Oxford's Corpus Christi Procession

This year's Oxford deanery Corpus Christi procession was held on 1 June, the Sunday after Corpus Christi. As usual, the Procession began at the Oxford Oratory and made its way through the streets to the Oxford University Catholic Chaplaincy, pausing at Blackfriars.





As the Blessed Sacrament was brought into Blackfriars church, a schola of friars sang the Sequence hymn 'Lauda Sion', written by their confrere St Thomas Aquinas. The Blessed Sacrament was then exposed on the High Altar and Bishop William Kenney CP, who was leading the procession, preached on the Eucharist.



The bishop reflected on the Old Testament figure of Melchisedech and saw in this enigmatic person an indication that the Eucharist called on us to welcome the stranger in our midst. We were also reminded that priests were ordained in the order of Melchisedech, this anonymous, humble and somewhat counter-cultural Biblical figure, and so were called in some sense to be like him.

Below are more photos from the day:









"What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion."

- St Thomas Aquinas

A Dominican Vocation

I first began thinking about my vocation when I was sixteen. I grew up in a Catholic family with my mum and dad and two sisters and I was the youngest in my family. I was an altar boy from the age of seven til 18 when I left home to go to university. Having the example and support of my family has been crucial for me at every stage in my life.

When I was fifteen my sister bought me the new, as it was then, Catechism of the Catholic Church and after going through it I decided that I agreed with everything that it said. Having reached this awareness it was clear to me how my life must be. Since I now knew for myself that the Catholic faith was the truth, I had no choice but to live by it. By the time I left Sixth Form College I had already discerned that I might be made for community life, it was something that seemed very attractive to me. However, I took for granted that whatever I did with my life I must first go to University and get a degree so as to complete my education. I decided to study theology, not because I was thinking of my vocation but simply because I found it interesting. By this point my sister had moved to London and I very much enjoyed visiting her there and so I decided that I would like to study there.

After my first term in London I went to the Verbum Dei community on the Isle of Wight for a 5-day silent retreat over the New Year period. This was a life-changing experience for me. In the silence I found the time to really pray and grew to know and love God so much more. Time spent in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament was a key part of the retreat and this was and still is the most helpful form of prayer for me. Through this time of adoration and the talks given by the sisters I came to truly know and love Christ present in the Eucharist for the first time in my life. I returned there again for a Holy Week retreat the following Easter and it was then that I felt loud and clear the call to the priesthood. I felt called to be a religious priest but I didn’t know which Order I should join.

In my second year at University we got a new chaplain who was a Dominican. I had been elected president of the Catholic Society and so I ended up spending a lot of time with the chaplain. It was the first time that I had come across a young priest I could easily relate to, he was only 29 when I first met him and we became friends. I went to visit the priory in London to talk to him about the Society and fell in love with the place the moment I walked in the door. The priory in London has a long stone cloister leading down to the church that feels more like a small cathedral than a large parish church and I immediately felt a sense of belonging. I loved to join with the friars singing the Divine Office, morning and evening prayer, and felt more attracted to the Order the more I found out about it. I felt moved to give my life for others, to offer the sacrifice of the Mass for the salvation of souls and to live a life trying to love my brothers in community.

After my degree I was recommended to spend a year out as I was only 22 when I graduated. I decided to spend a year volunteering in the Philippines with Dominican Volunteers International. I lived in a Dominican priory with three friars in a very poor area, slums really, on the edge of Manila and taught religious education in the Church primary school and catechism in the secular state school. While I was there I applied to join the Order and was accepted. I moved to Cambridge in September 2006 to begin my novitiate. I made simple profession for three years in September 2007, after which I came to Oxford to begin my studies for the priesthood. I feel truly blessed to have been given the chance to live out my calling. Please pray for me as I continue on the road to the priesthood.

Brother Daniel Jeffries is a first year student.

Encouraged and Challenged by the Gospel

10th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: Hosea 6:3-6; Psalm 49; Romans 4:18-25; Matthew 9:9-13

I suspect that the Gospel reading for this Sunday leaves most people, and I include myself, with rather conflicting impressions. For these five short verses both encourage and challenge us, reassure us, yet confront us. Matthew, who in the Gospels of Mark (2:14) and Luke (5:27) is called Levi, is a collector of taxes and, therefore, a member of an unloved class of people. He would have been considered a traitor by his fellow Jews, someone who collaborated with the Roman authorities and loaded his own pocket at the expense of his countrymen. Yet this is precisely the person Jesus chooses to call as a disciple. In the Gospel we see Jesus dining at the house of Matthew, together with a whole group of tax collectors and sinners. Jesus is quite unashamed to be seen with these people, and does not fear that he might be contaminated by their uncleanness. He is in fact expressing quite openly a preference to be with those whom the majority think it right and proper to despise.

