Jan 16 Fursey 7th c

Thom and Jack
Good morning, I love you

It is like a prayer: a mantra. ‘Good morning, I love you’ better ingrains in me the spirit of my desires and intentions. Like the song says, the secret of a father’s love is that a father’s love is forever – no matter what: a father’s love, The Father’s Love.

I also believe another phrase I use over and over again – you are the world’s best brothers. Not only because you are your only brothers. You have grown up [have you grown up?] together, loving one another, supporting one another, cheering one another on: like brothers are supposed to do. In good times and bad. When you like what’s happening and when you don’t. You are there for one another, created for one another, no matter what. Only sons can live a father’s love. Such love starts, I believe, as a brother’s love: no matter what.

You are there to help one another become saints. To do what’s right and good: to follow The Father’s Will. No small part of your responsibility as brothers – and this’ll help you become better husbands and fathers – is to admonish one another when you do something wrong, when you’re not doing things you’re supposed to.

Tonight, as the Chargers look like they’re going to beat the Colts, we have three brothers who became saints. In the brotherly tradition, in our Irish way of life, there’s no doubt that these boys played hard together, competed, challenged one another, fought more than once - - because they loved God, loved their parents, loved their family, and loved one another. They must have also chided one another, must have kicked one another’s butt, must have cajoled, must have pleaded, must have dedicated themselves to helping, insisting, their brothers stop doing what’s wrong and put their energy into doing what’s right and good.


January 16

Fursey d. 648

Fursey was born on the island of Inisguia en Lough Carri, Ire¬land, as a noble. Noble as in royalty. You, too/two had a noble birth, but no royalty. You were a gift with four fives – five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot: healthy babies, Deo Gratias.

Fursey was the son of Fintan, son of Finloga, prince of South Muster, and Gelgesia, daughter of Aedhfinn, prince of Hy-Briuin in Connaught. You too are fortunate to know who your parents and grandparents are. We can pursue our lineage much further back. You should get to know your heritage better by praying for your parents, your grandparents, your extended family living and dead, every day. Ora pro nobis.

Being born royal meant being born to lead: to do what you could for God, family, Church, community. We are each baptized King, our own royalty with similar duties. Your aspirations should be to be the Servant King: to do what you can with all your gifts and resources to best serve God and His people.

Fursey was baptized by St. Brendan the Traveller, his father's uncle, who then ruled a monastery in the Island of Inisquin in Lough Corrib. You were baptized by Rev. Kevin O’Connell, S.J., your father’s friend from my novitiate days. Kevin has not become legendary like Brendan but he too has been a traveler. Among other things, he’s a Weston/Harvard trained theologian; chairman of Dept of Theology at John Carroll University; President of [I’m blocking on the Jesuit university in Syracuse, oh yeh, LeMoyne! ]; he spent much time in the middle east as an archeologist and now is a priest there for Jordanian Catholics.

St. Brendan's monks educated Fursey. You have not yet had the opportunity to be educated by Jesuits, except indirectly through me. It’s an opportunity you should not miss. You should read Ignatius and about the founding Jesuits. You should take the opportunity of a 30 day retreat. You should read about the Jesuit saints. You should read the writings of the Jesuit philosophers, theologians, historians, etc. etc. I recommend the magazine America to you. I suggest you try Commonweal. I’m not keen on it but you may like it.

When of proper age he embraced the religious life in the same monastery under the Abbot St. Meldan, his "soul-friend" (anam-chura). Amam-chura must be more than, different from ‘soul mate.’ I’ll let you look it up.

Fursey’s great sanctity was early discerned. How great is your sanctity? How do you discern it? How do others? It is easier and, I believe, better to develop your sanctity within the Church, within your duties as Catholic sons, under the nurturing and watchful eye of a spiritual director/confessor: if not within a monastery or a Catholic home or Catholic school then definitely with the aid of a confessor. At 21/23 it seems that it is still early to judge your sanctity. But, as the readings for this First Sunday of Advent remind us, we do not know when He will come for us. I submit we definitely do not have as much time as we think we do. Primarily because the time is not ours to begin with.

Fursey founded Killursa Abbey. Fursey built on his royalty, he expanded his clan, he answered God’s call and amplified it to call others. Aspirants came in numbers to place themselves under his rule. You are known by those who come to you, to place themselves under your leadership, under your care, under your patronage, under your tutelage. No doubt Fursey’s sanctity was his principle draw. How are you known?

Fursey went home to persuade more of his family to join him in faith and, in particular, in developing the monastery. You too have a duty to evangelize your family, to encourage them to join you in our faith, to help you pursue your discernment God’s will. On this journey, Fursey experienced the first of many visions and ecstasies to come.

In one vision it was revealed to him the state of man in sin, the beauty of virtue. Fursey heard the angelic choirs singing "the saints shall go from virtue to virtue, the God of Gods will appear in Sion". An injunction was laid on him by the two angels who restored him to the body to become a more zealous labor in the harvest of the Lord. You may not have visions and you may not experience ecstasies. However, you can be sure that God reveals to you the beauty of virtue and the state of sin in which man finds himself. Continue your prayer of discernment.

Fursey also saw Sts. Meldan and Beoan. They entertained him with much spiritual instruction about the duties of ecclesiastics and monks, the dreadful effects of pride and disobedience, the heinousness of spiritual and internal sins. Wouldn’t you just love to have been sitting on a tree stump with Fursey while this was going on? Seeing along with him what the saints who preceded him imparted? Well, that’s what books help you do: and prayer: and study: and listening to the homilies as well as taking classes.

You might not be in a position to reform the practices of priests and monks but you do have responsibility to those around you to exhort them to live a life consistent with the Will of God. Learn from Fursey what the priests and monks needed for instruction then apply that to your environs.

Pride and disobedience have dreadful effects. The inertia of these sins further separates you from God, family, Church, community each day.

It seems redundant to say that spiritual and internal sins are heinous. Just because you think others do not see your sins, don’t forget, God, like Santa Claus, knows when you are naughty. It is the underlying heart of the matter that makes all the difference in what you do, don’t do, and the merit or demerit you get for it. It is in the heart where God resides; where God looks for conversion; where God shares The Father’s Love.

Fursey’s brothers Foillan and Ultan then joined him at his monastery. Fursey, however, seems to have renounced the administration of the monastery. Fursey devoted himself to preaching throughout the land, frequently exorcising evil spirits. Fursey apparently had a passion for bringing the Gospel to the Irish. Fired up by The Spirit, you too should be bringing our faith to those around you.

I’ve counseled many clinicians who were rising up the organizational and professional hierarchies. At some point, we clinicians have to decide if we are to be administrators/managers or people of direct service. It becomes a career choice loaded with ego and monetary as well as impact and service implications. Neither path is better than the other. I submit that they are mutually exclusive for the person who wishes to excel in his contributions. They certainly require different, sometimes conflicting, attitudes, perceptions, priorities, inclinations. These are some reasons why I maintain that I lead the psychiatric service from the treatment team - I remain grounded in the hub of clinical activity in order to lead the larger organization.

In yet an other vision some twelve months later, an instructed him for his preaching. The angel prescribed for Fursey twelve years of apostolic labor in Ireland. This Fursey faithfully fulfilled. You won’t likely get God’s will for you so clearly specified by an angel. You must however use your gifts and your resources to discern God’s will and follow it. No doubt twelve years seemed like an eternity for ole footloose Fursey. One lesson: he did it.

Fursey then stripped himself of all earthly goods and retired for a time to a small island in the ocean. Not unlike Jesus, Fursey paused in his life before his next major decision. He fulfilled the mission the angle gave him. What next? Fursey did not ask himself that question. He asked God. He stripped himself of all possible distractions and prayed – he eliminated the distractions so that he might better discern the will of God, hear the voice of God telling him what next.


Fursey went with his brothers and other monks, bringing with him the relics of Sts. Meldan and Beoan, through to East Anglia where he was honorably received by King Sigebert in 633. Here he labored for some years converting the Picts and Saxons. He also received King Sigebert into the one True Faith.

First Fursey started close to home. You’re at an early stage. You have had the opportunity to discover your vocation and nurture your gifts and take advantage of your resources close to home. Now is your time to lay a foundation. The next step may be to step further out from under the apron. Go to another place with your friends, colleagues, maybe even a gaggle of disciples. Fursey headed east. Once you are stable on your foundation of faith and self, look around and listen. Go to where you are called.

Fursey reached another plateau in his vocation. He retired for one year to live with Ultan the life of an anchorite.

Fursey apparently wasn’t called to stay in one place. Not a bad trait. It does, I suggest create more challenges than staying put. Suum cuique.

Fursey arrived in Normandy in 648. Fursey built a monastery at Lagny, near Paris, France. Along the way, Fursey raised the son of a Duke from the dead. He cured many infirmities. By miracles he converted many people, including a robber who attacked the monks.

St. Bede and others wrote about Fursey’s intense ecstasies. Prayer is our attempt to become closer to God. Ecstasy is one gift from God when we become exquisitely close to Him. Not only were Fursey’s intense, they were frequent. You get close to someone by spending time with them; by thinking about them; by frequently eliciting from your heart your loving feelings about them. It is by this kind of praying always that you develop with God your opportunity to experience a greater closeness with Him in this world.


Ultan –

Unfortunately, I did not find a bio of Ultan. Sorry.



Foillan –

The Catholic Encyclopedia online has a long blurb on this brother. I’ll come back to him later.


