Fr. Gabriel Gillen, O.P. hosts another edition of Word to Life with Fr. Bruno M. Shah, O.P. for the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time. They are joined by Chris Godfrey a former NFL guard for the New York Giants who started in Super Bowl XXI. Chris Godfrey founded the organization Life Athletes, a pro-life and pro abstinence before marriage organization for athletes. Chris Godfrey visits schools in New York City promoting Christianity, pro-life issues, and sexual abstinence before marriage.
As with St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Catherine of Siena, and Bl. Catherine Racconigi, the Lord espoused Himself through a mystical marriage to St. Catherine de Ricci (1522-1590, feast – Feb. 4). This marriage had two profound effects on Catherine’s life: it gave her a share in Christ’s love and also a participation in His Passion.
From the time of her entrance into the Convent of Saint Vincent at Prato (Italy), St. Catherine had a deep love for the Lord, and she experienced mystical visions of Him. He had such intimate conversations with her that she was often completely distracted from all else. In fact the other sisters were ready to expel her from the convent because of her lack of attentiveness. Eventually this intimate love culminated with the gift of a mystical espousal on Easter Sunday in 1542, where our Lord stated,
Receive, daughter, this ring as a pledge and token that thou are and ever shall be Mine.
This came soon after she began having regular ecstasies where she would relive moments of the Passion from noon on Thursday until Friday afternoon. After the first of these visions, the Blessed Virgin appeared to her and revealed “The Canticle of the Passion” (see below) as a devotion to Christ’s sufferings. She soon began to experience these sufferings in a most particular way when the Lord gave her first the stigmata, later a crown of thorns, and finally a sharing in the weight of His Cross which appeared as a wound across her right side where the Cross mystically rested. Through all of this, the Lord sought to share His Passion with His beloved spouse so that she could cooperate in the salvation of sinners.
May we, who are infinitely loved by Christ, likewise unite our suffering to His Cross in order to participate in the redemption of men.
O lovable bride of Christ, blessed Catherine, your body bears the imprint of the bridegroom’s stigmata, and your soul is richly endowed with his charismatic gifts, protect us who honor you, and obtain for us the favors we ask. Make us constantly mindful of the wounds of our crucified Lord, and through the merits of his death, may we, like you, obtain the reward.
Canticle of the Passion
The Canticle of the Passion has two parts based on the Scriptures and a line from the Te Deum. The first section is a compilation of the words of Christ on the Cross leading up to His death. The second section is man’s response to the Passion. The Canticle is traditionally chanted by Dominican cloistered nuns and many of the Friars around the world on Fridays in Lent. Below are both a video from the Irish Province chanting the Canticle and also a translation of the text.
My friends and loved ones * draw near to me and stand aloof
I am shut up and I cannot come forth * mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction
and my sweat became like drops of blood * falling down on the ground
For dogs have compassed me * the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me
I gave my back to the smiters * and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair
I hid not my face from shame * and from those who spit on me
I am feeble and sore broken * I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart
The soldiers platted a crown of thorns * and put it on my head
They pierced my hands and my feet * I may tell all my bones
They gave me poison to eat * and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink
All they that see me laugh me to scorn * they shoot out the lip, they shake the head
They look and stare upon me * they part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture
into your hands I command my spirit * redeem me, Lord, God of truth.
Remember your servant, O Lord. * when you come into your kingdom
Jesus cried with a loud voice * yielded up the ghost
The Mercy of the Lord * I will sing for ever
Surely he hath borne our griefs * and carried our sorrows
He was wounded for our transgressions * he was bruised for our iniquities
All we like sheep gave gone astray * we have turned every one to his own way
And the Lord hath laid on him * the iniquities of us all
Awake, why do you sleep, O Lord? * arise, and do not cast us off for ever
Awake, why do you sleep, O Lord? * arise, and do not cast us off for ever
Behold, God is my Savior * I will trust, and not be afraid
We ask you, come to help your servants * whom you have redeemed by your perilous blood.
