Blessed Ceslaus Odrowatz of Poland, C.O.P.

Ceslaus Odrowatz was a near relative, probably a brother, of Saint Hyacinth, and shared with him the apostolate of Northern Europe. Little is known of his youth. He was born in the ancestral castle and educated with Saint Hyacinth, by his uncle, a priest of Cracow.

Both young men became priests and, being well-known for their holiness, were chosen to be canons in the cathedral chapter in Cracow. When their uncle received an appointment as bishop of Cracow, the two young priests accompanied him on his trip to Rome, where he would be consecrated.

It was in Rome that the two zealous young priests first heard of the work of Saint Dominic. The order was then only four years old, and its eager members had penetrated to almost all parts of Christendom and were pushing into the lands of the Tartars and the Mohammedans.

The new bishop strongly desired that some of the friars should come to Poland. Since Saint Dominic was then in Rome, they went to him for missionaries. Dominic was deeply regretful that he had no friars who were able to speak the languages of the North. However, he was much drawn to the bishop’s two young nephews, and promised to make them Dominican apostles if they would remain with him.

After their novitiate training, Hyacinth and Ceslaus went home. Ceslaus went to Prague, and other parts of Bohemia, where he founded convents of Friar Preachers and also established a group of nuns. Then he went to Silesia, where he founded the convent of Breslau that was to become his center of activities. He also acted as the spiritual director for duchess Saint Hedwig of Poland.

The life of Blessed Ceslaus, like that of Saint Hyacinth, is a record of almost countless miracles, of unbelievable distances travelled on foot through wild and warlike countries, and of miracles of grace. He cured the sick and the maimed, raised the dead to life, and accomplished wonders in building convents. His most remarkable miracle was the raising to life of a boy who had been dead for eight days.

In 1241 the Tartars swooped down upon the Christian kingdoms and laid waste the labor of centuries. Blessed Ceslaus was in Breslau at the time the Tartars laid siege to the city. He and his community fasted and prayed incessantly that the city would be saved, and when the cause looked darkest, Ceslaus mounted the ramparts with a crucifix in his hand. While the Tartars gazed in astonishment, a huge ball of fire descended from heaven and settled above him. Arrows of fire shot out from the heavenly weapon, and the Tartars fled in terror, leaving the city unmolested.

Our Lady came to receive the soul of Blessed Ceslaus, who had been tireless in preaching her glories.

Born: c.1180 at Cracow, Poland

Died: July 16, 1242

Beatified:August 27, 1712 by Pope Clement XI (cultus confirmed)

Am I where God wants me to be? ~ Brother Scott Brown

I look at where I am in my life and I ask this question. I think in the back of my mind that I have had a lot of time to get to where God wants me to be, but did I take the right steps to get to this point? Did I answer the questions correctly, did I drive the right roads or did my GPS get me lost? I often hear a little voice in the back of my head that tells me to do one particular thing, take a particular path, do a particular deed and I sometimes wonder if it’s God or the Devil. I use my best judgment and the common sense God gave me to make the decision to go left or right, up or down, top or bottom. Did I make the right choice? Only time will tell, and only God knows the answer to that. Even when I don’t know what the future holds, God does. He has a plan for me and my future. All I have to do is let go of the selfish part of me that wants to make all the decisions, wants to be in total control, wants to be the leader and let God make the decisions and lead me where I am supposed to be.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 that he has everything under control and knows what is in our futures and what His plans are for us. So why don’t we know what God has planned for us? That would take all the fun out of it. If we knew what was going to happen next we would get really bored and tired of living. There wouldn’t be any surprise to anything. Imagine if you woke up every morning and knew what was going to happen at every moment of the coming day. You would avoid answering a phone call from that person that irritates you, but that person may need your kind words and wisdom that day. You would know not to take your usual route to work because of that stop light that isn’t working today, but you may miss seeing that rainbow on your way to the office. What a boring life it would be. But, God has our days, weeks, months, years,  even our whole lives  planned out for us. We just need to put our trust in Him and roll with the flow. We may not know what lies around the corner but God does and He will not lead us into peril or give us more than we can handle. He will use his plan for our lives to teach us patience, humility, understanding and love.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Acknowledge the Lord and praise him with all your heart and soul and God will guide your path through life. God will help you around the curves and corners and you can lean on Him for guidance. Keep God in everything you do and He will continue to direct your path through life so you don’t have to make the big decisions. God gives us the ability to ignore his guidance and choose our own paths, but when we do we risk straying too far off the path that God has planned for us. When we wander too far off that path things start to go wrong in our lives and we tend to blame God for our problems. If we would just pay attention to the little voices in our head and use our God-given common sense to sort out the situation we can have happy lives, good relationships, and the inner peace that God has planned for us in the first place.

