Solemnity of Our Holy Father Dominic
The Solemnity of Our Holy Father Dominic fell on Wednesday this year. The morning started out with an unexpected treat! Fr. John Vidmar, OP, a Dominican priest who teaches at Providence College and a good friend of our community, happened to be passing through and so celebrated Mass for us and preached a wonderful homily on St Dominic.
St. Dominic's Day is always what we call a 10 & 4 day. It is a recreation or party day where the community gathers in the community room during what is usually our work hours to enjoy each others company and some delicious snacks. At 10am the kitchen sisters created a beautiful spread of cheese & crackers, mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, and a delicious "whatever's in the fridge" punch! Sabina stationed herself, as usual, underneath the snack table, the better to quickly get any morsel that might fall.
This year the morning was spent playing games. Our usual recreation period is too short to finish most games, so these festive days are a wonderful opportunity to be able not only to play but to finish a game! One group of sisters played Kings in the Corner, while a second group played Settlers of Catan and a third played a new community favorite, Dominion. A special thanks to the family of Sr. Lucia Marie who gifted both Settlers of Catan and Dominion to the community!
At a quarter to twelve we returned to Choir to sing God's praises and thank Him for the gift of our Holy Founder without whom we wouldn't be living the Dominican life we treasure! For dinner we were dispensed from silence and gathered in the Community Room for the rare treat of conversation during our meals. Normally our meals our eaten in the refectory in silence while listening to taped lectures at noon and reading by one of the sisters at the evening meal. This year one of our benefactors, Billy, generously provided a delicious Italian dinner and Sr. Judith Miryam surprised us with a beautiful homemade Tres Leches cake for dessert!
At 3pm we gathered again in Choir for the Office of Readings and None. During the Office of Readings an excerpt from St. Dominic's Nine Ways of Prayer was read. Have you ever heard of the Nine Ways of Prayer? You can read all about it over at the website of our Central Province Dominican Friars!
After our period of meditation we again gathered in the community room for the "4" part of a 10 & 4 day: Ice cream and cookies! Thanks to another generous benefactor we enjoyed the best ice cream there is: Summit's own Magic Fountain!
Where would we be without our generous benefactors? A kind lady had called recently offering to provide us with lunch...so we were gifted sandwiches for supper for St. Dominic's! (Supper is our lighter meal...much more like lunch.)
We ended the day the best way you can...singing Compline in choir, ending as we do every night with singing the Salve Regina to Our Blessed Mother and the O Lumen to our Holy Father Dominic.
