Dominican Saints

The Holy Name of Jesus as a Seal on One’s Heart

Manuscript illumination of Bl. Henry Suso

This letter from our Dominican brother, Blessed Henry Suso, speaks in his distinctive evocative style of devotion to Our Lord and to the Holy Name of Jesus.  Although he is writing to Dominican nuns as their spiritual father, his words may apply to all who love and seek God.

Pone Me ut signaculum super cor tuum!

The eternal God pleads for a resting-place with His bride: “Lay me upon thy heart like a love-token” (Song of Songs).

My dear children, I am sending you these letters to provide food for your souls by which your heart and spirits may be constantly renewed and set aflame in tender love of the fair and gentle eternal wisdom.  For here is the deepest joy we can have in this life, when, alas, the purest contemplation, the most tender and intimate embrace and unchanging, everlasting union with Him is still impossible to us.

By means of them we can always be thinking of our lover, our chosen one, can long for Him in our hearts, speak of Him always, read His affectionate messages to us, unite ourselves with Him in all our work, be attached to nothing else on this earth.  Our eyes should look at Him with love, our ears be open to His word, our heart, mind, and spirit embrace Him.  When we have angered him, we must plead for pardon: when He tries us, we must bear it patiently: when He hides Himself from us, we must seek our adored one and never relinquish our search until we have found him, again and again.  When we have found Him, we must cling to Him in tenderness and virtue.

Whether standing or walking, eating or drinking, the golden sign of Jesus should always be engraved upon our heart.  If we can do no other, we must impress His image upon our soul though our eyes, let His sweet name sound on our tongues.  We should be so occupied with Him during the day that our dreaming at night is of Him alone.  Let us echo the heartfelt sigh of the prophet: “Oh, beloved God, Thou fair, tender, most excellent wisdom, how good thou art to that souls which seeks Thee, which desires Thee alone!”

Image of the Holy Name

This, in turn, reminds us of the hymn we sing for the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus at the beginning of this month of January.  If we were not already nuns, this hymn would make us want to enter the monastery to belong to Jesus alone!

Jesu dulcis memoria
dans vera cordi gaudia:
sed super mel et omnia
ejus dulcis praesentia.

Sweet is the memory of Jesus, giving true joys to the heart; but above honey and all things is His sweet presence.

Nil canitur suavius,
nil auditur jucundius,
nil cogitatur dulcius,
quam Jesus Dei Filius.

Nothing sweeter is sung, nothing more pleasant is heard; nothing more lovely is thought, than Jesus, the Son of God.

Jesu, spes paenitentibus,
quam pius es petentibus!
quam bonus te quaerentibus!
sed quid invenientibus!

O Jesus, hope of penitents, how kind art Thou to those who pray!  How good to those who seek Thee!  But what to those who find Thee!

Nec lingua valet dicere,
nec littera exprimere:
expertus potest credere,
quid sit Jesum diligere.

No tongue can tell, nor written word express it; only one having experienced it, can imagine what it is to love Jesus.

Sis, Jesu, nostrum gaudium,
qui es futurus praemium:
sit nostra in te gloria,
per cuncta semper saecula.
Amen.

O Jesus, be Thou our joy, who art to be our reward; in Thee be our glory forever.  Amen.

Liturgy

Advent in the Monastery

Advent in the monastery is a time of such joyful expectation! Long before Advent officially begins, the Sisters are turning their thoughts eagerly towards this season of preparation for the coming of the Savior. As the short summer nights lengthen into autumn, one or another Sister will break into Christmas carols in the kitchen while doing dishes at recreation. “It’s not Christmas yet!” someone objects. “I know—but it’s coming!”

Our Lady of Advent

We hear the first real whisper of Advent in the special Ave Maria we sing after Mass beginning 40 days before Christmas. The haunting melody sets the tone for the season, continuing up until we sing it for the last time after Midnight Mass of Christmas, now bathed in the radiance of Christ’s birth. Ave Maria—Hail Mary, Hail you who were perfectly prepared to receive Him. Help us enter into the age-old longing of the Patriarchs and Prophets, help us to repent, be converted, do penance, and welcome the Kingdom of Heaven into our midst in the Person of its Infant King.