This is an uncomfortable situation for the Pharisees and for many people it is still unsettling. It is so easy to look at the Church at any period of its history and to be scandalised by the number of sinners in its midst. Yet Jesus replies that ‘it is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick’ (Matthew 9:12). Jesus is not condoning sin but is seeking out sinners to heal them. And he shows that this can only be achieved with understanding and compassion. ‘What I want is mercy, not sacrifice’, he tells the Pharisees. He is here quoting from the prophet Hosea (6:6), for Jesus is no maverick, arbitrarily inventing the rules as he goes along. What he has to say about mercy and forgiveness is confirmed by the tradition of the Jewish Scriptures. Therefore, the Pharisees have no excuse.

For Jesus true worship and piety must show themselves in compassionate mercy. In other words, love of God and love of neighbour are two sides of the same coin. This love of neighbour expresses itself in a special way in our attentiveness to the weak and fallen, meeting them wherever they are, befriending them, and eating with them. This is the only way to show the healing love of Christ. This was the whole purpose and mission of Jesus, the reason he was sent by the Father. We should find encouragement in the fact that our God is a God of mercy and compassion. At the same time we ought to feel challenged as Christians to display the same compassion as Christ towards those who are often vilified and written-off but who, perhaps, yearn to be shown the merciful face of the Father.

Quodlibet 11 : Stages of Dominican Formation

I was wondering if you could go over the stages of becoming a Dominican priest - from the clothing onwards. I tend to get a bit confused as to what you do and when.

Men who have been accepted as postulants for the Order move in to the novitiate house and do a week's retreat with the novitiate community. The new novices are clothed in the habit at the end of the retreat in a simple, private ceremony.



Once they are clothed they become novices and spend twelve months living in the novitiate house, becoming accustomed to our way of life: the Divine Office, community life, the history and government of the Order, Dominican spiritual writers, as well as learning to cook (if necessary), studying Latin, and so on. The novices must decide whether or not they wish to proceed at the end of the year and the community must decide whether or not the novices are suited to our life. The novitiate is a time for getting to know and (hopefully) love the Order. 

At the end of the novitiate year if the novices wish to continue and are approved by the brothers they proceed to 'simple' vows: they take the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience but only for three years. When they make profession their scapulars (the tabbard-like piece of fabric that goes on top of the tunic) are blessed. They are no longer novices then but simply professed student brothers.



After simple profession the brothers begin their studies for the priesthood - doing two years of philosophy and three years of theology. After three years they must decide whether or not to commit their entire lives to the Order and make 'solemn' vows: the same vows of poverty, chastity and obedience but now 'until death'. In the Dominican formula of profession reference is made only to obedience - which does not mean we take the other two less seriously but that we understand them to be included in obedience which is the most radical of the vows, touching human nature most deeply. If the student brothers decide to do this and are approved by the brothers they make their solemn profession. Usually they have about another year of studies left before they are ordained to the diaconate and then a final year, normally spent working as a deacon in one of our parishes, after which they are ordained to the priesthood.

So the stages of Dominican formation are: postulancy (just a week in the English province but longer elsewhere), novitiate, simple profession, solemn profession, diaconate, priesthood.

fr Vincent's Diamond Jubilee

On the feast of the Visitation, the English Dominican Province celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of fr Vincent Cook OP who has been at Blackfriars, Oxford for the past 20 years. Many of those who have visited Blackfriars will have seen fr Vincent being helped by his younger brethren and led into church or around Oxford. Fewer realise that Vincent's example of humility, gentle humour and quiet fidelity has helped many a young Dominican to grow and has led them into a deeper appreciation of their vocation.


As the Prior Provincial, fr John Farrell OP, said in his homily, Vincent, like Our Lady and St Elizabeth at the Visitation, has been engaged in the most ordinary things of life - cleaning, washing, preparing food, 'home making' - but this ordinary living has been filled with grace and has led to an extraordinary witness. In Vincent's case, there is a palpable sense of holiness and the Provincial cited psalm 1: "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night." Vincent is noted for his unostentatious observance, his delight in quietly living the religious life, and his detachment from the worldly concerns of younger friars!


Characteristically, Vincent's celebration was simple but beautiful. His family travelled from Blackburn to be with him and after Mass there was a reception in the Refectory for his family and friends.




We wish fr Vincent many more happy years and thank God for gracing him - and us, through him - with 60 years of Dominican religious life.


Above, fr Vincent is watched by the Prior, fr Simon Gaine OP, as he picks out the message left in braille on his anniversary cake. Taken from Revelation 2:17, the Latin Vulgate text reads: "Vincenti dabo manna absconditum", "to the one who is victorious I will give a hidden manna".