Til then,
I love you,
Dad
101128, 2334

Jan 15 John Calabites

Jack and Thom
Good morning, I love you

Some of us find our vocation young. E.g., your uncle wanted to be a pilot since before I can remember. Me, every year when we came to New York City for Christmas I had a different answer to the annual question – what do you want to be when you grow up. I still don’t have the same answer year after year: month to month. I recommend your uncle’s strategy. The life of a successful ant not the whirl wind of a grasshopper’s existence.

January 15

John Calabites d. 450

John Calabites was born in Constantinople to a wealthy family. You were born in Nashville to parents doing pretty well on one man’s income. Three squares and a roof over our head, as Grandpa often said.

John Calabites became a hermit at the age of twelve. I can’t imagine. At twelve I was in the seventh grade. As much as I wanted to live my own life and would have been willing to live all by myself in a small hut, I couldn’t fathom living on my own in the wild, especially in the Maine woods.

After six years John Calabites returned to his family’s estate as a beggar. They did not recognize him. It is probably a good thing that you’re not recognized by your family when you return after six years on your own. First, of course, you have to do the six years on your own. It will change you. You will become the man of your independent efforts. A new person. If you live like John Calabites did for those six years, pursuing union with God, you will return a better man. You may be a stranger to your family but you will be received like the holy beggar who came to John Calabites’ family’s estate.

The family of the estate gave John Calabites a calybe, a small hut, to live in. This tells us as much about the family in which John Calabites grew up in as it does about John Calabites himself. Do you want to be known for a family who will receive a stranger, a beggar onto their estate, provide him with a hut to live in, give him the leeway to pursue his vocation? Pray for us that we might be such parents.

John Calabites became famous for his prayers and penances. A person in a small hut became famous for his prayers and his penances. To be even noticed by passersby would have been remarkable. But when he was discovered, people took note. Do passersby notice you? What do they see? About what do they remark? Your prayers? Will your children see enough of your praying to say you are famous to them for your prayers? Will your family know enough about your penances to say you are famous to them for your penances? If not, then I suggest you ratchet it up a little.

John Calabites resided in the little hut on his family’s estate until his death when his identity was at last revealed to his mother. What does this say about his mother? She did not recognize the holy beggar as her son. She did not recognize the prayerful man as her son. She did not recognize the man of penance as her son. [You see, the gestalt training I got draws me to all the personae in a scene.] Do you avoid your faith, your vocation, your Church, the will of God, your pursuit of prayer and penance because you are afraid your mother will not recognize you?

Do you remember that the name John means Gift of God? It does. You are. You both are! Deo Gratias.

I love you,
Dad
101128, 1542

Jan 15 Ita 6th c

Jack and Thom
Good Morning, I love you

Is being Eucharistic Minister like being an altar boy like playing at being priest? The altar boy period, fifth grade through sophomore year was a play at being priest. A prep of myself toward becoming a priest. It was a rise through service to leadership. It was a ‘here I am doing sumthin you ain’t.’ ‘I learned the Latin, you din’t.’ I tell you, learning the rituals and priests’ peccadilloes was much tougher than memorizing the Latin.

[The publicity of men who were “abused” as altar boys would make you think it was a common, every day, every priest, every kid sort of thing. Let’s not let data dissuade our misbeliefs. Plus, it did not happen to me. It did not happen to anyone I knew – and as head altar boy for two years, I knew all the altar boys in the parish. I did not hear about it happening to any boy, not even a whispered rumor – and we had plenty of rumors about our priests. Maybe being fat and ugly had its advantages.]

Being an altar boy is genuinely a life time duty and opportunity. Look at any daily mass, even some of the Sunday Masses, see all the old guys helping out when there are no children or a deacon. It was a privilege to be assigned altar boy duty in the novitiate: except for it usually being a six a.m. Mass in a private chapel. There must have been more than a dozen priests at the novitiate for the sixty or seventy novices and juniors. It’s not about making like a priest any more. It’s the ingrained attitude of service to our priest. (For whom do you have that ingrained attitude?)

I ask the EM question because I’m doing that this evening. As a child, we paraded up to the altar rail, knelt hip to hip, as three or four priests with the altar boy and his paten, zipping along the row putting the host on our outstretched tongue. [I tell you from my altar boy experience, tongues are not pretty; and there are some very ugly specimens of tongue out there. The circumstance of ‘the tongue’ would make a ‘metamorphosis’ type short story. Think about all you know about tongues. And if you don’t know a lot about tongues, I recommend against having one stuck into your mouth.]

With Vatican II, we returned to receiving communion under both species. Even in my childhood there would not have been enough priests to do both the host and the wine and get us out of church in less than five hours. So, the Church rejuvenated the ‘extraordinary minister of the Eucharist.’ The priest and deacon are the ordinary ministers. Unlike some protestant denominations, we don’t take our cup of wine, we receive the body and blood of Christ. For us to receive it, we have to have some one to give it. Notice, not even the EMs take the chalice from the altar. The priest gives it to us. We receive as an intermediary for others to receive.

Look at the people who are EMs. Men and women of all sizes, shapes, ages, and, sometimes, colors. [Not much diversity in the parishes of Greensboro. But we do have our ‘black’ church so everyone’s covered.] Are these people looking to play like priests? Or fulfilling their baptismal priestliness? Or wanting to serve from the front of the church? Look around in the parish. It is those who serve who are the leaders.

It is a privilege to be a EM. The piety and the personal ecstasies that people display, that EMs get to see up close and personal, are a privilege totally unanticipated when I started doing this in the novitiate. I didn’t realize it then. I didn’t see but flashes of it for the longest time. Now I see it commonly in the eyes, on the faces of the people who come to receive from us the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

But I digress. Today we’re up to the 15th of January. St Ita. Have you known an Ita? I haven’t. If you have, the name probably flowed from this saint. She is also known as Midre and Deidre. I have known a Deidre. Only one. Dee for short. She wasn’t short, though. An attractive woman of slightly above average height and slightly below average weight; a whirlwind of energy; smart and happy; someone to know and admire.


January 15

Ita

Ita was reputedly of royal lineage. She was born at Decies, Waterford, Ireland. Waterford crystal. Here waiting for you. A collection started before you were born. The best way, if not the only way, to savor Middleton’s or Bushmill’s green or any of a number of nectars of the gods.

Ita refused to be married. She secured her father's permission to live a virginal life. Since her father was probably at least a chieftain, his daughter was a valuable chit in the life of the clan, in their relationship with friendly and hostile neighbors. Not to mention her responsibility to bear future chieftains. Her father loved his daughter immeasurably. What behooved him to release her from her familial obligations? Maybe she was eighth of twelve children. Clearly she a typical Irish woman; she knew her own mind and insisted on following it. Maybe it was because she agreed to leave Waterford.

Ita moved to Killeedy, Limerick, and founded a community of women dedicated to God. A genuine Irish Warrior Princess and dedicated to God. At a minimum we are called to imitate Ita in our founding our own community – aka family – dedicated to God. Unfortunately, that often requires moving on to another county. In your case, that may be the best proposition. Spread your wings and fly with The Spirit.

Ita founded a school for boys. Note, school! The Irish way! A foremost responsibility, especially for our own children, is to educate. Educate in the faith. Educate in our Traditions. Educate for holiness. With any luck, you’ll find an Ita to educate you and foster the proper education of your children.

One of Ita’s pupils was St. Brendan. You will have many students of your own throughout your life time. Here I am 61 and I’m teaching a handful of third graders. You are lucky when you have one genius along the way. A student that much smarter than you – an Aquinas to your Albertus Magnus. You’ll also be blessed with a St Brendan, too. A holy one. You may not recognize the saintly one in your midst or the one who will become a saint. You must treat all your students as Brendans: people for whom you are responsible to bring to God and once on their path are likely to bring us along with them.

Many extravagant miracles were attributed to Ita. (In one of them she is reputed to have reunited the head and body of a man who had been beheaded. Women do that to and for us all the time! Pray that it is an Ita who does it to you. In another she lived entirely on food from heaven. But isn’t all food a gift to us from heaven? Bless us oh Lord and these THY gifts… How will your life be different when you always remember that the food you eat is a gift from heaven?]

Ita was reportedly asked, which of the three foibles of mankind did God most detest? “A scowling face, obstinacy in wrongdoing, and too great a confidence in the power of money.” We each have these foibles to some degree. How would your life be better were you to eliminate these traits from your repertoire, one at a time? Go for it.

I love you
Dad
101128, 1514

Jan 10 John Camillus the Good d. 660

Jack and Thom
Good Morning, I love you

Auburn beats Alabama: after being down 21 points in the first period. Nightmares of punt Bama punt! Can’t we all just get along? It is not in the Alabama genes. You’re either Auburn or you’re Alabama. I shoulda seen that flag in 1982! I apologize for missing it.

Uncle Ken says you and Kelly got together last night and this morning. I hope he got a picture. I’d like to update the one taken at Thom’s high school graduation. The three amigos! Would that you were known as Jack the Good? Or Thom the Good? Not merely good enough but The Good.



January 10

John Camillus the Good 660

John Camillus the Good was Bishop of Milan. It’s disappointing to begin a bio with a man’s ascendency to a bishopric. We miss the useful story that got him there – in addition to being in the right place at the right time with the right pull. It’s as if you started my bio with my becoming CEO of the Vanderbilt Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital. Or some other post of fortunate selection from which I’ve served the mentally ill, especially children. But I digress.

The Lombard invasion had left Milan a vacant see, and John Camillus the Good was chosen to fill the position. In the seventh century, chosen probably meant chosen by the people, the leaders, of Milan. From whence did this man come to rise to such an exalted see? How did the people of Milan choose him? What did they see in him?

