Tag Archives: Dominicans

The Canticle of the Passion Sung by the Marbury Dominicans

catherine ricciThe Dominicans Nuns of Marbury, Alabama, have recently posted on their website The Canticle of the Passion, or the “Passion Verses.” It is a specifically Dominican devotion traditionally sung on the Fridays of Lent.  A compilation of texts from Sacred Scripture that pertain to the sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ, this devotion was revealed by the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Catherine de Ricci (1522-1590), a cloistered Dominican Tertiary of the 16th century. Today is her Feast Day!

“Our Lady is said to have desired Catherine, when she revealed this Canticle to her, to spread it through the convent as a form of prayer and contemplation supremely pleasing to our Lord. The venerable confessor, Fra Timoteo, wrote it out in full at the saint’s dictation and submitted it for the approval of the Order. Padre Francesco di Castiglione had then become general, and he was not satisfied with allowing its use in San Vincenzio. By a circular letter to all monasteries of the Province he ordered it to be placed amongst the regular devotions and forms of prayer peculiar to the Dominicans; and it has remained celebrated amongst us, under the title Canticle of the Passion, as a monument to the tender love of our great Dominican saint, Catherine de Ricci, for her crucified Jesus”  (from St Catherine de’ Ricci : Her Life, Her Letters, Her Community by Florence Mary Capes, p. 76-77).

The Dominicans are celebrating their 800th anniversary this year!
The Dominicans are celebrating their 800th anniversary this year!

Like St. Francis, St. Catherine de Ricci experienced the stigmata and for 12 years, every Thursday Noon until Friday at 4:00 pm, accompanied Jesus in His Passion. The Canticle of the Passion was revealed to Catherine immediately after her first great ecstasy of the Passion. Our Lady desired Catherine to spread it as a form of prayer and contemplation pleasing to Our Lord.

The Canticle of the Passion is sung to the haunting tones of their Dominican chant, leading them to enter more deeply into the solemn mysteries of this season of Passiontide and Holy Week.

If you go to their website, you can hear a recording of the The Canticle of the Passion sung by the nuns. Pictorial meditations are included and the Latin verses are translated into English.

It is really beautiful!!

 

Dominican Evangelization on the Streets of DC

op lean on meWhen you see a group of people singing “Lean on Me” on a busy city street, you might think it is a throwback to the 1970’s. However, this group of singers are Dominican friars and sisters who took to the streets of Washington, DC, on May 17th to do a little street evangelization.

The friars are from the Dominican House of Studies, while the sisters came from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Dominican Sisters of Rosary House.

For the Dominicans, this was their way of spreading Easter joy. While they handed out rosaries and pamphlets explaining this prayerful  way of meditating on Scripture, they drew people in by engaging them in song. It was a way for an encounter with Christ to take place.

“Music is such a beautiful expression of Gospel joy that it just ‘clicks’ for people,” said Dominican Brother Gregory Pine. Music is a way of “re-presenting the attractiveness of the Gospel in another medium.” Brother Norbert Keliher said that the music and the rosary are a “doorway for evangelization.”

To see this energetic group in action, go to YouTube to watch their rendition of “Lean on Me!”

You can support the young Dominicans friars of the  Province of St. Joseph by purchasing their first release from Dominicana Records, In Medio Ecclesiae. In Medio Ecclesiae offers chant and polyphonic treasures of the Church’s musical tradition as well as two new compositions by Dominican friars. Click here to listen to the Good Friday meditation: O vos omnes (“O all you who walk by on the road, pay attention and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow.”)

Dominican Students of the Province of Saint Joseph
Dominican Students of the Province of Saint Joseph

 

The Heart of the Dominican Apostolate

sr opThe Dominican Nuns in Marbury, Alabama, have just released a video in which Sister Mary Jordan, O.P. describes her vocation journey to the cloistered convent. The video was filmed through the grill by Fr. Benedict Croell, O.P., Vocation Director for the St. Joseph Province, who first met Sister when she was in a high school youth group in a Dominican parish in Cincinnati.

What makes the story interesting is that Sister loved teaching yet she fell in love with the monastic life through reading the book A Right to Be Merry by Mother Mary Francis, PCC. Why would God put this love of teaching into her heart of she could not “use” it in a cloistered convent? Watch the video to find out about her understanding and embracing of spiritual motherhood!

