Dominican vocations video from 1960

The video above is fascinating. It depicts life in the student house of the Western Dominican province in the United States in the late 1950's and early 1960's. It was one of the first 'vocations videos' filmed for an American religious order. The film was also meant to display to the 'outside world' what it meant to live in a Catholic monastery. While it may seem quite dated to us now, many of the fundamentals remain in relation to the Dominican vocation, namely - prayer, study, community and preaching. Enjoy!

Dominican Family Vocations Day - March 26th, 2011

The third annual Dominican family vocations day will take place on Saturday, March 26th, 2011. It will be hosted in the Dominican Resource centre, Navan Road, Dublin 7. This event has grown in popularity over the past three years and is directed towards women and men who have an interest in the vocation of the four branches of the Dominican family - namely the contemplative nuns, the apostolic sisters, the lay Dominicans and the friars of the Order. Participants will have an opportunity to hear a guest speaker situate vocation as it relates to contemporary society and culture, and also those attending will hear from members of each branch of the Dominican family about their life, work, ministry and vocation. Central to the vocations day is prayer (the liturgy of the church - divine office) and the celebration of the eucharist.

A very important aspect of the event is the coming together with other young (and not so young) people who have an interest in the Dominican charism of preaching, along with an opportunity to meet Dominican men and women and share experiences. It is important to book early for this event. You can do so by contacting me frgd@eircom.net

Blogs worth following.....

It's great to see so many religious communities and commentators blogging these days. It's another way of reaching out to others, as well as an educational tool. And many use the blogosphere to preach and promote vocations as well. So, with that in mind I'd like to bring to your attention four blogs that I have begun to follow recently, and would encourage you to do so as well. I have added them to my blog list on the right hand side of this page for easy access.

 Image from Capuchin vocations blog

Firstly, the Irish Capuchin Franciscans have a vocations blog, which is very well presented and managed by Br Martin Bennett. As you might expect, it gives news and views on all things vocational with the Capuchins. I wish Martin and the team well with this blogging endeavour in promoting the Capuchin vocation and charism.

 Image from Dominican history blog...with a contemporary photo!

Secondly, a Dominican blog, this time with a historical interest. It is the blog of fr Stephen Ryan OP and the blog is concerned with  the history of the Order of Preachers (Ordo Praedicatorum) given to Dominican friars by Fr. John Frederick Hinnebusch, O.P. of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, USA. It has many posts relating to St. Dominic, the Dominicans, and the Catholic Church. It is an excellent resource on Dominican history and I would strongly recommend it for those with an interest in our Order.

 Elmira Dominican nuns

Thirdly, the blog of the Elmira Dominican contemplative nuns based in New York - it is full of life, colour, news and commentary on all matters Dominican, with a strong emphasis on their vocation to the cloistered contemplative life. Well worth a read.

 Sacred Space 102fm on West Limerick 102fm

Finally, a blog associated with a weekly religious radio programme called 'Sacred Space 102fm' on an Irish local radio station West Limerick 102fm. This blog gives excellent analysis on religion, faith, spititulaity. It is updated regularly and one of the best around. Please take a look.

Message of Pope Benedict for 48th World Day of Prayer for Vocations - May 15th, 2011

The Fourth Sunday of Easter, popularly known as Good Shepherd Sunday is also the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. This year it falls on Sunday, May 15th. Traditionally, the Holy Father issues a message to the church and the world for this important day and this year he has chosen the theme of Proposing Vocations in the Local Church.

In a very extensive letter, Pope Benedict stresses the need for every member of the church to feel the need to consciously promote vocations and goes on to say...'It is essential that every local Church become more sensitive and attentive to the pastoral care of vocations, helping children and young people in particular at every level of family, parish and associations – as Jesus did with his disciples - to grow into a genuine and affectionate friendship with the Lord, cultivated through personal and liturgical prayer; to grow in familiarity with the sacred Scriptures and thus to listen attentively and fruitfully to the word of God; to understand that entering into God’s will does not crush or destroy a person, but instead leads to the discovery of the deepest truth about ourselves

This letter deserves to be widely circulated and read widely. It can be read in full here.

Homily of Archbishop Martin at Dominican diaconate ordinations (January 2nd, 2011)

 Archbishop Diarmuid Martin

 Last month (January 2nd, 2011), three of our brothers - Denis Murphy, Maurice Colgan and Brian Doyle were ordained deacons by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin. The text of the homily given by the archbishop that day has recently been made available through the Dublin diocesan website www.dublindiocese.ie . The full text of the homily is given below in italics:

We are at the beginning of a New Year and despite the many reasons for being anxious there is something about a New Year which always makes it a moment of hope.   That hope springs also from the Christmas season.  It is the hope that comes from the message of the incarnation of the Son of God, a mystery which radically changed the meaning of hope for humankind through the mysterious union between God and our human nature.

