Pope Benedict XVI elevated two prominent Angelicum alumni, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan and Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, to College of Cardinals, where they will be called upon by the pope to serve as advisors at consistories on church affairs, and they will be among members of a conclave that elects successors of the pope. Cardinals can vote in a conclave until they reach the age of 80. Watch the slideshow above of the Pilgrimage to Rome for the Consistory.

Cardinal O’Brien was named Pro-Grand Master of the Equestrian (Knights) Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher on August 29, 2011. The Rome-based position is usually held by a cardinal. Cardinal John P. Foley resigned from the position last February due to illness and died in Philadelphia, December 11, 2011. The order is a chivalric organization dedicated to promoting and defending Christianity in the Holy Land, supporting the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and responding to the needs of Catholics in the region. Cardinal O’Brien also remains head of the Baltimore Archdiocese until Pope Benedict names his successor there.

Timothy Dolan was born in St. Louis and ordained a priest in 1976, for the St. Louis Archdiocese and then served in local parishes. Subsequent assignments included service at the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, vice-rector at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis, and rector at North American College in Rome. Pope John Paul II named him an auxiliary bishop of St, Louis in 2001, and archbishop of Milwaukee in 2002. Pope Benedict XVI named him archbishop of New York in 2009.

Edwin O’Brien was born in New York and ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New York in 1965. He served as a chaplain at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, and later as an Army chaplain in Vietnam. He served as secretary to New York’s Cardinal Terence Cooke and Cardinal John O’Connor and as rector at St. Joseph’s Seminary in New York and North American College, Rome. He holds a doctorate in sacred theology from the Angelicum University in Rome.

In 1996, he was named an auxiliary bishop of New York. In 1997, he was named coadjutor archbishop for the Archdiocese for Military Services USA, and became head of the military archdiocese later that year. He was named archbishop of Baltimore in 2007.

The Sorrowful Mysteries: A Lenten Day of Reflection

Saturday, February 25
12:00-5:00 PM, Confession and Mass to follow
Church of St. Joseph
149 Cottage St, Middletown, NY 10940

Reflections by Br. Gabriel Torretta, OP.
Sponsored by the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic and the Knights of Columbus.

Free and open to the public. For more information, contact David Sutton at davetop (at) earthlink.net.

Each week, a Dominican member of the Provincial Preaching Advisory board prepares this Preacher’s Sketchbook in anticipation of the upcoming Sunday Mass.  The idea of the Preacher’s Sketchbook is to take quotations from the authority of the Church–the Pope, the Fathers of the Church, documents of the Councils, the saints–that can help spark ideas for the Sunday homily.   Just as an artist’s sketchbook preserves ideas for later elaboration, so we hope the Preacher’s Sketchbook will provide some ideas for homiletical elaboration.

Sketchbook

Dom Guéranger, The Liturgical Year

We may be sure, that a season, so sacred as this of Lent, is rich in mysteries. The Church has made it a time of recollection and penance, in preparation for the greatest of all her Feasts; she would, therefore, bring into it everything that could excite the faith of her children, and encourage them to go through the arduous work of atonement for their sins. During Septuagesima [i.e., the pre-Lenten period beginning 70 days before Easter that continues to exist in the calendar of the forma extraordinaria -- ed.], we had the number Seventy, which reminded us of those seventy years’ captivity in Babylon, after which, God’s chosen people, being purified from idolatry, was to return to Jerusalem and celebrate the Pasch. It is the number Forty that the Church now brings before us: – a number, as Saint Jerome observes, which denotes punishment and affliction [In Ezechiel, Chap 24].

Let us remember the forty days and forty nights of the Deluge (Gen. 7:12), sent by God in his anger, when he repented that he had made man, and destroyed the whole human race, with the exception of one family. Let us consider how the Hebrew people, in punishment for their ingratitude, wandered forty years in the desert, before they were permitted to enter the Promised Land [Num. 14:33]. Let us listen to our God commanding the Prophet Ezechiel to lie forty days on his right side, as a figure of the siege, which was to bring destruction on Jerusalem [Ezech. 4:6].

There are two, in the Old Testament, who represent, in their own persons, the two manifestations of God: Moses, who typifies the Law; and Elias, who is the figure of the Prophets. Both of these are permitted to approach God, – the first on Sinai [Exod. 24:18], the second on Horeb [1 Kings (3 Kings), 19:8], – but both of them have to prepare for the great favor by an expiatory fast of forty days.