He was a relentless enemy of the heresies of his era. One essential role of bishop, any leader, is to teach. To teach what is right and what is wrong. It is not enough to tell us, show us, help us about knowing and being good. We must also stop the promulgation of heresies, the dissemination of false teaching, and the population of false prophets. Stopping the bad, wrong, evil is actually the first step to right, good, and holy.

John Camillus the Good was called “the Good” for conspicuous holiness. I hope you, too, two, are conspicuously holy.

I love you,
Dad
101127, 1946

Jan 7 Cronan Beg 7th c

Jack and Thom
Good morning, I love you



January 7

Cronan Beg 7th c.

Cronan Beg, the little, was a bishop of Aendrum, County Down, Ireland. Go to County Down to get the few more details we have about this seventh century leader of our Celtic Catholic Church.

Cronan Beg is mentioned in connection with the controversy of 640. You think that something that took place almost fifteen hundred years ago is relevant to us today? Sometimes we think that something that happens fifteen days ago isn’t relevant any more. Still, there is a place for continuity, precedent, tradition.

When should we celebrate Easter? [maybe the question isn’t relevant any more – though it still separates Roman from Greek Catholics. Not to mention the quibbles that might arise were our secular calendar to dictate religious celebrations.] In a universal Church, we should all celebrate together – what we celebrate should be unified. Not that I am proposing a universal feast for Cronan Beg. Let’s agree that we should all celebrate Easter on the same day.

After six hundred years of one Christianity, we were ok with local decisions about when to celebrate Easter. Different traditions used different methods to arrive at a date. One commonality was that our bishops agreed that it was an ecclesiastical decision, not an astronomical one.

As our Church grew, we also tended to be less tolerant of diversity within our practices. That alone is a controversy worthy of weighing in on. Jeeze, if we cannot agree on when Easter happened? When Easter should be celebrated? These are two very different questions. How to answer them take us through very different sciences. What must we agree upon in order to say I am Catholic? Obviously, the date for Easter is not one of them, now is it? Ask our Greek brethren.

The Irish bishops arrived at an Easter date differently than our Bishop of Rome proselytized for our universal Church. The differences caused a clash between the Irish and English bishops. Go figure, a conflict between the Irish and the English?! The English were closely linked to Rome, having been converted in large part by St George, a Roman soldier. You’d think with Ireland being converted by the son of a Roman counselor, we’d have similar alignment. Patrick came to convert the Irish to the Christian God and Jesus Christ on our terms, not Rome’s.

In the noble tradition of conflict between the Irish and English, the clash between bishops of which date to use for Easter, and, thus, which bishops should have precedence over whom, the disagreements got out of hand. In a flash of accommodation, a conclave of Irish and English bishops agreed to submit their disagreement to the Bishop of Rome. Their letter was answered by the bureaucrats in Rome in the eight month hiatus between popes. The answer came back, surprise of surprises, directing the bishops to adopt the Roman calendar for the celebration of Easter.

Still, not every Irish Bishop jumped on board with the English and the Romans. Cronan Beg apparently shrugged his shoulders and asked like Rodney King, why can’t we just all get along? Or something like that.

Which are battles worth fighting? Which fights do we take to the mat? How do we decide? How do we concede? Not a matter of losing but of loving. Loving Christ. Loving one another.

I love you,
Dad
101127, 1930

Jan 28 Thomas Aquinas entry 4

Thom and Jack
Good morning, I love you

Happy Thanksgiving, 2010

I connected with Grandpa today and my brother. I wish you would do the same – there are familial duties for your good and the good of the family.

Eucharist, in the Greek, means thanksgiving. One of my third grade students asked – how do they come up with names for things like that? When the early Catholics gathered together to remember Jesus in the breaking of the bread, hearing the Word, singing their praises, they were simply thankful. It seems to me that thankfulness is the easiest reaction to life. The fact that we exist. The gifts God gives us. All that is good. How can our first and lasting reaction to being be other than thankful? I hope you found your way to Eucharist today as well.

January 28

Thomas Aquinas b. 1225 d. 1274 c. 1323
(con’t. entry 4)



[101125, 2336] In spite of petty academic bickering between the University of Paris and the Mendicant orders, Thomas Aquinas obtained his Doctorate October 25, 1257. St Bonaventure received his doctorate at the same time. It matters what school you go to because that decision determines who will be your classmates. It matters who your classmates are – the smarter and holier they are, the more likely you will gain knowledge and learn goodness from them. Be wisely discerning in your selection of schools for yourself and your children; be careful about choosing where to train, where to work, with whom to associate.


The theme for Thomas Aquinas’ doctorate in theology was "The Majesty of Christ". His text, "Thou waterest the hills from thy upper rooms: the earth shall be filled with the fruit of thy works" (Psalm 103:13). One line into a thesis? The Bible is a source of many one liners and many theses. Take fifteen minutes each day. Read a line or a passage from the Bible. Savor it. Make it a line in the thesis that is your life.

From this time St. Thomas's life may be summed up in a few words: praying, preaching, teaching, writing, journeying. Everyone wanted a piece of him. And there was a lot of him to go around. He traveled all of Europe to teach at universities and to serve his Order, to serve the Pope, to serve the Church. Thomas Aquinas was always teaching and writing, living on earth with one passion, an ardent zeal for the explanation and defense of Christian truth.

Note praying comes first. Praying always comes first or else what follows is not going to be good enough. Thomas Aquinas was first and always a holy man, a pious man, a religious man. He was a priest: a servant leader for God’s people and our faith. Pray Always. In order to learn how to pray always we have to pray at specific times – like every morning and every evening, like grace before and after meals, like a brief pause at noon for an angelus or a quick examination of conscience.

Of course he was preaching, why do you think he joined the Order of Preachers? It was one of his charisms. It was essential to his vocation. A gift that he passed forward. What comes second on your list? How do you discern your vocation? How do you share your charism; and perfect it? What is it you do in service to God and His people?

We all have a duty to teach. We have gifts that we have an obligation to pass on. That is teaching. Gifts of faith, hope, and love to begin with. What has God given you? How do you pass it forward?

Writing may not be your forte. It could have been, it still could become a strength. Regardless of how well you write, you should be writing routinely. To your parents and Grandfather. For yourself in a spiritual journal. Even your own bioblurb for your children.

Journey. I don’t like this word as a verb: especially in the context of our spiritual journey. But I digress. Getting around Europe in the thirteenth century was not limos and private jets. One of the advantage of the modes of travel was that along the way Thomas Aquinas also got to preach and teach – not to mention that he did so daily by his modus vivandi.

In 1265, Clement IV was prepared to name Thomas Aquinas Archbishop of Naples. Had the saint not talked the pope out of this assignment, we probably would not have gotten the Summa: nor many of the other theological and religious contributions Thomas Aquinas passed on to us. However, we cannot say that what we got was better than what we would have gotten from a holy, brilliant pastor of a major see. Who knows, he may have gone on to be pope.

In 1259, Thomas Aquinas collaborated with Albertus Magnus and Peter of Tarentasia (afterwards Pope Innocent V. The Dominicans had a run on the papacy in the 13th c. And they preferred to be innocent? In preparation for the inquisition?) in formulating a system of studies which is substantially preserved to this day in the studia generalia of the Dominican Order. The three of them in room together, collaborating, successfully delivering a practical product. The Holy Spirit must have been in seventh heaven herself.

Thomas Aquinas was frequently in ecstasy. He turned his mind and soul to God completely and God responded in kind. Ecstasy is a spiritual orgasm but can last and last. I suppose it works in some ways similar to an orgasm. (I’ve had one but not that I recall the other.) Condition your soul like an athlete develops his body. Then, in your greatest exertion of giving your love to God, you will have an opportunity for ecstasy too.

Towards the end of his life the ecstasies became more frequent. On one occasion, at Naples in 1273, after he had completed his treatise on the Eucharist, three of the brethren saw him lifted in ecstasy, and they heard a voice proceeding from the crucifix on the altar, saying "Thou hast written well of me, Thomas; what reward wilt thou have?" Thomas replied, "None other than Thyself, Lord".

Imagine the scene. Be one of the three observant brethren. Be the speaking crucifix (or burning bush). Be Thomas. This is what it is supposed to mean to receive the Eucharist, to have Jesus, body and soul, consumed by you, consuming you. (I recommend Thomas Merton’s book on the Eucharist. It’s around here somewhere.)


On 6 December, 1273, Thomas Aquinas laid aside his pen and would write no more. That day he experienced an unusually long ecstasy during Mass; what was revealed to him we can only surmise from his reply to Father Reginald, who urged him to continue his writings: "I can do no more. Such secrets have been revealed to me that all I have written now appears to be of little value". Compared to our love of Jesus and His of us, everything appears to be of little value. And still, we are called to work, to share our visions, to pass it forward. How dare I criticize Thomas Aquinas for putting down his pen and serving God in the way his vocation called for?! We should be respectful of other people’s discernment of their vocation and how to live it. (And have our own expectations and preferences – so long as every prayer includes: “thy will be done.”

Gregory X convoked a general council to open at Lyons on 1 May, 1274. He invited St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure to take part in the deliberations. Thomas Aquinas tried to obey, setting out on foot in January, 1274, but strength failed him; he fell to the ground near Terracina, whence he was conducted to the Castle of Maienza, the home of his niece the Countess Francesca Ceccano. The Cistercian monks of Fossa Nuova pressed him to accept their hospitality, and he was conveyed to their monastery. At the urgent request of the monks he dictated a brief commentary on the Canticle of Canticles. (What a way to go!)