The Christmas message changes our whole value system. The God of power and might came among us not under the signs of power, but in the sign of the poverty, precariousness, powerlessness and simplicity of a child.  That message turns our understanding of God upside-down; it turns upside-down our understanding of what is important in human life.

Today is a moment of hope also as we come to invoke the Holy Spirit on these three men called to the office of deacon, on their journey towards the ministry of ordained priests.  This solemn liturgy is a sign of hope and renewal for our Church.  It is a sign of hope and renewal for the Irish Dominican Province; it is a sign of hope and renewal for each of you yourselves - Denis, Maurice and Brian - as you journey on your own path of commitment to live out the Gospel and to spread that message of Jesus, God made man.

One of the most significant moments in the Rite of the Ordination of Deacons is when the bishop consigns to each of you the book of the Gospels and reminds you of the special mission you take on today with regard to that Gospel:

Receive the Gospel of Christ whose herald you now are;Believe what you readTeach what you believeAnd practice what you teach.

The Gospel of this Sunday, still in the Christmas season, is a reflection not on the circumstances of Jesus birth, but on who the child is that is born and what is the deep significance of his mystery for us.

Who is the child that is born?   The child that is born is the Word of God.  The Christian God, the God who is Trinity, is not a God closed in self-glory.  God is Word. God speaks. God communicates, not just in words, but through saving actions.  God is the one who brings salvation.  God is our hope.

Throughout history, God’s people were unfaithful.  But they experienced a God who was always faithful to them.  It is God’s fidelity that opens for us a path of hope, no matter what our situation may be.   It is God’s saving power which reaches out to us still today in our weakness.  That saving power reaches out to us in the wilderness and exile of our lives, when we are anxious and disoriented, when we feel lost and abandoned or misunderstood.   

God has spoken in various ways throughout history.  He spoke firstly in creation and continues to speak today through creation.  He spoke through the law and the prophets in the history of salvation.  In the mystery of the incarnation he communicates in a totally new way:  Jesus becomes one of us, a human bring. 

God communicates with us in a totally new way.  Pope Benedict has recently published an important document - Verbum Domini - on the “Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church”, fruit of the Synod of Bishops held two years ago.  The revelation of the Word at the incarnation, he recalls, is no longer primarily a revelation in discourse, concepts or rules.  The Pope writes: “Here we are set before the very person of Jesus himself; Jesus himself is the definitive Word which God speaks to humanity”.

The same theme was stressed, in a slightly different way, in the single text most quoted by Bishops at that Synod.  It was another text of Pope Benedict himself, from his Encyclical Deus Caritas Est.  “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with…a person [Jesus Christ] which gives life a new horizon and a definitive direction”

We are particularly conscious today of the need for renewal of the Church in Ireland.  Denis, Maurice and Brian, you as deacons and as future priests – as ministers of the Word of, in and for your own generation – are called to a special leadership role in that process of renewal.  In particular you are called to share your own relationship with the Lord with young people who despite many years of religious education have not been adequately led beyond the ”discourse, concepts and rules”, of which the Pope spoke, into true knowledge of Jesus the person.

When we speak of renewal in the Church, we speak not just of a necessary need to repent the criminal and sinful events which have emerged in these years concerning the abuse of children by priests and religious and the response of Church authorities.  Neither is renewal just a question of renewing structures.  It is not just about improving the image of the Church.

Renewal of the Church will only come through a radical reawakening of what the Church is really about.  The Church is the place where the unprecedented and humanly inconceivable newness of the Word becoming flesh is proclaimed and celebrated as reality.  Pope Benedict, in his document I mentioned, sees that the Word of God must become ever more central in the life of the Church, something which is especially needed in the Irish Church.  

What he is speaking about is not about adding a new chapter to our catechesis, but of letting the Word of God inspire every dimension of Church life.  The Word of God is the soul of all theology and the driving force of pastoral activity.  The reform that is called for is truly radical and we are only at the very beginning. What is needed is not superficial change on the surface. Each of us has to begin to place the word of God at the centre of our own spirituality and of our Christian life. We have to know the scriptures, to love the scriptures, to understand the scriptures, to prayerfully read the scriptures.  All of us have to learn to take up the scriptures every day.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of Dominican spirituality is the focus on truth – Veritas – and on the ability to contemplate and transmit that truth to others.   It is a spirituality which the Church needs today as never before.   We pray that Denis, Maurice and Brian, as they receive the Book of the Gospels in this solemn Rite, will truly commit themselves to that Dominican calling and will go on to enrich the whole Church with that charism.