With these mysterious facts before us, we can understand why it was, that the Son of God, having become Man for our salvation, and wishing to subject himself to the pain of fasting, chose the number of Forty Days. The institution of Lent is thus brought before us with everything that can impress the mind with its solemn character, and with its power of appeasing God and purifying our souls. Let us, therefore, look beyond the little world which surrounds us, and see how the whole Christian universe is, at this very time, offering this Forty Days’ penance as a sacrifice of propitiation to the offended Majesty of God; and let us hope, that, as in the case of the Ninivites, he will mercifully accept this year’s offering of our atonement, and pardon us our sins.

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Masaccio's "Holy Trinity", located in the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence.

In Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, art critic Jack Flam explained why he believes Masaccio’s “Holy Trinity” is “one of the most intellectually complex and deeply moving pictures ever painted.”  Challenging previous interpretations of the work, which criticize apparent mistakes in Masaccio’s use of perspective, Flam argues that these “mistakes” are deliberate attempts on Masaccio’s part to depict the omnipresence of God in mere two-dimensional space.

The perspective in this painting is sufficiently accurate to be convincing, but purposely inexact enough to make space for the supernatural. This is strikingly evident in the representation of God the Father, who stands on the narrow ledge attached to the back wall of the barrel-vaulted space, which would appear to be about nine feet deep. Yet at the same time, He is also present at the front of this same vaulted space, supporting the body of his Son on the cross. This discrepancy in perspective allows God to be in more than one place at a time—a supernatural phenomenon made all the more remarkable by the painting’s apparent realism.

Among other things, this great fresco, painted on the wall of a Dominican church, is a stunning affirmation of the great Dominican theologian St. Thomas Aquinas’s assertion that to be “everywhere primarily and absolutely is proper to God.” What better place could there be to state this with such subtlety than in a representation of the Holy Trinity, whose paradoxical consubstantiality—distinct, yet of one being—is a central mystery of Christian faith.

Click here to read the whole of Flam’s article.

The Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Perpetual Rosary in Buffalo, NY was recently featured in an article in Western New York Catholic. In the article, Mother Emmanuel of Mercy and Sister Mary Lucy of Divine Mercy speak about various aspects of contemplative Dominican monastic life.

“The most important part is the prayer life, which includes liturgy of the Mass, the Divine Office and private prayer, and what we call lectio divina, which is the very prayerful reading and praying over the Scriptures,” said Mother Emmanuel of Mercy, prioress of the Dominican Nuns at the Monastery of Our Lady of the Perpetual Rosary. “That is what holds the life together.”

…

“To me, I’ve found more and more personally, certainly through what I’ve read about monastic life, that the more one lives the life radically, more and more you come into a solidarity with all people in whatever their situation of despair or hurt or brokenness, in whatever it is,” said Sister Mary Lucy of Divine Mercy, a Dominican nun. “So even if we didn’t know what was happening outside, we would still be able to bring all of them before God in our prayer.”

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Fr. Peter Fegan, OP, Fr. Ignatius Schweitzer, OP, and Fr. Bruno M. Shah, OP discuss the readings for the 7th Sunday.

Word to Life – 7th Sunday (B) Play Now

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No one could paint like that without first having been to heaven.

These words of St. Antoninus well describe Bl. John of Fiesole (Fra Angelico) (1386-1455, feast – Feb. 18, patron saint of artists).  He was formed in an atmosphere of deep prayer and contemplation.  It in this combination of contemplation and painting that we see the reality behind Fra Angelico’s sanctity.

Bl. Angelico entered the Dominicans during the time of the reform movement.  Some of the friars wished to live a more austere Dominican life, and so they were allowed to live together in certain priories set aside for this purpose.  Fra Angelico was one such friar.  He entered into the priory in Fiesole with his brother Benedetto at the time when St. Antoninus and Blesseds John Dominici, Peter Capucci, and Lawrence of Ripafratta were also living there.  It was in this atmosphere of rigorous observance of the religious life and amongst men of great sanctity that Angelico came to his own intimate prayer life.  Already a well trained artist, he once again took up his paintbrush, but with an even deeper reality behind his canvas.

This life of a profound and intimate relationship with the Lord, the Blessed Mother, and the saints aided Bl. Angelico to see all that he painted from a unique perspective.  Not only did he refuse to use living models to paint the Blessed Mother (in his day, models were often beautiful women of ill repute), but he even painted his frescoes on wet plaster with clay colors, which meant that he wouldn’t be able to see how the colors interacted until they dried.  Yet, none of these “practical” characteristics affected Fra Angelico more than his contemplative prayer.  He is said to have done with art what St. Thomas Aquinas did with the Summa Theologica: convey the beauty of Truth.  In this way, his art became not only an example of great skill, but it also became an instrument for preaching Truth.

