Fr. Ferrer Quigley, OP, continues his series of reflections on the virtues of Lent. For a complete list of his video reflections, see the Providence College YouTube channel.
Fr. Quigley is the Associate Chaplain for the National Alumni Association of Providence College. Fr. Quigley also teaches Homiletics at the North American College in Rome. This reflection was filmed at the chapel of St. Dominic at Providence College.
Recently, Father Peter Cameron, O.P., the editor of Magnificat and the founder of the Blackfriars Repertory Theatre, was interviewed by Our Sunday Visitor about the nature of beauty and its power to move the human soul. Fr. Peter explains that beauty is what raises the mind above itself and helps us see the transcendent dimension of our nature as human beings, which opens our hearts to God’s grace.
Below is the full interview:
Fr. Peter John Cameron, OP
Our Sunday Visitor: As Catholics, we often speak of beauty as a way to God, as a way of perceiving the good and the true. Why is that?
Father Peter Cameron: As the French playwright Jean Anouilh said, “Beauty is one of the few things in the world that do not lead to doubt about God.” The Church intuits that immediately. When we’re in the presence of something beautiful — an act of forgiveness, a newborn baby, a sunset — beauty wounds us. It has a visceral effect on us that is delightful, that increases our humanity. Beauty also reveals to us that there is something more to the world and something more to beauty than the beautiful thing itself. It leads to contemplation. That contemplation consists of wondering at where the beauty came from. It would be impossible for a human being who has just received a bouquet of flowers to not reach into the flowers to find a card. The beauty of the flowers moves us to wonder about the sender. Then, when we know who sent them, we enjoy them all the more. Every act of beauty does the same to us. It moves us to find the author and the reason.
OSV: How has the Church relied on beauty to call people to Christ?
Father Cameron: Beauty has this sense of otherness, a sense of transcendence. It pulls out of us the transcendent dimension of our own nature. The Church understands that very well, and has always relied on the beautiful to enlighten and reawaken the religious sense every human being has. No matter how lost a person might become, no matter how much he might lapse from faith and give himself over to the darkness of the world, the one thing that’s still capable of drawing him out of that darkness and into the light is something beautiful. That’s one of the reasons why the Gospels are not written like the Catechism or the Code of Canon Law. In some ways, it would be better if they were. If they were more precise and used a more scientific technical language it would make it clear what the Church teaches. But they’re not written that way. Instead, they’re written as stories. Why? Because they’re beautiful. Before we get to the meaning of the Scriptures, we’re drawn in by their beauty. The beauty of the Bible moves us. Once we’re moved, we start asking questions. If we keep following those questions, ultimately we start hungering for God.
OSV: So beauty is a vehicle for getting people to ask questions, not, strictly speaking, for presenting answers?
Father Cameron: Many Christians think the first thing they have to speak about is God. But God is an answer to a question. If the question isn’t asked, the answer is irrelevant. Giving an answer to a question that has not been asked is the definition of boring. That’s why the first responsibility of the Church in this moment is to reawaken the religious sense in people. So many people today have lapsed into an anesthetized way of living. They want to be secure, safe, get by. They escape into consumerism, television, food, pleasure because they can’t face the ultimate questions. They’re too terrifying.
Helping people ask those questions involves a conversion of mind on the part of Christians — remembering that what keeps people close to God is beauty, not pumping them with new ideas. It’s a Socratic fallacy that if we just get the truth in front of people, if we just keep publishing the propositions of the Faith, that somehow is going to make them Christians. That is a patent lie. As worthy and as important as ideas are, ideas do not make us Christians. It is the responsibility of the Church to offer to the people of the world this encounter with Jesus Christ, and it has to happen through beauty — through a magnificent dinner, a lecture, an art show, putting on a play or giving a concert. Here we need some imagination. The first thing in terms of this conversion of mind is asking ourselves “What would speak to me?” “What would I find irresistible?” “For what would I change my schedule?”
OSV: How are you doing this through the Blackfriars Theatre?
Father Cameron: Right now we’re doing a play called “The London Merchant.” It’s not a religious play, but it does speak to many burning issues — virtue, vice, the afterlife, forgiveness, prayer, how faith forms character. I thought it would be attractive because it’s 300 years old and as far as we can tell, has never been produced in North America. We thought that would interest people, and sure enough The New York Times did a story on it, then came and reviewed it. That’s the kind of thing that we need to do. People who would never dream of coming to Church are coming into our theatre and buying tickets because The New York Times said they should.
OSV: How can our own lives be witnesses to beauty?
