Godzdogz

Remembering ... Br Frederick Peter Canisius Fewell (1902-1989)

noreply@blogger.com (Nicholas Crowe OP) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:01:00 +0000

Br. Peter was a co-operator Brother who put his passion for liturgy as well as his professional skills to good use during his life as a Dominican.

Originally from Cardiff where he was by trade a cabinet maker, he followed his mother to Bournemouth and there became Master of Ceremonies at the Jesuit Church. It was there, ironically, that he first came in contact with the Dominicans. The great Provincial of the English Province, Fr. Bede Jarrett OP (pictured right), was invited by the Jesuits to come to the church and preach, and perhaps inspired by this man's words the young Peter Fewell later applied to join the Order. He received the habit in 1926 at Woodchester and made his profession one year later.

When his formation was complete he was assigned to Blackfriars, Oxford where he busied himself with making furniture for the still relatively new priory. The two vestment presses found in the sacristy are his handiwork, as well as a number of other items that are dotted around the house. In 1930 he was moved to St. Dominic's Priory in London (the priory Church is pictured left) where he was made Head Sacristan. During this time he organized a vast number of altar servers into a crack altar servers guild, and he carefully trained them in all the intricacies of the Dominican rite. Later he became Refectorian and then Porter at St. Dominic's, the first point of contact between the priory and the outside world. For much of his life he had a great desire to join the missions and on one occasion was packed, toolkit and all, ready to leave for South Africa. At the last minute his superiors changed their minds and, much to his disappointment, he was refused permission to depart.

Br. Peter was a private but kind man, a rock of support for his bretheen during the difficult years of change following the Second Vatican Council. At the age of 82, with his health failing, he was moved back to Oxford so that he could be better cared for by his brothers. He died on the 20th August 1989 aged 86, 62 years after his profession.

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed,

through the mercy of God,

rest in peace,

Amen.

Pope's Power Grab?

lawrence.lew@english.op.org (Lawrence Lew OP) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:01:00 +0000

Since the Vatican announced that an Apostolic Constitution would be forthcoming from Pope Benedict XVI that would allow Anglicans to enter corporately into full communion with the Catholic Church, while maintaining some of their legitimate liturgical rites and traditions, there have been many reactions, some positive and others decidedly less so. In particular, a number of commentators in the secular press and their religious correspondents seem unable to look at the issue in a way that is not drawn from the contemporary business model and power politics. Consequently, a prominent weekly referred to the "Pope's power grab", others looked at it as a "take-over bid", and still others said that the Pope was "poaching" from the Anglican communion. Allied to the secular press were other religious commentators like Fr Hans Küng, who said that the "Vatican thirst for power divides Christianity and damages Catholicism".

However, I am reminded of something my brother, Timothy Radcliffe OP has said: that the corporate business model is not helpful in understanding issues concerning charity and communion. One also recalls those apostles like Simon the Zealot or Judas Iscariot who misinterpreted Jesus' presence among them and regarded his saving actions in terms of power, politics, and pecuniary gain. So, perhaps we ought not to be too swift to blame those today who still do not understand what the Church, Christ's Body, is about. But at least the Vicar of Christ, Pope Benedict, stands in good company with his Master.

For it is the Master's mission of unity, given to his servant St Peter, that Pope Benedict is acutely aware of having taken on. In his first message to the Cardinal-Electors on the day of his election on 20 April 2005, he said: "With full awareness, therefore, at the beginning of his ministry in the Church of Rome which Peter bathed in his blood, Peter's current Successor takes on as his primary task the duty to work tirelessly to rebuild the full and visible unity of all Christ's followers. This is his ambition, his impelling duty. He is aware that good intentions do not suffice for this. Concrete gestures that enter hearts and stir consciences are essential, inspiring in everyone that inner conversion that is the prerequisite for all ecumenical progress."

What is Joseph Ratzinger's attitude towards ecumenism? In 1995 he said: "Divisions within the Church... consist of a split in the confession of faith, the creed, and in the administration of the sacraments themselves; all other differences do not ultimately count: there can be no objection to them; they do not divide us in the heart of the Church. Division within that central sphere, on the other hand, threatens the real reason for the Church's existence, her very being... [Therefore] a tolerance for different things had to be aroused, not founded on indifference concerning the truth, but on the distinction between truth and mere human tradition."

With this in mind, we have seen this pope take remarkable steps, but often with much criticism both from within and without the Catholic Church, to restore the full and visible unity of the Church, which (as Vatican II teaches) is "in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race". This is not just some spiritual unity then, but it is concrete and real, so that one can point to a community gathered together around the Lord and his servant of unity, and say that there is found Christ's one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. For again, as Vatican II said, "division [among Christians, by which each group differs in mind and goes their separate ways] openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages the holy cause of preaching the Gospel to every creature." It is this scandal of division that the Pope, as a true pastor and servant of unity, seeks to heal. As he said in another context, namely, his letter to the Catholic bishops when he issued his motu proprio 'Summorum Pontificum', which was directed to healing the rift with Catholic 'traditionalist' groups: "Looking back over the past, to the divisions which in the course of the centuries have rent the Body of Christ, one continually has the impression that, at critical moments when divisions were coming about, not enough was done by the Church’s leaders to maintain or regain reconciliation and unity. One has the impression that omissions on the part of the Church have had their share of blame for the fact that these divisions were able to harden. This glance at the past imposes an obligation on us today: to make every effort to enable all those who truly desire unity to remain in that unity or to attain it anew."

The Holy Father is entirely consistent and obedient to the mission given to him by God in making every effort to reach out to those who seek unity with him as the Church's central sign of unity. Moreover, it needs to be noted that in the current case, it was certain Anglican groups who had first reached out and asked the Pope to help them to achieve corporate unity with the Catholic Church. Thus, he was responding to their needs, and by no means 'poaching' or taking advantage of the Anglican communion's embattled and tested unity. Joseph Ratzinger is well-known, even among those who do not like him, as someone who listens carefully, intelligently and attentively to the points made to him by his interlocutors. As such, he presents to us a model of dialogue, for he is clear about his own position, listens fairly to the positions and needs of his dialogue partners, and does the utmost to meet their requests and to be accommodating without damaging his own position. His own position, incidentally, is not one that he fashions in his own image, but rather one which he receives from Scripture and Tradition, so that, as his motto puts it, he may be a co-worker with the Truth, who is Jesus Christ.

