Novena to St Dominic - Day 2: The paradox of the Cross

Novena to St Dominic

31^st July 2018, Day 2

“For everything there is a season,

and a time for every matter under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; …

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; …

A time to mourn, and a time to dance; …

A time to love, and a time to hate …”  (Ecclesiastes, cf 3:1-9)                        

There is never, however,

a time to despair, and no matter how challenging or

God-less the time in which we find ourselves seems to be,

we are called at all times to be creatures of hope.

St Dominic’s time was not more desperate than ours, yet more than anything it could be said of him that he was a man of hope because of his amazing confidence in God and of his reverence for the length to which Christ went, in order to save us.

The paradox of the Cross:

A place of failure and of triumph;

A place of horror and also of indescribable love.

Pope St John Paul II frequently spoke and wrote of JESUS as the answer to all the questions man seeks an answer to, in order the better to know and understand himself and how to be human.

We could say that the shape of all the answers we seek, is the shape of the Cross.  … … … Difficult to gaze upon, and difficult to understand, and extremely difficult to reconcile with love – especially with divine love.  It is, nevertheless, the shape of all the answers we seek, and St Dominic knew and understood this so well, from the many hours he spent contemplating it. For the Cross is, among other things, also the shape of wisdom, which, when we put it on, becomes the shape of the freedom which is so essential to enabling us to be truly human.

To know that we are children of God is wisdom.  To have the courage to live according to this knowledge is holiness and a grace that we have only to ask for, to receive it. 

St Dominic embraced this truth all his life and lived it in union with the Lord whom he served so devotedly in his preaching and in his unceasing prayer.

The book of Ecclesiasticus encourages us with the following ‘thought’:

            “… wisdom is like her name, and is not manifest to many.

            … Put your feet into her fetters, and your neck into her collar.

            Put your shoulder under her and carry her, and do not fret under her bonds.

            Come to her with all your soul, and keep her ways with all your might.

            Search out and seek, and she will become known to you; and when you get hold of her, do

                                                                                                                                    not let her go.

            For at last, you will find the rest she gives, and she will be changes into joy for you.

            Then her fetters will become for you a strong protection, and her collar a glorious robe.

            Her yoke is a golden ornament, and he bonds are a cord of blue.

            You will wear her like a glorious robe, and put her on like a crown of gladness”

Cf Sir 6:22-31 (RSVCE).

This is the Cross Dominic wore: a Cross of wisdom and of truth; of triumph and of glory; a Cross of Divine power and love: the Cross of Christ.

3rd Sunday of Advent, Year A - Gaudate Sunday

Wait for the Lord

We are waiting for the Lord like the farmer from today’s second reading from the letter of St. James:   

“Be patient … think of a farmer how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground.  … You too have to be patient; do not lose heart, because the Lord’s coming will be soon.”

Several months ago we received the gift of avocados, and I kept the stone to see if it would grow into a tree.  I was told how to plant it – that half the stone must be above water; while half must be covered with water, so I took a plastic container with a lid, in which I cut a hole the same size as my avocado stone, and I filled the container with water.  The stone was secure in the hole, half submerged, half dry.  I had done as much as I could to help it grow and now there was nothing I could but wait.  From time to time I would add more water to the container, like the autumn rains and spring rains.  And I waited.

At the end of a month, nothing seemed to be any different, … all my patience!

No signs of life at all – the stone wasn’t getting any bigger … but I continued to add more water, still nothing.

And then … finally the stone started cracking – it almost split in two!  In my ignorance I thought this meant that it was dead.  But I was hesitant to lose faith, so I did not immediately throw it away.  Then, from the crack, I saw a single root begin to grow; then after some more time, a leaf appeared.  And so it had not died after all!

Now it was big enough to be transplanted into a pot with earth.  And it continues to grow nicely.

The same happens in the life of faith, when we wait for the Lord. After the excitement of encountering the Lord in our faith, the time comes when everything seems somehow lifeless – nothing is growing in our eyes, visibly.  We may go to pray and nothing seems to be happening.  We need to be cracked and broken, like the avocado – or we would die inside.  We need to watch and wait and wait and watch for Him: not to look for entertainment in anybody or anything else.  Just wait for Him.

For He will come: it could take until the very end – even the day of our death, when He will come, but He will surely come.  We need only to wait patiently for Him.

                                                                                                                                    

Reflection on St Dominic (9)

On preparing this reflection, it struck me that all the Readings at Mass this morning, (19th Sunday of the Year, Cycle C) including the psalm, could be applied to the person of Dominic and the mission and foundation of the Order.