Father Cameron: The most attractive thing on the planet is a person filled with gladness. The modern world doesn’t know how to take this; it’s so completely rare. When they meet someone who is filled with gladness, their first reaction is suspicion. Are they insane? On drugs? Or have they met someone astonishing? When the world meets somebody like that, the world can’t help but ask how you became like this because the world wants to be like this too. Everyone would rather be glad than miserable. The importance of each human being’s witness is vital, even before he or she opens their mouth. The witness of gladness is what makes the world stop and say, “You’re different, and your way of living seems better.”
The interview may also be found here
Below is a talk given by Sr. Catherine Joseph, OP, of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia. The talk was a part of a symposium on the theme of Globalization and the Evangelical Counsel of Poverty on 15 March 2012. The talk was sponsored by the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome (the Angelicum).
Fr. Bruno M. Shah, O.P. is joined in studio by Fr. Gonzague Leroux and over the phone by Fr. Hugh Vincent Dyer, O.P. Fr. Gonzague (or “Fr. G.” as he’s known) is a member of Heart’s Home, a private association of the faithful founded in 1990. The international community is dedicated to spreading compassion through community and prayer. Fr. Gonzague runs a weekly blog (French & English) for Heart’s Home called Land of Compassion. Fr. Hugh Vincent is Catholic Chaplain and Director of Campus Ministry for Quinnepiac University (Hamden, CT), ordained for our province in 2008. This blog is still waiting for him to type up an account of his wonderful ministry to the young adults of New Haven and its environs… In the meanwhile, his meditation on St. Patrick (whom friars in NYC will celebrate with solemnity) is worth revisiting.
We continue to look at the Stational Churches of Lent. These are particular churches in Rome associated with a particular day. Every day in Lent has, by ancient custom, a stational church associated with it. This series examines the stational churches associated with the Sundays of Lent.
Last week–the third Sunday in Lent–saw us far from the center of Rome at the Basilica of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls. For this Fourth week in Lent we find ourselves once again in the ambit of the St. John Lateran, the Pope’s Cathedral. If you were to exit from the front of St. John Latern and continue straight, you would find yourself on the Viale Luciano Lama. This wide street runs parallel both to the old city walls of Rome as well as to a long, narrow modern park, filled with old Italians and their newspapers and young Italians and their dogs. At the end of that street you would come straight to the entrance of the stational church for this Fourth Sunday of Lent, Basilica Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem.
Apse fresco of St. Helen bringing the relics from Jerusalem
Like many of the Stational Churches of Lent, this Basilica, one of the seven major Basilicas of Rome, has ties to the ancient practice of Christianity in Rome. The Original Church was consecrated in the year 325– the same year as the Council of Nicea. It is believed that the property was once the Sessorian Palace, owned by Helen, the mother of the Emperor Constantine. Helen was a devout Christian who one year organized a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There, she and her entourage discovered a great treasure of relics of the life and especially the passion of Christ. These she brought back with her to Rome. Among the relics she brought with her were spines from the crown of thorns, one the nails that pierced Christ, a piece of the true cross, a large plank from the cross of the “good thief”, the incorrupt finger of St. Thomas the Apostle (the “Doubting Thomas” who touched the wounds of the risen Christ); a piece of the pillar on which Christ was scourged; a piece of the crib of the infant Jesus, a small piece of Christ’s tomb. These may now all be found in a small chapel, renovated in an art deco style in the 1930s. She also brought other relics which can be found in other churches, especially the stairs from the office of Pontius Pilate, which can be found at the Sancta Scale near St. John Lateran.
Titulus Crucis Stone
However, perhaps the most interesting find was the so-called Titulus Cucis, or the Title of the Cross. The Gospel stories tell us that when Christ was crucified there was a sign placed on the top reading, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin the words: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. This was also apparently one of the relics brought by Helen. There are few other records in history of the discovery of this relic, which was lost for almost 1000 years. In 1492, a brick was discovered in the Basilica carved with the words “Titulus Crucis”. Upon removing the stone, workers found a silver coffer sealed by Cardinal Gerardus, later Pope Lucius I. It is believed that the coffer was hidden to protect it from the invading Visigoths. That coffer contained an ancient piece of wood, with remnants of the words “Jesus of Nazareth, King” in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Curiously, the word in all languages is written, not from left to right as would have been the norm in medieval Latin, but from right to left, as Hebrew is written. This strongly suggests that the piece discovered was not a medieval forgery, but truly comes from the Holy Land. The same Titulus Crucis is mentioned in the diary of Egeria, a Spanish nun of the fourth century who writes of her pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the veneration to the Titulus Crucis that she witnessed there. It is believed that when Helen found the Titulus, she had it broken into three parts, keeping one in Jerusalem, giving one to her son Constantine, and bringing this piece back with her to Rome.
