Nearly five years ago, Fr Martin noticed in the back yard of the priory an old woman picking up sticks - rather like the woman of Zarephath (cf. 1 Kings 17: 10).  Indeed, the medieval sequence came to his mind:

Ligna legens in Sarepta
spem salutis est adepta
pauper muliercula.

["Picking up sticks in Zarephata, a poor little woman gained hope of salvation..."]

The sun was hot, and she rested awhile under the shade of our trees, so Father Martin offered her a cool drink and a biscuit - and there began a friendship.  It turned out that Lucy George - for such is her name - was collecting firewood to cook for the many orphaned and sometimes disabled children that she took under her wing in the nearby Nine Mile settlement.

Over the years the community has helped out Lucy with food and occasionally photocopying, since she also distributes material promoting the Rosary.  But even we did not realise quite the extent of her charitable work until we read this article in the Post Courier.  Happily, a prayer group with some connections in the right places had also befriended Lucy, and was able to get some corporate help for an extraordinary woman doing some extraordinary work.

(Click on the image of the newspaper article for an enlargement.)

Today the community enjoyed a short visit from Fr Paul Murray, OP, a well-known writer on spirituality, lecturer at the Angelicum in Rome and a poet.  His books include T S Eliot and Mysticism and A Journey with Jonah: The Spirituality of Bewilderment. He has also published four books of his own poetry. For Fr Martin it was a particular delight to see Fr Paul again, as they had met previously in Adelaide.
Fr Paul is directing a retreat for the Missionaries of Charity in Port Moresby.  In our visit to us he was keen to hear about the local brothers' families and customs, their experience of religious life and even the food.  we also heard a little bit about goings-on in Rome  ... to which city Fr Paul returns next week.
A delightful interlude on the first day back of third term - the Feast of St Augustine!

2010 got off to a great start at Dominican College with the Ordination to the diaconate of one of our Solomon Island brothers, Timothy Aihora.  You can see a photograph in the News blog, and lots of photos on the website of our province.

Another exciting event for us all - but especially for our Solomon Island brothers - was the visit to our college of the Solomon Islands Prime Minister, Dr Derek Sikura, his wife, Lady Doris, and a number of cabinet ministers.  While a PM of Papua New Guinea has visited us before, it was the first visit to our college of a Solomon Islands PM.  The picture below shows the community with the official party.  Click on it for more photos from our province web page.