The first Reading from the Book of Wisdom is about trusting God and joyfully having the courage to do what God asks, enduring the dangers and hardships as well as the blessings that this work of God might entail. Dominic had a tremendous trust in God. He realised the power of the Scriptures, the word/Word of God in transforming lives and the need for preaching the truth regardless of danger and opposition from heretics. He was passionately concerned with the salvation of  all people. Dominic had this tremendous, genuine love for people – he cared deeply for them. We are told that “his heart was full of an extraordinary, almost incredible, yearning for the salvation of everyone”. ( Libellus 34)

We know he was steeped in Sacred Scripture and had the Gospel of Matthew and the letters of St Paul almost off by heart, so well did he know them and preach them. To emphasise this, one of our antiphons at the Office of Readings reads:

“Proclaim the word, convince, rebuke, encourage with patience in teaching; put up with hardship and do the work of an evangelist.”

Among many instances recorded in the life of Dominic, the story is told of St. Dominic and his companions being purposely led astray by a heretic, whom they thought was a Catholic. On enquiring of him the directions to the place where a debate was to be held with the heretics, he led them or more correctly misled them (barefoot as they were) through thorns and brambles so that their feet and ankles were covered with blood after a short time. Dominic bore all of this with unruffled patience, breaking forth joyfully at times into the divine praises and exhorting his companions to do the same. “Be of good cheer, dear brethren”, he would say, “put all your trust in God, for our sins have now been all wiped out in our blood, and the victory will surely be ours.”  The victory was theirs indeed as the heretic seeing Dominic’s marvellous endurance, and the joyful forbearance of the whole company, had a change of heart and confessed his deceit.

As the commentary in today’s Sunday Newsletter states, ‘Saints take risks, They put their hands into the hand of Jesus of Nazareth whom they believe has called them to new missions in the Church. They are open to whatever might unfold, and to its consequences. Like Abraham in the second Reading, Dominic was called to leave his homeland in Spain and follow the Lord step by step so that he was gradually called  to found monasteries in Prouilhe, Rome, Madrid and Bologna and priories in theses same places as well as Paris, - founding a preaching Order which was unique at the time, as up until then only bishops had the authority to preach.

Finally, all the instructions given in today’s Gospel, were practised by Dominic. For example we are instructed to ‘sell our possessions and give alms’. Dominic does exactly this while a student – selling his beloved books (when books were so scarce and expensive) in a time of famine so that he could buy food for the poor. Our 2^nd Antiphon over the psalms tomorrow evening reads;

“Moved by compassion and love, Dominic sold his books and possessions and gave the money to the poor.”

It is remarkable how one of our hymns in St. Dominic’s Mass, depicting the attributes of St. Dominic uses phrases from this particular Gospel passage. I refer to the passage:

 “What sort of steward, then, is faithful and wise enough for the Master to place him over his household to give them their allowance of food at the proper time.”

Dominic certainly was this faithful and wise steward of the Lord’s who responded to the promptings of the Holy Spirit his whole life long and had a profound love for Christ, a deep faith and a sure hope that entrusted the future to the love and great mercy of God.

I pray, through the intercession of St. Dominic, that all of us may be given the grace to grow ever more deeply in love with our Saviour, Jesus Christ, grow in faith, hope and love, and respond generously to the daily promptings of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God and the salvation of all people. Amen

5th Sunday of the Year

 

LIGHT for the World

... YOU!

 

This morning in all the readings at Holy Mass, we heard that the effect and the fruit of all our acts of charity is light.

And throughout the books of the Bible, we come across this idea or image of light as being always something by which we can see the truth, see in truth. 

Light and truth, then, go together ... and when we meet Jesus, at last, in the Gospels ... and when we are aware of His nearness to us in our own lives - we know that Light and Truth are a Person:

the One who is our God.

 

So, God who is Light, is also the Creator of all light, and in this morning's Gospel, Jesus said to His disciples:

 

"You are the light of the world ...

No one lights a lamp

to put it under a tub ..."

 

These words are very striking and powerful if we put God in the place of the "one" who "lights a lamp," because in doing so,

you see ...



 

YOU are the lamp He has lit - YOU are the light of the world ...  God did not 'light' you up so as to hide you under a tub!  God created you to shine, and to shine for everyone.

 

So, it seems that in a world where belief in God is not often highly regarded and is at times even scorned - for us who believe, Jesus is setting before us an invitation and a challenge. 