The end was near; extreme unction was administered. When the Sacred Viaticum was brought into the room he pronounced the following act of faith:

“If in this world there be any knowledge of this sacrament stronger than that of faith, I wish now to use it in affirming that I firmly believe and know as certain that Jesus Christ, True God and True Man, Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, is in this Sacrament . . . I receive Thee, the price of my redemption, for Whose love I have watched, studied, and labored. Thee have I preached; Thee have I taught. Never have I said anything against Thee: if anything was not well said, that is to be attributed to my ignorance. Neither do I wish to be obstinate in my opinions, but if I have written anything erroneous concerning this sacrament or other matters, I submit all to the judgment and correction of the Holy Roman Church, in whose obedience I now pass from this life.” Would that we all have the opportunity to profess our act of faith on our death bed. I believe, help my unbelief.

Thomas Aquinas died on 7 March, 1274. Numerous miracles attested his sanctity, and he was canonized by John XXII, 18 July, 1323.

I love you,
Dad
101126, 0023 (entry 4)

Jan 28 Thomas Aquinas entry 3, thanksgiving eve 2010

Thom and Jack
Good morning, I love you

It’s Thanksgiving eve, 2010. Again, I am here and you are there. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence when I was in school. Tuscaloosa is a long way from New York or Chicago; and it’s only a four day holiday. What’s your excuse?

In our faith formation class this past Sunday, we tied together lessons about prayer and sacrifice and action in Jesus’ stead with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Go around the table and thank each person for a specific sacrifice they made for you. It prompted me to write Grandpa a note with my thanksgiving day card. Even at 61, I am still a son. Being also a father, I am much more aware of the sacrifices Grandpa did for me; and am aware of many more sacrifices he likely made based on extrapolating from some of mine.

One of the things to be thankful for is the gift of our own lives. A gift God made to our parents. It is also a gift God made to us – He created us. That’s a gift to ourselves. Remember to thank God for yourself, your talents, your charisms, your resources, but essentially for your very being.

Deo Gratias!



January 28

Thomas Aquinas b. 1225 d. 1274 c. 1323
(con’t. entry 3)


[101124 1100] In 1245 Thomas Aquinas, immediately upon his familial house arrest, pronounced his vows. Twenty years old. Thomas Aquinas was set free into the world by his parents, his family, and his own pursuit of God’s will. Twenty is young to be certain about your vocation; to be so assertive about cutting familial ties. Thomas Aquinas is an extraordinarily special case: with his gifts and grace and determination. So special that the (Dominican) Pope examined this son of a Count to assure himself that the young man and the ambitious Order of Preachers were on the right path. Before you too jump with both feet into your vocation, consult your own pope. Discernment includes consultative steps all along the way. A spiritual director. Your confessor. A counselor. A person willing and able to penetrate your soul and cipher the will of God to help you see whether you’ve found a match.

John the Teutonic, fourth master general of the Order of Preachers, took the young student to Cologne, where he was placed under Albertus Magnus, the most renowned professor of the order. Don’t you love the names?! John the Teutonic. Doesn’t take much stereotyping to get an idea of this master general’s persona. The Dominicans are noted for their teutonic leadership – within their Order and the Order’s influence within the Church. To each his own. Different people, different situations require different leadership. Find for yourself the right circumstance and the best leader.

Albert the Great, Albertus Magnus. Sounds like a character out of Harry Potter. But not. To whom do you entrust your most gifted student? Your best teacher, of course. Imagine the brain power in the room when these two guys were together – at lessons, over preprandials. In the chapel the Holy Spirit must have had to work overtime to keep up with their need for and use of grace. To whom do you entrust yourself?

It was not a difficult decision to entrust y’all to the Dominicans. An elementary school full of the best teachers and some of Nashville’s best and brightest students. An environment of excellent academics embedded in the faith of our Church. Too bad you didn’t get more of the same in Greensboro. Not a total loss for you – just more responsibility on your own shoulders now to put yourselves into Catholic environments that nurture your faith formation.

In school Thomas Aquinas's humility and taciturnity were misinterpreted as signs of dullness. When Albert Magnus 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." This is a famous scenario in Thomas Aquinas’ life. The ole, you can’t tell a book from its cover. In the faith formation class I’m teaching now, we have a boy who, to look at him, gives the impression of definitely not being with it. But he listens; he absorbs the conversations and teaching that swirl around him. When I ask him a question, he is usually spot on with an answer; often with an insight worth holding on to.

When Albert Magnus was sent to Paris, Thomas Aquinas accompanied him as a student. No university before or sense got a better two fer one deal than this! In your area of expertise, go to study not only where they have the best teachers, but also the best students.

Both shortly returned to Cologne. Albert had been appointed regent of the new studium generale, erected that year by the general chapter of the Order. Thomas Aquinas was to teach under him. Thomas was about twenty five. No doubt he was hot to trot his own stuff. If Thomas Aquinas dutifully and successfully played second fiddle for so long, we should use his decision as a lesson. You can expect to live to be about ninety – Grandpa will; you have the genes for it. Another three or four years as an apprentice or learning from a mentor is not even five percent of your lifetime. Be patient and prudent. Select wisely your teachers. Learn and do and grow in the opportunities studenthood gives you.

Thomas Aquinas was ordained in 1250 by Archbishop Conrad of Hochstaden. Throughout his life, Thomas Aquinas frequently preached the Word of God, in Germany, France, and Italy. His sermons were forceful, redolent of piety, full of solid instruction, abounding in apt citations from the Scriptures. John the Teutonic, Innocent IV, and Albertus Magnus didn’t expect anything less. Of course, Thomas Aquinas preached – he was a Dominican, the Order of Preachers. Even the Dominican priests who don’t give such good homilies are good preachers as their baseline.

To be a superb preacher, you have to be redolent of piety. Holiness, your own closeness with God, is necessary to lift the rest of us up with your voice. Sanctity is independent of brilliance. It is Love lived out in prayer and action. Thomas Aquinas, like the rest of us, was created to know, love, and serve God. Like the rest of us, he continuously received God’s love. We can get caught up in the brilliance of this great saint and lose sight that his life was founded on his vocation which flowed from his love of God, his closeness to the Father. Don’t let Thomas Aquinas’ brilliance scare you away from him. Let his holiness draw you to know him better.

In the year 1251 or 1252, the master general of the Order, by the advice of Albertus Magnus, sent Thomas to fill the office of Bachelor (sub-regent) in the Dominican studium at Paris. His teaching soon attracted the attention both of the professors and of the students. His duties consisted principally in explaining the "Sentences" of Peter Lombard, and his commentaries on that text-book of theology furnished the materials and, in great part, the plan for his chief work, the "Summa Theologica".

It’s a humbling experience to teach. I taught statistics and intro to psych when I was still a graduate student. My first intro to stat class had a graduating senior math major in it to pick up some easy credits he needed in his minor for graduation. The boy, maybe only two years my junior, knew way more math and understood statistics more deeply than I. I supervised clinical psychology graduate students, some older than I and more experienced in the world. I introduced some business students about organizational behavior – several of whom signed up for subsequent seminars on the topic. I taught clinical programming and the business of psychiatry to residents and fellows at Vanderbilt. I introduced nursing grad students to child psychology principles. Being a professor is a gift and a blessing. It is pursuit of truth as well as the expansion of knowledge. It is an effort to delve into the mystery of what we don’t know.

I don’t think I attracted much attention. Certainly nothing remotely like what Thomas Aquinas did. But in my small way, I contributed to some students’ learning and lives; I helped advance the mission of the universities in some small way.

My most rewarding teaching has been CCD. First because it let me have more child contact. Once I became an executive, my journey as a child psychologist ended. My dealings were with the doctors and staff and payers and referral sources. All on behalf of the children but no longer was I in the same room with them. The preparation for my classes, regardless of the grade, took me to the Bible, the Catechism, the Fathers, and our religious literature: not to mention to prayer. That’s why I teach – to learn.

I have volumes of books and class notes and dribs and drabs of articles, manuscripts, and drafts. I don’t anticipate a Summa Theologica from all this. I am chipping away at more articles and short stories/novel(s). Maybe a bill nolan summa will come out the other end. Plenty of time if I live as long as Grandpa did. If not, you get to sift through it all post-humorously.

I love you,
Dad
101124, 1156
Entry 3
(there are 18 more pages on Thomas Aquinas for me to get through before January….)

Jan 11 Brandan

Jack and Thom
Good morning, I love you

We get a mini-bioblurb on Brandan but his mission leads us to the Pelagian heresy. It’s as important to know the wrong propositions as it is to know the tenets of our faith.


January 11

Brandan 5th century

Brandan was an Irish monk who went to England and confronted the Pelagian heretics. People come up with wrong beliefs not because they are stupid or lazy or passive. Often the best and brightest come to false beliefs with a true heart and extraordinary zeal. That’s why it is important to send the A-team into the fray. To disabuse false followers and to lead them back to the One True Church.

Pelagius was probably a fifth century Irishman. I can’t figure out how he wound up in Carthage but you can see the heretical droppings of Pelagianism from southern England to Gaul to Rome to North Africa. Maybe Brandan was a Pelagian stalker?

Brandan was not welcomed in the Pelagian communities of England. Go figure! Who wants a prophet in their midst who by stint of his life and his preaching is saying that your newfound belief is wrong and the life that such beliefs lead you to will take you to hell? Brandan fled to Gaul because of the cruel treatment he received in England. Imagine that! An Irishman was treated cruelly in England for carrying the Truth! Go figure!

