Uncategorized

When Sister Catherine Rose asked me to give this reflection, I just looked at her. She said, “Jean, give it some thought.” This made me think of how much Thomas Aquinas has meant to me throughout my many years of teaching and administration and part of my name is shared and my feast day is

Good Morning!  A blessed Christmas to each of you – those present in this chapel and those who are with us through the wonders of technology. Today’s reading from the Book of Isaiah proclaims, “Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you.”  In this age of

The feast of Christmas has four different liturgies. They celebrate the in-breaking of divinity into humanity in the person of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. The gospel for the Christmas vigil is from Matthew and begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, son of Abraham. This proclaims the human lineage of

Visitation painting by Therese Quinn rsj. Mary is pregnant. She’s really, really pregnant! That was the refrain of a homily at the Spanish Mass at St. Nicholas of Tolentine in the Bronx on the 4th Sunday of Advent over 30 years ago. For those of you who also spent time at Tolentine, the homilist was

These three readings exemplify what Advent is all about—praising God in the waiting, loving each other, blessing others with our light because we are blessed with the light of Christ, and thanking God for every moment. Advent is traditionally seen as a season of anticipation, a time to prepare for the birth of Christ so

From the time Jesus said from the cross, “Woman behold your son; son behold your mother,” Mary became the mother of all humankind. Mary’s new role included keeping a watchful eye on us as we traveled through the ages. She has made her maternal presence known in many different parts of the world, including the

In a recent conversation, Sr. Ellen Joseph Moore shared insightful reflections on St. Martin de Porres, a saint who has profoundly influenced her life since childhood. Raised in a Celtic culture with a deep reverence for St. Martin, Sr. Ellen recalled how many of her relatives cherished a statue of St. Martin; she keeps one

Last week, as I was emailing members of our Circle with the date and time we would be meeting, I said, “The good news was that our Circle membership was staying the same. We will all be returning to our same Circle this year.” As soon as I sent it out, I realized that Pius

According to Luke’s Gospel, Jesus reached the moment in his ministry when he was ready to choose from among his many disciples, the chosen Twelve. Notice that he spent his whole night in prayer before he made these final decisions. Saint Paul tells us today that we have all been called to be the heirs

Sister Margaret Palliser shared the following reflection for the Feast of St. Rose of Lima. Born in Lima, Peru, in 1586, by all accounts, Isabel Flores de Oliva was a beautiful infant, a beautiful child, a beautiful young woman. With a Puerto Rican father and an indigenous mother of Incan ancestry, she inherited the fine features and fair complexion that marked that combination of lineages.

St. Kateri by Kevin Gordon at https://www.saint-kateri.com/ Who among us doesn’t struggle to be Christ-like in our world? We are all made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:27) and connected, yet each has a different heavenly helper, such as Mary or some holy ancestor. For me, my mom and dad always helped me, along

Sister Aileen Donovan preaching on Foundation Day, 2024 Following are reflections shared by Sister Aileen Donovan on Mass at Dominican Convent on the occasion of our congregational Foundation Day and Sister’s Jubilee celebration. Good morning. How good it is to be together in celebration! Our 2016 Direction Statement began, “Filled with the Spirit and compelled

God blessed them and said: “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and govern it. . .  God looked at everything and found it very good. Evening came, and morning followed—the sixth day. . . . On the seventh day, God completed the work . . . and found it to be very good.”  (Genesis

Here is Sister Margaret Carey’s reflection shared at mass on the Feast of Saint Catherine of Siena. Catherina and Giovanna Benincasa were born prematurely in Siena on March 25, 1347, in the Tuscany region of Italy. Giovanna lived less than two years and Catherine lived 33 years and died on April 29, 1380. The Precious

Sister Margaret Glynn, Dominican Sister of Sparkill, preaching at Vespers for the second week of Lent. Today’s readings recount two radically different experiences of God. One touches on the gruesome practice of child sacrifice to a relentless and vengeful God, the other a moment of revelation where the divinity of the Son is both seen