V. Have mercy on us, O benign Jesus.
R. Who in Thy clemency didst suffer for us.
Look down, we beseech Thee, O Lord, on this Thy family for which Our Lord Jesus Christ did not hesitate to be delivered into the hands of the wicked, and suffer the torments of the Cross.
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.
In a very suitable image, the time of flesh is compared with a cloth web. As the web advances thread by thread, so this mortal life passes day by day. In proportion as the web increases, so it advances to its completion. While the time in our hands passes, the time before us is shortened. Of the whole length of our lives, the days to come are proportionally fewer than those days that have gone by.
On Monday, February 6th, Fr. Austin Litke, O.P. will give a Theology on Tap lecture in Alexandria, VA entitled “Ancient Heresies and Their Modern Forms.” In his talk Fr. Austin will examine various errors prominent in society today alongside ancient counterparts. The goal of the lecture is to show how certain issues, while new in the minds of many people today, have already been discussed and handled in some form by the Church.
Fr. Austin’s talk will begin at 7:30 pm and will be held at Pat Troy’s Ireland’s Own in Old Town Alexandria:
Pat Troy’s Ireland’s Own
111 North Pitt Street – at intersection with King Street
Alexandria, VA 22302
Fr. Austin was recently ordained to the priesthood in May 2011. He is currently working on his last year of studies at the Dominic House of Studies in Washington D.C.
Fr. Gabriel Gillen, O.P. hosts another edition of Word to Life with Fr. Bruno M. Shah, O.P. for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time.
Much can be said about St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274, feast – Jan. 28). The way the Order’s liturgy describes him is one of the most helpful. In the old Dominican Breviary, there is an antiphon that sums up the whole Dominican liturgy’s presentation of Thomas:
The Blessed Thomas, Doctor of the Church, light of the world, glory of Italy, virgin shining with the bloom of chastity, rejoices in a twofold crown of glory.
Over and over the liturgy speaks of his two crowns – virgin and doctor.
St. Thomas’s story of virginity took a dramatic turn soon after he entered the Dominicans. His family was unhappy with his choice of the Dominicans, so they captured him and had him locked up in the family jail. In trying to get him to leave the Order, his brothers brought a loose woman to entice him to break his vow of chastity. He chased her out of the room with a log from the fire, marked the door with the Sign of the Cross, and then thanked God for preserving his chastity. It is said that after this, two angels came and girded him with a cord that helped to preserve his chastity throughout the rest of his life.
St. Thomas’s learning and wisdom is famous. He gave the Church the Summa Theologica, the Summa Contra Gentiles, a number of Scriptural commentaries, commentaries on the works of Aristotle, and a host of other texts. Some of his writings, especially his teachings on the Eucharist, have made it into the magisterial teachings of the Church, and they continued to be promoted by the Papacy, especially since the time of Pope Leo XIII.
Virginity and wisdom – such are two pillars by which we can come to understand the life of St. Thomas. As he pointed out, purity can aid the intellectual life (see Summa Theologica I-II, 33, 3, ad 2). It would seem that thanks to Thomas’s perseverance in chastity and the Lord’s protection through the angelic cord, Thomas’s writings were able to be all the more profound.
May we too be given the grace to live lives of purity and chastity so that like St. Thomas, we might come to know the Lord more intimately and desire nothing but Him.
O God, you make your Church glorious through the wonderful teaching of the blessed Thomas, your confessor and doctor, and render it fruitful by his holy deeds; grant us, we beseech you, both to understand what he taught and to imitate what he did. Through Christ our Lord.
Proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage, through all patience and teaching. (2 Timothy 4.2)
Today we follow an apostolic feast with an episcopal memorial. On the heels of celebrating St. Paul’s conversion, we celebrate two of his intimés, Sts. Timothy and Titus. In the New Testament, we find their names at the head of letters St. Paul addressed specifically to them. Letters to individual pastors of churches—distinct from letters to Christian communities as such—1, 2 Timothy and Titus are dubbed “Pastoral Epistles.”
