St Dominic

May be sung to ‘Hail St Dominic’, or melodies

 with same metre as ‘Firmly I Believe and Truly’.

Sing of leaders through the ages

Prophets in their time and place

Freeing people from the harness

Of a binding narrow space

Sing of Dominic joyful friar

Walking bravely through the land

Giving us a torch of freedom

Gospel values to defend

Star of truth he went before us

Questing God on foot he strode

Honest preacher, broad his vision

Sharing wisdom on the road

Great the heritage he left us

On the edge he sowed the seed

Selling books he loved so dearly

For the sake of those in need

As a person for all seasons

Reaching out to honour life

Friend of Francis, surely loving

All the creatures of the earth

As we gather now together

Giving praise to saints of old

So we sing our own true story

To create a better world

 Cecily Sheehy OP

 More paintings from Mary Horn     

                                     The Still Point

                                       Oil on canvas

                                   116 x 99cm  (2005)

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,

Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor     towards,

Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,

There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.

                                                            Burnt Norton   T.S. Eliot

Words move, music moves

Only in time; but that which is only living

Can only die, Words after speech, reach

Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern

Can words or music reach

The stillness, as a Chinese jar still

Moves perpetually in its stillness.

Not the stillness of the violin, while the note lasts,

Not that only, but the co-existence,

Or say that the end precedes the beginning,

And the end and the beginning were always there

Before the beginning and after the end,

And all is always now.

 Burnt Norton   T.S. Eliot

                                     As the Chinese Jar is Still

                                              Oil on canvas

                                               87 x 88cm  (2005)

In order to arrive there,

To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,

              You must go by way wherein there is no ecstasy.

On order to arrive at what you do not know

              You must go by a way which is a way of ignorance.

In order to possess what you do not possess

              You must go by the way of dispossession.

In order to arrive at what you are not

You must go through the way in which you are not.

And what you do not know is the only thing you know

And what you won is what you do not own

And where you are is where you are not.

East Coker   T.S. Eliot

                                                    Where there is no ecstasy

                                                          Oil on canvas

                                                         106 x 83cm     (2006)

In Honour of Jane of Aza

We come as Dominic’s family

To celebrate with joy

Most holy Jane of Aza

The mother of this boy

    With Antonio and Mannes

    All gathered round her knee’

    Found grace and wisdom they would need

    To set the people free.

And there at Calaruega

There stands a holy well

Where we can all discover

So great a truth to tell

    For Felix and Joanna

    Gave life to their third son

    That little ‘hound of heaven’

    Was born for God alone.

So now we come to honour

A woman of great worth

A truly loving mother

Who gave our Dominic birth

    Her life was full of giving

    For all who sought her care

    And round the well we gather

    Her wisdom now to share

Cecily Sheehy OP

As Dominicans we enjoy a rich heritage of the Arts as a method of preaching. Over 800 years, we have been blessed with many great painters, sculptors, musicians, singers, poets, writers, dramatists, and practitioners of more modern art forms (e.g. liturgical dance).

We will regularly feature the work of Dominican artists in Aotearoa New Zealand.