Sister took the name “Mary Jordan” in honor of Bl. Jordan of Saxony, the second Minister General of the Dominican Order. It is probably not well known that St. Dominic founded the women’s branch of the Order before the men’s branch, demonstrating how much the preaching of the Dominicans is and was dependent upon the prayers of the nuns. A shining example of the complimentary relationship between the friars and the nuns is seen in the correspondence between Bl. Jordan and Bl. Diana, who professed her vow of virginity at the hands of St. Dominic himself!

sr op2Sister Mary Jordan discovered that her prayerful way of life was in no way incompatible with her desire to teach. For what is teaching but imparting true knowledge to the world? The nuns are the heart of the Dominican preaching apostolate and their prayers, penances, sacrifices, joy and total availability to God are inexhaustible sources of fruitfulness for the Dominican friars, active sisters and third order members. A Dominican friar told the nuns that their presence was a deciding factor in his decision to become a Dominican.

One of the mottoes of the Dominicans is to “give to others the fruits of contemplation.” The silent contemplation of the Nuns bears fruit as their lives become more conformed to Christ, who gave Himself completely for the salvation of souls.

Click here to go to website and watch the video.

If You Re-Build It They Will Come!

Mr. John Tipperman of The Mary Cross Foundation believed that “if you rebuild it they will come again.” And come again they did as the newly renovated St. Felix Oratory in Huntington, Indiana, becomes a new home for the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.

On March 3, 2012, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese said mass and blessed the newly renovated building where twenty of the sisters, who will soon be teaching in area Catholic schools, will reside.

Built in 1928, the monastery was a Capuchin novitiate named after St. Felix of Cantalice, Italy, who lived from 1515 to 1587. It’s most amazing treasure is the room where Ven. Solanus Casey lived from 1946 to 1956. The former friary was sold almost 30 years ago but even though the building left Catholic hands, the former owners kept Solanus’ room padlocked with his brown habit lying across his bed.

There are several interesting stories and a video to watch on this amazing series of coincidences that brought a man with a vision and a sister with a mission together.

Dominican Vocation Boom

Last year, the Dominican Province of St. Joseph made a vocation Video called “Leaving All Things Behind.”  The YouTube version has just exceeded 10,000 views!

In 2010, the Province accepted its largest class of Novices in 44 years. This year they have 50 friars in formation! The Province of St. Albert the Great also had its largest class of novices in many years.

The Province of St. Joseph has a two hundred year legacy of service to the Church. Friars serve as pastors and parochial vicars in parishes in New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Ohio, and Kentucky; as teachers, campus ministers, and administrators in colleges, universities, and seminaries; as itinerant preachers, traveling to parishes and schools throughout the country; and as chaplains to monasteries and convents.

May St. Dominic continue to bless the Dominicans with vocations and may Our Lady of the Rosary inspire them with a deep love for God and His Church.

Dominican Nun Makes Solemn Profession

February, 2, 2012, the Feast of the Presentation, was extra special for Sr. Mary Amata, O.P., who professed solemn vows as Nun of the Order of Preachers with the Dominican Nuns of Summit, New Jersey. Placing her hands into those of Sr. Denise Marie her prioress, Sr. Mary Amata made profession of obedience until death.

It had been 62 years since a bishop presided at a profession at the monastery. Bishop Manuel Cruz was the main celebrant and assisted with the veiling but as one of the nuns said, “We have an idea that Bishop Cruz had no idea how many straight pins it takes to keep a nun together!”

During the veiling the beautifully haunting Amo Christum was sung. (You can hear it on the video.) The Dominicans of Summit are an IRL Affiliate Community. Their mission is to pray for the salvation of souls and to support the preaching mission of the Dominican friars.

May God bless Sister Mary Amata with many years of faithful service to her community and to her Jesus.

Holiness, Not Hot Air

Recently at Patheos there was an article by Elizabeth Duffy on Mount de Sales Academy in Maryland, run by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, more commonly known as the Nashville Dominicans, in which the faith is beautifully integrated into every aspect of the educational experience. Duffy writes:

“The Nashville Dominican Sisters have gained a national reputation for helping to facilitate this Catholic Identity wherever the sisters go. Many parents and administrators are wondering, how can we get the Nashville Dominicans to come into our schools and transform them? The Sisters shine a light on the potentialities of Catholic education, but they also point a way for the laity. Christ is the one who transforms us. If he is integral to our lives, he will be integral to our schools. Holiness, not hot air.”

Mount de Sales is living proof that rigorous academics and a vibrant Catholic identity need not be an either/or proposition for our Catholic schools.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts

The Institute on Religious Life is pleased to announce that it will host a regional conference in Southern California on the topic “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts: The Sacred Liturgy and Consecrated Life.”

