PRISONERS CHANGING THEIR LIVES THROUGH DANCE

FEEL CALLED TO BECOME A DOMINICAN BROTHER OR PRIEST?

VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS ~ COME HOLY SPIRIT

Take a few moments to listen and let the Peace of the Spirit fill your hearts

ON DEATH ROW

Since the late 1970s, penology in the United States has steadily turned away from hope in the power of rehabilitation and reform and has instead embraced an ideology of incapacitation and revenge. In the face of such cynicism and indifference to the plight of the incarcerated (and their families), Catholic prison ministry calls out more than ever for American priests to become involved in what some have termed the “prison-industrial complex.”

It is in this darkness that I see the light of God every day shining forth. Since my first experiences in prison ministry, I have learned over and over to see the face of Christ in the prisoners as well as in those who guard them. This Easter provided a good example. I have been working with a man on death row (, who studied Catholicism in his cell and desired to be baptized. I got permission from the warden to baptize him on Easter Monday.

Death row is a maximum-security area. All who enter it must don a stab-proof vest before meeting with inmates who are always kept locked up separately from staff - in other words: there is no human contact. Even when out of their cells, the prisoners are handcuffed and shackled with waist and leg chains.

Baptizing him had to be accomplished within these security constraints. With his hands cuffed behind him, and attached to a chain around his waist, he was escorted down the tier of cells to the entryway of the building housing the “Condemned” prisoners. A few staff, by his invitation came to witness his baptism. The normally noisy hallway became quiet and uncharacteristically peaceful as we began. He read a passage from Romans 6: “Are you not aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” I had to hold the book for him as his hands were handcuffed behind his back.

The words of the ritual were hauntingly powerful as we stood against a black-painted wall, a wall that hid from our view the old Gas Chamber behind it. “If we have been united with him through likeness to his death, so shall we be through a like resurrection.” The words of St Paul challenged the whole machinery of death around us.

The words blessing the water were similarly a rejection of the power of death, violence and revenge: Light, Hope, Healing, Rebirth, Joy, Peace, Love, each word, each symbol hit like a sledgehammer against what promised only despair, only death. We who were gathered in that dark corner in that gloomy building that morning witnessed in the Baptism a clear sign of God’s grace shining into one of the darkest corners of our world. “Do you reject Satan? I do. And all his works? I do, and all his empty promises? I do.” This is why I love being a priest.

In a final breathtaking sign, as I prepared to anoint him with Chrism, he said, “Can you bless my hands as well?” In order to do so, he had to turn and offer me his hands, handcuffed behind his back. The same hands that took lives received the anointing with the chrism of salvation. The promise of liberation from those shackles brought tears to my eyes.

Catholic chaplain

HEART for SERVICE. Called to Serve

Untitled from Grand Rapids Dominican Sisters on Vimeo.

The Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids are offering a service program open to college-age women (and recent graduates) The goal of the program, Called to Serve, is to offer young women, within the context of a Catholic Dominican community, an opportunity to:

create community
serve those who are most vulnerable
pray together
study the issues that affect those we are serving

A TRIBUTE TO SERVICE DOGS

GOD and Dog

ST DOMINIC'S DAY ~ MAY 24

Feast of St. Dominic August 8th
St Dominic Day May 24 - Translation of his relics

Dominic Guzman

St. Dominic feeding the poor

During the year Catholics the world over set aside days to mark and remember the efforts of saints who worked for God and the Church. The day set aside for the remembrance of a specific saint is known as a Feast Day, and time is set aside to attend mass, say special prayers, or participate in special meals or celebrations.

St. Dominic, the founder of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans) was a man who led an austere life dedicated to God. He traveled widely, but always in humility, without pomp or retainers, and often even without his shoes.

He was dedicated to education, believing that knowledge would open peoples' eyes to the truth about the Lord. He is the patron saint of scientists, astronomers and astronomy, all of which reflect his love of learning and spreading knowledge.

St. Dominic's Feast Day is August 8th. Originally celebrated on August 4th, the day of his death, it was moved to the 8th after the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. He died on August 6th, 1221, on the Feast of the Transfiguration. The Feast of St. Dominic is widely celebrated, as he is a powerful figure in Church history.

He was well-known even in his lifetime as a great and holy man; so much so that Dante's poem Paradiso includes lines about Saint Dominic and his work. On the Feast Day of St. Dominic many people say prayers for guidance and light, much as the saint himself did.

saint dominic quotes:
"Arm yourself with prayer rather than a sword;
wear humility rather than fine clothes."

St Dominic Quotes:
"I kept on digging the hole deeper and deeper looking for the treasure chest until I finally lifted my head, looked up and realized that I had dug my own grave."
- [Doubt]

A man who governs his passions is master of his world. We must either command them or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil.
-Quote of St. Dominic de Guzman

Blessed Pope John Paul II, A FRIEND OF THE POOR

Sr Pauline Quinn op recieving Communion by Pope John Paul II

To experience meeting him after working so long and hard in Rome helping the poor made me have faith that God will not abandon me.