 

 

We are to believe fearlessly and unashamedly in the Light - Light that is Him, and also Him in us.  We have been so filled with Him that He cannot be contained in us.  He dares us to know, to believe and to accept, that despite all the sin and imperfections, He has made us to shine for His glory:

for His love embraces all our weakness

and fear and makes us to shine ever more

brightly,

offering to us and to everyone around us life, hope and divine love.

 

 

      

 May the LORD grant us to dare

     to do and to be

        goodness:

     in a world that seems

     overwhelmingly attracted

      to darkness and to death.

 

     May the Light who is Christ,

     the Light in us who is Christ,

    grant us to see the way of Truth

    and hold fast to His promise

     of light and life without end.





Novena to St Catherine - Day 6

 

In this Year of Faith, St. Catherine’s teaching on faith in the following letter can be helpful to all of us as we ponder her words:

Letter T 31 to Madonna Mitarella

March 1373

In the name of Jesus Christ crucified and of gentle Mary.

Dearest and very loved mother and sister in Christ gentle Jesus, I Caterina, useless servant of Jesus Christ, send you greetings and encouragement in his precious blood. I long to see you a faithful servant in God’s sight, firm in the faith that gives joy and happiness to our soul. We must have the sort of faith our Saviour spoke of: “If you had faith as small as a grain of mustard seed and you commanded this mountain, it would move.” I beg you, dearest sister, to keep living in this faith.

You wrote me that because of what has happened, you are placing your faith and confidence only in the prayers of God’s servants. I beg you then, in the name of God and of our gentlest love Jesus Christ, to stand firm in this sweet holy faith. Oh sweet life-giving faith! If you persevere in that faith, sadness will never overtake your heart. For sadness comes only from putting our trust in creatures. But creatures are frail, lifeless things that sooner or later fail, and our heart can never rest except in what is stable and secure. When we set our heart on other people it is not set on anything stable, for a human being is alive today and tomorrow is dead. So, if we wish to have peace we must rest our heart and soul with faith and love in Christ crucified. Only then will our soul find complete happiness. O Jesus, dearest love! 

If you want to give life to this holy faith, I ask you to keep two things in mind. The first is that God cannot will anything but our good. To give us that true good – because through sin we had lost it – he gave himself even to the shameful death of the cross. Graciously he humbled himself to restore that grace to us and to do away with our pride. How true it is then that God wills only our good! The second thing to keep in mind is this: I want you to believe that truly nothing happens to us except by God’s will and permission –death or life, sickness or health, riches or poverty, even the wrongs done us by friends or relatives or anyone else. Not a leaf falls from a tree without his consent. God gives us what we can bear and no more.

If you believe that God wants only our good, you will stay perfectly happy. Be comforted in Christ crucified, and don’t be afraid.

Gentle God, give us death rather than let us offend you!

Novena to St Dominic - Day 5

One of the things that strikes me about Dominic is his openness to God’s will and his willingness to take the step he sees in faith without a clear vision of where it will finally lead. As Augusta Drane says in her account of his life:

“His call was not sudden, or miraculous, or even extraordinary; it was that which is the likeliest to come to people like ourselves; particular impressions of mind were given just at the time when circumstances combined together gradually to develop the way in which those impressions could be carried out. He was always being led forward, not knowing there whither he went. As sub-prior of Osma he probably saw nothing before him but the ordinary community life of the cathedral chapter. Then came the journey to Denmark, on a mission whose ostensible object was a failure, but whose real end in the design of God was accomplished when it brought him into the presence of the heresy which it was his destiny to destroy. Yet though we have reason to believe that from the time of his first collision with the Albigenses a very clear and distinct idea was formed in his mind of some future apostolate of preaching, it is evident that he had no equally clear and determinate view in what direction he was to work; … He was on the road back to his old home, preparing to take up again the old duties and the old life which had been interrupted by two years, rich with new thoughts and hopes now, it seemed, to be forever abandoned; and then when he had made what was probably a painful sacrifice of great desires, those mysterious orderings of Providence, which we call chance and coincidence, had prepared for him, under the walls of Montpellier, a combination of events which was to make all clear.” And mark the beginning of his preaching mission.

This, I think, is reflected in our Lord’s teaching "Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have shown you are trustworthy in small things; I will trust you with greater; (Mt 25:21) As we proceed step by step doing (and seeking) God’s will, we are drawn more fully into His plan. While this is particularly important in discerning a Vocation it is necessary at all times and for everyone. In this dark time in Ireland we do well to remember that the first 10 years of Dominic’s preaching mission were marked by little or no progress or success. He committed himself to living what he recognised as God’s will and waited further guidance. It is that faithfulness to God’s will that counts and bears fruit in ways we might never even see: “one sows, another reaps” (Jn 4:37)