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O Wonderful Hope: A Poem-Reflection |
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(Note: The inspiration for this poem comes from a prayer to Saint Dominic, O Spem Miram - O Wonderful Hope - which is sung throughout the Order each evening)
O Wonderful Hope
Promising to be helpful even after death,
A promise faithfully fulfilled.
800 years of Wonderful Hope,
Borne out in a way of life
That carries the seedlings of Hope
For our world today.
Prayer enshrines the Hope
that holds a God-view of this universe,
treasures its beauty and the life it breathes in all its facets,
be it rock, or blade of grass, or human heart,
and lifts it up, in gratitude, as sacred.
Study holds the hope that we might search together
for new understandings of our differences,
finding in each tradition the gems of truth
that sparkle with the vastness of God's diversity.
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St Dominic receives the first
women in 1206
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Community is a shared hope
that we might understand and spread the news
that all the people of this earth
should have its wealth, its splendour, and its opportunities in common,
and when in truth we call another sister, brother,
we know our home is also theirs,
and their life's portion ours to bear.
Oh, what a Wonderful Hope!
Service is the face and hands of Hope
The pulsing word of God enfleshed in us.
It offers comfort, works for peace,
Speaks loudly for the world's enslaved,
the trafficked and the refugee,
And challenges the voice of power,
with Magnificat audacity.
This is the Hope, the Wonderful Hope,
Our preaching is asked to be,
Throughout the coming centuries.
Oh, what a Wonderful Hope!
Sr Elizabeth Ferguson, OP
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Who Are We 