How Great God Is To Have Created This...

NOT BROKEN

Amando IBANEZ OP ~ NOT BROKEN. A MOVIE TO SEE

Man of Peace: Don Samuel Ruiz 1924-2011

A Man of Peace: Don Samuel Ruiz 1924-2011
Tuesday, 25th January 2011 - 18:39
It was a remarkable mass for a remarkable man.

The news spread rapidly yesterday morning of the death of Bishop Samuel Ruiz. He died at the age of 86, the day that marked 51 years since his ordination as Bishop of the Diocese of San Cristobal. By 2:30 the Mexico City church had filled with an unusual group of religious leaders, peace activists and figures who have marked Mexican politics over the years. All recalled their work alongside Tatik ('father' in Tzeltal) with a bittersweet blend of loss and gratitude. (...)

Click Here for the whole article

CONVERSION OF ST PAUL ~

"...a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' I replied, ‘Who are you, sir?' And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene whom you are persecuting.'" (Acts 22:6-8) Who are you that am I persecuting?

That is another way to phrase the question. What did Saul of Tarsus discover in his conversion, in his turning? He turned to face the true subject of his persecutions of the Church: not Stephen at whose stoning he assisted, not the Christians of Damascus he wished to arrest, but he who was within them, strengthening them: Saul turned to face Jesus Christ. This is the secret that was unveiled to the apostle Paul, that set him free, that blinded him: the mystery hidden to unaided reason, but enlightening the inward eyes of faith: The mystery of Christ dwelling in his Church.

Complete text click here...

LEAVING ALL THINGS BEHIND

Do Not Forget Them...

My friend Sr Giovanna works in Southern Sudan, helping people. We do not know the sadness and real sorrows that other people face in countries that have no one to protect them. Do not forget them.

Pray for Sr Giovanna and others who are in such dangerious places of the world that they may be safe, helping those who have been hurt...

From: Giovanna
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 5:32 AM
To: Sr Pauline Quinn op
Subject: from Sr. Giovanna..

Dear Sr. Pauline, I was happy to hear from you. Yes, I am also working with displaced refugees from Congo due to the attacks of the rebels from North Uganda, the Lord's Resistance Army. Let us pray for each other, God bless
Sr. Giovanna

FILM ABOUT ST DOMINIC ~ OFFICAL TRAILER

Down’s Syndrome Girls Respond to a Religious Vocation

Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb



The Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb are a contemplative community that enables girls with Down’s syndrome to respond to a religious vocation.

To Offer Oneself to God in witness to the Gospel of Life

Together for a contemplative life

To consecrate one’s life to God, offering it for love of the weakest and most deprived of our neighbours, this is our vocation! By accompanying them, we want to enable young, intellectually disabled girls to offer a consecrated life to God and to the Church.

To allow those who have the “last place” in the world, to hold in the Church the exceptional place of spouses of Jesus Christ. To allow those who depend on others for their everyday life to take in charge, in their prayer, the intentions that are entrusted to them. To allow those whose life is held in contempt to the extent of being in danger from a culture of death, to witness by their consecration to the Gospel of Life.

The Institute of the Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb, a contemplative vocation, offer young girls with Downs the possibilty of realising their religious vocation. This realisation is made possible only by the support of sisters without this disability, who have responded to a special call to consecrate themselves to God with their disabled sisters to form one community with them.

Today, more girls with Down’s Syndrome are knocking at our door. To respond to their request, our family needs new vocations. Vocations to share a contemplative life with “the smallest in the Kingdom”.

Together in work and prayer

Guided by the wisdom of St Benedict, we teach our little disabled sisters the manual labour necessary for their development. We live poverty in putting ourselves at their disposal. With them, we share the work of everyday life.

The office, adoration and the praying of the rosary are adapted to their rhythm and their capacities. In a spirit of silence, our prayer feeds every day on the Eucharist and on the meditation of the Gospel.

Close to the abbey of Fontgombault, we benefit from its spiritual support.

The Institute of the Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb

The community was founded in 1985, and canonically recognised in 1990 as a public association by the Archbishop of Tours. It settled in Blanc in 1995, and was erected as a religious institute of contemplative life by the archbishop of Bourges in 1999.

The Little Sisters now have at their disposal a priory on the edge of the town. Here, for a period of vocational discernment, they can receive young girls touched by the spirit of poverty and dedication, ready to offer a whole existence to the service of Christ in the person of their sisters with Down’s Syndrome.


At the school of St Therese of the Child Jesus

We follow every day the “little way” taught by Saint Therese; knowing that “great actions are forbidden to us”, we learn from her to receive everything from God, to “love for the brothers who fight”, to “scatter flowers for Jesus”, and to pray for the intentions entrusted to us.

[Text from a leaflet produced by the community, trans. bat Ionah. ]

The community was founded with the encouragement of Jerome Lejeune, and is currently supported by, among others, the Lejeune Foundation, according to this page. One sister made her perpetual profession last June.