Unlike most people of my generation, as a child the Rosary was still part of our family life. We knelt at our chairs in the kitchen each night and recited it together. By the early seventies, as we grew older, activities at night demanded our time and attention and the family Rosary gradually faded into oblivion. But the example of my parents and grandparents who always prayed the Rosary daily remained. My dad always had his beads in his pocket and prayed the rosary on the bus each morning as he travelled to work.

On the First Friday of every month we have a special Holy Hour (7.30p.m. to 8.30p.m.) for Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life. This Hour includes the Rosary. Since October is the month of the Rosary we have decided to share the Reflections that accompanied the Rosary for this month’s Holy Hour.

When Fr Paul Murray OP was here in July, to preach our Annual Retreat, we took advantage of his presence to ask him to share a few thoughts on the Dominican Nuns’ Vocation, which he graciously did and which we gladly share with you in this video.

I would like to reflect a little on St Dominic’s single-mindedness in his pursuit of holiness and his mission of preaching.

As a young man Dominic studied the liberal arts at a thriving arts faculty in Palencia – no doubt, a brilliant future awaited him! However, Bl Jordan tells us, very graphically, that after a short while, Dominic “fled to the study of theology as if afraid to waste his limited time on less fruitful study.” We might ask ourselves if he had struggled with himself to give up the study of arts?

We continue our Novena in honour of St Dominic

Every saint resembles Christ in some way. This was particularly clear with Dominic who followed Jesus in everything – in his prayer, works and miracles.

Like his Master, Dominic used to spend the nights in prayer to God; he would fall asleep with his head on the altar step when he was too exhausted to continue. St Dominic spent his life preaching the Gospel and being constantly concerned for the salvation of the human race.

As we continue our Novena to St Dominic, I would like to reflect on St. Dominic’s compassion for others. On his Feast Day, this Thursday, we will sing the Antiphon:

“Dominic had compassion on his neighbours and ardently desired their salvation.”

Dominic’s compassion was not passive, not accepting and encouraging the other in whatever it is they want to do, which seems to be the modern understanding of compassion. His compassion required that he act for the good of the other, even, or perhaps especially, when that meant telling them they were doing wrong.

O Wonderful Hope!

The lands of sunrise and sunset

You fill with your joy. (Ps64)

I hope you may hear sometimes how beautifully the birds are singing at early morning. Their singing does not create the dawn, but they are singing because the sun has risen.

At sunset when our world is wrapped in darkness, St Dominic’s daughters and sons are also singing: “O Spem miram” (O Wonderful Hope).

What they do hope for?

We sing because CHRIST IS RISEN!

Like Mary Magdalena we hope to meet our Risen Lord face to face, and ‘to know the power of his resurrection’.

July was a very busy month for the Dominican Order around the world and for our own Monastery. Luckily we began the month with our ‘Community Holidays’ – a week for relaxation and renewal together, with less work so that we have more time to spend together.


The first and most important news! We have a new Master of the Order of Preachers: Fr. Gerard Francisco Parco Timoner III, O.P., a son of the Dominican Province of the Philippines and first Asian Master of the Order, was elected on July the 13th 2019, becoming the 87th successor of St. Dominic de Guzman.

St Dominic and the Imperative of Joy

A Benedictine nun wrote:

“I continue to believe in the efficacy of the contemplative life
which acts as a lever to raise the human heart to
truth, goodness and beauty.”

From “The Joy of God: Collected Writings of Sr Mary David.” p.125

It seems odd in a reflection during our novena to St Dominic, to take inspiration from a ‘foreigner,’ so to speak. Nevertheless, she did seem to capture very well, in that short expression, something of the validity of contemplative life … if it needs validity: an answer to many who cannot comprehend such a vocation.