Brandan must have had some qualities of holiness and leadership for those who were receptive to The Word. In Gaul, this monk eventually became an abbot.

The six heretical premises of Pelagianism [quoted from Catholic Encyclopedia online]
1. Even if Adam had not sinned, he would have died.
2. Adam's sin harmed only himself, not the human race.
3. Children just born are in the same state as Adam before his fall.
4. The whole human race neither dies through Adam's sin or death, nor rises again through the resurrection of Christ.
5. The (Mosaic Law) is as good a guide to heaven as the Gospel.
6. Even before the advent of Christ there were men who were without sin.

You can deduce the impact on ‘how to live your life’ these beliefs had versus Catholicism.

No less a theologian and Church Father than Augustine knocked the stuffing out of this heresy. At the Council of Carthage (418), the Church reaffirmed the following beliefs [also quoted from Catholic Encyclopedia online]

1. Death did not come to Adam from a physical necessity, but through sin.
2. New-born children must be baptized on account of original sin.
3. Justifying grace not only avails for the forgiveness of past sins, but also gives assistance for the avoidance of future sins.
4. The grace of Christ not only discloses the knowledge of God's commandments, but also imparts strength to will and execute them.
5. Without God's grace it is not merely more difficult, but absolutely impossible to perform good works.
6. Not out of humility, but in truth must we confess ourselves to be sinners.
7. The saints refer the petition of the Our Father, "Forgive us our trespasses", not only to others, but also to themselves.
8. The saints pronounce the same supplication not from mere humility, but from truthfulness.

Amen

I love you
Dad
101123

Jan 1 Cuan and Franchea

Thom and Jack
Good morning, I love you


January 1

Cuan 6th century

Cuan was an Irish abbot. He founded many churches and monasteries in Ireland. About a hundred years after Patrick died, there was still many villages in need of a church. The Irish also took to the concept of monastery as their community center for religion, education, political hierarchy, and all around hub of life. Cuan was obviously a man others believed in and followed. He was also a mover and shaker. Cuan reportedly lived to almost a hundred years old – he combined a long time, plenty of persistence, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Something to emulate whether you make it to 25 or a hundred yourselves.


Franchea d. 585

The Irish are probably unique in the role that woman have in our culture: from the very beginning. The Priestess. The Princess and Queen. The Warrior. You will be lucky if your ‘soulmate’ is an Irish Princess Warrior. Or, if you are inspired by an Irishwoman to become a priest.

Franchea was an lrish abbess and foundress of a convent. The combination Irish Princess Priestess turned Catholic in the sixth century! Don’t let anyone tell you that women are dissed in the Catholic Church. Follow back your own heritage. Irish women shaped the foundation of our monastic and convent heritage which not only brought Catholicism to us but saved the Church in the dark ages.

Franchea was a sister of St. Ends.

And that’s all I have tonight.

I love you
Dad
101123

Jan 1 William of Dijon

Thom and Jack
Good Morning, I love you.

January 1
William of Dijon d. ~1000+


William of Dijon is also known as William of St. Benignus. Dijon is the name of the town. St. Benignus is the name of the monastery William founded there. This would be a good place to do an aside on St Benignus – I’ll save that for a post script. Both saints are worth your knowing…. We are known by the city in which we are born. E.g., I’m an Irish Catholic boy from New York City. That identity carried me through the trials of moving to Albany, to Portland, across town to Alba Street from Boynton Street, and a change of parishes; through seven schools from first through twelfth grade: not to mention my every move from Bama to Greensboro. I yam who I yam. And so are you – the imprint of Nashville and the Dominicans – not to mention Judge Robinson’s wrong decisions – plus the effect of being baptized in New York City.

William of Dijon was the son of Count Robert of Volpiano. Sometimes the bioblurbs don’t mention the mother to whom a saint is born. We all know that’s a mistake. For good and ill, you are also your mother’s sons.
William of Dijon was born in the family castle on San Giuglio island in lake Orta near Nocera while his father was defending the island against the attacking Emperor Otto. You were both born in HCA’s woman’s hospital in Nashville while your father was defending the Vanderbilt Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital from [himself?] the challenges of making a business out of the country’s only joint venture between a university and a hospital company.
The uniqueness of that deal between HCA and Vanderbilt is worth study. We operated on a handshake for the first several years. When the Vice-Chancellor first saw me for my interview for the CEO job, he shook my hand and said, “you don’t look like an HCA administrator!” “Good. Then I ought to fit in very well here.” I think I satisfied the VU people more than my HCA bosses – and I did a good enough job for HCA that they put me on the President’s Advisory Committee and made me a spokesman for the psych company when we went into the LBO. By the way, it was the generosity of HCA that paid for your housing from 1994 and your college tuition. I thank Dr.s Frist in my prayers often.
William was entered into the Benedictine Abbey of Locadio when he was seven. The children of Catholic royalty were given the benefits of a monastery education from an early age. Thanks to people like Elizabeth Ann Seton and John Neumann, the children of Catholics in America get the benefits of a Catholic education whether they can afford it or not. In your case, you were given the benefits of the Dominican Sisters of St Cecelia because HCA paid me a terrific salary. The Dominicans did not give scholarships to their school. You also got the advantage to go to school with children of many of the city’s Catholic leaders. (Unfortunately when you were taken to Greensboro, you were deprived of a continuing Catholic education. C’est domage.)
William of Dijon became a monk at the Benedictine Abbey of Locadio. A natural course of events. He was probably not the oldest son, first in line to the Counnt-dom. Finding your vocation, learning how best to discern your vocation, developing the desire to discover God’s will for you are all helped by where you go to school. It’s harder to find God in a godless high school or in a house where Catholicism is disdained. However, God continues to call. [Sam3:1-10] God’s love endures forever: the secret of a father’s love.
In 987 William of Dijon joined St. Majolus at Cluny. I wish we had the story of how William of Dijon got from Locadio to Cluny. That’s like getting from UNCG to Harvard or from Healthcare Services of America to Hospital Corporation of America. From the bush leagues to the Majors. Cluny was THE monaster of the tenth and eleventh centuries. The Clunianic reforms infused the religious life and all of Christendom. Maybe William of Dijon aspired to one of the best, better than the Marines. To be your best you must challenge yourself to pursue the best, learn from the best, compete with the best. Don’t hold yourself back by doing good enough at mediocre situations. You have the talent and the resources to be the best.
William of Dijon must have been a holy man and a leader of his community. What were the traits that resulted in his being selected to reorganize/reform St Semin Abbey on the Rhome? How did he develop them? You can be sure he mastered the Rule of St Benedict. You can be sure he embrace the Cluniac reforms. These are not only guide individuals into greater holiness. These are also blue prints for reforming any organization. If I were successful at do-overs and turn-arounds, it was in part because I learned something from St Benedict [and, of course, Ignatius].
In 990, William of Dijon was ordained. We have many vocations to discern from. Be sure that your faith formation is sufficient that you listen to your call, hear it, and respond “here I am Lord”. You may best serve God by being a priest or a religious.
Some time after his ordination, William of Dijon was named abbot of St Benignus at Dijon. We are all called to lead. To make the best of ourselves. To make the best of the circumstances in which we find ourselves. I was lucky enough to serve as leader of a few hospitals and service lines. Not unlike Parkview Hospital, HCA’s first hospital, became the template for HCA’s hospital, I believe VCAPH became a model for the psych company and HCA’s joint ventures.
William of Dijon built St Benignus Abbey into a great center of spirituality, education, and culture. Be all that you can be; make your circumstance into greatness – body, mind, spirit: spirituality, education, and culture; infuse it all with your spirit and The Spirit. You never know what effect you will have as a pebble dropped into the pond of life.
The St Benignus Abbey, because of William of Dijon’s creation, became the mother monastery of some forty monasteries in Burgundy, Lorraine, Normandy, and Northern Italy. In addition, Willia of Dijon traveled widely, spreading the Cluniac reform. I have a poster somewhere. A momma turtle swimming along. A baby swimming behind her. Another turtle swimming behind that one. Then the third baby turtle is sitting in his overturned shell with a paddle. The headline: There’s always a better way. Each day personally. Everywhere lead improvement.

He died at Fe'camp Monastery in Normandy which he had rebuilt on January 1.
P.S.

St Benen (Latinized Benignus) d. 467

Benignus was the son of Sesenen, an Irish chieftain in that part of Ireland which is now County Meath. Aunt Helen et al. research our family tree – no chieftains that I know of. Grandma looked back through her family – no chieftains there. But, we are fans of The Chieftains. And Grandpa is pater familias.

Benignus was baptized by St. Patrick. As an adult baptism, and son of a Chieftain, Benignus was a major hit for Patrick. It also means that Benignus’ choice to become Catholic, to reject Oak Trees and Mother Earth, was a conscious response to the Holy Spirit. You were luckier. Your parents brought you to the baptismal font at St Elizabeth’s of Hungry. Kevin O’Connell, S.J. poured the holy water over your forehead, christened you with holy oils. Your parents and Godparents spoke the baptismal vows for you – committing you no less than if you had said them yourself. You were blessed, also, to confirm your baptism before our family, our bishop (Nashville and Charlotte), and our Church.

Benignus became Patrick’s favorite disciple and his right hand man at the See of Armagh (450). This son of a chieftain was not only holy, resolved, strong, he was gentle and lovable. As Patrick’s coadjutor, Benignus followed him in all his travels. He assisted Patrick in his missionary efforts. Being number two on the team, being “the man’s” go to guy is a valuable role. It takes first of all knowing who you are and where your talents lie. Be patient in your discernment. Try several roles. Seek God’s will. Be humble.