Relic of the Title of the Cross
And so, as we approach the mid-point of Lent, our Stational pilgrimage leads us to the implements of the passion of Christ. We begin to look more intently towards those days of Holy Week. Here at the Church of the Holy Cross, we can even see the implements of his passion — the thorns that pierced his sacred head, the nails that affixed has body to the cross, and even the sign that declared him King. We ought to recall the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5 RSV) What the Prophet foretold, what we know by faith, we can still see in the relics of those implements. This Fourth Sunday of Lent is often called Laetare (Rejoice!) Sunday, as this is the first word of the Mass. On this day we rejoice not in the suffering of our Lord, but in the salvation he has won for us through his crucifixion. And so, our meditation on His death and resurrection should stir up in us greater faith in his truth, hope in his salvation, and joy in our ability to love the God who first loved us.
Crucifix designed from the image on the Shroud
Just past the chapel of the holy relics is another small room housing an image related to the death of our Lord–the Holy Shroud of Turin. This is not the original shroud, but a full-sized replica of the original that runs the length of the wall. One can see clearly the negative image of our Lord’s scourged body impressed upon the cloth. In this room is also is a statue of Christ on the cross that was done to match the image of the body found on the original Shroud. And so our collection of the tangible reminders of the Passion of Christ are all available for us to see and ponder.
St. Helen
Over the course of the centuries, this church has been added on to and remodeled a great number of times. However, the oldest part of the building is a small room underneath the current sanctuary. This portion goes back to the initial use of the site as the Empress’s palace. In fact, it is believed that the small chapel there was once the private chapel of St. Helen herself. Outside that chapel now is a statue of St. Helen from Roman times, copied from a pagan statue of the goddess Juno, shown holding a large wooden cross. At the foot of the statue is soil brought to Rome by St. Helen from the Holy Land. It is now under plexiglass, and you can see the hundreds of written intentions from the devout faithful that have been placed, in this earth where Christ stood. Above on the ceiling is a large mosaic put up in the 1400s, but based on the original mosaics commissioned by the Emperor Valentinian II almost 1600 years ago.
This Stational Day–the Fourth Sunday in Lent–is often called Rose Sunday, in part because this is one of the two days in the Liturgical year on which the priest may wear Rose colored vestments. But the origin of this name is not actually because of the color of the vestments worn on this day. Rather, this was the day on which the Holy Father, while at the Church of Santa Croce, traditionally bestowed the Golden Rose to one of Christendom’s Catholic princes. The great 19th century liturgist Dom Guerenger describes this ceremony in his master work, The Liturgical Year:
The blessing of the Golden Rose is one of the ceremonies peculiar to the Fourth Sunday of Lent, which is called on this account Rose Sunday. The thoughts suggested by this flower harmonize with the sentiments wherewith the Church would now inspire her Children. The joyous time of Easter is soon to give them a spiritual Spring, of which that of nature is but a feeble image. Hence, we cannot be surprised that the institution of this ceremony is of a very ancient date. We find it observed under the Pontificate of St. Leo the Ninth (eleventh century); and we have a Sermon on the Golden Rose preached by the glorious Pope Innocent the Third, on this Sunday, and in the Basilica of Holy Cross in Jerusalem. In the Middle Ages, when the Pope resided in the Lateran Palace, having first blessed the Rose, he went on horseback to the Church of the Station. He wore the miter, was accompanied by all the Cardinals, and held the blessed Flower in his hand. Having reached the Basilica, he made a discourse on the mysteries symbolized by the beauty, the color, and the fragrance of the Rose. Mass was then celebrated. After the Mass, the Pope returned to the Lateran Palace. Surrounded by the sacred College, he rode across the immense plain which separates the two Basilicas, with the mystic Flower still in his hand. We may imagine the joy of the people as they gazed upon the holy symbol. When the procession had got to the Palace gates, if there were a Prince present, it was his privilege to hold the stirrup, and assist the Pontiff to dismount; for which filial courtesy he received the Rose, which had received so much honor and caused such joy.