The Dalai Lama at Blackfriars

Having already hosted Cardinal Walter Kasper this term, Blackfriars received another distinguished visitor in the person of the Dalai Lama who came to take part in a colloquium on 'Christian and Buddhist Contemplative Prayer'.

The proceedings were opened by Fr Paul Murray, an Irish Dominican who lectures at the Angelicum in Rome. He spoke about contemplative prayer in the Dominican tradition, drawing in particular on the writings of three of the Order's great spiritual teachers, John Tauler, Catherine of Siena and Meister Eckhart. The difficulties of the 14th century, in which these three lived, reflect our own difficulties in many ways, he said, and their experience of and teaching about contemplative prayer can lead us also to compassion and service.

Fr Eugene McCaffrey, an Irish Carmelite from Tabor Retreat House in Preston, spoke about contemplative prayer in the Carmelite tradition. He spoke particularly about St John of the Cross, and of the 'dark nights' that accompany the experience of prayer, times when the one who prays feels that they have lost everything, including, and especially, God. These experiences enabled John of the Cross to write the most beautiful of all spiritual poetry in which the soul's loss is made good beyond her expectations in her union with, and even transformation into, the beloved (amada en el amado trasformada): then everything becomes hers, even God.




The Dalai Lama spoke about his involvement in conversations with Christians, in the first place with Thomas Merton who spent three days with him at Dharamsala. He remembers the great boots Merton was wearing and also their discussion about the Buddhist belief in endless life compared with the Christian belief in one life alone. 'Only this life, created by God', His Holiness quoted Merton as saying, and repeated it ... 'only this life, created by God'. Which implies, he continued, an extraordinary intimacy between God and the one who is thus created. It seems as if Merton thus succeeded in communicating one of the central teachings of Christianity to the Dalai Lama and that he has pondered it ever since.

In speaking about Buddhist contemplation His Holiness said that he could agree with all that had been said by the Christian speakers if the term 'God' were substituted  with the phrase 'ultimate reality'. Buddhism also recognises three stages in seeking understanding and wisdom, the stage of knowledge when one learns about things from teachers, the stage of critical enquiry when one engages in study and reflection, and the stage of meditation or contemplation when one seeks to understand reality and illusion. In both Buddhism and Christianity there is the emphasis on compassion and on the fact that contemplative prayer must issue in service of others and a concern for peace.





There was then some discussion about various aspects of Buddhism and links with Christian traditions of prayer. The most fascinating question was whether the reality that is sought in prayer, whether it is called 'ultimate reality' or 'God', is a reality that seeks us.





It was a wonderful moment for Blackfriars. The Dalai Lama had joined the community for midday prayer before the colloquium: his prayerful reverence towards the altar, the tabernacle, and the brethren, was very deeply moving. He spoke as powerfully in the way he was present with us and to us as he did by his words.

The Visitation Luke 1: 39-56

Imagine that you are Mary, having just been told that you are going to be the Mother of the Messiah and then you decide to go and visit your aged cousin who is pregnant. What would cause you to do such a thing? Well, if we look at the previous section of this gospel (Luke 1:26-38), we may be able to find our answer. In 1: 38: “Mary said, Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your Word. Then the angel departed from her.” Mary effectively said yes to God when she said may it be done to me according to your Word.

Through her interaction with the angel, Mary’s status is changed because he whose name is Holy (1:49) now dwells within her because of her YES. As a result of this indwelling of the Holy One, Mary’s whole life becomes graced and transformed, so much so that the focus is not on her own needs, desires, joys and struggles as a young woman who is pregnant, but on the needs of others, namely her cousin Elizabeth.

Charity is the characteristic of Mary’s relationship with Christ, because she conceived him in charity of heart and now extends that same charity to her cousin Elizabeth. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, “grace (charity) helps to inform the will and intellect of the human person, guiding and directing them to their final and perfect happiness, which is God, since it is impossible for any created good to constitute man’s happiness. For happiness is the perfect good which lulls the appetite altogether, else it would not be the last end, if something yet remained to be desired” (Summa theologiae I.II 2,8). From this it is possible to see that because Mary was open to the will of God, she was able to prefer the good of visiting and caring for her cousin Elizabeth, to other lesser goods, especially because her final and perfect happiness was in serving (doing the will of ) God, who had “looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness” (1:47).

We too are called to share in the joy and happiness Mary experienced in serving her God and we are also encouraged “not to be afraid” (1:30) to serve him because when we come to the Eucharist, we also receive the Holy One, who is able to provide us the necessary graces for preaching and sharing the good news as he did for Mary in her service of her cousin Elizabeth’s needs.