We each have our charisms. Play to your strength. Identify your weaknesses – then make them also your strengths. Pursue your own perfection. Do the best with the talents, gifts, resources you are given. You will be asked what you have done with God’s gifts – long before the last accounting; you’ll be asked about what you’ve done by yourself, by your spouse, your children, your colleagues, your bosses.

Benignus was known as “Patrick’s psalm-singer” because he provided Patrick with choral support. He drew thousands to Christ by his sweet voice: a singing Chieftain’s Son, better than a bard or seanachie!

We rarely have only one talent, one interest, one vocation, one responsibility. Benignus assisted Patrick in compiling the great Irish code of Laws, Senchus Mor. Benignus also contributed to the “Psalter of Cashel” and the “Book of Rights”. Benignus was a writer – know anyone like that?

I love you,
Dad
101123

Jan 28 Thomas Aquinas entry 2

Thom and Jack
Good Morning, I love you


January 28

Thomas Aquinas b. 1225 d. 1274 c. 1323
(con’t)

[101122, 1847] November 22nd. A day that will live forever embedded in my heart and mind. I remember where I was when I heard that President Kennedy was shot. I remember waiting in class for word as to his well being – girls cried, boys cried, women cried, men cried. We all prayed in our own way. Nothing productive was going to happen until we knew – and not likely to happen afterwards either. The announcement came over the PA system. Our principal. He was crying, too. He read the news release that he’d just heard over the radio. Our hero, shot dead. For us, few, Catholics, our saintly president, our 1,000 days of hope for final recognition of our equality, shot dead. There was sorrow. There was fury. [but we did not use this as an excuse to riot in the streets like what happened in April 1968.] Camelot shattered. A day to be sure to go to Mass: to pray for sanity in our world: to pray for peace: to pray that our heroes of our youth – the three Johns in Greeley’s novels (Kennedy, Unitis, and XXIIIrd) – will inspire us to our own greatness….. but I digress….

Some time between 1240 and August, 1243, Thomas Aquinas received the habit of the Order of St. Dominic. Thus began a three year struggle for the heart, mind, and service of this extraordinary young man.

Thomas Aquinas’ father, the Count of Aquino, had plans for his son. Rightfully so. His right as father. His right as Count. His right as the person to whom the community, never mind his family, turned to discern and deliver upon what is rightfully theirs. They’d raised this boy. They had great expectations for this young man. He had a responsibility to them all, most importantly to his father and his mother, Theodora. Honor thy father and thy mother applies to every son at every age, especially at the choice points in life that will (apparently) determine the destiny of the family as well as the individual.

John of St. Julian, a noted Dominican preacher of the convent of Naples, took Thomas Aquinas under his wing. 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. The Dominicans, fearing she would take him away, sent him to Rome, his ultimate destination being Paris or Cologne.

It is a heady proposition to have the Church and the Count and the City to be aspiring for your services – for your heart and soul. In the best of all possible worlds, with due deference to Leibnitz, all those pulls on your heart strings will be in the same direction. Alas, it is frequently not so. How is an eighteen year old young man to decide? How do you discern your vocation, how do you find the will of Our Father in the midst of conflicting demands on you from people declaring that they, they alone, have your best interest in heart?

Go first to the original covenant: the first promises you made – made for you at baptism and reaffirmed by you at confirmation. No decision you make can be God’s will if it violates these first principles: the commandments, the beatitudes, the responsibility to Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Or, for an eighteen year old youth, honor your father and your mother when every fiber of your being is seeking identity which is first sought in the “I’m not you” attitude of the adolescent. Just like Jesus must have felt at Gethsemane – Man, if only I could get out of this! But not my will, your will be done – the adolescent boy screams ‘leave me alone’, I’m my own man! And then a wisp of maturity awakens the new man to the reality that ‘I am both me and my family.’

Theodora sent Thomas's brothers, who were soldiers under the Emperor Frederick, to bring the boy home so they could talk some sense into him. They confined Thomas Aquinas in the fortress of San Giovanni at Rocca Secca. For two years his parents, brothers, and sisters endeavored by various means to destroy his vocation, as the holy bioblurb put it. They genuinely, I bet, wanted to put some sense into that brilliant head of his. Family, legacy, the well-being of their community were at stake. He owed it to them! So much was at stake, the extreme measures were warranted. Wouldn’t it be something if so many important people fought over your vocation? Look more closely. They are. All declaring that they have your best interests at heart. How will you decide, every day, to discern and do the will of Our Father?

The brothers sent a hooker, well a courtesan, to persuade this pure-minded novice that his vocation lay in service to family and home front. Thomas Aquinas drove the temptress from his room with a brand which he snatched from the fire. St. Thomas revealed late in life the secret of a remarkable favor received at this time. When the temptress had been driven from his chamber, he knelt and most earnestly implored God to grant him integrity of mind and body. He fell into a gentle sleep, and, as he slept, two angels appeared to assure him that his prayer had been heard. They then girded him about with a white girdle, saying: "We gird thee with the girdle of perpetual virginity." And from that day forward he never experienced the slightest motions of concupiscence.

We are not smart enough to imagine all the ways our best friend, The Evil One, will tempt us to embrace the greatness of this world and take our eye off of pursuing God’s will. But we know it will come to us in ways more and less subtle than the efforts Thomas Aquinas’ family made. And we will overcome the persistent temptations over and over again. The saint’s prayer – the integrity of body and spirit – should be our daily prayer, especially when we win a victory over TEO, large or small. Paul warns us that life is a continuous struggle between our body and spirit. Pray to St Thomas for the integrity of your body and spirit.

Put yourself in Thomas Aquinas’ place at the beginning of his house arrest. Stand in the great hall with his parents and his brothers. Each one of these people, and the many more with a vested interest in the outcome, was committed to doing what it would take for as long as it takes. What would you predict will happen? How long do you think it will take to get to the next stage in Thomas Aquinas’ life? And what, pray tell, was God thinking when he allowed this fiasco to take place? For what purpose did Thomas Aquinas and his family, the Dominicans and the pope, have to go through this saga?

Thomas Aquinas’ sisters got him some books – e.g., the Holy Scriptures, Aristotle's Metaphysics, and the "Sentences" of Peter Lombard. For whatever periods in life you are holed up, for whatever circumstance, be sure you have some good books with you, classics would be the best, in the original if you can.

After almost two years, Thomas was given his freedom to choose his vocation. Maybe his mother finally relented. Maybe his brothers feared the threats of the Pope (a Dominican, by the way) and the Emperor (who was subservient to the Pope). The Dominicans discovered that in this captivity, Thomas Aquinas had made as much progress as if he had been with them all along in their novitiate. Go figure.

I love you
Dad
1939

Jan 28 Thomas Aquinas entry 1

Thom and John
Good morning, I love you

[101118, 1705.] I restarted the saintsandsons blog four days ago. I’ve gotten our biography up to 1987. I’ve also accepted an invitation to write for the diocesan newspaper – which I hope will include a referral to the blog. I’ve had more hits on the blog than I ever expected. I’d like more – and more feedback. So I figured, I should make the blog current. I jumped ahead to January for the saints because that’s when I hope the first column will be printed. Videbimus.


Thomas Aquinas is a biggie: if not the biggie-est of saints. The angels and saints plus the Catholic Encyclopedia on line entries for Thomas Aquinas are 22 pages and almost 13,000 words. I decided to work on Thomas Aquinas in increments along with the other January Saints. Otherwise, I’d not get much written as my deadline approaches to have January done.

It’d be better to read Thomas Aquinas’ writings, especially his Confessions, rather than any bioblurb – in the original Latin would be best. Good luck with that – I never could master enough Latin for Aesop’s fables…. One short cut alternative is to read the sections in our Catechism where he is cited. I may go there if I finish my feeloughts about these 22 pages before January.




January 28

Thomas Aquinas b. 1225 d. 1274 c. 1323


In the Catholic Church, fifty years is the blink of an eye. It’s not uncommon for the cause for sainthood to take 400 years. It took us only 65 years for us to canonize Andre Bessette – in our era of modern communication. Imagine, in the thirteenth century, how important Church realized Thomas Aquinas was to our holiness: fifty years from his death to canonization.


[101120, 1650] Landulph, his father, was Count of Aquino; Theodora, his mother, Countess of Teano. His family was related to the Emperors Henry VI and Frederick II, and to the Kings of Aragon, Castile, and France.

Thomas Aquinas started out with all the resources and connections a child could have. It does not matter. Many people started out with infinitely more and squandered it. Many others started out with similar advantages, tried their best, and could not do nearly a fraction of what Thomas Aquinas accomplished for himself and for us. Don’t be looking at what other people have. You have, according to God, all that you need to be the best you can be; you have all that you need to discern and fulfill the will of God and return to Him multiples more than the one dinero you started out with.

At the age of five, according to the custom of the times, he received his first training from the Benedictine monks of Monte Cassino. In a similar fashion, I was sent to the Daughters of Charity; you were sent to the Dominican Sisters. We were properly put in the hands of the good sisters, the loving hands of our Church. The question I asked Jack’s first grade teacher at our first parent-teacher meeting was: please tell me about Jack’s religious development? She immediately said that Sister taught religion and was about to run off to get her to tell me about your learning religion. No, not that. Jack’s religious development should be happening all day every day, that’s why he’s at the Dominican School. He should be showing that development in all classes in common and unique ways. The teacher got the gist of my inquiry and spoke admiringly about Jack’s religious development. His praying. His pieties. His infusing God and faith and Church into the conversation – in much the same way his classmates did; it was, afterall, a Catholic School. That is religious development. That is a proper Catholic Education.

