It is my greatest privilege to be here as Congregation Prioress of the Dominican Sisters, the Dominican Sisters here in Ireland, South Africa, Portugal, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Louisiana.  Many of our sisters were trained in the Froebel College and brought the values of Friedrich Froebel to all these countries.

It is also my pleasure as a past student of Froebel to share in the 70^th anniversary of the college and the historic moving of the college to N.U.I. Maynooth.  Changing location is not new to the Froebel College.  In St. Mary’s Training College, Belfast, which was initiated and run by the Dominican Sisters, a course on the educational values and method of Froebel was being discontinued by the then British Department of Education.  The Dominicans believing in the great insights and philosophy of Froebel decided to set up a Froebel Training College in Sion Hill, Blackrock, Co. Dublin.

Sr. Simeon Tarpey was sent to train and become the founding Principal of the Froebel College.  Many of us here tonight remember Sr. Simeon and her wonderful gift of eliciting and promoting the quality of trust – trust in her students and trust as bedrock for all levels of education, that trust which Friedrich Froebel promoted in his philosophy of education and which we experience as Dominican education.

We are delighted to have with us tonight, Sr. Maureen Mac Mahon OP, one of the first students of the College in 1943 and also Sr. Edel Murphy the last Dominican Sister to be trained in the Sion Hill location.

We congratulate all involved in tonight’s celebration and wish every blessing on the staff and students as they move to the location in Maynooth, County Kildare.  May the ethos and philosophy of Friedrich Froebel and the Froebel College continue to flourish.

Sister Helen Mary Harmey, OP

Congregation Prioress

20 April ,2013

Sisters at common prayer in Lisbon

Thank you to Brother Damien O.P.  ( St. Saviour’s Dublin).

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Ephesians 3:14-21

Today we are all praying with and for Sabine as she crosses this important threshold in her life.  We can hardly do better than the prayer of  Paul for the Ephesians. We pray that ‘according to the riches of his glory, God may grant that she be strengthened in her inner being .  with power through the Spirit. We pray ‘that Christ may dwell in her heart through faith as she is being rooted and grounded in love W e pray that she may have the power through the Spirit to comprehend the incomprehensible love of Christ which surpasses all human knowledge so that she may come to be filled with all the fullness of God.

            Paul prays for his converts – for their growth, development and maturity as Christians –that they may appreciate and desire the power in their lives of the Spirit which is God’s gift to them.  The source of power in the believer’s life is the Holy Spirit and that power can accomplish miracles – outwardly, but especially inwardly, invisibly.. It is only through this strengthening that they/we can provide  a dwelling place for Christ in our hearts and finally be filled up with all the fullness of God.  Elsewhere, Paul has described Christ as the One ‘in whom the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell’. Now, amazingly, this can be said of us too.

That word ‘dwell’ is somewhat archaic and has become a bit ‘special’ since we practically never use it now except in this kind of religious context of ‘indwelling’. But it seems that the Greek word used here is a very ordinary everyday word meaning ‘to be at home’ to be able to settle down and be comfortable. So we are praying that, with the aid of the Spirit, the hospitality of our hearts may be such that our Guest can settle in comfortably and be completely at home with us – and we with him.

The addendum to Paul’s prayer is surely one of the most wonderfully encouraging verses in all of scripture – that by the power at work within us God can – and will – accomplish abundantly not only far more than we can achieve but far more than we can imagine or hope for.  At least a part of us tends to think we have to do it ourselves. Perhaps though a kind of pride we want to do it ourselves. But I find myself saying: ‘Of course you can’t do it but the growth, the spiritual maturing, the transformation, will gradually be accomplished.. The creative word of God, who saw the possibility of you in the first place, is going forth continually to create you and will not return without accomplishing what it set out to do – and that’s beyond your wildest dreams.  I think of the lovely saying of John O’Donoghue:

You have a special destiny here.

And behind the façade of your life there is something

beautiful, good and eternal happening.

Mary Oliver says: We live with mysteries too marvellous to be understood.  And these are everyday, ordinary-life mysteries..

