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,