Aquinas On The Greatest Act of Kindness

Let us never forget that:

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

“The greatest kindness one can render to any man consists in leading him to truth.” 

St. Thomas Aquinas

A Glimpse Into the Life of A Dominican Priest

May Father's soul and the souls of all the faithfully departed rest in peace. Amen

The Rose of Peru

Today we remember St. Rose of Lima, the first canonized Saint of the Western hemisphere. She was born in Peru in 1586 and died there at the age of thirty-one. Like many who have felt a call to the Dominican Order over the centuries, Rose initially faced opposition from her family. They refused to let her enter a convent. Rose’s response was to become a Lay Dominican and to live a life of solitude and penance within the confines of her family’s home. She had a great attraction to St. Catherine of Siena, a great love for the Blessed Sacrament, and limitless compassion for the elderly, homeless and the sick, whom she would eventually care for in one of the rooms in her parents’ residence. “When we serve the poor and the sick,” she tells us, “we serve Jesus. We must not fail to help our neighbors, because in them we serve Jesus.”

Rose enthusiastically embraced a life of penance and physical suffering since she also understood that “Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.”

While most of us today are not willing to voluntarily subject ourselves to the penitential sufferings which Rose sought and welcomed in her short life, all of us will suffer in some fashion during our earthly life. Rather than run away from such challenges, we too should embrace them and transform them into acts of reparation for our own failings and those of others.

I suspect our Peruvian Saint was given a glimpse of the extent to which twenty-first century Catholics would avoid the gift of sacrificial suffering when she wrote the following:

It's Sunday! Give Glory, Honor, Praise and Thanks To The Creator!

The Work of His Hands!

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

A Glimpse of Our Sister - St. Catherine of Siena

A brief glimpse of St. Catherine of Siena recently featured on Catholic Online:

Real Men Make Sacrifices and Fall Down On Their Knees!

A Few Joyful Dominicans

Just some joyful Dominicans enjoying the Jubilee:

Thrice Blessed - Our Dominican Brethren In Song on the Streets of DC

From the March For Life last Friday in Washington, D.C. - our Dominican brothers filling the public square with heavenly chant. Take a listen to:

 O Lumen

Sub Tuum  

Salve Regina

Blessed Henry Suso, O.P. and the Eucharist

Today we remember Blessed Henry Suso, O.P. (1290-1365) a German Dominican priest, mystic and spiritual writer.

Some suggest that it is difficult to separate fact from fiction when discussing  this gifted Friar. He had as many critics as he did followers. There is a brief but interesting account of his life in Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P.'s classic St. Dominic's Family - Lives of over 300 Famous Dominicans. You can also get a glimpse into his life and writings at New Advent.

His best known work, A Little Book of Eternal Wisdom, is one well worth reading and pondering. Here is a Eucharistic prayer from that book for your use and reflection:

A Prayer to be Said When Thou Goest To Receive Our Lord (Image Source:Willing Shepherds.org) O Thou living fruit, Thou sweet blossom, Thou delicious paradise apple of the blooming fatherly heart, Thou sweet vine of Cyprus in the vineyard of Engaddi, who will give me to receive Thee so worthily this day that Thou shalt desire to come to me, to dwell with me, and never to separate from me!

Podcast - Little Angels and a Tree

The approaching anniversary of the infamous Supreme Court decision, Roe v Wade, reminded me of  two angelic silent preachers who touched my heart and left me filled with hope. Listen here if you want to find out what they did.

Defining Love - Father Bruno Shah, O.P.

Well worth listening to what the good Friar has to say:

Dominican Prayer - What Is It?

Saw this at the website of the Dominican Nuns of Summit, N.J.and had to pass it along. Hope you do likewise..

Merry Christmas!

Go Be A Preacher of Mercy

The Beauty and Power of One Dominican Vocation

Here is a 100 year old Dominican whose life was well-spent. What a privilege it is to be a member of this family.

Take a few minutes to view this video (with English subtitles) offered in conjunction with the celebration of  the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Order of Preachers. 

This is one Dominican you will not soon forget..

Eucharistic Reflection - An Encounter with Christ

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“[Our] Eucharistic Encounter with Christ in Holy Communion is that apex moment of union with God within which Christ opens Himself fully to us and we respond, each in our own degree of readiness to receive Him. All other moments of our days find their full significance at the moment of Eucharistic Communion. It is at this moment that our quality of preparation for God’s coming stands revealed for what it is. Without a doubt, we come up wanting in this marvelous exchange with God. He receives our broken humanity and we receive His divinity. Through our Eucharistic union with the Blessed Trinity, our inner poverty is filled with the Eternal riches of our Triune God.”

(From Eucharistic Adoration – Mary, the Mother of the Holy Eucharist by Barbara Jensen)

Podcast - What Is The New Evangelization? And Is It Really New?

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In the early days of Christ's Church, it was risky business to be Catholic - persecutions, lions, crucifixions and martyrs come to mind. It is going to get more difficult again and soon.

Many argue (and correctly so) that the world is more pagan today than it was at the time of Christ. This has prompted a great deal of discussion (and confusion) about the need for a "New Evangelization". What is this "New Evangelization? And is it really new? Listen here if you want to know what I think.

Hope You Can Tune In To Elizabeth Reardon's "An Engaging Faith" This Thursday, November 12, 2015

Elizabeth Reardon has invited me to return as a guest on her radio show “An Engaging Faith” tomorrow, Thursday, November 12, 2015 from 4 to 5 PM EST. 

What an honor and privilege! We will be exploring and discussing my books, as well as offering a few free copies to some lucky listeners. We pray that God will use our words and these books to touch hearts and stir souls! 

Hope you can join us on Breadbox Media.

If the time is not convenient, go back to Breadbox Media when you have time and listen to a podcast of the show.

Guess Who Is Celebrating Their 800th Anniversary?

THE ORDER OF PREACHERS 

 THE DOMINICANS

THE PREACHERS OF MERCY

Take a Quick Peak Here

It's The Truth, Not Nuanced Language, That Will Set Us Free

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What a treasure St. Catherine of Siena is! One does not become a Doctor of the Church by being fearful to express, teach and live God's Truth in its entirety. 

How ill-advised we are to discount, ignore or try to nuance the wisdom God has shared over the centuries through such faithful servants as she.  Less likely would we be to commit this error if our primary concern was the salvation of souls. No wonder those who wish to only tickle our ears and destroy our consciences ignore these great spiritual writers, abandoning God's Truth for a less demanding and counterfeit one.

The following words  Jesus shared with St. Catherine in the 13th century are clear and unambiguous directions to his shepherds - not only those living then but for those among us today. May we and they be given the grace, humility and wisdom to hear and follow His Inerrant Voice: 

"No rank, whether of civil or divine law, can be held in grace without holy justice.  For those who are not corrected and those who do not correct are like members beginning to rot, and if the doctor were only to apply ointment without cauterizing the wound, the whole, body would become fetid and corrupt.

So it is with prelates or with anyone else in authority.