Romans 12:2  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Don’t succumb to peer pressure as this is usually the Devil trying to persuade you to deviate from Gods path for you and stray from his plan for your life. Test the waters before you dive in head first and use your best judgment to figure out if the journey you are about to embark on is guided by the Devil or God. God will always let you know that you have taken the correct path by rewarding you. Not always with big rewards like winning the lottery or getting a massive raise at work, but sometimes his reward to you is simply a smile or a kind word from a friend or passerby on the street.  Maybe you hear from an old friend that you have lost touch with years ago. This may be Gods way of guiding you down the path he wants you to go. God has brought this person into your life again as an example or to teach you a lesson. That lesson may not be evident at first but at some point will become clear to you just as The Lord has planned.

Romans 8:28  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Pray to the Lord and ask him to guide your path and be your GPS through life. He will not let you down. You may not understand why he has chosen a particular direction for you but trust that the path he leads you on is the correct one and will be to your advantage and to His glory. 

Blessed James of Voragine, B.C.O.P. also known as Giacomo da Varazze

James of Voragine has been beatified by the Church for the sanctity of his life. He lives in secular history for quite a different reason-he was a creative genius of his age. His so-called Golden Legends, which has enjoyed a circulation of nearly seven centuries, is only one of several projects which in his time, as in ours, are a tribute to the versatility of the man and the zeal of a saint.

Little is recorder of the childhood of James. He entered the order, in Genoa, and soon was known both for his virtue and for a singularly alert and practical mind. Tradition says that James was the first to translate the Bible into Italian. Whether this is true or not, it is ample evidence that he was a good scholar.

As Prior, provincial, and later Arch-Bishop, James gained a reputation for strict observance, heroic charity, and sound good sense. He was a builder where war had wrecked, a peace maker where others sowed trouble. He must of had a contagious zeal, for the wealthy gave to him as readily as the poor begged from him, and under his hand ruined churches and hospitals were built again, the sick and poor were cared for , and order was restored. He was a genius at getting things done; and , fortunately his whole heart was bent on doing for the glory of God.

Like others of his calling and training, James was first of all a preacher. For those many who could not read, one of the chief means of instruction was sermons which took their key note from the feast of the day. The saints, the stories of their live and examples of their virtues , became as much part of a Christians life as the people around him. The collection of stories – later called The Golden Legend – started as a series of sermons prepared by James for the various festival of the saints. Since he preached in Italian, rather than in Latin, his sermons had immense popular appeal, and they were rapidly copied by other preachers into all the languages of Europe. The Golden Legend was , next to the Bible, the most popular book of the middle ages.

James was rigorous in his observance of the Dominican Rule, which is of itself enough to canonize him. He had also the good sense to make use of changing trends to further the work of God. Today he would be using the radio, the press, the movies, and television; then he used what his century had to offer- sermons in the vernacular, religious drama, and music. How much present day drama and music owed to him, it would be impossible to say. There is an amusing story told of his efforts to fight fire with fire. He organized a troop of jugglers and acrobats from the student novices of San Eustorgio, in Milan, who were to mingle entertainment with doctrine in an effort to combat the indecency of the secular theater. This was one scheme which left no lasting effect on the order, but it does serve to show that James was a man of his times, alert to the changing needs of a fast moving world, and whole heartedly determined to win the world to the truth of the One Holy Catholic Faith by any honest means that came to hand.