Putting Christ at the centre of our concerns and goals is the way to advance in ecumenism, and this requires change for all Christians. As Vatican II said: "There can be no ecumenism worthy of the name without a change of heart. All the faithful should remember that the more effort they make to live holier lives according to the Gospel, the better will they further Christian unity and put it into practice." The complaint made by those who seek union with the Catholic Church is that other ecclesial communities have strayed further from the Gospel and the Tradition which comes to us from the apostles. If this is so, then they are right to follow their consciences and to seek unity with the successor of St Peter who is the Rock on which the Catholic faith is built. In doing so, one expects that they are seeking to live holier lives, to come closer to Christ and the Ecclesial unity he desired, and they are taking practical steps in securing that unity.

With this in mind, we can hopefully see why talk of power, or Fr Küng's cynical retort that the pope is trying to "fill up the dwindling ranks of the Catholic church" is woefully mistaken. It also shows how they, like the apostles before the Resurrection, seem to misunderstand Christ's (and His Church's) purpose and mission. For the pope is not interested in power, statistics, or the religious market-share. He is interested in the truth, in the good of humanity that can be found through a living faith in Jesus Christ who alone can free the world from division, hatred, selfishness, sin and error, which is what the "dictatorship of relativism" ultimately gives us. So, as St Paul said, "we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God". The power of the Cross and the power of the Gospel of Christ to transform sinful human lives, grabbing souls from the devil, then, is what Pope Benedict XVI is about.

Let us pray for the Holy Father, and also for ourselves that we may also be co-workers with the Truth: "Lord, remember your promise. Grant that we may be one flock and one shepherd! Do not allow your net to be torn, help us to be servants of unity!" (from the Inauguration Mass of Pope Benedict XVI, 24 April 2005).

Celebrating Priesthood - fr Leo P. Craig OP

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:01:00 +0000

On April 5, 1951 near Chunchon, South Korea, a Dominican Priest had just finished vesting for Mass. In the last moments, before he would offer the Holy Sacrifice for the Members of the 99th Field Artillery Battalion of the First Cavalry Division, he went over his homily in his mind. His mental preparation was suddenly interrupted by a loud explosion. A soldier had stepped on an unmarked landmine. Without a moment's hesitation, the priest removed his vestments and put on his helmet adorned with a white cross and went to the scene of the incident. The priest was Fr Leo P. Craig of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in the United States, who since 1949 had been serving in the U.S. Army as a Chaplain to the First Cavalry Division.

He was born in Everett, Massachusetts in 1918. His mother died when he was five years old and his father was left with five children to raise. His aunt, a Dominican Sister, obtained dispensation to help raise the young Craig children and after the youngest had left home she returned to her convent. Leo received his BA in 1935 from Providence College and entered the Dominican novitiate at Saint Rose’s in Springfield, Kentucky. He completed his philosophy courses at the Dominican House of Studies in River Forest, Illinois, and his theological training at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 21, 1942. He then went on to teach at the Aquinas High School in Columbus, Ohio and was appointed curate at Saint Andrew’s Parish in Cincinnati.

With U.S. forces stretched throughout the post-war world, chaplains were needed. Leo answered the call and was sent to Japan. Here he had a joyful reunion with his elder brother, who was a priest in the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. His time in Japan was short, as North Korea invaded the South in 1950. The First Calvary Division, with Leo, was sent to take part in the UN counter-offensive to retake Seoul from the alliance of the the DPRK and China. They had achieved this objective in March 1951 and began to try and drive the communist armies out of South Korea. The retreating forces left behind unmarked minefields hoping to slow down the advancing UN coalition. It was one of these mines that had exploded before Fr. Leo said Mass.

Fr. Leo arrived at the scene and was confronted with a dying soldier. The soldiers, who were already on the scene, warned Leo that the area was unsafe due to the high possibility of more mines. Nevertheless he went to the dying soldier and administered the last rites. The picture below was taken thirty-seconds before a second mine exploded and killed Fr. Leo and seven other men. Fr. Leo Craig demonstrated a great sense of duty and courage. He risked his own life to carry out his priestly duty and his pastoral obligation. He imitated the Good Shepherd and risked his life for one sheep, such was his zeal for the salvation of souls.

Leo Peter Craig O.P. (1918-1951)

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord
And let perpetual light shine upon him.
May his souls, and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God,
rest in peace.

Amen.

Fra Bartolomeo O.P.

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:01:00 +0000

Born in 1483 in Tuscany the young Bartolomeo di Pagholo displayed a keen eye and skill as an artist. He impressed the sculptor Benedetto da Maiano, who recommended him to the painter Cosimo Rosselli. Rosselli accepted Bartolomeo as an apprentice in his Florence workshop. During his time in Florence Bartolomeo was attracted to the teachings of the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola, who denounced much of the art of the time as corrupt, indulgent and vain, and stated that the main purpose of art was to educate the illiterate in the faith. Bartolomeo painted the most famous portrait of Savonarola before the latter's downfall in 1498. In 1500 Bartolomeo renounced his craft and entered the Dominican priory of San Marco in Florence, which less that fifty years before had been the home of Bl. Guido di Pietro, more commonly known as Fra Angelico.

He would not lift a brush again until 1504, when under obedience to the Prior, he headed the convent's workshop and began to work on a piece for the Bianco family chapel showing the vision of St Bernard. In 1507 the young Raphael befriended him and taught him perspective. Between 1508 and 1513 he travelled from Florence to Venice, Lucca and Rome to work on numerous commissions, including some fine altar pieces at St. Martin's Cathedral in Lucca.

He returned to Florence and created what is considered his masterpiece, St Mark the Evangelist at Palazzo Pitti. He also did some frescoes at the Dominican house of Pian di Mugnone. He died in 1517 in Florence.

Celebrating Priesthood - fr Ismael Gonzalez OP

noreply@blogger.com (Students@EnglishOP) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:01:00 +0000

As part of our Godzdogz celebration of the Year for Priests, we asked some of the Dominican priests living and working in our Province what inspired them in the exercise of their priesthood. Below is a response from fr Ismael Gonzalez OP, a friar of the Province of Spain, who is currently studying in Oxford. fr Ismael was ordained in Eastertide 2009 in Salamanca.

"A few months before my ordination to the priesthood, I discovered one of the most beautiful texts that inspired me concerning how I should live my life as a priest: “Deje que la gente le coma”; be consumed by the people, let the people be fed through you. These words belong to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and their deep meaning is really important to my vocation.

Let us consider the mystery: I am not Christ, yet I say over the bread, "This is my body". It is the priest who says "my body", he says "my blood". But it is the Lord who gives us his Body and his Blood. So, people recognize Christ in the priest, for through his ministry, it is the Body and Blood of Christ that the people adore, it is the sacrifice of Christ that is offered, it is Jesus Christ whom I and the people receive.

