December 2007 Print

   

Wanganui, New Zealand

 

In introducing the Dominican Sisters of Wanganui I intend to write first about our origins. I will also cover some essentials of Dominican life such as the Divine Office, the Ceremonial, the Habit, the Interior Life, the Study, the Enclosure, and the Silence. I will write something about our common life and the Rule and Constitutions, something about formation and our contacts within the Dominican Family. Finally I will write about our gratitude to the Society of St. Pius X and our other benefactors, and our hopes for the future.

The Origins of the Congregation: Although our Congregation is small and situated "at the end of the world," i.e., in New Zealand, it has a proud history. We can trace our ancestry back to the first convent founded by St. Dominic, as the result of a sign from God, at Prouille in Southern France, in 1206. In 1644, the English being occupied with their own troubles, it was thought a good time to establish a Dominican convent in Ireland. Nuns from Prouille went to Galway and established a flourishing convent. Despite the persecutions of the next few years, the necessity of running away to Spain from time to time, the need to live disguised as widowed school-teachers, and great poverty, foundations were made elsewhere in Ireland. The convent from which we trace our ancestry was at Sion Hill in Dublin.

Ancient Roots

It was in Dublin that the Sisters, hitherto contemplatives, took up teaching in order to support themselves in a very difficult situation. As a consequence of the Penal Laws in Ireland and the Napoleonic Wars on the Continent, the Dominican Friars were almost extinct, and were of no support to the Nuns. Also the many years of fines and persecution had made the Irish so poor they could not support the nuns, and young Irishwomen who had an education which would fit them for the Dominicans were few. Also, the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act had led to a pressing need for Catholic schools. From this taking on of school-teaching, and passing for a time under the control of the Bishop of Dublin in the absence of the Friars, arose confusion over whether the nuns of Sion Hill, and their daughter-houses, were Second Order or Third Order Regular. Rome in recent years has dealt with the Sion Hill Nuns as Third Order, but the foundations from Dublin are very proud of their Second Order heritage, and loath to give it up. From this heritage we get our devotion to saying the full Divine Office, our wearing of the cappa, our enclosure, our silence, our devotion to study, and other rules and customs I will deal with in their place.

A New Beginning Down Under

Sion Hill made foundations in South Africa, the United States, and Dunedin, New Zealand. It is from the Dunedin foundation that the Dominican Sisters of Wanganui come. One of the Dunedin Sisters, Sister M. Micaela, was forced to live at a distance from her congregation because she would not go along with the modernism that was taking over. She spent some months with a conservative group of Dominican Sisters in Australia but realized that more than conservatism was needed. By reading and the influence of friends she moved to the Traditional Mass and then to the SSPX parish in Wanganui, where Fr. Gentili had been praying for a nun to start a secondary school. While teaching in Wanganui, in schools of the Society of St. Pius X, Sister Micaela was joined by two postulants, both Australians. The first postulant had been helping at a school of the Dominican Sisters of Fanjeaux. As the Fanjeaux Sisters had made a policy of not taking girls from far away, except America where they had school, the Fanjeaux Sisters had suggested that the young woman come to New Zealand, to Sister Micaela. The second postulant, who did not stay in the end, heard of the venture and joined too. Bishop Fellay first allowed the group to experiment with common life and then agreed to give the little congregation the status of a congregation of diocesan right with himself as ecclesiastical superior and the local prior as his representative. The congregation has continued to grow. At the moment there are eight Sisters, five professed, one novice, and two postulants. They come from New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. Several other young women have signified their interest in joining us, even from the Philippines and the USA.

Second Order Life

The center of our lives is the Divine Office. It is at once our greatest delight and our most strenuous penance. Saying the whole of the Divine Office, according to the Dominican Rite, is part of our Second Order heritage. It means that we pray with the Church her greatest prayer which carries the Mass into the whole day. We echo on earth the great hymn of praise which rises to God from the Angels and Saints. In our convent we start the Divine Office with Lauds at 5:50am. We follow Lauds with Prime and Pretiosa, which is the "hour" that follows the reading of the Martyrology and for Dominicans includes listening to a reading from the Holy Rule or the Gospel of the next day, praying for our deceased brothers and sisters in the Order, and praying for deceased Masters General of the Order.

We say Terce in the early morning if we can fit it in, otherwise we say it at the school morning-interval time. We say Sext at lunchtime, None after school and Vespers at 5pm. After tea (the evening meal in the antipodes) we say Matins. After recreation we say Compline at 8:30.

