A reading from the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 15; 12  Now if Christ be preached, that he arose again from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13  But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen again.  14  And if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain: and your faith is also vain.  15  Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God: because we have given testimony against God, that he hath raised up Christ, whom he hath not raised up, if the dead rise not again.  16  For if the dead rise not again, neither is Christ risen again.  17  And if Christ be not risen again, your faith is vain: for you are yet in your sins.  18  Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.  19  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.  20  But now Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of them that sleep:  21  For by a man came death: and by a man the resurrection of the dead.  22  And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.  23  But every one in his own order: the firstfruits, Christ: then they that are of Christ, who have believed in his coming.  24  Afterwards the end: when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father: when he shall have brought to nought all principality and power and virtue.  25  For he must reign, until he hath put all his enemies under his feet.  26  And the enemy, death, shall be destroyed last: For he hath put all things under his feet.  (Douay-Rheims Bible)

A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, chapter 28:  1  And in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre.  2  And behold there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and coming rolled back the stone and sat upon it.  3  And his countenance was as lightning and his raiment as snow.  4  And for fear of him, the guards were struck with terror and became as dead men.  5  And the angel answering, said to the women: Fear not you: for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.  6  He is not here. For he is risen, as he said. Come, and see the place where the Lord was laid.  7  And going quickly, tell ye his disciples that he is risen. And behold he will go before you into Galilee. There you shall see him. Lo, I have foretold it to you.  8  And they went out quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, running to tell his disciples.  9  And behold, Jesus met them, saying: All hail. But they came up and took hold of his feet and adored him.  (Douay-Rheims Bible)

How often have we heard about  “The sweet by and by?” How often have we heard the expression, “When I get to heaven, I want to…”? We, in America, so often find ourselves saying things like these. We participate in Pew Research polls about our religious life and they tell us that we have fallen into a trap that a Sunday School teacher  I admired around 21 years ago warned me about. He said, “Never get so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good.”

That’s a powerful statement. We are so sure, as Christians, that we have all the answers, that we have a sure thing and … And what? For some of us it is a ticket to escapism. We separate from the world and retreat into the promises of the world to come. For others, we have to rescue this present world from the evil forces of [insert: Satan, Hell, Liberals, Conservatives, Communists, Fascists and racists, or your favorite present-day evil].  This political season has seen the most vicious politicking in a long time. Many think this is the least humane election season since Andrew Jackson was elected in the early Nineteenth Century.  There are Christians from all over the political map who are sparring with one another  over issues of public morality, social justice, and a pantheon of other sacred cows.

So what does any of this have to do with Easter and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ? I would say this: Jesus Christ is the very God we claim, come in the flesh of humanity. He is the Lord “through Whom all things were made,” according to the Nicene Creed. The Resurrection is not about rescuing  us from this world, it is about restoring this world  and our place in it.  Look at who Jesus had following Him: sailors, insurgents, tax-farmers, prostitutes, widows, lepers, and, on occasion wealthy folks. The so-called 1% and the so-called 99%. Rulers, workers, and the dregs of society. Young and old.  He came and told us what we should do: “As I have loved you, love one another.” He lived out the ultimate example of what that means. Then he said, “No greater love hath any man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Then He did just that. But it was not just to save us from our sins, though it was most assuredly that. It was the sign, the seal, that proved He was Who He said He was and that His word was true.

If Jesus is not risen, St. Paul tells us, then we really are the most wretched of all folks. If, on the other hand, He really is Risen, we are the most blessed of all people. And if He really is risen, then we have an obligation one to another to serve our fellow man as He served us.  And we have an obligation to share this Good News with our fellow man. We have to make the blessings we have thus gained available to every human. And we have an obligation to show that there really is truth to the old song, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

“And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.” (St. Luke 23:36, KJV) Whose cross have you carried lately? Whose burden have you taken up as your own?
“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (St. Matthew 25:32-40, KJV) If Jesus, God from all eternity can condescend to the kenosis, the self-emptying of His Divinity to take on our humanity and carry the cross of our sins, how much more should we carry one another’s crosses in imitation of Him Who died and rose for us and His carrying of our burdens debts to Him for no other reason than we needed Him to. I challenge each of you: As Jesus died for us on Good Friday so long ago, let each of us die to self this day. As Jesus rose to newness of life on Easter Sunday so long ago, let us rise to a new life of self-less caring for others even at our own expense simply because they need us to do it. I believe that is what Jesus would do — because it is what He did!