At the consecration, it is not only Christ who shares his life with the people, the priest also must share his own life with humanity, not only when he celebrates Mass but in all times and in all ways. So, I give my whole life, like bread that people take in their hands, and they can, so to speak, break and give and share that with everybody. Consequently, I have to be willing to share myself: to share all my life, my time, my work, my hands, my eyes, my smile … even my nothingness. What I mean is, it is not necessary for the priest to know everything. Humility is important. Sometimes when I find it difficult to help somebody or to find the right words for them, I must remember that my own limitations can also help people, because the priest too is a human being searching for God."

Another Use for Baseball Grounds

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:01:00 +0000

As the Baseball World Series is played out between the Yankees and the Phillies and the season come to an end, Pat McNamara, the Church historian and archivist, has just concluded his "Baseball Picture of the Week" series on his excellent blog. His final picture shows a Holy Name Rally from the 1940s taking place at Ebbets Field, the old Brooklyn Dodgers stadium, in New York.

From its earliest days the Order of Preachers has had a devotion to the Holy Name. In 1274 Pope Gregory X asked the Order to preach devotion to it. It was ordained that in every Dominican church an altar of the Holy Name should be erected, and that societies or confraternities under the title and invocation of the Holy Name of Jesus should be established. St. Peter Martyr, John of Vercelli, a successor of St. Dominic, Blessed Ambrose of Siena and Blessed Henry Suso were all great propagators of this devotion.

In the twentieth century this zeal continued as can be seen in this picture. The rally pictured was an annual event often attracting over 100,000 people. The event was organised by the Province of St. Joseph and it is very apt that one of the friars should lead Bishop Thomas E. Molloy into the field to begin the rally.

Remembering ... fr Sylvester Basil Baxter OP (1907-1979)

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:01:00 +0000

In the month of November particularly we pray for the dead. Godzdogz commends to your prayers the deceased Friars and Nuns of the English Province as well as the Dominican Sisters, priest tertiaries, and Dominican Laity who have lived and worked in England, Wales and Scotland. We will recall the life stories of a number of the friars, representatives of the 'great cloud of witnesses' that has gone before us.

fr. Sylvester Basil Baxter was born in Bradford in 1907. He was clothed in the habit of the Order at the age of 19 and made profession in the September of 1927. He completed his studies in Oxford and was ordained to the priesthood in 1932. In 1933 he was sent to be curate at Woodchester.

He excelled in this role and the prior Hyacinth Koos OP declared him the best curate he had ever had. In 1934 he was sent to the mission in Grenada but was struck down with a severe bout of malaria. He spent four years in the West Indies but never really recovered from the initial attack on his health. He returned to England and his health improved.

On his return he was sent to Leicester and worked in the Royal Infirmary. In 1943 he moved to Pendleton, where he served as subprior. He was then assigned to London as bursar. In 1956 he returned to Leicester and his beloved ministry to the Infirmary. He was a devoted chaplain but suffered a stroke which greatly reduced his mobility. His condition deteriorated and he had to spend his last years in a nursing home. He died on the 10 September 1979, aged 71 with 51 years of profession and 47 of priesthood.

fr. Sylvester was a shy and private man. He was not a renowned formal preacher but preached the Gospel by his dedicated priestly service. He was considered a reliable and loving pastor by both his flock and his brothers.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him.

May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed,

through the mercy of God,

rest in Peace.

Amen.

Called to be Saints - 1/2 November

noreply@blogger.com (Students@EnglishOP) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Human beings choose because there is something good and desirable already there, we encounter it and we decide we want it. God’s choice however creates things. Because God chooses, something good and desirable comes into being.

We can therefore say that creation itself is God’s original choosing. God is completely free in his decision to create the world. Nothing obliges God to make a world. He simply says ‘let there be light’ and light is. He simply chooses to create human beings, and so it is. Our being, and the being of all the world, originates in a love beyond anything we can imagine or experience. God’s love calls something out of nothing and this is God’s absolutely free choice.

‘God saw all he had made and found it very good’ (Genesis 1.31). This applies to everything God had made: the moon and the stars, oak trees and tulips, cows and sharks. But among the creatures God has made, the human being has a special place. There is plenty of evidence that the human being has powers and abilities way beyond anything other animals have. On top of that, all the great religious traditions regard the human being as a spiritual being. We have capacities for knowledge, for love, for language, for social life, for creative and artistic work, for religion – all this is special to humanity.

For Jews, Christians and Muslims these capacities and powers are evidence that the human being is created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1.26). Humans are created to represent God in creation. They are to use their intelligence and freedom as God’s stewards or delegates in the management of the world.

For Christians there is a further dimension. We believe that the image of God in us has been damaged and distorted by sin. But we believe that Jesus, the eternal Word of the Father, who bears the very stamp of God’s nature (Hebrews 1.3), heals us and restores that image of God in us. We believe that he is the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. We believe that in Christ we are called to a level of living that God always wanted us to have. We are adopted as God’s children, chosen to share in the love that is God’s own nature. This is the fullness of life that Jesus says he has come to bring (John 10.10).

‘Before the world was made, he chose us in Christ’, the letter to the Ephesians says (Ephesians 1.4). And the beginning of the gospel of Saint John teaches us that ‘through him all things came to be … they all had life in him … a life that enlightens all human beings coming into the world’ (John 1.3-4).

What we believe about ourselves and the dignity of all other human beings can seem incredible, especially when we see our own selfishness and the evil things human beings do to each other. But in spite of so many weaknesses and failures, we believe that we are created in God’s image and have been chosen to share God’s life. ‘To all who did accept him’ – who accepted the call – ‘he gave power to become children of God … and from his fullness we have all received’ (John 1.12,16).

The letter to the Ephesians seems to realize that we will need help to accept this extraordinary teaching, that God chose us in Christ before the world was made and predestined us for eternal life. Paul there prays that 'our minds may be enlightened so that we see what hope God’s call holds for us, what rich glories God has promised the saints will inherit’ (Ephesians 1.18). The ‘saints’ are you and I (believe it or not), individual and ordinary human beings, whose lives fade like passing shadows but who have been chosen and called to share God’s eternal life of love.

Celebrating Priesthood - Dom John Lane Fox OSB

lawrence.lew@english.op.org (Lawrence Lew OP) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:01:00 +0000

One of the things Godzdogz is doing to mark the Year for Priests is a series on priests who have inspired various Dominican friars in our Province. As it is the Year for Priests, we've decided to ask not just the Dominican student-brothers but also our brothers who are priests about those priests - both real and fictional, as found in art, literature and cinema - who have inspired and influenced them and their priestly vocation.