Purity, poverty and charity were the outstanding virtues of this man whom the Church has seemed fit to enroll among Her blesseds. He will always be recognized in Dominican history as a man of many and peculiar gifts, who consecrated his talents to God, and, in trading with them , gained heaven.

Born: c.1230 at Varezze (modern Voragine), diocese of Savona, Italy (near Genoa)

Died: July 13, 1298

Beatified: 1816 by Pope Pius VII

Blessed Ignatius Delgado, Blessed Dominic Henares, O.P. & Companions, MM.

“This stranger, who was introduced clandestinely into the kingdom, spends his life in the study of things of the heart and in meditation on what is incomprehensible…(From the death sentence of Bishop Ignatius Delgado.)”

Continuing the saga of the martyrs of Tonkin, nearly a hundred years after the death of Blessed Peter Martyrs Sanz and companions, two more Dominicans bishops died for the faith . They were Bishop Ignatius Delgado and Bishop Dominic Henares. With them a tertiary catechist died, Francis Chien, and the group (beautified in 1900 by Pope Leo XIII) also includes a Spanish priest, Joseph Fernandez, Father Augustine Schoeffler of the Paris Foreign Mission Society, who was a Dominican Tertiary, and twenty-one native confraternity members.

Of the early years of these martyrs we know little. Both were born in Spain, Bishop Delgado in 1762 and Bishop Henares three years later. From the sentence of condemnation itself we learn that Bishop Delgado had labored for nearly fifty years in Tonkin, which argues that he must have been a resourceful man as well as a zealous one. In 1838 the two bishops and the catechist were captured, in a persecution recently stirred up by the mandarin. The prelates and a young priest had been hidden in the village of Kien-lao, and were accidentally betrayed by a little child who was cleverly questioned by a pagan teacher searching for the foreigners. Alarmed at the sudden activities, the captors of Bishop Delgado put him into a small cage which was locked around him, and then put into jail with criminals.

Communism had made us familiar with the type of questioning that Bishop Delgado had to face. A copy of his trial, which still existed a few years ago, showed that he answered truthfully and fearlessly where he himself was concerned, but that no amount of questioning or torture could make him reveal the whereabouts of his companions. A young priest in another place had taken to his heels when the alarm of the bishop’s arrest was heard, and was still at large. There was no proof that Bishop Henares had been caught, nor the catechists who worked with him. So Bishop Delgado, an old man of seventy six, endured the tortures rather than give any clue as to where they might be found.

The death sentence was passed on Bishop Delgado, and he was left in the open cage under the summer sun, to exist in misery until it should please the mandarin to kill him. Pagans jeered at him and threw waste in his face, and he was deprived of even the simplest necessities. Worn out by suffering but still silent as to his companions’ whereabouts, he died of dysentery before the mandarin was ready to behead him. The enraged solders cut off his head when they found that he had died, and threw the remains into a swift river. Fisherman promptly set about the dangerous business of rescuing the relics.

Bishop Henares was captured with a companion at the same time as Bishop Delgado. He had hidden himself in a boat, and the nervousness of the boatmen gave him away. Five hundred soldiers were detached to bring in the two “dangerous” criminals, the bishop and his catechist, Francis Chien. They too were questioned endlessly, and kept apart from Bishop Delgado. Two weeks after the death of the first bishop, the second was led out and beheaded in company with this catechist.

The relics of all three martyrs were recovered in part, and were honorably buried by the next Dominicans to come on the scene- Bishop Hermosilla and his companions, who would, as they knew, also be the next to die.

We have no information of the twenty-one members of the Confraternity of the Rosary who was honored with the three martyrs of 1838, nor about the Spanish Father Fernandez. Father Augustine Schoeffler of the Paris Foreign Mission Society should likewise hold a place of honor among Dominicans, as he was a Tertiary. Many of the records of these brave men were lost or deliberately destroyed, and many of them- we hope- may still be found in various neglected spots which war and trouble have caused to be overlooked.

