{"id":4916,"date":"2014-09-28T05:37:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-28T05:37:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2023-05-12T21:42:07","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T21:42:07","slug":"our-adventurous-actions-in-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/2014\/09\/28\/our-adventurous-actions-in-august\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Adventurous Actions in August"},"content":{"rendered":"
August is
\nalways a special month to look forward to in any Dominican Calendar!\u00a0 Not only do the words\u00a0Arise, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, for winter will soon be over
\nand the rain over and gone\u00a0<\/i>come to mind, but it also means celebrations of
\nthe most solemn kind for the Feast of Our Holy Father on August 4th<\/sup>.
\nAt this time, any true daughter of St Dominic will always be preparing days in
\nadvance, sometimes even weeks, for this most joyous day when not only the
\norder, but the whole Church will celebrate the founding of the Order of Friars
\nPreachers.<\/div>\n
\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Our preparations
\nhere in Tynong began with a little surprise. Never does it snow due to the temperate
\nclimate, even in Winter, but one late day in July we had a rather odd hail
\nstorm which left our surroundings looking like it was covered in a white
\nblanket. For our Singaporean Sisters it was pure delight and we resolved then and
\nthere to try to fit in a day when we could take them to see and experience \u201creal
\nsnow\u201d. True is the saying that the most simple things in life give one much
\njoy. What joy one experiences too when one gives up all earthly possessions and
\nconsequently all temporal cares in order to devote oneself entirely to
\nobtaining heavenly treasures.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
At last the Vigil came and First Solemn
\nVespers was chanted in the evening at the Church along with dedicated Dominican
\nTertiaries and devout faithful, with Rosary and Benediction following soon
\nafter. We were fortunate enough too to have Fr Marc Nely SSPX <\/span>visiting
\nat that time from Menzingen. Father naturally presided over Vespers and also
\ncelebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass the next day. It was a lovely
\nliturgical start to the Feast Day, since a Dominican is first and foremost a
\ncontemplative. The Sacrifice of the Mass is always the climax of our day and
\nthe Divine Office a preparation and continuation of that Sacrifice. Some
\nauthors have compared the Mass to the Sun and the Divine Office, to the sun\u2019s rays,
\nwhich spread far and wide the glory of the sun. \u00a0Our Holy Father St Dominic Himself, once a
\nCanon Regular, would tend to the Sacred Liturgy with much devotion and He
\nalways made the Mass the Centre of His life to the point that witnesses would
\nfrequently see him celebrate Mass with tears in his eyes.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Consequently, In imitation of our
\nSaintly Founder, we had a good holy start to the morning, and only then did we
\nproceed to have a special breakfast with Father and a most jolly and recreative
\nmorning. We divided ourselves into four teams and competed in various games devised
\nby our Creative Canonical Novices. I must say, the most amusing game we
\nparticipated in involved working as a team to carry 4 eggs, one at a time, from
\none end of the room to the other with a tea towel \u2013 no touching eggs with hands
\nallowed. It was very interesting to see how each group worked in order to accomplish
\nthe task at hand. \u00a0Needless to say we
\nwere eating quite a few eggs thereafter but having lots of fun nevertheless.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Just after noon we partook of a
\nsplendid meal prepared by a lovely Cook in the Parish by the name of Mrs Lisa Braaksma.
\nIt was very very difficult not to tuck in enthusiastically since we had to be
\nmindful of our traditional SISTERS vs STUDENTS netball game at 2pm. And what a
\ngame! Neck to neck all the way until the last quarter, when the final whistle
\nbrought the game to an end and a victory for both teams, since the scored
\nturned out to be 17-17. Might I add the point that each quarter saw a whole new
\nteam of fresh and youthful girls play, while their opponents, the gracefully
\naging Sisters, plodded on playing a full 40 minute game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/a><\/a><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The presentation of the Cup was
\nfollowed by an afternoon tea for Benefactors, Tertiaries, Friends and Faithful as
\nwell as Past Dominican Pupils and the enjoyable day ended with the Divine
\nOffice \u2013 II Vespers, Matins and Compline.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
On the Feasts of the Assumption
\nand Ascension, we usually try to ASSUME or ASCEND something, so on August 15th<\/sup>,
\noff we went to Mt Baw Baw to give our Equatorial Sisters a chance to experience
\nwhat it is like in real snow. This gave us a day filled with such wonderful
\nmemories that we sang all the way home.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Soon after, our Sister Mary Anna,
\naccompanied the St Thomas Aquinas College School Choir to an Eisteddfod.\u00a0 And for those wondering what this peculiar
\nword is all about, it is an annual festival, with competitions in stage,
\nspeech, dance and music. The girls performed beautifully and the adjudicator mentioned
\nthat as a choir they had a rare sweet quality of voice. They proudly walked
\naway at the end of the night with a 1st<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> place,
\ntwo lots of prize money and a rather prominent trophy.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Now Spring is here, the flowers
\nare in bloom, the brightly coloured parrots fly to and fro, the sun is shining,
\nthe kangaroos are hopping about once again and one feels like leaping over the
\nhills singing the praises of God. Again do the beautiful words of the Canticle
\nof Canticles come to mind: The flowers
\nhave appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come; the voice of the turtle
\ndove is heard; Arise, my love, my beautiful one and come\u2026\u2026I have found Him whom
\nmy soul loveth.<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n
\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August is always a special month to look forward to in any Dominican Calendar!\u00a0 Not only do the words\u00a0Arise, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, for winter will soon be over and the rain over and gone\u00a0come to mind, but it also means celebrations of the most solemn kind for the Feast of Our … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-convent-life","infinite-scroll-item","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4916"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5292,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4916\/revisions\/5292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}