Most hours of the Office we chant on a rectotone, but we sing Compline to the traditional Dominican tones. We are also gradually learning the tones for other hours starting with Sunday Vespers. At the end of Compline we sing the beautiful Salve Regina to the Dominican tone which Blessed Jordan of Saxony asked the members of the Order to sing in honour of Our Lady. During the Salve we are sprinkled with holy water before our night's rest. We then return to our seats, having made a procession during the Salve, while singing the antiphon O Lumen to St. Dominic.

Our singing of the Divine Office is enhanced by the beautiful ceremonial of the Dominican Rite, consisting of profound inclinations, medium inclinations and head inclinations, kneeling, standing in alternate choirs, prostrations, movements to the lectern and away, processions, turning to the altar and back to a choral position, and the simultaneous movements of the Sisters in the choirs. St. Dominic, who preached against the Albigensian heresy which said that the body was evil, chose rather to use the body in prayer as something good.

The beauty of movement is enhanced by the simple lines of the Dominican habit, consisting of a cream tunic and scapular and a black veil, with the cappa worn in choir during the cappa season, from the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena to the Feast of the Holy Rosary. The tunic is girt with a black leather belt from which hangs a rosary of 15 decades. Professed Sisters wear a black veil and novices wear a white veil. Finally professed Sisters wear a gold ring on the third finger of their right hand as a sign of their total consecration. They wear the ring on the third finger of the right hand as this was the finger of St. Catherine on which Our Lord placed the ring of her mystical espousals. The outfit is completed by black shoes and white socks or stockings. The white in the habit stands for innocence and the black stands for penance. We particularly prize the scapular and kiss it on putting it on, when we say Monstra te esse matrem because Our Lady gave the scapular to Blessed Reginald of Orleans in the early days of the Order. We also kiss the scapular when crossing in front of another Sister or when we have made a minor mistake in choir. All new scapulars belonging to professed Sisters are blessed with a special blessing.

The Dominican Sisters of Wanganui wear the habit and head-dress as worn by the Dominican Sisters of Fanjeaux. Sister Micaela's old Congregation had modified their habit out of existence and during her wilderness years Sister Micaela herself wore a modified head-dress. When it came time for the first postulants to receive the holy habit, the Dominican Sisters of Fanjeaux, always helpful, graciously allowed the Dominican Sisters of Wanganui to adopt their habit and head-dress in its entirety. The difference between the two habits is that the Sisters in Wanganui kept a lighter cappa (cloak) where the Fanjeaux Sisters wear a really thick cappa. This is because the Wanganui Sisters wear theirs in choir during the cappa season, which is winter.

Modern religious maintain that the habit is neither important nor appropriate. Our experience proves otherwise. It is an entrée into many situations and gains us respectful greetings from all sides if we go out. It makes poverty easy to live and strikes a chord in the hearts of Dominican ex-pupils who leap to our side. At the netball courts when we are watching our pupils' games it leads to many interesting talks. The older Maori people we meet are particularly glad to see us as they have happy memories of "real" nuns up the River on the Maori Missions. Of course, we also get our share of abuse and ignorance but in this we share the lot of our Saviour and of the missionaries of the past.

Our wearing of the habit and our obligation to say the Divine Office show forth in visible terms our devotion to the interior life. We intensify our interior life by a monthly day of retreat, and also by an annual retreat of eight days. Normally this retreat is preached by a priest of the Society of St. Pius X but we have also, once, been able to bring out to New Zealand a priest from the Dominican Priory at Avrillé in France. This was a rare privilege and we showed our gratitude by taking Father Albert, O.P., up the river on a jet-boat after the retreat, when he was pelted with rain but gained a wonderful view of the bush and mountains of New Zealand.

The interior life is also supported by our study. For, as Dominicans, we are obliged to study all our lives. Of course, those Sisters who do not enter with secular qualifications pursue them as young nuns. This generally means gaining a degree from Massey University in Palmerston North, one hour by car away from Wanganui. This university runs extra-mural courses of which the Sisters take advantage. The Sisters also need to gain a teaching qualification. These qualifications are demanded by the State, but they also give confidence, breadth, and depth to the Sisters' culture and knowledge of their subject and of teaching. In addition several of the Sisters carry on the study of musical instruments. At the moment we have two cellos, a flamenco guitar, and a tenor horn among us.

However, as St. Dominic turned from the study of arts to studying the things of God, so the Sisters, as novices, during their other study, and particularly when they have finished their secular study, turn to the study of philosophy and theology. We do this partly through the lectures of the local SSPX priests, but we have also made an arrangement with Fr. Peter Scott, the rector of the SSPX seminary at Goulburn in Australia, that the Sisters will study the seminary courses by means of tape, computer, and mail. Thus the Sisters will benefit from the seminary courses and from the expertise and talent of the faculty of the Seminary.

The Sisters in formation also study religious life and our Rule and Constitutions with Mother Micaela. This year another Sister is assisting by taking the postulants for lectures on the spirit of the Dominican Order. Another important branch of study is Gregorian chant, which enables the Sisters to render the Office quickly, lightly, and sweetly in the Dominican manner.

Although we go about when necessary, we keep the spirit and fact of enclosure. There are parts of our convent where neither the girls, our pupils, nor seculars can go. Whenever we go out, we go with a companion and we go only where the Prioress has directed us to go. We also limit our egress from the convent as much as possible, though Sisters from far away are able to visit their families once every three years and local Sisters see their families on visiting Sundays and may visit their homes out of charity when there is need. The enclosure protects us from the gossip and criticism that are the inevitable lot of the school-teacher. We are not disturbed by it because we usually do not hear it! This saves us much worry and heartburning, means that we are free to do our work as God and our superiors see fit, and gives us a tranquil atmosphere for prayer and study. Although we do not do "community work" as some other nuns do, we are zealous in our prayer for the parish and the parishioners know that they can always ask for our prayers.

A companion of our enclosure is the silence within our convent. From a silence bell after Compline until after Mass the next morning we observe the Great Silence in which we do not speak or make any noise. During the day we observe the Mitigated Silence in which we may speak if necessity or our work demands it. Recreation is taken for three quarters of an hour in the evening, and at or after Lunch. Dinner and breakfast are always taken in silence, though at dinner we have reading or a tape. Lately we have been listening to St. Augustine's Confessions, for example. The observance of the silence gives the quiet necessary for prayer and the conditions needed for contemplation, in accord with the second motto of the Dominican Order, "To contemplate and to give to others the fruits of contemplation." Thus silence is necessary for study and preparation for teaching. It is an antidote to the hurry and bustle of the world which might penetrate even into the cloister if we did not make an effort to keep it out.

Yet, in spite of the silence and enclosure our life is a cheerful and joyous one. The common life is an essential of most forms of religious life, and this sharing of community, though occasionally a source of irritation, is usually a joy and comfort. In our present situation of occupying stage one of our new convent we are rather crowded together, but we do enjoy the spiritual inspiration of living with Sisters who are trying their hardest to live the interior life and the preaching life. We find much help in our teaching and studying from our Sisters in community, and the presence of young and ardent postulants and novices gives us hope for the future, although they are tough on the dishes and ever-ready to block up the waste disposal unit!

Our life in community is regulated by our Rule and Constitutions. The Holy Rule is the Rule of St. Augustine, which St. Dominic chose because a recent Council had forbidden the proliferation of religious rules and he had to choose an existing one. He chose the Rule of St. Augustine, which he had lived himself as a Canon Regular of Osma and experienced its broad and intelligent spirit. To this he added Constitutions which he borrowed partly from the Premonstratensians. Like all Dominican congregations we have our own Constitutions based on the primitive Dominican Constitutions but adapted to our life. We have modified them from the old Constitutions of the Dominican Sisters of New Zealand. To these we add, according to Dominican tradition, a Customary and the Acts of the General Chapter, which we have not had yet. The Rule and Constitutions are read aloud in the refectory, the Holy Rule being read once a week, the Constitutions serially. Our daily common life is regulated by our Horarium. This horarium is relaxed a little in the school holidays and on Sundays with a slightly later time of rising being allowed.

The Teaching Apostolate

A very important part of our life is our preaching. As Dominicans, of course, we pray for the Church and the apostolate of the Dominican Friars and all traditional priests, but for the last 150 years the women of our branch of the Order have taken on teaching as a special form of preaching. This apostolate by preachers of our type, teachers, is badly needed today.

At the moment we teach in the three schools which are under the umbrella of St. Anthony's Parish, Wanganui. Actually in the same building as our convent we have the classrooms of the St. Dominic's Girls' School. This school accommodates girls from Form 1 (age 11) to Form 7 (age 17). There are 36 of them at the moment gathered in four Form-groups. Happily we have reached the stage where we can have one of the nuns as Form Mistress for each class-group. This creates great unity in the school and gives a continuity of policy, as the nuns are happily united in their philosophy of education and their methods.

In the Boys' Secondary School, boys from Form 1 (11 years) are educated separately from the girls. The nuns teach in this school also and find the boys funny, charming, and gentlemanly, but the Sisters agree that they should be taught by men, and that the schools should be separated when we can get traditional men with the requisite qualifications and when the schools are large enough. The nuns also teach in the primary school, St. Anthony's School, which takes children from five to ten years old in co-educational classes. A Sister will be taking charge of this school next year, under Fr. Laisney's principalship.

Teaching demands study so we naturally follow the Dominican custom of studying all our lives. Some Sisters arrive in the convent with teaching qualifications, but others must devote a good deal of their early years in the congregation to studying for a degree and for teaching qualifications. They all must spend their novitiate year studying religious life and other appropriate subjects to prepare them for taking their vows and for a lifetime of teaching Catechism if need be.

Becoming a Dominican Nun

For all, the stages of religious life are as follows: When a young woman first arrives at the convent she becomes a postulant for six months to a year. Postulants wear their own suitable clothes and do some study as well as taking classes, perhaps of catechism, or of their own subject if they are a qualified teacher. After this comes the novitiate year when the novice may not work in the apostolate and may not study secular subjects, although she may keep up a skill, for example, playing a musical instrument. She wears the full Dominican habit with a white veil.

At the end of the novitiate year, if the novice and the congregation are still of the same mind, the novice is accepted for profession. As other Dominicans do, she makes only a vow of obedience but she understands that she is also binding herself to poverty and chastity. These vows are made for three years at first, then renewed for another two years. During this time the young Sister wears a black veil. At the end of her temporary vows the Sister can make final profession. At this ceremony she is given the gold ring of a Sister with permanent vows.

Our contacts with the Dominican Sisters of Fanjeaux and with the Friars and Nuns of Avrillé are a great comfort to us as it gives us contacts of a like mind within the Dominican Family. Here in Wanganui there is also a group of lay Tertiaries, who pre-date our appearance on the scene, but who now meet in our classrooms and have a lecture from one of the Sisters. We also follow the Dominican tradition of keeping in touch with our ex-pupils, and also ex-pupils of other Dominican schools who naturally gather round us. For example, we will see the Dominican Family in action on St. Dominic's Day, 4 August, this year when the girls of the school will lead the hymns and common of the Mass, the boys will sing the proper, an ex-pupil of the New Zealand Dominican Sisters will play the organ and a young man will make profession as a tertiary. After the Mass we will have a breakfast in one of our classrooms for our tertiaries, ex-pupils of other Dominican schools and of our own school. We will also exchange greetings with other Dominican convents, traditional and even conservative.

Another expression of the Dominican Family was the recent trip of two of our Sisters to Europe and America to visit traditional Dominican convents. Although we are poor we were able to fund this trip by the generosity of the trust that helps traditional nuns and a personal gift from a benefactor. The Sisters brought back good information about the chant, the ceremonial, and also their impressions from living in larger communities.

As I conclude this introduction to our Congregation I can hear the sound of nail-guns and saws. The builders are working hard on the second stage of our new convent, which we are almost outgrowing as it is being built. For we have two new postulants with us in stage one, which has necessitated some squashing-in, and we expect two or three in January 2008 and two or three in June-July 2008. Some of these may not turn up, of course, but they sound keen at the moment. These numbers may necessitate the building of stage three as soon as the parish can afford it.

We are indeed grateful to the priests of the SSPX who took Sister Micaela in when all seemed lost and gave her a base to receive postulants. We are also grateful to the Dominican Sisters of Fanjeaux and the Avrillé Friars and Nuns for their continuing friendship. We think we have the best spot in the Traditional Church. That is, we are Dominicans, which we think is best, yet we have a very special relationship with the Society of St. Pius X, which is going to save the modern Church. We also have the best apostolate in Tradition for, "Those who instruct others unto justice shall shine like stars for all eternity." May the Lord, our Spouse, make us faithful to our Dominican heritage and also make us grateful for all the help and kindness we have received. Finally, may He make us grateful for all the charity we have encountered, and the fun we have had, in re-establishing the Dominican Order "Down Under."

 

For information:

Mother Micaela, O.P.,

St. Dominic's Convent,

12B York Street, Wanganui, New Zealand.

Tel. 64-6-344-2265.

e-mail. stdominic@sspx.com

Daily Schedule

 

5:20 AM Rise

5:50 AM Office (Lauds, Prime, Pretiosa)

6:20 AM Meditation

7:00 AM Mass, Breakfast

8:30 AM School

11:00 AM Terce if not fitted in earlier.

11:20 AM School

12:50 PM Sext, lunch

1:35 PM School

3:10 PM School ends

4:10 PM None

5:00 PM Vespers, Tea, Matins

7:45 PM Recreation

8:30 PM Compline