Our ordinary, everyday lives are not ordinary.  That’s where we find God, where God finds us and works in us.  Our human life is very precious – God’s first and greatest gift to us.  Our best response to the gift is to live it – as fully as possible. The other day I came across a proposed ‘Rule of Life’ for someone desiring to live a contemplative, spiritual life. The first item was: ‘Each day should include a commitment to live life to the hilt – deliberately, creatively, passionately and naturally’ .  We are called always to choose life – what promotes, enhances, enriches life for ourselves and others..  It is sin to choose what denies, diminishes or destroys life.  Many people would see what Sabine is doing today as life-denying or life-diminishing in some way..

Of course, it isn’t.  Rowan Williams highlights the distinction between rejection and renunciation. Renunciation doesn’t reject anything but

deliberately chooses to limit one’s choices for the future in order to channel one’s energies and gifts in a particular direction.. Every  major

decision in any life involves renunciation, which is not impoverishment

but quite the opposite.

When I think of the power at work beneath the surface of our lives, I think of the Irish idea of neart De, the power, the creative energy of God. In Glendalough we see it everywhere but we seem to reflect on it especially in Trinity church, built a thousand years ago of stones formed 500.000.000 years ago.  Its massive stones hold and radiate strength, stability.  You often see a tiny seedling emerging from a microscopic space between stones or a wagtail swoops unerringly into a tiny hole where she has discovered space to rear her nestlings.  On a bank beside the church there is an ash tree – many roots exposed and visible, clinging precariously to rocks and crumbling stony soil. The original old tree is a rotting stump (alive with insect and other life) but from the roots spring six or seven vigorous young trees now 30 ft. tall. And out at the extremities of the spreading roots tiny new shoots are appearing.  You have all seen the same phenonomen at home where fragile seedlings come through inches of tarmac or hairline cracks in a cement pavement.  That amazing thrust towards life is awesome.  It is in us, too, on a spiritual level and will not be thwarted.

Today, February 1^st, is the ancient Irish festival of Imbolg – one of the four great yearly festivals. It is often referred to as a celebration of spring – but we know it’s not yet spring, it’s still very much winter! There may be some snowdrops or crocuses but a snowdrop doesn’t make a spring.  What we celebrate rather is the first intimations and promise of spring to come – the renewal of life and the growth that we know is taking place underground and still unseen.

Imbolg became the feast of St.. Brigid, which Sabine has noted on the liturgy booklet.  The legendary Brigid is a threshold person, always between two worlds. A major theme of her legends – deriving from goddess myths – is nourishment and fertile life in abundance, even over-the-top superabundance, and generosity to match. But apart from the goddess-derived stories we get glimpses of the holy woman.  She travelled a lot and we see her deep in prayer and contemplation as she rides along in her chariot. (She wasn’t driving, she had a charioteer – don’t try it in the car unless you have a chauffeur!)  Her obituary in the Annals tells us simply that she never turned her mind or attention from God for the space of  one hour but was constantly meditating or thinking of him in her heart and mind. And this contemplation was evident in her life of service.  (She sounds like a good Dominican – one thinks of Dominic never speaking except to or about God.

I don’t know whether it’s in honour of Brigid that Sabine has included traditional Irish material in the liturgy or maybe this would have been there anyway.  She has chosen very well – all are authentic and representative ancient Irish texts, beautifully expressing Irish spirituality.  The Trinitarian and Christ-centred prayer (of the tenth century)  from the most famous of the ‘Breastplate’ prayers catches  perfectly the character and spirit of this beautiful prayer –and the majority of traditional Irish prayers. The lovely 900-year-old hymn Deus meus also is  typically Irish in form and content. It is one of a number of macaronic hymns, i.e. alternating two languages; in this case Latin and Irish.  The form is simple, direct, repetitive; the content a repeated, insistent, passionate plea for the gift of the love of God..  The Columba blessing, with its poetic rhythm brings in the favourite metaphor of path and journey, so often found in Irish blessings.