Renewal of the Church means radically placing the Word of God at the centre of our personal life and of the liturgical life of the Church.  It means radical reflection of the nature of the preaching of the Word of God.   Preaching is not about moralising.  The message of Jesus is much more than a moral message.  We have to overcome, on the one hand, a sense of moralising which reduces the Christian message to a mere moral rule book or even a list of sins.  We have to overcome on the other hand also the temptation to forget about moral norms and reduce the Christian message to just about vaguely being good to others.

The Church is formed by the Word of God and the Word of God is entrusted to the Church.  Being a Christian is not about an individual ethos or way of life.  We are called to a Covenant in which we enter into dialogue with God.  We celebrate that covenant through reflecting on the word and through praying the Word. The liturgy is not just a social event; it is not a concert or a show or a celebration of ourselves which makes us feel good.   Liturgical reform is not about gimmicks, not about what one writer called “a Disney-ization” of the liturgy.   Liturgy is the place where the Word of God is proclaimed and becomes way of life for us.   Liturgy is the work of God, who speaks with us, who becomes our nourishment.   In the liturgy we do not create our own God.  God changes us, through his Word.

Our Gospel reading reminds us of how the Word of God changes us.     He is a Word of light; a light which can overcome the darkness that is in our hearts and in our world.  Christianity is not a religion of simplistic hope.  It recognises the presence of the darkness in our world.  I am still personally shocked at the darkness of the criminal violence which we encounter so regularly in our own city, which repeats itself in blind vendetta and only leads to the deeper darkness of grief and bereavement and despair.

It is striking also to remember how Saint John reminds us reminds us that that the darkness is not just among the unbelievers or the indifferent who do not know God.   When Jesus, the Word, came into his own domain the first not to accept him were his own people.  Denis, Maurice and Brian, you are called to be faithful in accepting the message of the Word.  The mission that you will receive today though the gift of the Holy Spirit must be kept fresh and alive and intact in your hearts and in the way you live, day after day.  You must day by day integrate your belief in what you read, the way you teach that belief, and how you practice what you teach.

Your mission will not be an easy one and it will not be immune to the perennial temptation to preach your own message rather than that of Jesus.  It is tempting to believe that our call is based on our own talents and abilities alone.  But do not be afraid: to those who remain faithful, who accept him, who are ministers and servants of his Word, Jesus does something that we cannot attain on our own.  In Jesus alone we encounter grace and truth, we become children of God. 

Denis, Maurice and Brian may the Lord bring to fulfilment the good work he begins in you today.

Joy as Dominican nuns in Drogheda give habit to new novice

 Left to right: Sr. Mairead OP (novice mistress), Sr Teresa OP, Sr Mary Cathy and Sr Breda (prioress)

The call to the Dominican way of life takes many forms. The Dominican family is made up of four parts - the apostolic sisters, the Dominican laity, the friars and finally the nuns (contemplative). There is one monastery of contemplative Dominican nuns in Ireland - based in Drogheda at the Monastery of Saint Catherine of Siena. It is more popularly known as Siena Monastery.

Yesterday was a very important day for that community as it clothed in the habit of the Order, Sr Mary Cathy Howard. Sr Cathy has spent a period of time as a postulant in the community, and has now received the habit of the Order. During the novitiate, she will continue to discern her vocation with this contemplative community. As Sr Breda, prioress of Siena monastery reminded Sr Cathy yesterday during the clothing ceremony as she offered herself to the community " ...we can trust the One into Whose Hands we entrust ourselves, with all that we are and have – He will not test us beyond our strength but will give us grace and strength in time of need..." This act of receiving the habit by Sr Mary Cathy is a very important moment for our Dominican sisters in Drogheda, and we pray that they will continue to receive vocations into the future.

Irish Dominican Vocations wishes Sr Cathy every blessing as she takes this new step in her Dominican life. For a more full account of this event, please see the blog of the Dominican nuns at Drogheda www.dominicannunsireland.blogspot.com

World Day for Consecrated Life 2011

In 1997, Pope John Paul II instituted a day of prayer for women and men in consecrated life. This celebration is attached to the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord on February 2nd. This Feast is also known as Candlemas Day; the day on which candles are blessed symbolizing Christ who is the light of the world. So too, those in consecrated life are called to reflect light of Jesus Christ to all peoples.

There are many local, religious and diocesan celbrations planned throughout the world today which will allow those consecrated to the Lord in the religious life to pray together. I will be attending the Dublin event this evening with some of my Dominican confreres. I hope that many of the celebrations will be used to thank God for the gift of religious life to the Church, but also as a means for a continuation of prayer for vocations to this form of life.

Below is a recording of the Sub Tuum sung by the Dominican student brothers of the Saint Albert the Great Priory, Oakland, California - the Western Dominican province of the USA - in honour of the feast of the Presentation of the Lord.