Born: Spain: Bishop Ignatius Delgado (November 23, 1761 at Villafeliche, Spain), Dominic Henares (December 19, 1765 at Baena, Spain)

Died: July 12, 1838 of hunger and exposure in Vietnam (Ignatius Delgado), beheaded on June 25, 1838 in Vietnam (Dominic Henares, Francis Chien), Companions- various dates and unknown causes

Beatified: May 27, 1900 by Pope Leo XIII

Saint John of Cologne & Companions, MM.O.P.

The Reformation gained its foothold in the Netherlands in opposition to the Catholicism of the Spanish princes of the country–not primarily for religious, but rather for political reasons. Anti-Spanish and Calvinist soldiers banded together into lawless armies of pirates, and, unpaid and disillusioned, foraged for themselves in the seaports, looking for plunder.

Reproached by the clergy, they turned on the Church and one band of pirates led by the Gueux laid siege to the city of Gorkum, capturing it in June 26, 1572 after a struggle. For reprisal– because of the city’s determined defense–they gathered all members of the clergy in Gorkum into one miserable prison and set about taking revenge on the priests for their own grievances against the Spanish crown.

The priests were tortured, subjected to all kinds of indignities, and offered their freedom if they would abjure Catholic teaching on the Eucharist and the primacy of the pope. Angered by the endurance of the priests, the Calvinist increased their abuses. Some of the religious were very old and infirm, but one and all, even to an aged Augustinian who was so weak he could barely stand, they bore their martyrdom with patience and sweetness for ten terrible days.

They were repeatedly asked to deny the Real Presence, and just as repeatedly refused, which brought on more and more dreadful tortures. When they continued to refuse, despite a letter from Prince William of Orange ordering their release and protests from the magistrates of Gorkum, they were thrown half-naked into the hold of a ship on July 6, and taken to another city to be killed in the presence of a Protestant nobleman, Admiral Luney, a man noted for his hatred of Catholicism.

After being exhibited to the curious townspeople (who paid to see the spectacle) and subjected to every type of torture, the 19 priests and religious were hanged in an old barn at deserted Ruggen Monastery on the outskirts of Briel. Stripped of their habits and made, like their Master, “the reproach of men and the outcast of the people,” they benefited by their Christ-like sufferings and deaths. Their bodies, mutilated before or after death, were callously thrown into a ditch. The 19 martyrs included eleven Franciscans (called Recollects), two Premonstratensians, one Dominican, one canon regular of Saint Augustine, and four secular priests.

Two of those who died had led less than holy lives, but by their heroic constancy in the hour of trial blotted out the stains that might otherwise have kept them out of heaven. Sadly, there should have been 20 martyrs of Gorkum. One, who weakened and was released after he had denied the Real Presence, lived but 24 hours to enjoy his wretched freedom.

The other 19 gloriously went to heaven. The scene of the martyrdom soon became a place of pilgrimage, where all the Christian world reverenced the men who were so courageously obedient until death. Accounts of several miracles, performed by their intercession and relics, were used for their beatification and published by the Bollandists. Most of their relics are kept in the Franciscan church at Brussels to which they were secretly conveyed from Briel in 1616.

St. John’s companions were:

* Adrian Beanus, O. Praem.

* Adrian van Hilvarenbeek

* Fr. Andrew Wouters, OFM, was a priest at Heinot near Dortrecht. He led a scandalous life, but when the Calvinists tried to compel him to renounce the Catholic faith, he expiated his past by a brave confession, was imprisoned at Briel with the others and hanged.

* Fr. Antony van Hoornaer, OFM

* Fr. Antony van Weert, OFM

* Fr. Antony van Willehad, OFM, from Denmark

* Cornelius van Wyk (near Utrecht), OFM, was born at Dorestat near Utrecht. He took the Franciscan habit at Gorkum as a lay brother.

* Fr. Godefried of Mervel, OFM, was a painter and the custos of the Franciscan house at Gorkum.

