Reflections – Contemplatio

Feast of St James the Apostle

We celebrate James in mid-summer, so I do feel like a haze has to lift for me to get started. Maybe, it was a hazy, early summer morning when Jesus called his first disciples and found James and his brother John with their father, Zebedee, fixing their fishing nets. (Mark 1:18) Many had probably heard something about him, but they were not expecting, after a long evening of fishing, to be called right then. But yes, he calls them to just leave their nets and follow him. And they did!

I Have Seen the Lord

Saint Mary Magdalene, first to share the good news of Christ’s resurrection with the apostles, is held as the Patroness of the Dominican Order, the Order of Preachers. Sister Catherine Patrice brings us this same good news today as she reflects on Saint Mary Magdalene.  Sister Catherine Patrice ministers in retreat work and spiritual direction. […]

St. Kateri, Santa Fe

Feast of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, 2023

Saint Kateri in front of Santa Fe Cathedral Sisters Helen Regina, Durso, Christine (Chris) Ferrar and Nora McCarthy served the Indigenous Peoples of the Nakoda and Aaniiih Nations at the St. Paul’s Mission Grade School in Hays, MT for 40 years. We invite you to listen to them reflect on St. Kateri Tekakwitha.

saints peter and paul

Feast of Saints Peter and Paul

Sister Helen Robert Boyd shared the following reflection with the Sisters and Associates at liturgy on June 29th. Today we celebrate two giants of early Christianity, Peter and Paul. Both are held in the highest esteem by the Church as can be seen by the prominent positions that their statues hold in St. Peter’s Square […]

Feast of the Sacred Heart, 2023

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Some liturgical feast days are very familiar to us, and most certainly our feast today is one of them. How significant do you think it is for today’s Catholic people? Our first response might be that it has little or no significance to them. But we need to explore more deeply.

Visitation by Pontormo

Feast of the Visitation

The Visitation by Jacopo Pontormo Sister Mary Dunning shared this reflection at liturgy for today’s feast based on Luke 1:39-56. Today’s gospel is filled with impossibilities.  Two obscure women meet in a remote village of a conquered, humiliated land.  Mary and Elizabeth are Palestinian Jews, citizens of a land crushed under decades of the imperial […]

Laudato Si’ Week

The first chapter of Genesis ends with these words: “God looked at everything God had made and found it to be very good. Evening came and morning followed the sixth day.” Billions of years thereafter the first astronauts experienced the same vision when they looked upon this beautiful swirling blue marble from their small cockpit […]

Foundation Day Preaching, Sister Irene Ellis

Foundation Day & Diamond Jubilee Celebration

The following reflection was delivered by Sister Irene Ellis to the Sisters and Associates at the Foundation Day/Diamond Jubilee Mass on May 7, 2023. Sister Irene Ellis, current Prioress, relates how the spirit of our Founder, Mother Mary Catherine Antoninus Thorpe, is alive and well today. As our early co-founders were congregational cornerstones, we are called to be living stones.

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Feast of Mary, Patroness of the Dominican Order

Sister Margaret Palliser shared this reflection with the Sisters and Associates at Dominican Convent on May 8, the Feast of Mary’s Patronage of the Dominican Order. On this Feast of the Patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Dominican Order. Today we crown Mary our Mother as our Queen. Ours is a simple ritual, a far cry from the pomp and circumstance of the crowning of Charles III two days ago!

Catherine of Siena quote

Feast of St. Catherine of Siena

“Although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike.” These opening words from today’s Gospel caught my attention…. the childlike. That’s childlike, not childish-two very different ways of being for sure. Catherine, I believe, was childlike.  She was a woman whose childlike qualities served her […]

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