Thomas Aquinas was, in his earliest childhood, noted to be meditative and devoted to prayer. These are traits that are taught and fostered at home, reinforced and developed at school. They depend on the child’s natural disposition and disciplines. The routines at school also help to establish the habit of prayer and the foundation for Praying Always. Still, you are expected to inculcate this into your daily lives: at home, at play, at work - - regardless of the lack of such habits by the people around you. Living in secular, anti-Catholic environments [in both Nashville and Greensboro] makes it a challenge to be meditative and devoted to prayer. But you have the grace, support, resources, and talents to do so.

Thomas Aquinas’ preceptor was surprised to hear the child ask frequently: “What is God?” Art Linkletter showed us that Kids Ask the Darndest Things. I was surprised by Thom’s kindergarten Christmas drawing of Jesus in the manger in the cave. And on the roof of the cave, along the arc of the ground above, he drew three crosses. Christmas and Calgary are one picture. Let yourself continue to ask your childhood questions. Have faith in your faith; know that you will find your answers. Assimilate your academic discourse and your faith formation. Thus, a Catholic Education should be redundant for you.

Of course, we expect our children to be diligent in study and to excel in the academics of the school’s mission. This is a lifetime expectation for school and play and work. God has given you extraordinary skills, talents, blessings: and the resources to maximize their benefits to you and your family and the community. It’s up to you to be like Thomas Aquinas and let your life become your Summa.

About the year 1236 he was sent to the University of Naples. A boy with such talents and the extraordinary resources of his family was given the best of the best. Your parents did not have Duke-level resources but you got the opportunity to learn from the best as well as draw on the talents of family and friends – which continue to be a resource for you forever.

At the University of Naples, Thomas Aquinas soon exceeded his tutors. He was passed on from one to the next: grammar, logic, philosophy, natural sciences, rhetoric, music, mathematics, geometry, and astronomy. Note that the foundation of an educated life is not incompatible with the religious formation of a man. Actually, our Church teaches that such excelling in the secular is compatible with our religious formation. We should infuse our secular learning with our religious and vice versa. We are created one, to integrate all that God has created. He did not create anything bad. We should immerse ourselves in His creation, to find Him, to expose Him, to revel in Him, to better live our lives more fully in Him.

Thomas Aquinas out did his masters. In addition, this young boy, in the midst of a university environment not unlike the US college campuses in the sixties, remained pure of heart. Thomas Aquinas discerned and embraced and pursued a vocation to the religious life. One reason a liberal arts education and our responsibility to excel in our studies is to foster an informed discernment of our vocation. Of course, if you exclude the proper faith formation and religious education, or pooh pooh it, or short shrift it, then it is impossible for your to properly discern whether the voice calling you is Eli or Yahweh. [1Sam3, a recent favorite blurb of mine.]

I love you,
Dad
101120, 1729

Jan 12 John Gaspard Cratz, S.J.

Jack and Thom
Good morning, I love you

A day of two Johns – like Jack’s name and confirmation name. I thought it a bit unusual at the time [I still think it’s unusual] but it was ok with the Dominicans and with so many John saints to be patron, a double John seemed like a belts and suspenders approach to spiritual protection and inspiration.


January 12
John Gaspard Cratz sj d. 1737

How does a young German in early eighteenth century Cologne wind up in Macao joining the Jesuits? There’s a story about Cardinal Spellman and his almost joining the Jesuits: three times. One time he rode on the train with a particularly holy guy on his way to the novitiate. One time it was a particularly smart guy. The third time it was a particularly accomplished guy. Each time the man who became archbishop of New York - believed by many to be holy, brilliant, and accomplished – turned around because he did not believe he could live up to such extraordinary confreres. I know I followed a call into the Jesuit novitiate believing that is from where I could best serve children – as priest and teacher in the Church’s marines. I wish we had in the bioblurb John Cratz’s inspiration that took him to Macao, the Jesuits, and on to China. Do your own story for him or look it up, like I didn’t for this entry, in the Jesuit saints/blessed/venerables book right over there on the window sill beside my bed.

John Cratz joined the Jesuits in Macao in 1730. From there he went to China. Think Francis Xavier, S.J. (d. 1552; feast day 12/3, two days after Edmund Campion, d. 1581. The Jesuits had more than our fair share of saints in the early days. And not a shortage of them still. But I digress.) The pipeline of Jesuits from Europe to China has not stopped for over four hundred years. There are also the fruits of the seeds of vocation planted in the Chinese soil. Do not doubt that our faith will prosper in China as everywhere else the Good News is heroically proclaimed by the John Cratz’s of the world.

It is that heroism of faith to which we are all called. To discern God’s will for us is maybe our greatest sacrifice. To follow God’s will is perhaps our greatest opportunity for happiness. Be like John Cratz, S.J., man up, do what is good and right, no matter the consequences, no matter from where the abuses and tortures come.

John Cratz, S.J., was arrested in Tonkin in 1736. In 1737, along with Bl. Bartholomew Alvarez and others, John Cratz, S.J. was put to death after horrible abuses and tortures – unimaginable to you and me; way beyond the ridicule, scorn, familial ostracization you might experience were you to live your faith and do God’s will for you.

I love you,
Dad
101122

Jan 12 John of Ravena

Jack and Thom
Good Morning, I love you


January 12

John of Ravena d. 494

Fifth century Rome. The depth of the fall of the Roman empire. Pax Romana coming to an end. You’d think that the Alps and the peninsula nature of Italy and the glories of a long line of emperor-conquerers would have protected the Romans, even from themselves.

In 452, John of Ravena was chosen to serve as bishop of Ravenna – a way station on the way to Rome for the invading Huns. The bioblurb doesn’t give us much more than John of Ravena’s stand against Attila the Hun and his success with King Theodoric the Great Ostrogoth.

Every leadership role assumes more responsibilities than you’d ever find in the job description. Paul gives us the best descriptions for presbyter, priest, and bishop as well as the qualities necessary for best serving God’s flock. No where will you find in the bible the suggestion that the bishop should stand before the gates to the city and stare down the invading Huns.

What possesses a man to take on Attila the Hun? The Holy Spirit in all her wisdom and with a serious sense of humor. She’s laughing at our sense of self, our ideas about power, our surrender to the realities of history. John of Ravena accepted his vocation to be shepherd to his flock and defend them against all threats – spiritual and temporal. To fight for them with the only weapon he had that would have a chance against Attila the Hun: The Holy Spirit channeling through him from a lifetime of prayer, faith, and service.

When you feel yourself cowering before the Attilas in your life, the people who wish to squash you like a bug, to ring out of you every ounce of goodness and faith, remember the shield of the Holy Spirit imprinted on your heart at baptism and confirmation. Better yet. Prepare yourself for the endless confrontations you will have with The Evil One by daily prayer and frequent communion and routine service to God’s needy sheep.

I love you,
Dad
101122

Jan 9 Foellan

Jack and Thom
Good morning, I love you.

It has often been said of the Irish that we are Mommas’ boys. Could be the mode. You might say y’all are in that mode. It’s a good thing when your mother is from the mold of Brigid or Grace or any of our Irish Princess Warriors. It matters which person you choose to follow. It matters even more that you choose to follow for the right reasons and select the right traits to emulate.


January 9

Foellan 8th c.


Foellan was an Irishman who went with his mother, St. Kentigem, to Scotland. Who knows why St Kentigem upped and left their Ireland home and migrated to Scotland? There are good reasons for uprooting your children.

The bioblurb does not mention Foellan’s father, Kentigem’s husband. Given the times and the many reasons to leave hearth and home and clan, it is likely that Foellan’s father was dead and his mother sought solace and support from family in Scotland – Church family as well as blood family. It was not likely that she would have left the side of her husband: for her own sake and the proper rearing of their son. That Kentigem was deemed saintly, a woman to emulate, we can assume that her reasons for the move were good.

In Scotland, Foellan became a monk. It is also likely that Kentigem lived in the same monastery, possibly an abbess. To follow your mother for saintly reasons is saintly itself. To stay with her in service to God is to witness to the Son of God who did Our Father’s Will by being obedient to His parents and living out His life in service to Him who sent Him. Thus, a blessing on both your houses.

Be sure to discern prudently whom you follow, for what reasons, to where, and which traits.

Foellan was also related to St Comgan. This relative may have been the one to inspire Foellan to become a missionary. Like Foellan, look beyond your mother to other relatives to find inspiration in your discerning God’s will for you. You too might be called to be a missionary, to take yourself on a more independent path, cut the apron strings, in order to better be the person God created you to be.

I love you,
Dad

Jan 6 John de Ribera

Jack and Thom,
Good morning, I love you

Our Church universal has many iterations – from parish to parish, diocese to diocese, country to country, and era to era. St Paul the Apostle Parish, in the Diocese of Charlotte, in Post-Vatican II era is a long way away from sixteenth/seventeenth century Valencia, Spain. Heck, we’re a long way from twenty first century Valencia, Spain. We’re still a mission diocese: some 60,000 Catholics from the Triad to the Tennessee border. Most of those Catholics are in metro Charlotte: with a measurable cluster in the Triad: then Catholics scattered hither and yon across more than half the 95 counties of our state.