* Fr. Godrey van Duynsen, native of Gorkum, was captured with Leonard Vechel and Nicholas Jannsen in Gorkum and sent to Briel, the Netherlands, where they were hanged. Previously, he had been the rector of a school in Paris.

James Lacops, O. Praem., was a native of Oudenarden, Flanders. He was a Norbertine at Middelburg and in 1566 apostatized, wrote, and preached against the Church. Then he repented, returned to his abbey, and was martyred by the Calvinists.

* Fr. Jerome Weerden, OFM, was born in Werden, the Netherlands, in 1522. He spent several years in Palestine as a Franciscan missionary. Jerome was a powerful preacher against Calvinism and at the time of his capture was the vicar of the friary of Gorkum under Saint Nicholas of Pieck.

* Fr. John van Hoornaer, OFM

* John van Oosterwyk, OSA, was a native of the Netherlands who joined the Augustinians at Briel. He was the director and confessor of a community of Augustinian nuns at Gorkum when the town was taken by the Calvinists.

* John of Cologne, OP, was a Dominican religious of his convent in Cologne, Germany who performed the duties of a parish priest in Horner, the Netherlands. When he heard of the plight of the poor priests captured in Gorkum, he left the relative safety of his parish and entered Gorkum in disguise to render whatever assistance he could. Several times he entered the city to dispense the sacraments, and to bring consolation to the priests who were being cruelly tortured. Eventually, he also was taken prisoner and subjected to torture.

* Leonard Vechel (Veehel, Wegel, Wichel), the elder pastor at Gorkum, was born in Bois-le-Duc, Holland. He studied in Louvain, where he earned a great reputation in his theological studies under the celebrated Ruard Tapper, was ordained, and became a parish priest at Gorkum known for his uncommon zeal, piety, eloquence, and learning. He had a remarkable ability to solve difficult problems. He tenderly cared for the poor, especially those that were sick, giving of himself as well as of his substance. He reproved vice without respect of persons, but his meekness and patience disarmed many who had been long deaf to remonstrations. He was in active opposition to Calvinism. He and his assistant Nicholas Jannsen Poppel of Welde, Belgium, were among those seized by a Calvinist mob at Gorkum.

* Fr. Nicholas Janssen Poppel (van Heeze), OFM, a native of Heeze, Brabant, from which he derived the name Nicasius van Heeze, was an associate pastor to Vechel. He was captured with his pastor, Leonard Vechel, and Godrey van Duynsen.

* Fr. Nicholas Pieck–Nicholas was the guardian of the Observant Franciscan house at Gorkum. This eminent, 38-year-old preacher was a native of the Netherlands who studied at Louvain and made missionary activities among the Calvinists his life’s work. He had an intense zeal for holy poverty and mortification, yet his constant cheerfulness rendered piety and penance itself amiable. He is known for repeating, “We must always serve God with cheerfulness.” Fr. Pieck had often expressed an earnest desire for martyrdom, but considered himself unworthy for that honor. He and four other priests were among the first seized when Calvinist forces opposed to the Spanish rule seized the town in June.

* Peter of Assche, OFM, from near Brussels, Belgium, was a Franciscan lay brother at Gorkum.

* Fr. Theodore van der Eem, OFM, from Amersfoort.

Born: Born in Germany in the 16th century

Died: burned, beaten, hanged and mutilated in 1572 at Gorkum, Holland

Canonized: Pope Pius IX canonized them in 1867.

Representation: elevating the Eucharist as he wears a rope around his neck

Blessed Pope Benedict XI, P.C.O.P.

Nicholas Boccasini was born into a poor family of which we know little else, though there are several different traditions concerning it. One claims that his father was a poor shepherd. Another that he was an impoverished nobleman. Whichever he was, he died when Nicholas was very small, and the little boy was put in the care of an uncle, a priest at Treviso.

The child proved to be very intelligent, so his uncle had him trained in Latin and other clerical subjects. When Nicholas was ten, his uncle got him a position as tutor to some noble children. He followed this vocation until he was old enough to enter the Dominican community at Venice in 1254. Here, and in various parts of Italy, Nicholas spent the next 14 years, completing his education. It is quite probable that he had Saint Thomas Aquinas for one of his teachers.