Mark 11:1-11

“Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.” – BCP, page 219

When we are in Christ Jesus, our Father sees our sins no more – He has promised to not only forgive our sins, He promises not to even remember them in Jeremiah 31:34. Christ is our representative to Our Heavenly Father, everything Jesus is, all that the Father sees in Christ is how the Father sees us. Because, when we serve Christ and truly do what Jesus would do, we are like that single grain of wheat our Lord speaks of in today’s Gospel, John 12:20-33. And then we are resurrected in Christ, and only then can we bear much fruit. When we love our life too much… when our focus is on OUR will being carried out, OUR actions being shown to our neighbors, OUR selfish desires being pursued, then we set ourselves up for an automatic failure. As the Lord tells us in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (NIV) And when Jesus says NOTHING, He means NOTHING. Nothing we put our hand, mind, or energy into can truly prosper in a Holy way, in the way of the Lord. Our mission is to do His Will, and to walk in His Ways so that He receives the glory that He is worthy, alone, of.

The wonderful things is that when we return to Our Father, with repentant, broken, and contrite hearts, ask for His merciful, loving forgiveness, He no longer sees what WE have done or said. He sees us white and pure as the driven snow. He sees Christ Jesus, His Son, Our Lord. And when we are redeemed, we don’t have to feel the pain of guilt, depression, regret, or anger over our forgiven sins. We are new. We have the guiltless, guiding Holy Spirit, God within us. And our neighbors can see the Lord shine through in our lives.

This Lenten season has been filled with trials and temptations for me, but falling on Christ, asking Him to replace my faults with His abundant ability, my difficulties and condemnation with His strength and grace, it has also been a truly rewarding experience, learning opportunity and a time of growth.

So let us pray, not just as we did the Fifth Sunday in Lent, but throughout the year – daily, as we did in the day’s collect : For God to bring the order needed to our unruly ways and sinful desires – He alone can give the us the grace needed to follow His will, to love His ways, and the wanting of His promises fulfilled. For in God only may we find the true joy – He alone is the key to a happy, love-filled, successful, and fulfilled life.
Because, just like our Lord, we too have been put here and now for a purpose, to glorify God’s Name in all that we think, say or do.

The Order of Preachers, Reformed is delighted to announce that Father Seraphim McCune has been received into the Noviatite, following an extensive amount of time spent studying, discerning, and seeking the Will of God for his life during his time as a Postulant. We ask that you keep our dear brother in your prayers as he continues to grow in the Lord during the time of his continuing formation as a Novice of the Order, and he continues to discover how he may best serve Our Lord. Thanks be to God!

Memorial Day: March 10th

God has a mission for each of us and has given us the gifts to successfully complete the purpose for which He created us. Our job is to discern our role in His creation. The gifts He has given us can be the instrument of our damnation when used against His purposes; when we discern correctly through prayer and spiritual direction these same talents and abilities can sanctify us and those around us. It’s not too late to seek God’s will for your life–in fact, we should attempt to understand His will for our every action, each day, using all the gifts his has given us.

Peter Geremia was unusually gifted. He was sent early to the University of Bologna, where he passed his studies brilliantly, and attracted the attention and praise of all. On the brink of a successful career as a lawyer, he experienced a sudden and total conversion.

Having retired one night, he was pleasantly dreaming of the honors that would soon come to him in his work, when he heard a knock at the window. As his room was on the third floor, and there was nothing for a human to stand on outside his window, he sat up, in understandable fright, and asked who was there.

A hollow voice responded that he was a relative who had just died, a successful lawyer who had wanted human praise so badly that he had lied to win it, and now was eternally lost because of his pride. Peter was terrified, and acted at once upon the suggestion to turn, while there was still time, from the vanity of public acclaim. He went the next day to a locksmith and bought an iron chain, which he riveted tightly about him. He began praying seriously to know his vocation.

Soon thereafter, God made known to him that he should enter the Dominican Order. He did so as soon as possible. His new choice of vocation was a bitter blow to his father, who had gloried in his son’s achievements, hoping to see him become the most famous lawyer in Europe. He angrily journeyed to Bologna to see his son and demanded that he come home. The prior, trying to calm the excited man, finally agreed to call Peter. As the young man approached them, radiantly happy in his new life, the father’s heart was touched, and he gladly gave his blessing to the new undertaking.

