In August we joyfully celebrated the first vows of Sr Philomena Benedict. Here is a video of the event 

by Sr Tamsin Geach o.p.

‘Father, I think I may be going mad’

‘Have you ever thought of becoming a lay Dominican?’

This is more or less the beginning of my vocation story.  I was doing pro-life work full-time, and finding the relentless round of contemplating horror after horror was getting to me.  I finally thought: ‘So it’s true that killing babies is wrong, but that is not the Good News of Jesus Christ.’  Something had to be done!

Sr. Mary Valery Walker OP

At the time I was born my Father was the Catholic, my Mother was not.  A year or so later, after the birth of my first sister, Gillian, my Mother became a Catholic.  So I grew up in a practising Catholic family; a family that went regularly to Mass on Sundays, said night and morning prayers (not always together), went sometimes to Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

When I started primary school, it was a convent junior day school, of the Daughters of Wisdom, a French foundation.  I loved them very much, especially Sr. Angela.  It was in their chapel that our family attended Mass each Sunday.