Nicholas was pre-eminently a teacher at Venice and Bologna. He did his work well according to several sources, including a testimonial from Saint Antoninus, who said that he had “a vast store of knowledge, a prodigious memory, a penetrating genius, and (that) everything about him endeared him to all.” In 1295, he received the degree of master of theology.

The administrative career of Nicholas Boccasini began with his election as prior general of Lombardy and then as the ninth master general of the Order of Preachers in 1296. His work in this office came to the notice of the pope, who, after Nicholas had completed a delicate piece of diplomacy in Flanders, appointed him cardinal in 1298.

The Dominicans hurried to Rome to protest that he should not be given the dignity of a cardinal, only to receive from the pope the mystifying prophecy that God had reserved an even heavier burden for Nicholas. As papal legate Nicholas traveled to Hungary to try to settle a civil war there.

Boniface VIII did not always agree with the man he had appointed cardinal-bishop of Ostia and dean of the sacred college. But they respected one another, and in the tragic affair that was shaping up with Philip the Fair of France, Cardinal Boccasini was to be one of only two cardinals who defended the Holy Father, even to the point of offering his life.

Philip the Fair, like several other monarchs, discovered that his interests clashed with those of the papacy. His action was particularly odious in an age when the papal power had not yet been separated completely from temporal concerns.

The French monarch, who bitterly hated Boniface, besieged the pope in the Castle of Anagni, where he had taken refuge, and demanded that he resign the papacy. His soldiers even broke into the house and were met by the pope, dressed in full pontifical vestments and attended by two cardinals, one of whom was Cardinal Boccasini. For a short time it looked as though the soldiers, led by Philip’s councilor William Nogaret, might kill all three of them, but they refrained from such a terrible crime and finally withdrew after Nicholas rallied the papal forces and rescued Boniface from Anagni.

Cardinal Boccasini set about the difficult task of swinging public opinion to the favor of the pope. Successful at this, he stood sorrowfully by when the pontiff died, broken-hearted by his treatment at the hands of the French soldiers. On October 22, 1303, at the conclave following the death of Boniface, the prophesied burden fell upon the shoulders of the cardinal-bishop of Ostia, who took the name Benedict XI.

The reign of Benedict XI was too short to give him time to work out any of his excellent plans for settling the troubles of the Church. Most of his reign was taken up with undoing the damage done by Philip the Fair. He lifted the interdict on the French people that had been laid down by his predecessor and made an uneasy peace with Philip. He worked to reconcile warring parties in Europe and the Church and to increase spirituality. His reign, short though it was, was noted for its leniency and kindness.

There are few personal anecdotes regarding Benedict, but at least one worth telling. Once, during his pontificate, his mother came to the papal court to see him. The court attendants decided that she was too poorly dressed to appear in the presence of the Holy Father, so they dressed her up in unaccustomed finery before allowing her to see her son. Benedict, sensing what had happened, told them he did not recognize this wealthy woman, and he asked them where was the little widow, pious and poorly dressed, whom he loved so dearly.

Benedict XI died suddenly in 1304. He had continued to the end with his religious observances and penances. Some people believed that he had been poisoned, but there has never been any evidence that this was the case. Many miracles were performed at his tomb, and there were several cures even before his burial.

Born: Born in Treviso, Italy, 1240

Papal Ascension: 1303

Died: died in Perugia, Italy, April 25, 1304

Beatified: beatified by Pope Clement XII in 1736

Representation: In art, Pope Benedict wears a Dominican habit and papal tiara, while holding the keys. He is venerated in Perugia.

Questions, Questions, Questions ~ The Very Rev. Terry Elkington

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

1: “We have freedom now, because Christ made us free. So stand strong.
Do not change and go back into the slavery of the law.”

13: “My brothers and sisters, God called you to be free, but do not use your freedom as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful self.
Serve each other with love.”

