus in the Eucharist."

(Artwork: St. Catherine of Siena by Fr. Henry Flanagan, O.P., Monastery of St Catherine of Siena, Drogheda)

Join us in our Novena to St Catherine of Siena as we prepare to celebrate her Feast Day on April 29.

"The 2nd day of our Novena to St Catherine is also the 4 th Sunday of Easter – Vocations Sunday – a day of prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life."

(Artwork: St. Catherine of Siena by Fr. Henry Flanagan, O.P., Monastery of St Catherine of Siena, Drogheda)

Join us in our Novena to St Catherine of Siena as we prepare to celebrate her Feast Day on April 29.

"There is something wonderful about saints meeting saints. From time to time, these precious occurrences seem to capture the imagination until they grow into tremendous legends."

(Artwork: St. Catherine of Siena by Fr. Henry Flanagan, O.P., Monastery of St Catherine of Siena, Drogheda)

The feast of the Transfiguration is a celebration of God’s revelation. The glory of God that was veiled in the law and prophets - from Moses to Elijah - is now unveiled before the Church,to the apostles and us who receive their message.
‘Christ, during his earthly life, was always resplendent with the divine light, which remained invisible for most men.The Transfiguration was not a phenomenon circumscribed in time and space, no change took place in Christ at that moment, even in his human nature, but a change was produced in the consciousness of the apostles, who received for a moment the ability to see their Master as He was, resplendent in the eternal light of his divinity’. (V. Lossky)

One of the mottos of the Dominican Order is “Truth.” St Dominic founded the Order to preach the truth about the goodness and beauty of God’s creation and Christ’s saving Incarnation in response to the heresy of his time, which taught that the created physical world was evil and that abortion, murder and suicide were therefore good acts.

Dominic’s knowledge of the truth flowed from his intense prayer and contemplation of the Scriptures: “If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (Jn 8:31-32)

I would like to focus this reflection on St Dominic as a man of prayer.

Jordan of Saxony tells us in the Libellus that Dominic was familiar with Cassian’s Conferences, and that they were among his favourite reading. From Cassian we learn that humility, simplicity and charity are the foundations of all prayer. St. Dominic practised all these to a heroic degree.

An extract from the testimony of Bro. Buonviso, a witness in the canonization process of our Holy Father St Dominic.

The fourth sworn witness was brother Buonviso of the Order of Preachers. He was with the blessed Dominic, as he says, at Bologna, in the cloister of St. Nicholas, and at Rome and at Milan and he looked after him when he was ill. So he said that when the brethren left the church in the evening to go and rest, the blessed Dominic used to remain secretly in the church to pray,

One of the sayings of St Catherine of Siena, which is quite well known, is

“Be what you are called to be, and you will set the world on fire.”

It is unceasingly amazing that this Order of Preachers, enriched through many centuries by the wisdom and teaching of saints like Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, Vincent Ferrer; the beauty of Blessed Angelico; the humility of St Martine de Porres – and countless others, known and known to God, was established by St Dominic, who left little behind by way of writing – little enough that he could so easily have passed into obscurity and been forgotten within a few generations of his death.

And yet he didn’t. By his life, his love and his understanding of the grace he received from God, he was truly a fire-starter.
Here we are, over 800 years later, thanking God for His gift to us of this simple man, who simply loved God and was utterly absorbed in Him.

Today is the 1st day of our novena to our Holy Father St Dominic and we know Dominic's answer to his brothers who were weeping and sad at his departing from them. he gave them the marvellous assurance that he would be more help to them from |Heaven than when here on earth. So during the next 9 days we can approach our Father Dominic with great confidence and trust that he will hear and answer our prayer.

Dominic's biographers tell us he imitated our Lord and our Lady in so many ways in his life, especially in his spirit of poverty. I will say a few words about that subject.

The Divine Office ...
“is a gift, not a burden, and many are the graces
that flow from this source:
Grace to praise God;
to comfort our hearts;
to brighten our path;
to renew our strength;
and to edify and sanctify
the faithful”

Dominic on his deathbed bequeathed to his brethren, as their rightful inheritance, his last will and testament saying: “have charity, guard humility and possess voluntary poverty.” This was the path which led him to holiness and he was and is inviting us his sons and daughters to imitate him as he imitated his Saviour, Christ Jesus.