The event will take place on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at Sts. Peter and Paul parish in Wilmington, California. Speakers include Fr. Brian Mullady, O.P. and Rt. Rev. Eugene Hayes, O. Praem., abbot of St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, California.

As the Church embraces the revised edition of the Roman Missal, it is good to be reminded that “an indispensable means of effectively sustaining communion with Christ is assuredly the Sacred Liturgy” (Bl. John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, no. 95).

This year’s regional meeting will offer reflections on the vital importance of the Sacred Liturgy in the Church’s life and mission, with special emphasis on how Divine Worship relates to the consecrated life in the living out of the evangelical counsels and serving the needs of others.

Everyone—clergy, religious and laity—is welcome to attend this day of spiritual renewal, reflection and affirmation of the consecrated life.

For more information or to register, click here.

St. Martin de Porres

Today is the feast of St. Martin de Porres, one of the most beloved saints in the history of the Church. I thought I would share with readers the following excerpt from the homily of Blessed John XXIII on the occasion of St. Martin’s canonization in 1962, taken from the Office of Readings for today:

The example of Martin’s life is ample evidence that we can strive for holiness and salvation as Christ Jesus has shown us: first, by loving God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; and second, by loving your neighbor as yourself.”

When Martin had come to realize that Christ Jesus suffered for us and that he carried our sins on his body to the cross, he would meditate with remarkable ardor and affection about Christ on the cross.  Whenever he would contemplate Christ’s terrible torture he would be reduced to tears.  He had an exceptional love for the great sacrament of the Eucharist and often spent long hours in prayer before the blessed sacrament.  His desire was to receive the sacrament in communion as often as he could.

Saint Martin, always obedient and inspired by his divine teacher, dealt with his brothers with that profound love which comes from pure faith and humility of spirit.  He loved men because he honestly looked on them as God’s children and as his own brothers and sisters.  Such was his humility that he loved them even more than himself and considered them to be better and more righteous than he was.

He excused the faults of others. He forgave the bitterest injuries, convinced that he deserved much severer punishments on account of his own sins. He tried with all his might to redeem the guilty; lovingly he comforted the sick; he provided food, clothing and medicine for the poor; he helped, as best he could, farm laborers and Negroes, as well as mulattoes, who were looked upon at that time as akin to slaves: thus he deserved to be called by the name the people gave him: ‘Martin of Charity.'”

The virtuous example and even the conversation of this saintly man exerted a powerful influence in drawing men to religion.  It is remarkable how even today his influence can still come us toward the things of heaven.  Sad to say, not all of us understand these spiritual values as well as we should, nor do we give them a proper place in our lives.  Many of us, in fact, strongly attracted by sin, may look upon these values as of little moment, even something of a nuisance, or we ignore them altogether.  It is deeply rewarding for men striving for salvation to follow in Christ’s footsteps and to obey God’s commandments.  If only everyone could learn this lesson from the example that Martin gave us.

St. Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru in 1579 as the illegitimate son of a Panamanian mother and a Spanish father.  Having inherited the dark color of his mother, he was rejected by his father and was therefore raised in poverty.  He entered the Dominicans and became renowned for his countless works of charity. St. Martin was the friend of another great Dominican Saint from Peru, St. Rose of Lima, and his bishop for a time was St. Turibius of Mogrovejo.

Nashville Dominican, Physician

While I ordinarily would discourage people from reading the National Catholic Reporter, which has been a notorious instrument of dissent for decades, I just came across this Catholic News Service story at their website and encourage our readers to check it out.

The story is about Dominican Sister Mary Diana Dreger, a primary care physician at St. Thomas Family Health Center South in Nashville. Sister Mary Diana continues the legacy of Catholic health care that has been firmly rooted in Middle Tennessee since the Daughters of Charity founded St. Thomas Hospital in 1898.

In addition to working at the St. Thomas clinic since 2007, Sister runs a Saturday clinic at the Dominican motherhouse, and naturally serves as the primary-care physician for about 75 Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia.

Sister Mary Diana strives to put her patients at ease, providing a solidly Catholic witness while dispensing sound health care, not lectures on morality. Even though she is the only sister in Nashville who is also a medical doctor, “I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how welcome I’ve been wearing a habit,” she said.

Contrary to what some may believe, she has found that wearing a habit inspires more trust than skepticism among patients. “Patients are comfortable talking about just about anything with me,” she said.