One might wonder whether Bl. Angelico was beatified because of the beauty of his art or the holiness of his life.  In his Apostolic Letter declaring Fra Angelico a Blessed, Bl. Pope John Paul II has this to say:

His painting was the fruit of the great harmony between a holy life and the creative power with which he had been endowed.

In other words, his preaching stemmed from a life of holiness and the best use of his God-given talents.  May we too imitate Bl. Angelico and allow the Lord to transform our prayer life so that it might manifest a beautiful and truthful proclamation of the Gospel.

O God, in your providence you inspired blessed Fra Angelico to portray the beauty and sweetness of heaven.  By his prayers and the example of his virtues, grant that we may manifest this splendor to our brothers and sisters.  Through Christ our Lord.

Dominican friars Fr. Thomas Petri, OP, and Fr. John Corbett, OP, were interviewed this week by the Catholic News Agency regarding a recent article in USA Today by a Religion News Service reporter entitled, “Contraception objections fail Catholic’s [sic] moral reasoning“, which attempted to reconcile the controversial HHS Mandate with Catholic moral theology. Fr. Petri, a professor of moral theology at Providence College, articulated the distortions of the concept of material cooperation with evil present in the USA Today article.  Fr. Petri said, according to the article, “that [the] writer for Religion News Service was performing a ‘sleight of hand’ that confused different issues and left out important distinctions.”

Fr. Thomas Petri, OP

“Fr. Petri acknowledged [the writer's] argument that an employer, under the new mandate, ‘might not have involvement or knowledge of a separate contract … between employee and insurer’ to receive contraception without a co-pay, since these agreements would be strictly between the insurer and employee.  But, as the Dominican pointed out, no Catholic employer is currently in that hypothetical future situation.  Rather, Fr. Petri noted, employers are now in the predicament of being forced to agree, knowingly, that such agreements will be made in the future as part of their contracts with insurers.  By confusing the two situations, [the writer] drew attention away from the question actually facing the Church – which is not about whether to make contracts under which contraception could be provided; but rather, about whether to accept being forced to make such contracts in the future.  By confusing the two situations, [the Religion News Service writer] drew attention away from the question actually facing the Church – which is not about whether to make contracts under which contraception could be provided; but rather, about whether to accept being forced to make such contracts in the future.”

Fr. John Corbett, O.P

Fr. Corbett, a professor of moral theology at the Dominican House of Studies, spoke of the problem of certain justifications of the mandate leading to formal cooperation with evil.  He is quoted as saying: “It seems to me that if this argument, and subsequent policy, were enacted then the Church would be placed in the position of hoping that contraception be actually practiced.”  “For if it were not practiced sufficiently, then there would be no savings,” he explained. “If there were no savings then there would be higher premiums through which the Church would be more or less directly paying for contraception.”

“This would put the Church in the position of saying ‘A sufficient number of you must practice contraception to ensure that we will not have to pay for your contraception.’ This looks a lot like formal cooperation.”

Click here to read the full article.

This March 26-29, our Dominican parish of St. Patrick in Columbus Ohio will be offering a Lenten Mission:

Entering Holy Week:

The Great Mystery of Salvation
Made Present in the Eucharist

The parish mission will consist of four nights in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament with conferences by Fr. Giles Dimock, OP, on the Eucharist as It relates to the Blessed Mother, the Rosary, Pope Benedict XVI, and Bl. Pope John Paul II.

The mission will begin at 7:00pm each day.  St. Patrick church is located at 280 N. Grant Avenue in Columbus, Ohio.

Fr. Giles Dimock, OP, will serve as the preacher for the mission.  Fr. Dimock currently serves as chaplain to the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, MI.  Before that, Fr. Dimock served as Prior of the Priory of the Immaculate Conception (Dominican House of Studies) in Washington, DC.  Fr. Dimock has served as a professor of Liturgy and Sacraments at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies, where he also served as Academic Dean and Vice-President. He has taught at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome (the Angelicum), the Pontifical College Josephinum, Holy Apostles College and Seminary, Providence College, and the Franciscan University of Steubenville.  He is the author of the book 101 Questions and Answers on the Eucharist.

Early this year, our Dominican parish of St. Catherine of Siena in New York City unveiled its newly revised website.  With information about the parish activities, our Dominican Health Care Ministry, and the parish liturgical schedule, it should be on everyone’s Bookmarks list.  You can access the webpage at: http://stcatherinenyc.org/.