15: “If you go on hurting each other and tearing each other apart, be careful, or you will completely destroy each other.”

17: “Our sinful selves want what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is against our sinful selves.”

19-21: “The wrong things the sinful self does are clear: being sexually unfaithful, not being pure, taking part in sexual sins, 20worshiping gods, doing witchcraft, hating, making trouble, being jealous, being angry, being selfish, making people angry with each other, causing divisions among people, 21feeling envy, being drunk, have wild and wasteful parties, and doing other things like these. I warn you now as I warned you before: Those who do these things will not inherit God’s kingdom.”

22-23: “But the Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control.”

25: “We get our new life from the Spirit, so we should follow the Spirit.”

Please consider the questions I have proposed and their effect on your spiritual journey.

Are you making excuses? Are you stepping on toes as you push through your agenda in the name of Jesus? Has your passion for His kingdom created a bull-in-the-china-closet approach in your ministry? Have you enjoyed being righteous? Are all of your actions acceptable simply because you feel you are responding to God’s vision and plan for your life? Is your ministry so important that the end justify the means?

What was your latest battle? Who did you fight? Could there have been a different approach? Did blood have to flow or fur fly? How do you balance the importance of a ministry program that God has instilled in your heart with a loving spirit towards those who seemingly are standing in the way? How do you overcome barriers of resistance without injuring those in your path? How can you accomplish what God has called you to do if you are humbly stepping aside to avoid conflict?

Are you causing divisions among people? Are your actions tearing down the kingdom while your words attempt to build it up? Are you doing more harm than good? Do you realize that one harmful act can undo years of ministry efforts?

Is the Spirit producing good in your life? Can others see evidence of Him working in you? If the leaders of your church were putting together a list of people whose lives exhibited goodness from being Spirit-led, would your name appear? After this reflection, what steps should you take to allow Christ’s transforming love into your heart?
Should you find new ways to be sensitive to His Spirit to insure you are following Him every step of the way? Should you constantly pray for God to reveal your faults and mend your spirit?

 

Blessed Antony Della Chiesa, C.O.P.

Antony was born into the nobility, the family of the Marquis della Chiesa, and a collateral ancestor of Pope Benedict XV. He was well educated. Showing a taste early in life for he things of God, he grew up with the hope of becoming a religious. His father, who was a man of some importance, opposed this wish. Not until Antony was 22 was he able to make the break with his family and enter the monastery at Vercelli.

Here he distinguished himself for both sanctity and learning. Being a good preacher, he was for some years the companion of Saint Bernardine of Siena, in his missionary journeys through Italy. Antony was prior at the friaries of Como, Savona, Florence, and Bologna.

Antony gives us a picture of one who followed the Dominican life perfectly, managing, most of the time, to escape public notice. There is in his life very little of the glamorous or the unusual. He kept the rule, was a good superior, and a just administrator. Shunning applause, he was always serene.

The legends mention that he was particularly devoted to Our Lady, which is something one takes for granted in a Dominican, and that he conversed with her, in ecstasy, several times. He had the gift of reading hearts and was a sought-after director of souls. He also healed many sick people with his blessing. However, if any miracles are ordinary ones, these may be so described; they could be given as typical of most of early Dominicans.

At one time, Antony was on a ship that was captured by pirates, but at his prayer, the pirates spared the passengers and brought them safely to land. One of the very few things of unusual nature that in Antony’s life is a legend told of him when he was prior of Savona. It makes a lovely ghost story, and it also provides food for thought.

According to the story, Antony was praying one night in the church. Disturbed by the sound of horses hooves clattering on the flagstones outside, he went to see who could possibly be there at such a late hour. There were several horsemen, all mounted on black horses. He addressed them, but received no answer. Thinking that they might be foreigners, he tried several languages, and still there was no response.

Aware, then, that something was wrong, he commanded them in the name of the Lord to tell him who they were and where they were going. They said that they were devils, and that they were on their way to meet the soul of a dying sinner, a usurer, and escort him to hell. “I will pray for him,” said Antony. The demons laughed and told him he was too late. “Then at least come back and tell me whether you succeed or not,” said the prior.