Peter’s brilliant mind and great spiritual gifts found room for development in the order, and he became known as one of the finest preachers in Sicily. He was so well known that Saint Vincent Ferrer asked to see him, and they conversed happily on spiritual matters. He always preached in the open air, because there was no church large enough to hold the crowds that flocked to hear him.

Being prior of the abbey, Peter was consulted one day when there was no food for the community. He went down to the shore and asked a fisherman for a donation. He was rudely refused. Getting into a boat, he rowed out from the shore and made a sign to the fish; they broke the nets and followed him. Repenting of his bad manners, the fisherman apologized, whereupon Peter made another sign to the fish, sending them back into the nets again. The records say that the monastery was ever afterwards supplied with fish.

Peter was sent as visitator to establish regular observance in the monasteries of Sicily. He was called to Florence by the pope to try healing the Greek schism. A union of the opposing groups was affected, though it did not last. Peter was offered a bishopric (and refused it) for his work in this matter.

At one time, when Peter was preaching at Catania, Mount Etna erupted and torrents of flame and lava flowed down on the city. The people cast themselves at his feet, begging him to save them. After preaching a brief and pointed sermon on repentance, Peter went into the nearby shrine of Saint Agatha, removed the veil of the saint, which was there honored as a relic, and held it towards the approaching tide of destruction. The eruption ceased and the town was saved.

This and countless other miracles he performed caused him to be revered as a saint. He raised the dead to life, healed the crippled and the blind, and brought obstinate sinners to the feet of God. Only after his death was it known how severely he had punished his own body in memory of his youthful pride (Benedictines, Dorcy).

Born: Palermo, Sicily, Italy, in 1381

Died: March 7, 1432

Beatified: Pius VI confirmed cultus in 1784

Perhaps the most famous of all the Dominican saints, today is the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Thomas was born in Roccasecca circa 28 January 1225, in the castle of his father, Count Landulf of Aquino, in Roccasecca, from which the great Benedictine abbey of Montecassino is not quite visible, midway between Rome and Naples, in what is now Sicily.  Through his mother, Theodora, Countess of Theate, Thomas was related to the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Holy Roman emperors.  His family was related to the Emperors Henry VI and Frederick II, and to the Kings of Aragon, Castile, and France. Calo relates that a holy hermit foretold his career, saying to Theodora before his birth: “He will enter the Order of Friars Preachers, and so great will be his learning and sanctity that in his day no one will be found to equal him.”  Landulf’s brother, Sinibald, was abbot of the original Benedictine abbey at Monte Cassino. While the rest of the family’s sons pursued a military career, Thomas was intended to follow his uncle into the abbacy; this would have been a normal career path for the younger son of southern Italian nobility.

At the age of five, Thomas began his early education from the Benedictine monks at Monte Cassino.  Diligent in study, he was thus early noted as being meditative and devoted to prayer, and his preceptor was surprised at hearing the child ask frequently: “What is God?”However, after a military conflict broke out between the Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX spilled into the abbey in early 1239, Landulf and Theodora had Thomas enrolled at theUniversity ofNaples, which had been recently established byFrederick.

At Naples his preceptors were Pietro Martini and Petrus Hibernus. The chronicler says that he soon surpassed Martini at grammar, and he was then given over to Peter of Ireland, who trained him in logic and the natural sciences. The customs of the times divided the liberal arts into two courses: the Trivium, embracing grammar, logic, and rhetoric; the Quadrivium, comprising music, mathematics, geometry, and astronomy. Thomas could repeat the lessons with more depth and lucidity than his masters displayed. The youth’s heart had remained pure amidst the corruption with which he was surrounded, and he resolved to embrace the religious life.

It was here that Thomas was introduced to the words of Aristotle, Averroes and Maimonides, all of which would later influence his theological philosophy.  It was also during his studies in  Naples that Thomas came under the influence of John of St. Julian, a Dominican preacher in Naples, who was part of the active effort by the Dominican order, which had only recently been established, to recruit devout followers.

At the age of nineteen, Thomas resolved to join the Dominican Order. Thomas’s decision to do so did not please his family, who had expected him to become a Benedictine monk.   Some time between 1240 and August, 1243, he received the habit of the Order of St. Dominic, being attracted and directed by John of St. Julian, a noted preacher of the convent of Naples. The city wondered that such a noble young man should don the garb of poor friar. His mother, with mingled feelings of joy and sorrow, hastened to Naples to see her son.