The following reflection, which begins this series, is from fr Timothy Radcliffe OP, who was the 84th successor of St Dominic as Master of the Order, and who is currently a member of the Oxford community.

"The priest who baptised me, heard my first confession and gave me my first communion was my great uncle, Dom John Lane Fox. He was a monk of Fort Augustus, which had been founded by his father and his uncle to evangelise the Highlands of Scotland, and most of the first monks were his relations!

He was a tall gaunt figure, and had lost an eye and most the fingers of his right hand during First World War, when he was a chaplain. What struck me as a child, was his irrepressible sense of fun. One could see that religious life and the priesthood did not dehumanise one. I sensed that his vitality came from his faith. He had a relaxed attitude to rules, and considered that duck should be eaten on Friday. He enjoyed his claret, and used to return to the monastery with lots of bottles given by my father clunking his suitcase.

He was an important source of my own vocation. Recently I discovered that in the Great War he had been utterly loved by the soldiers because of his courage. Every night he would cross over into No man's land, between the opposing trenches, and look for the wounded, to anoint them and to carry them home and to bury the dead. No one believed that he could last a week. He went over the trenches with the men to give them the last rites if necessary. He was forbidden by the Generals to do this, but his love for those in his care overrode an obedience to rules. The soldiers gave him a chalice engraved with all the battles in which he participated, which he gave to me. He died at the age of 95, a man still filled with joy."

Saints This Month - 28 October, SS Simon and Jude

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Gay O.P.) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

It’s hard to know what to make of Simon and Jude, the two Apostles whose feast we celebrate today. Of all the Apostles, these two are probably the least well known. Today’s Gospel - as well as the other Gospel accounts describing the calling of the twelve - seem concerned to identify Simon and Jude, not so much in terms of who they are, but in terms of who they are not. It’s not normal to refer to people in this way, and I can’t help but wonder how the brethren would react if I were to start referring to them as ‘not Robert De Niro’, ‘not Richard the Lionheart’ or ‘not Benjamin Britten’. But that seems to be just the kind of thing that is going on in the Gospel accounts of the naming of the twelve. Luke calls Simon the Zealot, which is probably a reference to his past life as a member of the Jewish sect. But his title might as well be ‘Simon the ordinary one’, because it’s pretty clear that the title “zealot” is only there to distinguish him from Simon Peter, whom we might call ‘Simon, the important one’. In a similar way, we have Judas, or Jude, who is described as the son of James, presumably to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot, or perhaps ‘Judas the notorious one’.

These distinctions are almost all that the four Gospels have to say about our two apostles. Simon has no special part to play. He’s important enough to be named, but that’s it. Jude is rather like an extra in a play – in John’s Gospel he has a walk on part and a single line at the last supper, and no more. Ordinary, everyday people, it seems. But, there is a lot to be said for being ordinary, for being the anonymous one, the silent one. Still waters, it is said, run deep. And this is certainly the case for Saints Simon and Jude. Tradition holds that both men worked hard at preaching the Gospel. It’s claimed that Simon preached in Egypt, and then later followed Jude on a mission to the people of Mesopotamia and Persia, where they were both martyred. That ordinariness was built on by the grace of God, and they showed themselves to be extraordinary in their love for Christ, and in their willingness to die for him. They were small yet vital stones in the foundation of the Apostles that Paul describes in the letter to the Ephesians. They were linked to Christ the cornerstone and inseparable from him.

Simon and Jude stand as an important example to us too – an example of that gentle, quiet, yet profound faith which can preach so eloquently of the power of God. It isn’t necessary to be a big fish to follow Christ. What is important is that we follow his way for us, and allow him to work on us so that his way becomes our way. In fact, if we make too much of a fuss, we might end up being well known for all the wrong reasons – and then there is a danger of being known as, say, ‘Andrew the arrogant’, or ‘Ian the impossible’. And no one wants that. We shouldn’t be afraid to be ordinary, simple, quiet, outwardly unspectacular servants of the Lord. Because only God knows what the fruits of such a life will be.

This is the homily preached by fr Robert Gay OP at the Conventual Mass in Blackfriars on the feast of SS Simon and Jude

Beware the Litanies of the Dominicans!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:01:00 +0000

On the twenty-first of February 2009 an email was circulated from Father Augustine Di Noia OP, then under-secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, asking all Dominicans to pray the Litany of Dominican Saints from February 22 (the Feast of the Chair of St Peter) through March 25 (the Solemnity of the Annunciation) for an at-the-time undisclosed intention. On the twenty-first of October this email was sent by Archbishop Di Noia (as he is now):

Today there was announced -- at press conferences in Rome and London -- the forthcoming publication of an apostolic constitution in which the Holy Father allows for the creation of personal ordinariates for groups of Anglicans in different parts of the world who are seeking full communion with the Catholic Church. The canonical structure of the personal ordinariate will permit this corporate reunion while at the same time providing for retention of elements of Anglican liturgy and spirituality.

When I asked the members of the Dominican family to pray the Dominican litany from 22 February to 25 March earlier this year, the intention was that this proposal would receive the approval of the cardinal members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which was necessary if the proposal of some structure allowing for corporate reunion was to go forward. Our prayers at that time were answered, and now that the proposal has become a reality we can tell everyone what we were praying for then.

Fraternally,
+Abp. J Augustine Di Noia, OP

This is not the first time that the Dominican Litany of the Saints has proved a powerful prayer. In 1254 the Order came into conflict with Pope Innocent IV, after it would not give up the Priory in Genoa for the Pope's family to build a fortress on the site. The Pope was angered by the perceived ingratitude of the Order, as he had defended it against attacks from certain members of the secular clergy of the time and had entrusted it with missions to the Mongols. Encouraged by some anti-mendicant Cardinals, the Pope began to restrict the work of the Order in France, including removing friars from the University of Paris. Fearing the suppression of the entire Order, the friars began to pray the litany for the protection of the Order and its work.

On November 21, 1254, Innocent IV signed a decree rescinding all the privileges of the Order of Preachers, and instead forbidding all Dominicans to receive any lay person in their churches on Sundays and holidays, to preach in their churches on other days before the Solemn Mass in the local diocesan parish church, to preach in an episcopal town if the bishop was to preach there that day, or to hear anyone's confession without the permission of the penitent's pastor.