A short while later, the group returned, and they had succeeded. They held the unhappy usurer captive, and, while the prior watched in horror, they bore him off. The man was screaming. The next day, the usurer’s relatives came to arrange an elaborate funeral. “You would do much better to have Masses said for yourselves and other poor sinners,” he said.

Antony died at Como and was buried there in the Dominican church Miracles at his tomb led to his beatification.

Born: in San Germano, near Vercelli, the Piedmont, Italy, in 1395;

Died: Como, Italy, January 22, 1459;

Beatified: 1819 by Pope Pius VII

A New Novice

It is with the utmost joy that we announce the Novitiate of Br. Michael Scott Brown.  Br. Scott has completed his Postulancy and expressed his desire to enter the Order as a Novice.  Please continue to keep Br. Scott in your prayers as he continues his studies for profession, as well as his studies for Ordination to the Diaconate.

Blessed Innocent V., P.C.O.P. Memorial Day: June 22nd

Peter of Tarentaise was barely 10 years old when he was admitted to the Dominican Order by Blessed Jordan of Saxony as a boy-novice and sent to Paris to study. Like Saint Thomas Aquinas, Blessed Ambrose of Siena, and other luminaries of the 13th century, he fell under the masterly tutelage of Saint Albert the Great.

He received his master’s degree in theology in 1259, then he taught for some years in Paris, where he contributed a great deal to the order’s reputation for learning. He wrote a number of commentaries on Scripture and the Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, but he devoted most of his time to the classroom. He soon became famous as a preacher and theologian, and in 1259, with a committee including his friend Thomas Aquinas, composed a plan of study that is still the basis of Dominican teaching.

At age 37, Peter began the long years of responsibility in the various offices he was to hold in his lifetime as prior provincial of France. He visited on foot all Dominican houses under his care, and was then sent to Paris to replace Thomas Aquinas at the University of Paris. Twice provincial, he was chosen archbishop of Lyons in 1272 and administered the affairs of the diocese for some time, though he was never actually consecrated for that see.

The next year Peter was appointed cardinal-archbishop of Ostia, Italy, while still administering the see of Lyons. With the great Franciscan, Saint Bonaventure, assumed much of the labor of the Council of Lyons to which Saint Thomas was hastening at the time of his death. To the problems of clerical reform and the healing of the Greek schism the two gifted friars devoted their finest talents. Before the council was over, Bonaventure died, and Peter of Tarentaise preached the funeral panegyric.

In January 1276, Peter was with Blessed Pope Gregory X when the latter died at Arezzo. The conclave was held in the following month. On January 21, 1276, Peter of Tarentaise received every vote except his own. With a sad heart, he left the seclusion of his religious home to ascend the Fisherman’s Throne as Pope Innocent V.

The reign of the new pope, which promised so much to a harassed people, was to be very brief. But, imbued with the spirit of the early apostles, he crowded a lifetime into the short space given him.

He instigated a new crusade against the Saracens and began reforms in the matter of regular observance. He actually succeeded in solving many of the questions of the Greek schism and in establishing a short-lived truce. He struggled to reconcile the Guelphs and Ghibellines, restored peace between Pisa and Lucca, and acted as mediator between Rudolph of Hapsburg and Charles of Anjou. He restored the custom of personally assisting at choral functions with the canons of the Lateran, and he inspired all with the love that animated his heart.

Had the measures begun by Innocent V had time to be fully realized, he might have accomplished great good for the Church; he did at least open the way for those who were to follow him. Death stopped the hand of the zealous pope when he had reigned only five months. Like his friends Saint Thomas and Saint Bonaventure, he was untouched by the honors and dignity with which he had been favored, and death found him exactly what he had been for more than 40 years–a simple, humble friar.

Born: 1245 at Tarentaise, Burgundy, France as Petrus a Tarentasia

Papal Ascension: 1276

Died: 1277 at Rome of natural causes

Beatified: cult was confirmed by Leo XIII in 1898