A Sermon for the Golden Jubilees of Srs Pauline and Angela Mary Saturday Sept 3rd 2016  

Fr.Aidan Nichols o.p.  

“A peculiar kind of mission"  I expect almost everyone here will be aware that this is the title of a book about the the English Dominican Congregation by Anselm Nye.  I'd skimmed the book when it first appeared, and only read it properly when Sr Mary Pauline and Sr Angela Mary asked  me to prepare a homily for this occasion. 

It came as rather a shock to discover that the words “a peculiar kind of mission,” written by Archbishop Errington, the co-adjutor with right of succession to the first Archbishop of Westminster, were intended as a criticism, and in fact, as a dismissal. 

by Sr Tamsin Mary Geach

After a very few days in Lourdes, if one has been doing the thing properly and not spent too disproportionate an amount of time in the bars and cafes rather than in the hospitals shrines and baths, one will be struck with the sense of one’s own inadequacy, and a type of marvel at how wonderful many other people are.  One may then be struck with fear when one contemplates one’s own inadequacy, apathy and general lack of lustre.  There is nothing like the contemplation of people who really suffer, and the people who really serve to show up our own inadequate response to the love of God, to the demands of charity, or even of common kindness. 

A talk given at a vocations weekend by Sr Tamsin Geach o.p.

Intrinsic to the Dominican vocation are the ‘four pillars’ of Study, Prayer, Community life and Preaching or the mission.  I shall explore how study fits into Dominican life under the following headings:

1. Models of Study

2. Study and conformity to Christ

3. An intellectual life that is  counter-cultural

4. Study as a source of unity

5. Study as asceticism

6. Study as mission

7. Stewardship

8. Freedom from and freedom for.

 by Sr Ann Catherine Swailes

The observant among you will have noticed that at the moment the clothes worn by the priest at mass are not white, red or purple, but green, and, with a few interruptions, this will be the case until the beginning of Advent. What is the significance of all this?