On that same day, one of the Cardinals, who had been instrumental in the formation of the decree and sought further restrictions, fell down some stairs and died of his injuries. That night Pope Innocent IV suffered a stroke and was paralysed. He died sixteen day later and was succeeded by Alexander IV, who on December 24, the 38th anniversary of the Order's approval by Honorius III, removed all of the restrictions on the Order.

The Friars had been obedient to the Pontiff throughout this trial, yet they put their faith in the Lord and continued to pray the litany. The rather sudden demise of their opponents and the fast reversal of policy, led to the emergence of the following expression: "Beware the Litanies of the Dominicans!" The Litany is recommended as a Novena in especially critical circumstances and can be found here.

Join us for Compline

noreply@blogger.com (Students@EnglishOP) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:01:00 +0000

Oxford Martyrs' Mass at Blackfriars

lawrence.lew@english.op.org (Lawrence Lew OP) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:01:00 +0000

For the past few years, the Latin Mass Society has organised a High Mass and Procession in memory of those Oxford men who gave their lives for the Catholic faith during the English Reformation and Recusancy period. Last year, Bishop William Kenney CP blessed a plaque at the end of Holywell Street to commemorate their sacrifice, and the liturgies took place in Blackfriars for the first time.

This year saw another first, as the Prior of Blackfriars, fr Simon Gaine OP celebrated the High Mass in the Extraordinary Form on 24 October 2009. He was assisted by fr Richard Conrad OP as deacon, and fr Lawrence Lew OP as sub-deacon. Once again, the team of servers was drawn from the Dominican studentate.

fr Richard Ounsworth OP preached during the Mass and he likened the martyrs to moths who were irresistibly drawn to the light of Christ, and consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Through their death by pyre, gallows and smoke, the martyrs' participated in the one great sacrifice of Christ. We too participate in that sacrifice whenever we celebrate the Mass, and, moth-like, are drawn by the light of Christ and offer ourselves to be consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit.

During the Mass, the choir, which included students from Blackfriars Hall, sang music by William Byrd, who was himself a recusant Catholic. His 4-part Mass was sung in clandestine Masses during the times of the martyrs we were commemorating, and the words of the motet, 'Ne irascaris Domine', which was also sung during the Mass, had a particular poignancy for recusant Catholics in Elizabethan England:

"Be not angry, O Lord,
and remember our iniquity no more.
Behold, we are all your people.

Your holy city has become a wilderness.
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem has been made desolate."

The public celebration of this older form of the Roman rite, which the martyrs may once have celebrated in secret, was an appropriate way to honour the Oxford martyrs and to thank God for their faithful witness and example of perseverance in the face of trials and great suffering. May the graces which God gave them be ours too.

The deacon sings the Gospel from Luke 21:9-19:
"You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives".

"Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself" - John 12:31-32.

The deacon and sub-deacon exchange the sign of peace, which comes from Christ truly present on the Altar. Thus, we can say with St Paul, that Christ makes peace "by the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1:20).

Holy Communion is first given to the those ministering around the Altar.

The Prior imparts the blessing at the end of Mass.

The 'Salve Regina' is sung as the ministers leave the Choir.

Photos used with kind permission of Dr Joseph Shaw, and videos of the Mass are online at the Schola Beati Thomae Abelis blog.

The Year of the Priest - Father Jerzy Popiełuszko

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:01:00 +0000

On the 19th of October 1984, three officers of the Polish Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Służba Bezpieczeństwa, pulled over the car of a thirty-seven year old priest. They bundled him into the boot of their unmarked car and drove to the dam near Wloclawek. They then savagely beat the priest until he was unconscious and drowned him in the river.

The murdered priest was Jerzy Popiełuszko. He had been born into a farming family in the harsh conditions of post-war Poland, under the jackboot of Communism and Stalin's USSR. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1972 and began to work with children and youths.

In 1978 Karol Wojtyła was elected Pope taking the name John Paul II. This had an electrifying effect on the Polish people. Even under communist rule Poland had been one of the most devout nations in Europe but the election of John Paul II and his call for his countrymen to create an "alternative Poland" galvanized the nation. Fr. Popiełuszko heeded the Holy Father's call. He started to support the strikers of the independent trade union Solidarity. He said Masses at the picket lines, heard confessions and organised 'workers schools' for the strikers. When martial law was declared in 1981, Popiełuszko helped those persecuted by the regime, providing food and sanctuary when he could.

During this period the Church was the only group that could openly challenge the state. Fr. Popiełuszko became one of its greatest weapons. From 1982 he began to preach homilies that interwove spiritual exhortations with political messages, criticizing the Communist system and motivating people to protest. Popieluszko’s preaching was a thorn in the government’s flesh,especially as they were broadcast on Radio Free Europe He pointed out social injustice and became the “conscience of the people”. For a Poland assailed by social unrest, he saw redemption in the words of St. Paul: “Conquer the bad through the good.”

The communists tried to intimidate this inconvenient priest: break-ins, shadowing, damage of private goods, bombs, a false trial, numerous arrests, and finally car accidents but he refused to be silenced because he believed that he had a duty as a Christian and as a priest to proclaim the truth. The only way they could silence him was to take his life.

His funeral attracted thousands of mourners who were convinced that they were “witnesses of the sacrifice of a priest who gave his life for the truth.” Communism would cling on in Poland for another five years but the witness and example of Jerzy Popiełuszko would inspire many to rise up against the regime.

Godzdogz Team 2009-10

noreply@blogger.com (Students@EnglishOP) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:01:00 +0000

The Godzdogz team for the current academic year (l. to r.) Brothers Gregory Pearson, David Barrins (Province of Ireland), Graham Hunt, Nicholas Crowe, Frank Everszumrode (Province of Teutonia [Northern Germany]), Robert Gay, Mark Davoren, Robert Verrill, Daniel Jeffries, Vivian Boland (Master of Students) and Lawrence Lew.

We are looking forward to keeping you informed and perhaps even inspired over the course of the next few months. Please pray for us as we will pray for you.

A Dominican Vocation Story

noreply@blogger.com (Students@EnglishOP) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:01:00 +0000

I was brought up as a Catholic but like so many people drifted away from the faith when I left home. Initially sheer laziness was to blame, but over time I simply stopped believing.

A second year lecture course at University shook me out of my complacency. For the first time I began to critically examine the assumptions on which I based my life and an uncomfortable thought lodged itself in the back of my mind: Why lead a good life? Why not lead a bad one? It occurred to me that if God did not exist then, to borrow an idea from Dostoyevsky, everything is permitted. If God did not exist, then the morality society presented seemed to me to be just someone else’s opinion, an opinion that I was free to reject. This got me thinking: How should I live? And beyond that I found a deeper question: What do I want?