Dom Guerenger also gives us in his work a translation of the great prayer used by the Pope for the blessing of the Golden Rose:
O God! by whose word and power all things were created, and by whose will they are all governed! O thou, that art the joy and gladness of all thy Faithful people! we beseech thy Divine Majesty, that thou vouchsafe to bless and sanctify this Rose, so lovely in its beauty and fragrance. We are to bear it, this day, in our hands, as a symbol of spiritual joy; that thus, the people that is devoted to thy service, being set free from the captivity of Babylon, by the grace of thine Only Begotten Son, who is the glory and the joy of Israel, may show forth, with a sincere heart, the joys of that Jerusalem, which is above, and is our Mother. And whereas thy Church seeing this symbol, exults with joy, for the glory of thy Name;- do thou, O Lord! give her true and perfect happiness. Accept her devotion, forgive us our sins, increase our faith; heal us by thy word, protect us by thy mercy; remove all obstacles; grant us all blessings; that thus, this same thy Church may offer unto thee the fruit of good works; and walking in the odor of the fragrance of that Flower, which sprang from the Root of Jesse, and is called the Flower of the Field, and the Lily of the Valley, may she deserve to enjoy an endless joy in the bosom of heavenly glory, in the society of all the Saints, together with that Divine Flower, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
O God, who through your Word reconcile the human race to yourself in a wonderful way, grant, we pray, that with prompt devotion and eager faith the Christian people may hasten toward the solemn celebrations to come. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
This Lent, student brothers from the Dominican House of Studies are presenting reflections on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary in several cities throughout the Province. Below is the schedule for this weekend:
Father Christopher M. Saliga has written a booklet that explains the threats to human life through physician-prescribed suicide and euthanasia.
Published by the Knights of Columbus, “Freedom to Flourish: A Catholic Analysis of Doctor-Prescribed Suicide and Euthanasia,” defends the Catholic Church’s teachings on end-of-life issues such as nutrition and hydration, advance directives, and suffering.
Father Saliga received a bachelor of science in nursing from Franciscan University and currently serves as postulant director and assistant novice master for the Eastern African Vicariate of the Dominican Order. He also serves as chaplain of Our Lady of Grace School in Kisumu, Kenya.
“Freedom to Flourish” is Booklet #339 of the Veritas Series from the Knights of Columbus and Catholic Information Service. It is available for free download. Bulk copies of the booklet also can be ordered from the Knights of Columbus Web site.
On Saturday, March 10, six of our brothers were ordained to the Diaconate: Dominic Joseph Bump, O.P., Bernard Marie Timothy, O.P., Matthew Carroll, O.P., Albert Duggan, O.P., Reginald Mary Lynch, O.P. and Ambrose Mary Little, O.P. The ordination was celebrated by Most Rev. Denis J. Madden, Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore, in the House Chapel of the Dominican House of Studies.
Below is a Lenten Reflection offered by Fr. Ferrer Quigley, OP. Fr. Quigley is the Associate Chaplain for the National Alumni Association of Providence College. Fr. Quigley also teaches Homiletics at the North American College in Rome. This reflection was filmed at the chapel of St. Dominic at Providence College.
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.
Going to the heart of the moral message of Jesus and the preaching of the Apostles, and summing up in a remarkable way the great tradition of the Fathers of the East and West, and of Saint Augustine in particular, Saint Thomas was able to write that the New Law is the grace of the Holy Spirit given through faith in Christ. The external precepts also mentioned in the Gospel dispose one for this grace or produce its effects in one’s life. Indeed, the New Law is not content to say what must be done, but also gives the power to “do what is true” (cf. Jn 3,21). Saint John Chrysostom likewise observed that the New Law was promulgated at the descent of the Holy Spirit from heaven on the day of Pentecost, and that the Apostles “did not come down from the mountain carrying, like Moses, tablets of stone in their hands; but they came down carrying the Holy Spirit in their hearts… having become by his grace a living law, a living book”.
The words of Jesus just quoted also represent a call to form our conscience, to make it the object of a continuous conversion to what is true and to what is good. In the same vein, Saint Paul exhorts us not to be conformed to the mentality of this world, but to be transformed by the renewal of our mind (cf. Rom 12,2). It is the “heart” converted to the Lord and to the love of what is good which is really the source of true judgments of conscience. Indeed, in order to “prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12,2), knowledge of God’s law in general is certainly necessary, but it is not sufficient: what is essential is a sort of “connaturality” between man and the true good. Such a connaturality is rooted in and develops through the virtuous attitudes of the individual himself: prudence and the other cardinal virtues, and even before these the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. This is the meaning of Jesus’ saying: “He who does what is true comes to the light” (Jn 3,21).
We Christians kneel only before God or before the Most Blessed Sacrament because we know and believe that the one true God is present in it, the God who created the world and so loved it that he gave his Only Begotten Son (cf. Jn 3,16). We prostrate ourselves before a God who first bent over man like the Good Samaritan to assist him and restore his life, and who knelt before us to wash our dirty feet. Adoring the Body of Christ, means believing that there, in that piece of Bread, Christ is really there, and gives true sense to life, to the immense universe as to the smallest creature, to the whole of human history as to the most brief existence. Adoration is prayer that prolongs the celebration and Eucharistic communion and in which the soul continues to be nourished: it is nourished with love, truth, peace; it is nourished with hope, because the One before whom we prostrate ourselves does not judge us, does not crush us but liberates and transforms us.