In an attempt to prevent Theodora’s interference in Thomas’s choice, the Dominicans arranged for Thomas to be removed to Rome, and then to Paris.  However, on the  way to Rome, his brothers who were soldiers under the Emperor Frederick, following their mother’s instructions, seized him as he was drinking from a spring near the town of Aquapendente and took him back to his parents, who were then at the castle of Monte San Giovanni Campano. He was held for in the family homes at Monte San Giovanni and Roccasecca in an attempt to prevent him from assuming the Dominican habit, and to convince him to become a Benedictine.   Political concerns prevented the Pope from ordering Thomas’s release, which extended his detention, during which he spent tutoring his sisters and communicating with members of the Dominican Order.  Family members became desperate to dissuade Thomas, who remained determined to join the Dominicans. At one point, two of his brothers hired a prostitute to seduce him, but he drove her away, wielding a burning stick.   According to legend, that night two angels appeared to him as he slept and strengthened his resolve to remain celibate.

The time spent in captivity was not lost. His mother relented somewhat, after the first burst of anger and grief; the Dominicans were allowed to provide him with new habits, and through the kind offices of his sister he procured some books — the Holy Scriptures, Aristotle’s Metaphysics, and the “Sentences” of Peter Lombard. After eighteen months or two years spent in prison, either because his mother saw that the hermit’s prophecy would eventually be fulfilled or because his brothers feared the threats of Innocent IV and Frederick II, he was set at liberty, being lowered in a basket into the arms of the Dominicans, who were delighted to find that during his captivity “he had made as much progress as if he had been in a studium generale.”

Thomas immediately pronounced his vows, and his superiors sent him to Rome. Innocent IV examined closely into his motives in joining the Friars Preachers, dismissed him with a blessing, and forbade any further interference with his vocation.  In 1245, Thomas was sent to study at the University of Paris‘s Faculty of Arts where he met Dominican scholar Albertus Magnus, then Chair of Theology at theCollege ofSt. James.

The theological program Thomas entered in Pariswas a grueling one, with the master’s typically attained in the early thirties. Extensive and progressively more intensive study of the scriptures, Old and New Testament, and of the summary of Christian doctrine called the Sentences which was compiled by the twelfth century Bishop of Paris, Peter Lombard. These close textual studies were complemented by public disputations and the even more unruly quodlibetal questions. With the faculty modeled more or less on the guilds, Thomas served a long apprenticeship, established his competence in stages, and eventually after a public examination was named a master and then gave his inaugural lecture.

When Albertus was sent by his superiors to teach at the new studium generale at Cologne in 1248, Thomas followed him, declining Pope Innocent IV‘s offer to appoint him as  abbot of Monte Cassino as a Dominican. Albertus then appointed the reluctant Thomas magister studentium. In the schools Thomas’s humility and taciturnity were misinterpreted as signs of dullness, but when Albert had heard his brilliant defense of a difficult thesis, he exclaimed: “We call this young man a dumb ox, but his bellowing in doctrine will one day resound throughout the world.”

Thomas taught in Cologneas an apprentice professor, instructing students in the books of the Old Testament and writing Expositio super Isaiam ad litteram (Literal Commentary on Isaiah), Postilla super Ieremiam (Commentary on Jeremiah), and Postilla super Threnos (Commentary on Lamentations). Then in 1252, he returned to Paris to study for a master’s degree in theology. He lectured on the Bible as an apprentice professor, and upon becoming a baccalaureus Sententiarum (bachelor of the Sentences); he devoted his final three years of study to commenting on Peter Lombard‘s Sentences. In the first of his four theological syntheses, Thomas composed a massive commentary on the Sentences entitled Scriptum super libros Sententiarium (Commentary on the Sentences). Aside from his master’s writings, he wrote De ente et essentia (On Being and Essence) for his fellow Dominicans inParis.

In the spring of 1256, Thomas was appointed regent master in theology at Paris, and one of his first works upon assuming this office was Contra impugnantes Dei cultum et religionem (Against Those Who Assail the Worship of God and Religion), defending the mendicant orders which had come under attack by William of Saint-Amour.   During his tenure from 1256 to 1259, Thomas wrote numerous works, including Questiones disputatae de veritate (Disputed Questions on Truth), which was a collection of twenty-nine disputed questions on aspects of faith and the human condition and which was prepared for the public university debates he presided over on Lent and Advent.  He also wrote   Quaestiones quodlibetales (Quodlibetal Questions), a collection of his responses to questions posed to him by the academic audience;  and both Expositio super librum Boethii De trinitate (Commentary on Boethius’s De trinitate) and Expositio super librum Boethii De hebdomadibus (Commentary on Boethius’s De hebdomadibus), commentaries on the works of 6th century philosopher Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius.  By the end of his regency, Thomas was working on one of his most famous works, Summa contra Gentiles.