Fortunately I was at this time living with some Christians. Through a combination of their embodiment of gospel values and my own thought and reflection I slowly realized that deep down what I really wanted was to love, to love people but also (to my surprise) to love God. I realized that I had been lying to myself and that in fact I did believe. I uncovered a craving for a relationship with Christ, but all I seemed to have at this time was a cold intellectual assent to the ‘God hypothesis’ and a sense of incompleteness. On the advice of my Christian friends I began to pray for faith. For nine months I prayed the rosary everyday: nothing happened. I was beginning to get frustrated when someone suggested that what I really needed was a retreat so I booked myself in for a young adults weekend at Worth Abbey.

That weekend at Worth had a profound effect on me. I was deeply impressed by the monks, by the totality of their commitment to Christ, by the peace and stillness of their monastery. Towards the end of the retreat I went to confession and after I received absolution something inside me changed. My abstract belief in God moved from my head to my heart and became a living faith.

From this point onwards I was seriously entertaining the prospect of joining a religious order. Initially I was drawn to monasticism and after graduating from university I joined a lay Benedictine community in Brighton for a year with a view to perhaps entering a monastery at the end of it. However, over the course of that year the many pastoral projects that I became involved in demonstrated that, for me at least, God was to be found in engaging with the world rather than fleeing from it. A monastic vocation is a beautiful gift, but it was not the gift that God was offering me.

I turned my attention to the Dominicans whom I had met as a student and whose spirituality seemed to be an attractive blend of prayer, community life, study, and mission. I visited some of the priories in England and felt at home. This encouraged me to talk seriously with the vocations director about joining the Order. He suggested that I spend some time living and working as a volunteer in a Dominican house in the Philippines to try and absorb something of the spirit of the institution. Here I grew to love the Order and I returned to England bursting with enthusiasm and eager to sign up. The English Province accepted my application, and I was clothed in the habit in September 2008. So far I have been very happy, I pray that God will give me the grace to continue in this life to final vows and beyond.

Br Nicholas Crowe OP

Saints This Month - 17 October: St. John the Dwarf

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:01:00 +0000

John Kolobos or John the Dwarf is one of the legendary desert fathers. As a young man he decided to go to the monastic wilderness of Skete, in Egypt, to live a life of prayer and toil. He was assigned to the saintly hermit Pambo. He was given a walking stick and St. Pambo ordered him to plant it and water it everyday. John followed his instructions and watered the stick every day for three years even though the river was 12 miles away. After three years of this bizarre exercise of obedience buds began to appear on the stick. Over the year leaves and finally fruit began to appear. His mentor picked the fruit and offered it to John saying "eat the fruit of obedience".

John now lived a life of solitude and prayer but his holiness became known and, as so often happens with these holy hermits, men came to follow his way of life. A monastery began to form around St. John's Tree of Obedience. Even the Patriarch of Alexandria, Theophilus, came to see this "angel on earth" and the community that had developed around him. The Patriarch ordained him a priest and made him abbot.

Abba John had to leave the monastery in 395 AD after Berber raiders attacked Skete. He led his monks across the Nile to where St. Antony had resided and continued a life of prayer and contemplation. On his rare visits to the nearby villages he worked many miracle and brought many to Christ.

As he neared the end of his life his disciples asked for a final lesson. This spiritual giant sighed and said " I never followed my own will; nor did I teach another what I had not practised myself". He died soon after and his soul was seen carried to Heaven by angels. In 515 his monks were able to return to the original monastery and brought his body with them. The monastery was abandoned in the 17th century but the Tree of Obedience still stands in the deserted monastery of St. John in the Nitrian desert and is still venerated by the Copts.

Academic Mass - 12 October 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:15:00 +0000

The academic year at Blackfriars began with a votive Mass of the Holy Spirit and Vespers. It is very apt to begin the year by asking the Holy Spirit to fill us with wisdom and understanding, to enlighten our minds and to aid our studies in the year to come. It is also a good opportunity for the new students to meet each other and the friars. In his homily, the Regent of Studies, fr Richard Finn, pointed out that the close proximity of the church and the library at Blackfriars is no coincidence since the practice of religion and academic study are closely linked and complementary as they all point to the truth and to Truth itself.

Raised to the Altars

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:30:00 +0000

On Sunday the Holy Father canonised five new Saints: Father Damien of Hawaii; Zygmunt Szcezesny Felinski, a polish Bishop; Sister Jeanne Jugan, who founded the Little Sisters of the Poor; Rafael Arnaiz Baron, who renounced his rich upbringing to dedicate himself to prayer and our brother Francisco Coll y Guitart OP, whom we posted on earlier this year. That post can be read here.

The Congregation founded by St. Francisco, The Dominican Sisters of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has 1,200 sisters across four continents. Sister Rosa Di Tullio OP, the Roman superior of the Congregation founded by St. Francisco, described him as "a Dominican in every sense of the word because he was a great preacher in difficult times. He did not withdraw in face of difficulties because he had great love. He is a modern saint."

Saints This Month - 5 October : Bl. Bartolo Longo, Apostle of the Rosary

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:01:00 +0000

Many Saints begin their life as sinners. It is not very often that you come across one who was a Satanist priest. Bl. Bartolo however was an ordained member and leader of a Neapolitan Satanist cult. He was born in 1841 to a devout family but his mother died when he was ten and he slowly began to lose his faith. By the time he had gone up to the University of Naples he had renounced his Christian heritage. He tried to fill this gap by experimenting with witchcraft and magic. He became involved with a Satanist group and after having spiritual experiences was elected by his fellow devotees to be ordained in the priesthood of Satan.

His life became a mixture of depression, confusion, ill-health and diabolic visions. The physical and mental strain became too much for Bartolo and he turned to an old school friend for advice. His friend pleaded with him to renounce Satan and speak to Alberto Radente, a Dominican priest renowned for his spiritual counsel.

After a long period of reflection and repentance, Bartolo was received as a lay Dominican, taking the name Rosario. Whilst he had renounced his wicked life Bartolo still felt the need to offer reparation. He went to Pompeii and joined a charitable group, where he aided the good works of Countess Di Fusco. Whilst he did great work for the poor and sick, he still felt that his service at the altar of Satan had condemned him to Hell. As he fell deeper into despair the grace of God touched him and he remembered Fr. Radente telling him that the Blessed Virgin had told St. Dominic that "he who propagates my rosary will be saved". With peace in his heart he knew what God wanted him to do.