I find myself recently exchanging this metaphor for an even more dynamic one – that of streams.  Rather than setting out on a path-  in response to a call, we embark on a particular stream.  Choosing this stream we commit our energies and gifts to shaping and deepening this channel so that its waters can flow abundantly and unimpeded – directly towards the sea.  Having embarked we must row – and row hard – while knowing that rowing wouldn’t get us far were it not for the strong current beneath our bow and the wind of the Spirit in our sails., which will carry us forward until eventually we reach that immense ocean of Love which is our destination and our destiny, and where we will finally be filled with all the fullness of God.

I wish Sabine – and all of us – FAIR SAILING!

Sr Genevieve Mooney O.P

Eileen O’Connell seen here playing the guitar at the Knockadoon Music and Liturgy course is from Maglin, near Ballincollig, Co Cork. She entered the Dominican Novitiate in Tallaght on 6th January 2013. Her comment on her first month as a Novice was, “It’s been a bit like a rollercoaster, with lots of ups and downs, new surroundings and new experiences…. but I am hanging in there as it has mostly been positive.”

Eileen worked in a preschool, both as a Toddler Session Room Leader and one-to-one as Personal Assistant to a child with a disability. Previously, she worked in UCC, both as tutor on an Adult Continuing Education Diploma course (Diploma in Disability Studies) and through the Disability Support Service as Educational Support Worker and Tutor to disabled students.”

Deirdre Gordon from South County Dublin also entered on 6th January. “Interesting but challenging”, is her comment on her first month as a Novice in Tallaght. Deirdre was at school with the Dominican Sisters in Dun Laoghaire. She worked for her local Credit Union before she started the Novitiate.

Sr Edel O.P was asked to preach the homily on Baptism Sunday to share her reflections of her faith development in her home parish.

Sunday, January 13^th , 2013 , The Baptism of The Lord, St Michael’s Parish

Last Sunday we celebrated the feast of the Epiphany. There are three mysteries which celebrate the Lord’s Epiphany, the Magi’s arrival to the infant Christ, John’s story of the changing of the water into wine at Cana and Luke’s story of Jesus baptism by John.  In this week’s gospel story the people are waiting and wondering if John is the Messiah. John assures them that he is not and asks the crowd to direct their attention to another who would be mightier and whose baptism would be in the Holy Spirit and with fire. Luke draws our attention to the spirit life of the Church. In the gospel story we read  the people were being baptised there, Jesus was baptised too and, while he was in prayer we are given an account by Luke of a divine manifestation, a manifestation which includes the opening of the heavens, a descent of the Holy Spirit and a heavenly proclamation.

As Luke draws our attention to the spirit life of the Church it is the spirit life of this parish during my years while living at home here in Dun Laoghaire that I recall. I am not talking about a pious element but rather a life that unites people and calls us to be responsible to one another, without judgement. Last year I attended a prayer service in this Church involving the religious communities of the parish, including Glasthule now. Mons Dan that evening described my vocation as the parish’s very own home grown one!! And this it is. While faith at home, the local community of Dominican sisters and various members of my family played a part in influencing my decision to become a Dominican, it was my mother’s involvement in this parish that always stands out for me. For most of my years that influenced my growing up here Fr Chris Mangan was PP, his curates were Frs Brian Connolly and Brian Power, their working together as a team was in itself an example. It is that spirit that I often recall as I reflect on how I should live my baptismal call. The spirit that is the creative source of Jesus’ mission. By their inclusion my mother had no doubt that as a baptised person not only had she an obligation to participate in this parish and was empowered by Fr Chris Mangan to do so, but she felt she too had something to offer and contribute. She wasn’t of course the only one as the involvement of many was great. So the parish as I remember didn’t just involve coming to the Church but the Church living out among us. We, and I say we, because it didn’t seem one person’s thing, all were included, we were building the Kingdom of God among us not an empire for a select crowd. In an article of the newspaper reported by the Irish Times, Wednesday March 14, 1979 it states: “St Michael’s Church in Dun Laoghaire has a certain quality about it that really draws the crowd. Over half of the people who go Mass there on Sunday morning come from outside the parish. Maybe it’s just force of habit, or that they like the contemporary layout, but it probably has more to do with the friendly atmosphere, the community spirit which seems to permeate the church.  And the man who has done so much to foster this spirit is the parish priest, the Rev. Christopher Mangan.” The article was written by Frank McDonald.