Around 1259, Thomas returned to Napleswhere he lived until he went to in Orvieto in  September 1261. In Orvieto, he was appointed conventual lector, in charge of the education of friars unable to attend a studium generale. During his stay in Orvieto, Thomas completed his Summa contra Gentiles, and wrote the Catena Aurea (The Golden Chain). He also wrote the liturgy for the newly created feast of Corpus Christi and produced works for Pope Urban IV concerning Greek Orthodox theology, e.g. Contra errores graecorum (Against the Errors of the Greeks).  In 1265 he was ordered by the Dominican Chapter of Agnani to establish a studium for the Order in Rome at the priory of Santa Sabina.  He remained there from 1265 until he was called back to Paris in 1268.   It was while in Rome that Thomas began his most famous work, Summa Theologica, and wrote a variety of other works, such as his unfinished Compendium Theologiae and Responsio ad fr. Ioannem Vercellensem de articulis 108 sumptis ex opere Petri de Tarentasia (Reply to Brother John of Vercelli Regarding 108 Articles Drawn from the Work of Peter of Tarentaise).   In his position as head of the studium, he conducted a series of important disputations on the power of God, which he compiled into his De potentia.

In 1268 the Dominican Order assigned Thomas to be regent master at the University of Paris for a second time, a position he held until the spring of 1272. Part of the reason for this sudden reassignment appears to have arisen from the rise of “Averroism” or “radical Aristotelianism” in the universities. “Averroisms” was the belief that there is no God, that the soul has two parts, one individual and one eternal; the world is eternal; the soul is not eternal.  (During this period in history, Averroism was virtually synonymous with atheism.)  In response to these perceived evils, Thomas wrote two works, one of them being De unitate intellectus, contra Averroistas (On the Unity of Intellect, against the Averroists) in which he blasts Averroism as incompatible with Christian doctrine.   During his second regency, he finished the second part of the Summa and wrote De virtutibus and De aeternitate mundi, the latter of which dealt with controversial Averroist and Aristotelian beginninglessness of the world.   Disputes with some important Franciscans such as Bonaventure and John Peckham conspired to make his second regency much more difficult and troubled than the first. A year before Thomas re-assumed the regency at the 1266–67 Paris disputations, Franciscan master William of Baglione accused Thomas of encouraging Averroists, calling him the “blind leader of the blind”. Thomas called these individuals the murmurantes (Grumblers). In reality, Thomas was deeply disturbed by the spread of Averroism and was angered when he discovered Siger of Brabant teaching Averroistic interpretations of Aristotle to Parisian students.  On 10 December 1270, the bishop of Paris, Etienne Tempier, issued an edict condemning thirteen Aristotlelian and Averroistic propositions as heretical and excommunicating anyone who continued to support them. Many in the ecclesiastical community, the so-called Augustinians, were fearful that this introduction of Aristotelianism and the more extreme Averroism might somehow contaminate the purity of the Christian faith. In what appears to be an attempt to counteract the growing fear of Aristotelian thought, Thomas conducted a series of disputations between 1270 and 1272: De virtutibus in communi (On Virtues in General), De virtutibus cardinalibus (On Cardinal Virtues), De spe (On Hope).

In 1272 Thomas took leave from the Universityof Pariswhen the Dominicans from his home province called upon him to establish a studium generale wherever he liked and staff it as he pleased. He chose to establish the institution in Naples, and moved there to take his post as regent master.  He took his time in Naples to work on the third part of the Summa while giving lectures on various religious topics. On 6 December 1273 Thomas was celebrating the Mass of St. Nicholas when, according to some, he heard Christ speak to him.

Christ asked him what he desired, being pleased with his meritorious life. Thomas replied “Only you Lord. Only you.”  After this exchange something happened, but Thomas never spoke of it or wrote it down. Because of what he saw, he abandoned his routine and refused to dictate to his secretary, Reginald of Piperno.  When Reginald begged him to get back to work, Thomas replied: “Reginald, I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me,”    And he seemed to be seriously ill.  What exactly triggered Thomas’s change in behavior is believed to be some kind of supernatural experience of God. After taking to his bed, he did, however, recover some strength.