He found a run-down church and began to restore it. He then organised a festival in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary. In 1875 he obtained a painting of Our Lady of the Rosary to be hung in the church. People flocked to the church and miracles began to be reported. With the encouragement of the Bishop he began work on a much larger church. It was consecrated in 1891 and in 1939 was enlarged to become the Basilica of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Pompeii.

At the suggestion of Pope Leo XIII, Bartolo Longo and the Countess Mariana di Fusco were married. The chaste couple continued to do many charitable works and provided for orphaned children and the children of prisoners which, for its time, was revolutionary. Longo continued promoting the Rosary until his death in 1926. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1980 and in his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae called him the "Apostle of the Rosary".

Bl. Bartolo shows us the power of the Holy Rosary and the infinite mercy of God. It does not matter how far we are from God: because He who descended into Hell still holds out his hand for us to grab and be pulled to safety.

Not Just Old Bones

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:01:00 +0000

The reaction to the arrival of the relics of St. Therese of Liseux in England has been very mixed within the media and society. The liberal-secularist media elite has been aghast at the idea of the thousands of people taking time to see some "old bones". The Times' Matthew Parris called for his fellow atheists to take to the streets to fight these "nutters". The Guardian's Simon Jenkins compared Catholic veneration of relics to shamanism or elephant worship and a Barnsley councillor twittered his distaste for "slobbering zealots". There has also been criticism from Protestants with protests at York Minster against idolatry. Even within the Catholic community some unease has been expressed at the perceived arcane and medieval practice of venerating the mortal remains of a Saint.

Many of the attacks fail to understand truly the veneration of relics. Veneration of relics is a natural human instinct. One only has to visit Red Square and view the body of Lenin or search eBay for a pen used by Ronald Reagan or a napkin used by Elvis Presley to acknowledge that we honour the possessions and bodies of those we love or respect and who have died . Even looking at the gravestones in a cemetery displays this point.

The Christian veneration of relics has biblical foundation. Miracles were worked through both the cloak of Elijah and the bones of Elisha. In Acts we see people healed by coming into contact with handkerchiefs touched by St. Paul. We also of course see a woman healed by touching the hem of Christ's cloak.

The early Church also treasured and venerated the remains of the early martyrs. After the martyrdom of St. Polycarp, the Smyrnaeans collected his bones, which they regarded as "more valuable than precious stones or refined gold", and laid them in a suitable place that they might venerate them. The importance of relics was emphasised by the second Council of Nicaea in 787, which declared that no church should be consecrated without relics being placed in the altar stone. Whilst miracles may be attached to relics they are not magic or Juju. As St. Jerome points out: "We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than the creator but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order to better adore Him, whose martyrs they are."

Relics help the believer to pray with faith and confidence because of their physicality. We can see, touch and kiss "the burnt-out remains of love for God". It is through this faith that God works miracles not because the objects are lucky charms or magic. We are brought closer to a holy person and this brings us closer to God.At Cologne in 2005 Pope Benedict summed up the part relics play in the life of the Church: "By inviting us to venerate the mortal remains of the martyrs and saints, the Church does not forget that, in the end, these are indeed just human bones, but they are bones that belonged to individuals touched by the transcendent power of God. The relics of the saints are traces of that invisible but real presence which sheds light upon the shadows of the world and reveals the Kingdom of Heaven in our midst. They cry out with us and for us ‘Maranatha!’ – ‘Come Lord Jesus!’”

The Dominican Friars will be leading Compline at the Oxford Oratory in the presence of St. Therese's relics on the 7th of October at 11:45. For more information click here.

Saints This Month-1 October: St. Therese of Lisieux

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:01:00 +0000

Little flower? She was as tough as old boots! - Fr Denis Geraghty OP, Lourdes 2009

As Oxford prepares to welcome the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux, it is a perfect time to reflect on her life and message. She was born in Normandy in 1873, to devout parents, both of whom have been beatified. Her mother died when she was four and her father sold his lace business to a nephew and relocated the family to Lisieux. Therese experienced another loss at the age of nine when her "second mother", her sister Pauline, entered the local Carmelite monastery.

A few months after this the child Therese took ill with fever. As the family stood around the sick-bed, looking at her like a "string of onions", Therese focused on the statue of Mary in her room and prayed to her. She saw the statue smile at her and was healed. After her recovery she developed a great habit of mental prayer, finding places of solitude and quiet to listen and speak to God. However she was still prone to wild emotional tantrums and would often burst into tears at the slightest negativity. However at Christmas 1886 , just as such an outburst was bubbling inside her, she felt Jesus enter her heart. This conversion, as she called it, gave her a greater understanding of others and herself. The following Christmas she would enter Carmel.

Whilst she is affectionately know as the Little Flower, over the following year she displayed a will of steel and the toughness of old boots. The superior of the Carmelite Convent said she was too young to enter. Therese went to the Bishop who concurred with the Mother Superior. Therese became very depressed and her father tried to cheer her spirits by taking her and her sister Celine on pilgrimage to Rome. Therese enjoyed the experience tremendously. Her small stature and youth were an advantage as she could touch tombs and relics without being shouted at. The highlight of the trip was an audience with Pope Leo XIII. As the childish girl from Normandy came close to the Vicar of Christ she broke all protocol of the Papal Court and begged the Holy Father to allow her to enter the Carmel in Liseux. The Pope replied, and Therese was carried away by two guards. However the Vicar General was impressed with her determination and she was accepted for early entry into the convent.

During her first years in the convent she experienced much suffering. Her father had a stroke and became very ill. Gossip filtered into the convent about his sanity and Therese was filled with guilt believing that her entry was responsible for his malady. She also experienced dryness in prayer, saying that she was so grief-stricken that she often fell asleep in prayer. She consoled herself by saying that mothers loved children when they lie asleep in their arms and so God must love her when she slept during prayer.

She knew that as a Carmelite nun she would never be able to perform great deeds. "Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love." She took every chance to sacrifice, no matter how small it would seem. She smiled at the sisters she didn't like. She ate everything she was given without complaining -- so that she was often given the worst leftovers. One time she was accused of breaking a vase when she was not at fault. Instead of arguing she sank to her knees and begged forgiveness. These little sacrifices cost her more than bigger ones, for these went unrecognised by others. No one told her how wonderful she was for these little secret humiliations and good deeds.

In 1896 she began to cough blood. She kept working without telling anyone until she became so sick a year later that it was obvious. Worst of all she had lost her joy and confidence and felt she would die young without leaving anything behind. Pauline had already had her writing down her memories for a journal so they would have something to circulate on her life after her death. Her pain was so great but her one dream was of the work she would do after her death, helping those on earth. "I will return," she said, "my heaven will be spent on earth." She died on September 30, 1897 at the age of 24. She was canonized 28 years later and in 1997 she was declared a Doctor of the Church.