This, the newspaper’s article reports, was Fr Chris Mangan’s dream- “My whole objective”, he said in this article, “when I came here was to make the whole parish a caring Christian community”. The parish community to him was not about attending mass.

This is how I experienced the parish: scripture groups were in people’s homes, led by the laity, supported by the priests, concerns in relation to the drug scene on the streets and the work done especially by Fr Power, people sleeping rough in the boats down in the harbour, these were always kept in the awareness of our  minds for those who wished to hear, the coffee mornings in the Boylan Centre for people to chat and take from the feeling of loneliness, visits to  home,  youth groups, the choirs, missions, discussion groups, the religious together prayed in the Church once a month, corpus Christi procession, the crib at the side where food parcels were left, visiting speakers at mass, minsters of the Eucharist and Word, sale of work at Christmas in the Boylan centre, all of these are memories for me of only some of what went on and last but not least the preaching of Fr Brian Connolly- who even had the sacristan ring the bell after 10minutes in case he would keep us too long- how human is that! But his preaching was thought provoking. A Fr Gerard Vann , Dominican, who died 50 years ago this year , wrote in the 1950s in England on how numbers were falling at church attendance and he believed it was due to the bad catechism that was being thrashed out to the congregations. Bad catechism seemed to be what Fr Chris Mangan deliberately planned to avoid, He brought in the best lecturers to give courses in scripture and theology.  He was educating us laity to be Church.

And my adult life to be back teaching for a few years in the primary school a great revival of community spirit returned with Mons Dan visiting the children in the school and being present to all the staff members, I don’t think this can be underestimated. It is the ordinariness of being present to people, it is a great bonus to have a chaplain who can support the educators in a nourishing manner.

And so as Luke draws our attention to the spirit life of the Church we ask ourselves how do I contribute, be  I ordained or not, how do we support one another so that people in our community don’t feel lonely or isolated, so that our young can be led in a manner which speaks of the dignity of the human person,  where our elderly feel safe, where our members receive good catechism, where we preach Jesus Christ to one another, where we include and take risks to do so, where because of our support for one another we receive the courage to call ourselves Christian and live the life of a Christian- be we priest, religious, married, single, young, old- as baptised members we all share in the priestly, prophetic and royal functions of Christ and his mission.  We, as baptised members, need to play our role and support our church leaders who allow it- what a church we would have!

As in the second reading of St Paul to Titus we are reminded to have no ambition except to do good. Paul teaches of the kindness and love of God that Jesus revealed to us- that he was only concerned with his own compassion for us and how God renews us with the Holy Spirit.

This Sunday’s gospel calls us into a new priesthood, a new commitment to our baptismal call. Within the Christian community Baptism is the first of the three sacraments necessary for full Christian initiation. Baptism gives us a new birth as children of God. Through baptism we become  participants in the salvific mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.

I will now finish in the words of the Dominican,  Fr Gerard Vann O.P. It summarises how, in my opinion, the late Fr Chris Mangan planted  seeds of a caring Christian community in this parish during my years of growing up here and how he truly showed how God is manifested and communicated to us through Christ our Lord. He wrote:

“The way to become like God is to love God; and to love one must learn, and to learn one must look- not just a fleeting glance, a partial awareness, but a long and deep concentration of awareness. The Church gives us many moral lessons in its effort to make us good, but its primary task is to make us good through helping us to look at, learn, love and live with God- and in particular, God as manifested and communicated to us through Christ our Lord.” (The Son’s Course).

A homily given by Sr Maeve McMahon O.P

in

Gardener Street, Dublin on October 7th

Have you ever experienced someone asking you a question that wasn’t sincere? You felt you were being put on the spot. You didn’t feel good about it.

The Gospel today opens with Jesus being put on the spot by the Pharisees, the Jewish religious teachers. Mark tells us that they tested Jesus by asking Him, “Is it against the law for a man to divorce his wife?”