The call of our sung Ave echoes the summons of the liturgy, which is truly the heart of the life of a Dominican nun. The great cycle of the liturgical year, making present for us all the mysteries of Christ, is realized each day in the cycle of the Divine Office and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, its center. Hymns, antiphons, readings—all usher us more deeply into the longing, repentance, and joyful expectation of Advent.

Dominican chant antiphon O Radix for December 19

Today we begin the great “O Antiphons,” sung before the Magnificat at Vespers, which hail our coming Messiah under His various titles. Now the tenor of the liturgy changes—we are coming down the home stretch! The nuns’ spiritual preparation is now joined by increasing material preparation: there are cookies to be baked, holiday ironing to be done, the chapel to be decorated.

This is one of the best parts of Advent in the monastery: how the expectancy increases step by step, degree by degree, until the celebration of Christmas. First the Ave, then the St. Andrew (or Christmas) novena; then our other Advent devotions, preparing our hearts to receive the Divine Infant with greater fervor. Then Gaudete Sunday—now the octave of the O Antiphons, with the initials of their invocations forming an acrostic which spells in reverse, Eros Cras, “Tomorrow I will be there,” the great cry of Christmas Eve.

He is almost here! Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!

Rosary

Pilgrim Rosary Celebration and Recordings

pilgrim-rosaryHappy feast of All Saints! In celebration, here are the recordings from our Pilgrim Rosary celebration held last week on the vigil and feast of St. Jude.

In his conferences, Fr. Gabriel Torretta, O.P. drew on the image of pilgrim movement from place to place in order to reflect profoundly on how, in union with Mary, the mysteries of the Rosary draw us deeply into the presence of God.

For each celebration, after the conference we put the meditation to good use by praying the Rosary with the hymn and antiphons from the Dominican Office for the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

The Joyful Mysteries

Conference on the Joyful Mysteries (mp3):

The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary with Dominican Chant (mp3):

The Luminous Mysteries

Conference on the Luminous Mysteries (mp3):

The Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary with Dominican Chant (mp3):

The Sorrowful Mysteries

Conference on the Sorrowful Mysteries (mp3):

The Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary with Dominican Chant (mp3):

The Glorious Mysteries

DOUBLE UPDATE (Nov 30): Conference on the Glorious Mysteries — now actually online! (mp3):

The Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary with Dominican Chant – no recording

We hope that by participating in our Rosary Pilgrimage from afar, you will draw closer to our Blessed Mother as she unites us ever more closely to her Son during our earthly pilgrimage towards Heaven.

Prayers

Novena for the Feast of St. Jude

You are welcome to join us today as we begin our yearly novena leading up to the feast of our patron, St. Jude on October 28.

Hymn to St. Jude

Sung to the tune of “Come Thou Almighty King”

Saint Jude of glorious fame
We praise and honor your name
God gave you power
O help us in our need
Please for us intercede
You are our haven blest
O great Saint Jude.

Cousin of Jesus the Lord
You earned your just reward
You gave your life
Preaching amid the strife
Converting to new life
People most dear to God
O great Saint Jude.

Novena Prayer to St. Jude

Most holy Apostle St. Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the name of the traitor who delivered thy beloved Master into the hands of His enemies has caused thee to be forgotten by many, but the Church honors and invokes thee universally, as the patron of hopeless cases, of things despaired of. Pray for me, who am so miserable; make use I implore thee, of that particular privilege accorded to thee, to bring visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need that I may receive the consolations and succor of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, particularly – (here make your request) – and that I may bless God with thee and all the saints forever. I promise thee, O blessed St. Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor, and I will never cease to honor thee as my special and powerful patron, and to do all in my power to encourage devotion to thee. Amen.

News and Updates

Jubilee Pilgrim Rosary: October 27-28

Photo of two Dominican Nuns with the Pilgrim Rosary information.

On the occasion of our 800th Jubilee, the Dominican Order has organized an international Pilgrim Rosary hosted in turn by each of the 202 monasteries of cloistered Dominican nuns throughout the world.  Our monastery’s assigned dates are Thursday, October 27 – Friday, October 28, the feast of Sts. Simon and Jude.

On Thursday, we will be celebrating the Joyful Mysteries and Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary.  We will celebrate the Glorious Mysteries on Friday morning.

Pilgrim Rosary

On Friday, October 28, from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm, all are invited to our Pilgrim Rosary celebration of the Sorrowful Mysteries.  This event will begin with the nuns’ singing None (Mid-afternoon Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours).  Fr. Gabriel Torretta, O.P. will then preach on the Sorrowful Mysteries, followed by the recitation of the Rosary with chant meditations sung by the Dominican nuns.  There will not be a reception, but all are invited to attend the preaching and prayer.