Her influence is still very much present. Her "Little Way" is an inspiration for millions of people. She expresses how traditionally great deeds and heroic acts are not the only way to sanctity. She gives an example of the spiritual life that is understandable and imitable by all, regardless of education or sophistication. St. Therese always wanted to travel the world as a missionary and in a way she does. Her relics have been taken around the globe! Their presence has not only deepened the faith of Catholics but has helped people of all denominations and religions, as their stopover in York Minster showed.

St. Therese realised that one does not need to found a religious order or suffer martyrdom to know and love Christ. She realised that love is the calling of all Christians and to love truly is always a great deed: "I feel in me the vocation of the Priest. I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places ... in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love ... my vocation, at last I have found it ... My vocation is Love!"

The Dominican Friars will be leading Compline at the Oxford Oratory in the presence of St. Therese's relics on the 7th of October at 11:45. For more information click here.

A Common Mistake...

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:01:00 +0000

St Francis of Assisi

noreply@blogger.com (Students@EnglishOP) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:00:00 +0000

Tradition has it that St Francis and St Dominic met in Rome when they were both there to seek ratification for their new Orders from the Pope. The two Orders have regarded themselves as 'first cousins', even 'brothers', ever since. Where possible, Franciscans come to Dominican churches to preach on the feast of St Dominic and Dominicans go to Franciscan churches to preach on the feast of St Francis. Below is the homily given by Br Robert Gay OP at the Capuchin Franciscan church in Oxford for the feast of St Francis, 4th October 2009.

If you were to choose a person on the Cowley Road at random and ask them to name a saint, it would be worth betting a reasonably large amount of money that the answer you would get would be St Francis. I would certainly be very surprised if the answer was St Dominic! There is no doubt that Francis has captured the popular imagination, much more than any other saint. If you were to ask that same person what he knows about St Francis, then he might mention something about animals or birds. And this is where it starts to go wrong. Of course, a love of creation was an important part of Francis’ life, but as with so many of the popular ideas about him, it simply doesn’t do him justice.

Zeffirelli’s famous film, ‘Brother Sun, Sister Moon’ is just one example of a rather limited, a rather skewed view of who Francis was and what he stood for. I looked at the blurb on the back of the DVD box for the film yesterday, and it says this: ‘Francis sought communion with the natural world, by renouncing his family’s riches to seek his own destiny’. It continues: ‘Francis was, in a sense, history’s first drop out; he left a life of comfort to seek spiritual union with the world’.

The problem with this blurb, and perhaps with many of the popular images of Francis, is that it doesn’t do him justice because it doesn’t mention anything about what his life was really all about. Why? Because it doesn’t mention Jesus Christ. From the moment Francis heard the voice from the cross at San Damiano, he was hooked – he was captivated by Jesus Christ, and he wanted to penetrate the mysteries of his life, and do whatever he had to do to follow him.

I want to suggest to you that Francis’ captivation with the person of Jesus shows us something important about his path to founding the Order, and about his particular route to sainthood. The beginning of this path was an encounter with Jesus, and he continued to be nourished along the way by contemplating Jesus throughout his life. He had a special fascination with the incarnation, something which I think shows itself in three ways, each one related to the other.

Firstly, we see the importance Francis gave to Christ’s infancy, and as I’m sure you know, he is credited with introducing the practice of having a nativity scene in the Church during the Christmas period. He clearly felt that contemplating the child in the manger was an important way of getting close to Christ, and he came to understand what it meant for Christ to be poor, weak, and defenceless.

Francis also saw how the condition of the child in the manger was linked to another episode in Jesus' life; his poverty, weakness and defencelessness during his passion, and his death on the cross, which was his second distinct way of looking at the incarnation. The importance Francis gives to Jesus’ final days is shown in the ‘Office of the Passion’, a collage of scriptural passages that Francis arranged to be used especially during Holy Week. Reading this collection, we can see how he uses the scriptures to outline a contemplative journey: accompanying Jesus in Gethsemane, standing with him before Pilate, witnessing the scourging and crowning with thorns, his crucifixion and death. And we should not forget the marks of Christ's passion, the stigmata, which provided Francis with a personal experience of the suffering of the cross in his later years. His third way of looking at the incarnation was to look at Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament, what looks like a simple piece of bread revealing the Saviour to those who have the eyes of faith. What seems small and insignificant is in fact nothing less than Christ himself.

Through contemplating the incarnation, Francis realised that he had to model his life on this mystery. The way of poverty, vulnerability, the way of suffering and rejection, that Francis saw in Christ was to be his way too. And once he had started living in this way, it had a dramatic effect. Francis began to see the poor, the sick and the marginalised as people just like Jesus Christ. And he saw that to serve these people was to serve Jesus, because they were like Christ in the manger, or Christ on Calvary. And his job, and the job of his brothers, was to tend to their needs, and to speak to them of the one who had become a poor man to share their broken condition. In his service of them, he showed them the love of Christ. For Francis being vulnerable and rejected like Jesus, and serving those who shared that condition brought him true joy, the sign that he had found his vocation.

Today’s feast is a great occasion. It’s a chance to honour Francis and give thanks to God for his life and his witness to Jesus Christ. It’s a chance to give thanks to God for the Order in all its branches, and for the gift of benefactors and friends. But that isn’t all. Whether you are a Friar who has celebrated his golden jubilee, a newly clothed novice, a tertiary, or a member of this parish, it’s a chance to look at Jesus again, through the eyes of Francis. It’s a chance to contemplate the poor vulnerable child in the manger, to contemplate Jesus in his passion and on the cross, and to gaze and adore him present in the Holy Eucharist. And when you pray to him this day, ask that he open your eyes, so that you may see more clearly who are poor, weak, vulnerable, and the needy here in Oxford that he is calling you to serve.

In the News ...

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Davoren OP) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:15:00 +0000

This month Br. Lawrence discusses his vocation and journey to solemn profession in an article for Catholic Life entitled A Journey into Religious Life. His profession was also featured in The Catholic Herald.

As part of the preparation for the arrival of the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux, the young people of the Oxford Oratory staged Divine Comedy: A Theresian Mystery Play. Our very own Br. Daniel, seen treading the boards below, played the priest at the execution of Pranzini, who called for the criminal to repent for his crimes.

The relics of St. Therese arrive at the Oxford Oratory on Wednesday next, 7th October, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and the Dominicans from Blackfriars will be singing Compline in their presence at 11:45 p.m.