Looking to find a way to reunite the Eastern Orthodox churches with the Catholic Church (the Eastern Orthodox were excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church in A.D. 1054 over doctrinal disputes) Pope Gregory X convened the Second Council of Lyon to be held on 1 May 1274 and summoned Thomas to attend.  At the meeting, Thomas’s work for Pope Urban IV concerning the Greeks, Contra errores graecorum, was to be presented.  On his way to the Council, riding on a donkey along the Appian Way, he struck his head on the branch of a fallen tree and became seriously ill again. He was then quickly escorted to Monte Cassino to convalesce.  After resting for a while, he set out again, but stopped at the Cistercian Fossanova Abbey after again falling ill. The Cistercian monks of Fossa Nuova pressed him to accept their hospitality, and he was conveyed to their monastery, on entering which he whispered to his companion: “This is my rest for ever and ever: here will I dwell, for I have chosen it” (Psalm 131:14).  The monks nursed him for several days, and as he received his last rites, he prayed: “I receive Thee, ransom of my soul. For love of Thee have I studied and kept vigil, toiled, preached and taught…” He died on 7 March 1274.

When the devil’s advocate at his canonization process objected that there were no miracles, one of the cardinals answered, “Tot miraculis, quot articulis“—”there are as many miracles (in his life) as articles (in his Summa).” Fifty years after the death of Thomas, on 18 July 1323, Pope John XXII, seated in Avignon, pronounced Thomas a saint.

In a monastery at Naples, near the cathedral of St. Januarius, a cell in which he supposedly lived is still shown to visitors. His remains were placed in the Church of the Jacobins in Toulouse in 1369. Between 1789 and 1974, they were held in Basilique de Saint-Sernin, Toulouse. In 1974, they were returned to the Church of the Jacobins, where they have remained ever since.

In the General Roman Calendar of 1962, in the Roman Catholic Church, Thomas was commemorated on 7 March, the day of death. However, in the General Roman Calendar of 1969, even though the norm in the Roman Catholic Church is to remember saints on the day of their death, Thomas’s memorial was transferred to 28 January, the date of the translation of his relics toToulouse.

Saint Thomas Aquinas is honored with a feast day on the liturgical of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America on 28 January.

(From Wikipedia)

The Order of Preachers, Reformed is very happy to announce the Postulancy of Father Andrew Barreras of Phoenix, Arizona.  Father Andrew has been following us for some time now, and has expressed a desire to join our Order. He is a priest in the Reformed Catholic Church, and is well known to many of our Clergy.   Please pray for him as he discerns God’s will for his life, and begins the process of joining us in our journey to bring Christ to the world.  Welcome Father Andrew!   Thanks be to God!

Memorial Day: March 6th

At a time when scholars believed that no colloquial tongue could ever replace Latin as a gentleman’s language, Jordan worked to make Italian the beautiful tongue that it is today. That’s not the reason he was beatified by the Church but it’s interesting and sometimes overlooked.

Jordan attended the University of Paris where he first encountered the Dominican friars in 1276. Four years later, probably after obtaining his degrees, he returned to Italy and took the habit. He began a long teaching career there as soon as he was qualified to do so.

Because of the excellence of his preaching in Florence, Jordan was appointed first lector there in 1305. He seems to have been fascinated with the whole question of preaching as an apostolic tool, and to have been one of the first to make a scientific study of it. He pointed out that the Greek church was “invaded by a multitude of errors,” because the Greeks had no preachers; he could never say enough in praise of Saint Dominic’s farsightedness in establishing an order specifically for preaching.

Jordan studied methods of making sermons more effective, both by using examples that would reach the people, and by the use of the vernacular. This latter was a much-disputed subject in his day (they had Dan Amon’s then, too); Jordan was considered a daring innovator. Because it was controversial, he strove to make Italian a beautiful instrument on which he could play the melodies of the Lord.

Blessed with an extraordinary memory, Jordan is supposed to have known the breviary by heart, as well as the missal, most of the Bible (with its marginal commentary), plus the second part of the Summa. This faculty of memory he used in his sermons, but he was quick to point out to young preachers that learning alone can never make a preacher. By the holiness of his own life he made this plain, and continually preached it to those he was training to preach.