They knew what they were doing!  They had been scheming for some time to entrap him, to do away with him.  This was the perfect place- under Herod Antipas’ jurisdiction – the Jewish ruler was having an affair with his brother’s wife and when John the Baptist denounced him for it, Herod threw John in prison. Maybe Jesus would suffer a similar fate.

Divorce was a thorny issue. Jesus was sure to displease some section of the Jews. Rabbi Shammai’s followers demanded a very serious pretext for divorce but the followers of Rabbi Hillel accepted trivial grounds, such as bad cooking. Another aspect was that Jesus had debunked the laws about fasting and the Sabbath observances so if he were to give the appearance of disregarding the sacred teaching about marriage then, the Pharisees believed they could turn many of the people against him.

Jesus knew their wily ways and their hard hearts so he turned the tables on them by asking, “What did Moses command you? “ and when they answered that Moses permitted a man to draw up a writ of dismissal against his wife, Jesus told them that this was because they were unteachable. The bottom line was, “What God has united man must not divide.” In this, he connected with the Old Testament teaching that we heard in the first reading from the Book of Genesis where the Lord God said that it was not good that the man should be alone.  I will make him a helpmate…….  A man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife and they become one body.”

For the Pharisees, for the disciples and for us, Jesus held up the ideal of marriage. The reflection of God’s faithful love for us.

However, human nature being what it is, divorce happens and men and women can suffer heartbreak on a long, lonely path. Where does that leave them in relation to Jesus? Well, we know that Jesus showed great kindness towards the Samaritan woman who had seven husbands and most especially towards the woman caught in adultery.  Her punishment according to the law was to be stoned to death.  The Pharisees brought her to Jesus and their stones were already in piles when he began to write in the sand and said.  “Let whomever has not sinned cast the first stone.” One by one they slipped away leaving Jesus alone with the woman. “I will not condemn you,” he told the terrified woman. Jesus’ kindness!

I believe that Mark put the incident about Jesus and the children straight after Jesus’ teaching about marriage to show us the importance of kindness in our relationships. We’re told that Jesus chastised the disciples for sending the children away and drew them close to him by putting his arms around them, laying his hands on them and giving them his blessing. He was kind to them.

You know, it can take a crisis or a catastrophe to help us to see what’s important in life. I had lived inNew Orleansfor 27 years before Hurricane Katrina and like thousands of others I spent months in evacuation centres after the Hurricane. I witnessed unbelievable suffering. My life was turned upside down but what stood out for me then and now, seven years later – is human kindness- the milk of human kindness.  There’s so much meaning in that expression “the milk of human kindness.” I’m now convinced that marriages and indeed all relationships are nourished daily by little acts of kindness.  How important it is to be consciously kind.

I found a poem after the hurricane that captured what I had discovered about the importance of kindness.  It was written by Naomi Shihab Nye, a woman whose father was fromPalestineand whose mother was American. Her poem is entitled: KINDNESS.

Before you know what kindness really is

You must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment

Like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,

What you counted and carefully saved,

All this must go so you know

How desolate the landscape can be

Between the regions of kindness.………..

Before you know kindness
as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow
as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness
that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day
to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,

and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

You are welcome to the site of the Congregation of Dominican Sisters.   Thank you for visiting us.  Our hope is that you find a word of inspiration and encouragement for your journey.

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We are a group of women who belong to the Dominican Order founded by St Dominic in 1221.  The Order comprises of Nuns, Active Sisters, Laity and Friars.  Our particular history goes back toGalwayin 1664.  At present we are inIreland,South Africa, Latin America,Portugal andLouisiana.

“The essentials of our life in common are put before us in the Gospel: that we come together in the name of Christ, that we love and forgive each other, and that we share what we are and have with one another.  Inspired by St Dominic’s Vision we live in communion, contemplating, studying and proclaiming the Word of God” (Constitution: 2)

Our motto is Truth.  It is a diamond that reflects right relationships between God, people and the earth.  It is multifaceted in its expressions which lead one to wonder and praise the God of all Creation.

Sister Helen Mary Harmey, OP

Congregation Prioress