In the back of the chapel we will have available print copies of our Dominican Rosary Meditation booklet (link is to PDF file), along with some cord Rosaries handmade by the Dominican nuns.

UPDATE:  Audio of the conferences and Rosary are now up: Pilgrim Rosary Celebration and Recordings.

Rosary Resources and the Dominican Nuns

Photo of stained glass window in St. Dominic's church, Washington, D.C., of St. Dominic and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Taken by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.
Dominican Life, Vocation News, Vocations

Vocation Retreat 2016: The Heart of the Dominican Vocation

Exploring a Dominican Vocation

Vocation Retreat 2016Eleven young women traveled from as close as Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Tennessee, and as far as Virginia, Ohio, Texas, and California to attend the Vocation Retreat on the weekend of June 3-5.  During their stay the girls experienced many aspects of our life, beginning with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Divine Office, silent prayer and Eucharistic Adoration, and the rosary and spirit of Marian devotion.  It was beautiful to see their joyful enthusiasm to be at our monastery, learn about our Dominican life, and draw closer to Our Lord.

We spoke with the retreatants about God’s desire to share His life with us, and how our particular vocation as Dominican nuns is a response to that desire, as the elements of our life—community, liturgical and private prayer, study, work, silence, enclosure—work together to open our hearts to the height, depth, and breadth of His love so that His Word might bear fruit in us for the salvation of souls.

Providentially, Friday of the retreat weekend was the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and Saturday was the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Alternating with our talks to the girls in the parlor, the retreat master, our Dominican brother Fr. Gabriel Torretta, wove together profoundly inspiring conferences revealing the Sacred Heart of Jesus as the beginning and end of the Dominican vocation, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary as the ideal modal of our life in response to God’s call.  He kept the girls laughing, too, so we know they were tasting some Dominican joy!  We share some of Father’s insights below.

The Sacred Heart and the Dominican Vocation

dominic-sacred-heart-lawrence-lew

O God, who in the heart of Your son, wounded by our sins, bestow on us in mercy the boundless treasures of Your love, grant we pray that in paying Him the homage of our devotion we may also offer worthy reparation.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.

As members of the Dominican Order, our goal is to be joined personally to the Heart of Christ to intercede for the conversion of sinners and to pour out the treasures of grace for the salvation of the world, Fr. Gabriel Torretta, O.P. told the retreatants in his Friday conference.  Quoting the Collect for the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (above), Father showed how the Dominican vocation begins with the love of a heart wounded like Jesus’ with the knowledge of the sins of men, and consumed with a desire for mercy. “O God, what will become of sinners?” our Holy Father St. Dominic cried in anguished prayer throughout the night; and his only thought was to consecrate his life totally to Christ if only Christ could use his preaching as an instrument of grace poured out for the salvation of souls.

The cloistered nuns, too, share this charism, as they are united with the heart of St. Dominic, who was himself united with the heart of Jesus in praying for the outpouring of God’s mercy and ‘the boundless treasures of His love’ for the conversion of poor sinners, especially for those who are most abandoned and who can be reached not by the preaching of words but only by prayer.

The Marian Pattern of the Dominican Vocation

St. Agnes of Montepulciano stained glass window in the church of St. Dominic in Washington, DC; photo by Lawrence Lew, OPO God, Who prepared a fit dwelling place for the Holy Spirit in the heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, graciously grant that through her intercession we may be a worthy temple of Your glory.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.

How do we become like Jesus?  Through Mary.  We revere her Immaculate Heart, Father explained on Saturday, because her Heart is so conformed to Christ that she totally realizes in her person the goal of all human life.  To be conformed to Mary who is conformed to Christ and so given to the Father in the life of the Holy Spirit—this shapes our Dominican vocation.

Being formed in the Heart of Mary and brought to the Heart of Christ is not a private grace, but leads to an outpouring of grace, conversion and healing for the whole world.  The healing and elevating power of grace in our own life of conversion, leading to the outpouring of grace for others gives a particular pattern to the Dominican life, especially that of the cloistered nuns.

