WHEN Jacqueline Ramsey got her first job as a teacher in 2008, she could have never imagined standing at the front of a classroom in a white habit. But that is exactly the life Sr Mary Dominica Ramsey has chosen with the Conventual Sisters of St Dominic in Ganmain. The former Queensland teacher from a family of nine professed her ... Read More »
“DO you ever get bored?” It is a common question posed by the young men who occasionally come to visit the priory, as part of the process they undertake to help discern their vocation in life. My response is often simply to pass on a great piece of advice that a very wise friar once gave me. “The great secret, ... Read More »
EVERY Friday night during my novitiate in Hong Kong we would gather to discuss the readings from scripture that would be proclaimed at Mass on the following Sunday. We were expected to have prayed with the Word of God, contemplated the meaning conveyed by the scriptures, perhaps read a biblical commentary or two and – if we were able – ... Read More »
“WELL that was a waste of time!” I recently overhead these emphatically exclaimed words. I am reluctant to provide further details as to the circumstances that gave rise to that utterance, lest some individuals reading this be able to name the culprit. It suffices to say that a deceptively pedestrian phrase set me thinking. For a Christian, can anything ever ... Read More »
“TO contemplate and to pass onto others the fruits of contemplation.” Those words of St Thomas Aquinas encapsulate the essence of Dominican life – what it means to be a friar in the Order of Preachers. We are essentially contemplatives. We are called to be men who live lives of profound and intimate prayer with God. By virtue of a ... Read More »
THAT paraphrased quotation from 2 Maccabees 12:46 seems a particularly apt focus this November – the month traditionally ascribed by the Church for particular suffrages for the dead. As it happens, the Dominican order places tremendous importance on praying for the dead, particularly deceased members of the order and its benefactors. We are constitutionally required to recite Psalm 129 – ... Read More »
In 1215 the Magna Carta was signed at Runnymede and in Rome the Fourth Lateran Council declared that no new religious order was to be founded unless it accepted an already approved rule. This meant that St Dominic, who was in Rome hoping for approval of his new order, had to travel back empty-handed to his Brothers in Toulouse, France. ... Read More »
By Emilie Ng DOMINICAN priest Father Joseph Wilson thanked God for giving him 60 years of priestly life on December 15. Ahead of the celebrations, Fr Wilson spoke with The Catholic Leader on the meaning of thanksgiving and life as a Dominican. For around 66 years, Fr Wilson has set his heart on following the footsteps and shadows of St ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
