Celebrating the May Solemnities

Pentecost weekend this year was sunny and warm. On Saturday we celebrated the Vigil of Pentecost and on Sunday the conventual Mass was followed by drinks in the garden and a special dinner. On Monday we celebrated the Translation of St Dominic which is kept as a solemnity in the English Province. Here are some photographs from this joyful weekend of celebrations.

This dinner, called the “Doorkeepers’ Dinner” is held every year on our patronal feast to thank the women and men who help us in the priory as doorkeepers. They extend a welcome to friends and strangers who come calling at Blackfriars, as well as ensuring the security of the building. We were also joined on this happy occasion by the Dominican sisters from Tackley Place.

The following day, 24th May, we celebrated a solemn conventual Mass with the Capuchin friars from Greyfriars. It is a long-standing custom for a Franciscan friar to preach on the feast of St Dominic, and fr Adrian Curran OFMCap, novice master of the Capuchins of England, Ireland and Malta, did an excellent job. He reminded us that we are called as a religious community to be a ‘school of love’. As the Prior said, fr Adrian’s homily showed that you did not have to be a Friar Preacher to be a preaching friar! Mass was followed by recreation in the garden, and then a festal dinner in the refectory.

Lawrence Lew OP