Father also shared some favorite examples from the life of St. Dominic and some of the Saints of our Order, illustrating the Marian pattern of the Dominican vocation.  “Mary is the mother of the fully lived human life”—and that is what we are living when we give ourselves totally, freely, and joyfully to God in the Dominican cloister.

Stained glass windows in the church of St. Dominic in Washington, D.C.; photos by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.

Our Dominican Vocation

We only host official Vocation Retreat once every few years, but if you are a single Catholic young woman under age 30 and would like to learn more about our life or arrange a visit, we encourage you to contact the Vocation Directress.

Please keep the young women who attended our retreat in your prayers, that the graces they received over the weekend may bear abundant fruit in their lives—even the grace of a Dominican vocation.

Jesus in the Eucharist, Marian Consecration

Eucharistic Adoration with Our Lady

This meditation by St. Peter Julian Eymard seemed preeminently suitable for the feast of Corpus Christi during the month of Our Lady.

our-lady-of-the-most-blessed-sacrament

Mary’s Prayer of Adoration

Mary devoted herself exclusively to the Eucharistic glory of Jesus. She knew that it was the desire of the Eternal Father to make the Eucharist known, loved and served by all men; that the need of Jesus’ Heart was to communicate to all men His gifts of grace and glory.  She knew, too, that it was the mission of the Holy Spirit to extend and perfect in the hearts of men the reign of Jesus Christ, and that the Church had been founded only to give Jesus to the world.  All Mary’s desire, then, was to make Him known in His Sacrament.  Her intense love for Jesus felt the need of expanding is this way, of consecrating itself—as a kind of relief, as it were—because of her own inability to glorify Him as much as she desired.

Ever since Calvary, all men were her children.  She loved them with a Mother’s tenderness and longed for their supreme good as for her own; therefore, she was consumed with the desire to make Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament known to all, to inflame all hearts with His love, to see them enchained to His loving service.

To obtain this favor, Mary passed her time at the foot of the Most Adorable Sacrament, in prayer and penance.  There she treated of the world’s salvation.  In her boundless zeal, she embraced the needs of the Faithful everywhere, for all time to come, who would inherit the Holy Eucharist and be Its adorers.

But the mission dearest to Mary’s heart was that of constant prayer for the success of the preaching and the missionary labors of the Apostles and of all the members of Jesus Christ’s priesthood.  It is not surprising, then, that those Apostolic workers so easily converted entire kingdoms, for Mary remained constantly at the foot of the Throne of Mercy, supplicating on their behalf the Savior’s benevolence.  Her prayers converted countless souls, and as every conversion is the fruit of prayer, and since Mary’s prayer could meet no refusal, the Apostles had in this Mother of Mercy their most powerful helper.  “Blessed is he for whom Mary prays!”

In Eucharistic Adoration We Share in Mary’s Prayer

Eucharistic adorers share Mary’s life and mission of prayer at the foot of the Most Blessed Sacrament. It is the most beautiful of all missions, and it holds no perils.  It is the most holy, for in it all the virtues are practiced.  It is, moreover, the most necessary to the Church, which has even more need of prayerful souls than of powerful preachers; of men of penance rather than of men of eloquence.  Today more than ever have we need of men who, by their self-immolation, disarm the anger of God inflamed by the ever-increasing crimes of nation.  We must have souls who by their importunity re-open the treasures of grace which the indifference of the multitude has closed.  We must have true adorers; that is to say, men of fervor and of sacrifice.  When there are many such souls around their Divine Chief, God will be glorified, Jesus will be loved, and society will once more be Christian, conquered for Jesus Christ by the apostolate of Eucharistic prayer.

Dominican Nuns as Our Lady’s Guards of Honor

Our monastery was founded in the tradition of the Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary, making our entire life one of Adoration in union with Our Lady.  From our Perpetual Rosary Custom Book:

For us, the privileged children of Mary, our portion is to form the court of this amiable Queen of Heaven, the Queen of all the queens of earth.  Unceasingly do we surround her throne, reciting her praises.  Day by day, and night after night, always, ever, Mary sees us at her feet, happy and eager to honor and bless her and intercede with her for the whole human race.—

It is a great happiness to be able to fulfill our hea­venly functions as Mary’s Guards of Honor at the foot of the Tabernacle.  We thus study all the mysteries of Jesus under the veil of the Host which contains them.  What a source of joy to be able by this sweet industry, to cause the gift which Jesus had made of His merits to fructify by placing them into our hands, so to speak, through the Holy Eucharist!