Jordan of Pisa had two great devotions–to Our Blessed Mother and to Saint Dominic. Once he was favored with a vision of Our Lady; she came into the fathers’ refectory and served at table. Jordan, who was the only one who could see her, could barely eat for excitement. He spoke often of her in his sermons, and also of Saint Dominic. He founded a number of confraternities in Pisa, one of which has lasted until now.

Jordan died on his way to Paris to teach at Saint Jacques. His body was returned from Piacenza, where death overtook him, to rest in the church at Pisa (Benedictines, Dorcy).

Born:1255 at Pisa, Italy

Died: August 19, 1311 at Piacenza of natural causes while on his way to teach in Paris; relics venerated at the church of Saint Catalina at Pisa, Italy

Beatified: August 23, 1833 (cultus confirmed) by Pope Gregory XVI; 1838 (beatification)

This is one of those rare reading sets where all four readings can be easily woven into a single homily. The reason is that in addition to being thematic, all these passages are things that we can easily (if we are honest) apply to ourselves in some fashion.

The Psalmist tells us: “For the kingdom is the LORD’s: and he is the governor among the nations.” (Verse 28, KJV) God is in charge. How often have we heard this in one form or another or read it on some low-budget t-shirt? So often, I think, that familiarity has bred contempt. Yet how important this message is! If God is in charge, then why do we fear? Because we are doubters.

Martin Luther is often quoted as having said, “Never doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light.” But is that realistic? Yes and no. Yes, by faith, we never doubt for, as Scripture says, “Now faith is substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, KJV) And then again, no, it is not realistic because we are humans. We know well and good our frailties and foibles. We know we should not fear this or that and yet we do. This is the struggle of faith. This is the combat the Desert Fathers spoke so often and so poignantly of.

In our reading from Exodus today, the Israelites have been led through the desert. God has fed
them, God has protected them from the most powerful army on earth, God has revealed Himself to his people in visible forms. Yet, the Israelites were thirsty and running low on water. Literally more than a million people and innumerable sheep, cattle, and perhaps other livestock are wandering around with dwindling supplies of water. “And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3) Miracle after miracle was granted freely from the hand of God to His people, and all they could see was their thirst. They feared because they did not really believe. The accusation they make is that God did all this to kill them! Moses, in speaking with God about it was told to take his staff and strike the rock so that water flowed and the people were given water for their thirst. For all that, there was no blessing in it.
St. Paul tells the Church at Rome how Abraham’s promise was seen by faith and yet never obtained while Abraham yet lived. The promise, he says, “…was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” (Romans 4:23-25, KJV) Do we really believe? Or do we merely give intellectual assent?

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus drives out the money changers and those who sold doves from the Temple. Why? These people had turned the place above all others where God was to be the sole focus of attention and made it a “den of thieves.” They had come to this most holy place to focus on themselves, to get gain by catering to the needs of pious and observant Jews not out of a desire to serve, but to make money and fill their lust for money and perhaps power. The money changers charged a fee to exchange the profane Roman coinage for Temple money. The sellers of doves no doubt charged prices artificially inflated by demand at the Temple. The focus was on self all the way.

I often hear spiritual folks (of several faith traditions and world-views) speak of surrendering. Surrender to God, to a spiritual master/leader/teacher, to a system or program. Surrender never works. Let me explain why: you see, surrender is what a soldier gives to his enemy when it is time to quit fighting or die. It is never voluntary, it is never motivated by love, and it always waits for and seeks its opportunity to escape. This is precisely what the Israelites were doing in respect to God and Moses. They had surrendered, but they did not love. The money changers had submitted to the system of Judaism, but they did not submit themselves to lives lived in belief of Abraham’s promise.

I’ll say it again: Never surrender. If you love God, submit to God. To submit to God is to place yourself voluntarily under His yoke. It is to love what He loves, to seek out what He seeks out, to do what He does. It places one’s own desires and ambitions on the back burner so that the Beloved’s desires are at the front at all times. You place yourself at His disposal for His purposes. What did Jesus say? “He who loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” (St. Mark 8:35, KJV) This is submission.

As Lent gets underway and progresses, remember to submit yourself to God day by day, hour by hour. Don’t surrender to Lenten devotions, fasting, etc. Don’t wait for God to act; He already has in Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross for us. Move forward in faith and submit your life to