“Epistle” is, more or less, another word for “letter.” In using “epistle,” we evoke the notion and mission of an “apostle.” But for a couple of vowels, the words are the same; they have , in fact, the same root. An epistle is a message sent-to someone; and an apostle is an individual sent-from Christ. Hence, although letter-writing is a basic and widespread feature of ancient communication, the Apostolic Epistle is a unique literary genre of faith.
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.
Jesus thus established a close relationship between the ministry entrusted to the apostles and his own mission: “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me” (Mt 10,40); “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Lc 10,16). Indeed, in the light of the paschal event of the death and resurrection, the fourth Gospel affirms this with great force and clarity: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (Jn 20,21 cf. Jn 13,20 Jn 17,18). Just as Jesus has a mission which comes to him directly from God and makes present the very authority of God (cf. Mt 7,29 Mt 21,23 Mc 1,27 Mc 11,28 Lc 20,2 Lc 24,19), so too the apostles have a mission which comes to them from Jesus. And just as “the Son can do nothing of his own accord” (Jn 5,19) such that his teaching is not his own but the teaching of the One who sent him (cf. Jn 7,16), so Jesus says to the apostles: “Apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15,5). Their mission is not theirs but is the same mission of Jesus. All this is possible not as a result of human abilities, but only with the “gift” of Christ and his Spirit, with the “sacrament”: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn 20,22-23). And so the apostles, not by any special merit of their own, but only through a gratuitous participation in the grace of Christ, prolong throughout history to the end of time the same mission of Jesus on behalf of humanity.
The sign and presupposition of the authenticity and fruitfulness of this mission is the apostles’ unity with Jesus and, in him, with one another and with the Father – as the priestly prayer of our Lord, which sums up his mission, bears witness (cf. Jn 17,20-23).
On Monday, January 23, friars from the Dominican House of Studies joined thousands of pro-life advocates on the annual March for Life in Washington, DC. Marching together under the banner “Dominican Friars for Life,” the friars were joined by parishioners from the Dominican parishes of St. Patrick (Columbus, OH), St. Gertrude (Cincinnati, OH) and St. Dominic (Youngstown, OH), students from Providence College, and sisters from the congregations of St. Cecilia and Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. Together with the special Masses and Holy Hours celebrated over the course of the weekend, the March was a beautiful opportunity to witness to the sanctity of life and to join in prayer for an end to abortion.
Fr. Bill Garrott, O.P. is prior of St. Louis Bertrand in Louisville, KY. He is also a mission preacher and a former director of vocations. Here is the text from his Sunday homily.
The cathode ray tube TV is now obsolete. The flat screen TV is in. Razor sharp images. Extra wide screens. The new TVs have a draw back though. If the screen isn’t adjusted properly, everyone looks shorter and 10 pounds heavier. Last week while visiting my sister, I offered to adjust the screen to make the people look normal. “Don’t touch it!” she said “because I’ll never figure out how to change it back when you leave!” So we watched people on TV who appeared to be crushed by the gravitational pull of the planet Jupiter. How many times have you heard this blurb just before a movie plays: “This movie has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit your screen.” The problem is that movie theater screens are still much wider than the your new TV. And when you do watch a TV movie in its original version, you see a dark border above and below the picture on your TV. That’s when you say, “Why did we spend a fortune on a 50 inch screen if 1/3 of it isn’t utilized? So to avoid making you feel that irritation, they format movies to fit your entire screen. But something is sacrificed in the process. Namely, what the film director wanted you to see in the first place. When the movie is formatted to fit your screen, another editor zooms in on what he thinks is the most important aspect of the scene. Peripheral characters and details are simply chopped off. And you wouldn’t know unless you saw the original movie.