Further Reading:

Dominican Life, Liturgical Year, Liturgy

Sounds of the Ascension at Marbury

This year as we practiced the chants for the feast of the Ascension, a friend urged us to share the beauty of the chant.  Although we sing more than one of the chants for the Ascension, we only present one here: Viri Galilaei, the Offertorium (offertory chant) from the Dominican Graduale for the feast of the Ascension.  Other chants for the Ascension are the Officium (called the Introit in the Roman Rite) at the beginning of Mass, two Alleluias with accompanying verses, and the Communion antiphon.

This is just a sample of what Mass sounds like here at Marbury, and of the kind of music the girls will hear on our Vocation Retreat in just a few weeks.  Please continue to keep them in your prayers!

Prayers, Saints

These Souls! These Souls!

Then Jesus said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.
What profit is there for a man to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”    -Luke 9:23-25

In commenting on this Gospel passage earlier this Lent, one of our priests cited a line from “A Man for All Seasons”.  When Richard Rich had just perjured himself against Sir Thomas More in exchange for the Attorney Generalship of Wales, the Saint says to him, “Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world … but Wales!”  So many forfeit so much for so little!

Reflecting on this, Father said:  “There are souls who die, and die forever.  There are souls who are born again, and live forever.”

These are souls who die, and die forever.  There are souls who are born again, and live forever.

The salvation of souls is at stake.

Crucifixion with St. DominicThis is what motivated the great missionary and founder St. Anthony Mary Claret, who as a child would like awake at night whispering to himself, “Siempre!  Siempre!”  “Forever!  Forever!”

This is what motivated St. Francis Xavier, the Jesuit “proto-missionary” and patron of the missions, who wrote from India his impassioned plea for missionaries to the apparently indifferent academics of Europe:  “What a tragedy: how many souls are being shut out of heaven and falling into hell, thanks to you!”

This is what motivated our Holy Father St. Dominic, who spent his days tirelessly preaching the Gospel and his nights crying out to God in prayer: “What will become of sinners?”

Dominican Nun praying at foot of CrucifixThis cry of our Holy Father St. Dominic echoes in the heart of his cloistered daughters, impelling us to pour out our lives in fidelity and generosity to God in union with Jesus and Mary for the salvation of souls.  “As the Lord Jesus, the Savior of all, offered Himself completely for our salvation, [the Dominican friars and nuns] consider themselves to be truly His members primarily when they are spending themselves totally for souls” (our Constitutions).

Can anyone who loves God and neighbor continue on complaisantly while souls are choosing eternal damnation over eternal life?  In the words of this ardent prayer from the Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary handbook:

Mercy, mercy O my God, mercy for souls, that are lost around us each day!

The devil in his course springs from his abyss to make his horrible conquests, to excite his infernal troops to cry out: these souls! these souls! to ruin souls.

They fall poor souls like the leaves in Autumn, into the eternal gulf.

Mercy, mercy, O my God, and we Thy servants again cry: These souls! these souls! we must have these souls, to lead them to Heaven.

We ask this favor, by the wounds of Jesus our Savior, who descended from Heaven, for our redemption, who at this hour is obliged to punish. Perhaps one more prayer will be heard that will stay the punishment.

Mercy for the guilty souls, who are on the point of falling into Hell.

Mercy for the feeble and tottering souls, who are on the point of abandoning their vocations.

Mercy for souls, who at this hour blaspheme, curse and swear.

With Jesus, by Jesus, in the name of Jesus and in the name of Mary, we cry: Mercy! mercy! O God.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

Vocation News, Vocations

A New Habit and a New Name

The Dominican Nuns joyfully announce the vestition of their postulant, Sister Chelsea, on January 25, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. In a simple ceremony marking the beginning of her canonical novitiate, Sister Chelsea received the holy habit of the Dominican Order, and her new religious name:

Dominican Novice

Sister Mary Rose of the Pure Heart, O.P.

(The “Rose” in her name is for Our Lady, Mystical Rose.)

Please keep Sister Mary Rose in your prayers as she sets out on this new stage of her Dominican vocation, that she may fulfill the words from the ceremony’s concluding prayer: “May you apply yourself assiduously to following our Holy Father St. Dominic so that you may be ready for the day of your espousals to Jesus Christ.”

Further Reading: