Young lovers
December 6, 2009, 5:29 pm
Filed under: Articles in English
Filed under: Articles in English
The young couple sitting near me on the train were very affectionate, kissing and cuddling each other, and I found it rather irritating. Finally the girl, who was very pretty, fell asleep and something made me smile at the young man, who immediately said: “I saw you were using a prayer book. Are you studying religion?” When I explained that I am a Lay Dominican and that prayer is part of my life, he relaxed visibly and told me about the difficulties he and his fiancée are having: she is Polish, he is Albanian and many people are suspicious of them because they are foreigners. As it happens, I am a foreigner too in the country where I live, so we told each other a little about our experiences, and he explained that his family are still in Albania, but the girl’s family are already here and they hope to be able to unite both families in time. They have both found jobs in the city and are working hard to make enough money for decent accommodation for both sets of parents as well as for themselves. (more…)
Comments Off
His hair is the same colour as mine
October 6, 2009, 6:05 pm
Filed under: Articles in English
Filed under: Articles in English
On a long train journey, I was seated at a table with three other people: an elderly man, a young mother and her nine-year-old son. I am middle-aged, so we covered four different generations. The little boy was intent on his homework, with some help from his mum; I was reading a book by Thomas Merton (with a picture of him in his monk’s habit on the cover) and using a bookmark with a photograph of a little dog. (more…)
A Muslim’s kiss
September 28, 2009, 5:25 am
Filed under: Articles in English
Filed under: Articles in English
Brussels in May: a bright sun was blazing down on the Southern, Red, Moroccan neighbourhood of Saint Gilles. I was looking forward to summer as I sat outside a café in the Avenue Dejaer. On my green sweater, a black-and-white Dominican cross caught the sunlight like a new coin. I was wearing my cross proudly as a sign that I had joined the Lay Dominicans just twelve days earlier, making my promise to the Order of Preachers, surrounded by my family, in the chapel of the cloistered nuns of Herne-lez-Enghien. (more…)
Colour into the grey of everyday life
September 25, 2009, 9:50 am
Filed under: Articles in English
Filed under: Articles in English
I am living in a German metropolis in close neighbourhood to an old people’s home. Since my retirement as a museum teacher, I have had the opportunity to bring the elderly persons living there a little bit more colour into the often monotonous grey of their everyday life. Simple objects from nature, such as a bunch of flowers, an oddly shaped and coloured stone or a loaf of bread are an opportunity to refer to a verse of a psalm or another passage of the Bible by thanking God for the richness and variety of his creation. I encourage the elderly to make use of the painting materials I have brought and to transfer their sensations onto paper. (more…)
At the supermarket
September 23, 2009, 9:45 am
Filed under: Articles in English
Filed under: Articles in English
I was queuing at the supermarket checkout one day with my nephew John and his friend Tommy, both aged 7, when Tommy pointed to my Dominican badge and asked “What’s that?” I quickly tried to find an answer suitable for a 7-year-old: “That’s to tell people that I try to tell the truth at all times.” “Oh!” said Tommy, “there’s a boy in our class who tells lots of lies.” “That’s not very nice,” I said. “When you tell a lot of lies and are found out, people stop believing you even when you tell the truth. Do you tell lies?” Both boys looked very uncomfortable, so I added, “No need to answer that question! Just remember, you nearly always get caught out when you tell a lie.” At that I heard a giggle behind me and realized several people in the queue had been listening to the conversation.
Anna (Ireland, Province of Ireland)
A new family
September 23, 2009, 9:42 am
Filed under: Articles in English
Filed under: Articles in English
We’ve never had any children of our own, so we opened our home over the years to young people with family problems: we talked to them, listened to them and prayed with them, and over a period of many years we found many “sons and daughters” in this way. Now we are elderly and our “children” are all adults, many with families of their own. In addition, two of them are Dominican friars, one is a Dominican Sister and three more are Lay Dominicans.
Translated from Italian (original article by Elena, Italy, Province of St Dominic)
Faith and the family
September 20, 2009, 12:15 am
Filed under: Articles in English
Filed under: Articles in English