We’re also a long way from County Galway and the root of our Irish collective unconscious. Yet we continue to rejuvenate those feeloughts in song and prayer and our unique Irish Dance, our own Lord of the Dance. Reaching back to a John saint in far off 1500-1600 Valencia is a stretch. But isn’t that what spiritual development is all about: stretching ourselves to become closer to God?


January 6

John de Ribera, d. 1611 c. 1959

John was the son of the Duke of Alcala. He was born with a golden spoon in his mouth. John de Ribera was also blessed with many talents. You’re not quite the golden or silver spoon set but you have been given enormous resources and talents. John de Ribera might be an example to you of how to maximize those in the best service to God. The bioblurb in Angels and Saints gives us nothing on how he discerned his vocation to the priesthood. He obviously was not the oldest son or else his path would have been to the Duke-dom. In his times, the Church was often the next best route to wealth and leadership.

In 1557, John de Ribera was ordained a priest. Eleven years later, 1568, John de Ribera became Archbishop of Valencia. And, oh by the way, also Viceroy of that great province. The man had the pull and the talent to rise to a high pinnacle in service to the Church and the people. He used these gifts from God to serve both from this perch for forty years.

Unfortunately, the bioblurb doesn’t give us a description of his saintly or his secular talents or accomplishments. But to serve forty years in one position is an example to emulate; forty years in service to the same organization, like Grandpa with the RRRB, is worth your trying to replicate.

The one act that the bioblurb gives us does not sound particularly saintly to me. Although, it likely led Pope Pius V and King Philip II of Spain to revere him. John de Ribera ordered the Moors from his see. If you can’t convert them, those who are particularly opposed to your faith and way of life, simply exile them. That has the added bonus of letting you confiscate their property. Sorry, I can’t stretch far enough to find a redeeming story or counsel from this act.

I love you,
Dad
101120

Jan 6 Andre Bessette

Jack and Thom
Good Morning, I love you

All saints lead us to Jesus. Because of a unique devotion, some saints lead us to Jesus by a circuitous route. Some are devoted to Mary. Some to the Sacred Heart. Others have charisms that help us find God, say in nature, in the poor, in children. St Andre Bessette had a devotion to St Joseph.

I too have an affinity for St Joseph. He’s my confirmation patron (because I could not spell Christopher and was too scared to ask. Fortunately for me; Christopher may not be a saint after all.) He’s also the middle name of your grandfather and uncle. Try any of Filias’ books, I have several, for comprehensive and meditative bios of Joseph. Read meditatively the Scriptural passages with Joseph in them. Joseph qua holy man. Joseph qua husband. Joseph qua father [not stepfather – wrestle with that mystery for a while. Mary tells Jesus, your father and I have been looking for you. He answers: don’t you know I’m suppose to be about my Father’s business? Then He went home with them; and was obedient to them.]. Joseph the worker [May 1st: a day that lives in my infamy – first as May Day – for the communists and for the May Crowning of Mary, not to mention the feast of Joseph the Worker. I made my biggest mistake on a May first.]

But I digress from St Andre Bessette, who was canonized just this year. He got a front page headliner story in the Columbia. Of course the Knights would highlight this new saint. A North American. A man’s man with a devotion to St Joseph. A holy man for each of us to emulate.



January 6
Andre Bessette b. 1845 d. 1935 c. 2010


When Alfred Bessette came to the Holy Cross Brothers in 1870, he carried with him a note from his pastor saying, "I am sending you a saint."

Alfred? The naming process is holy and possessive as well as submissive. Upon taking vows it is not uncommon for a religious to take on a new name – like we do at Baptism and Confirmation, not to mention during those moments in our lives when we wish to redefine ourselves. [one reason the woman takes the man’s surname? Let’s have that discussion another time.] Alfred took the name Andre. I don’t know why. I am sure it is in the cause for his canonization. It wasn’t in any of the stories I read about him; so, I suppose it wasn’t deemed important by the writers. I think they missed something.

Holy Cross Brothers? Dems the ones at Notre Dame. I miss our pilgrimages to the Golden Dome – to and/or from Grandpa’s house we went to South Bend on a pilgrimage for this humble Subway Alum indoctrinating his sons. I hope you have a comparably meaningful destination for your annual pilgrimage. A place to rejuvenate your being, your relationship with God, your ties to our greater Catholic, cultural, family communities.

1870 Montreal. Not the cosmopolitan city it is today – a place I recommend you go visit if only for a pilgrimage to the St Joseph oratory ‘built by’ St Andre Bessette. When we, i.e., your father’s first nuclear family, lived in Portland we had many friends and neighbors from Quebec and Montreal. We became friends with them in part because we went to the same Church – not many Catholics in Portland but all the French Canadians were also Catholic. These friends were the connection that drew me to make the drive through God’s country to Quebec and then Montreal. There are many reasons to go places – friends, I’ve found, are the best reasons.

The pastor sent the Holy Cross Brothers a saint. Why would the recipients of such a gift be so unbelieving? Why did none of the Apostles believe the women when they returned from the empty tomb? Why did they not believe it was Jesus the first time He appeared to them? Why do our religious not believe that a saint can be sent to them, a man they did not form, a man they did not know – referred by a priest, not a Holy Cross father. I believe Lord, help my unbelief. And help the unbelief of my sons and my Church.

Chronic stomach pains had made it impossible for Alfred to hold a job very long. Since he was a boy he had wandered from shop to shop, farm to farm, in his native Canada and in the United States, staying only until his employers found out how little work he could do.
Imagine what life was like for St Andre Bessette as a teenager and young man – the life of your most recent memories. He was on his own, looking to find his way in the world, to survive. No one gave him an education or an SUV. He was not blessed with resources or talents that God gave you; but use your imagination. But he kept on truckin’. People hired him. That says something about his qualities as a person – Integrity? Gentleness? Reliability? Holiness? What made person after person, strangers, hire this itinerant? …. Then stop the tape. At twenty five. The young man can’t hold a job. He shuffles from place to place, county to county, country to country. He’s illiterate. What do you foresee for him?

Know that at any moment in your life, it is impossible to predict where it will go. No matter how well or how poorly things are going for you in the moment. So long as you are following God’s will you know that you are on the right path, going in the right direction, and all will be Good.

This itinerant illiterate approached the Holy Cross Brothers out of desperation. Or from the wisdom of his pastor? The hand of the Holy Spirit? What place does this, dare we say, young bum, have with the haughty Holy Cross Brothers? Maybe in Her sense of humor, the Holy Spirit sent Andre Bessette to the Holy Cross Brothers because they needed him more than he needed them?

For Andre Bessette believed that this was the place he should have been all along. …. Not uncommonly, during periods of our lives, some longer than others, we wander through life, seemingly on task, on goal, driven or drifting but without the sense of belonging we seek. We fell that ‘this is good’, ‘it could be better’, but ‘It’s not quite it’. Then – in a place, at a time, with the right people – the people though whom Jesus finally is able to touch us – we know that we belong. When that happens, Deo Gratias! Give thanks to God every day. Wake up in the morning singing His praises. Go to bed each night breathing a sigh of gratitude. And, never stop discerning God’s will for you. Stay where you have found the essence of your soulmate – because it will be your soulmate, the Holy Spirit imprinted on your soul, touching your heart, telling you ‘this is da place!’

The Holy Cross Brothers took him into the novitiate but soon found out that as hard as Brother Andre wanted to work, he simply wasn't strong enough. And what did the good Brothers do? They asked him to leave the order. But Andre Bessette begged a visiting bishop to intercede. Was Andre Bessette desperate for three squares and a roof over his head? Was he so worthless and such a big drain that he should be shooed away? What kind of chutzpah did he have to get a visiting bishop involved? Which hand do you want to play here? What does this incident tell you about yourself? About your becoming a better Catholic? What else does this cameo show you? One of the reasons we learn the lives of the saints is to let their stories inform our own lives. Let this interlude help you penetrate the mystery of the Holy Spirit.

The visiting bishop promised that Andre Bessette would stay and take his vows. And the plot continues….
After his vows, Brother Andre was sent to Notre Dame College in Montreal (a school for boys age seven to twelve) as a porter. We are blessed with several saints who served their religious community as porter – can you name a couple? Think Jesuits for starters. This most humble of services – kinda like the Walmart Greeters (just think, each one of those are a saint in the making). You don’t have to be literate to be a porter. You don’t have to have an iron stomach. You do have to have a loving, kind heart for everyone: for whomever comes to the door – each one is Jesus.

At the Notre Dame College, his responsibilities were to answer the door, to welcome guests, find the people they were visiting, wake up those in the school, and deliver mail. Brother Andre joked later, "At the end of my novitiate, my superiors showed me the door, and I stayed there for forty years."

In 1904, Andre Bessette surprised the Archbishop of Montreal by requesting permission to, build a chapel to Saint Joseph on the mountain near the college. The Archbishop refused to go into debt and would only give permission for Brother Andre to build what he had money for. What money did Brother Andre have? Nickels he had collected as donations for Saint Joseph from haircuts he gave the boys. Nickels and dimes from a small dish he had kept in a picnic shelter on top of the mountain near a statue of St. Joseph with a sign "Donations for St. Joseph." He had collected this change for years but he still had only a few hundred dollars. Who would start a chapel now with so little funding? [Think Francis of Assisi.]

We don’t have in the bioblurbs why Andre Bessette had an affinity for St Joseph. What moved him to put the statue of St Joseph on the mountain? How did this illiterate itinerant connect with
St Joseph? How do we connect with anyone? Common ground. Common heart. Common relations. Camaraderie. Was it a common connection with Jesus? Mary? The trials of a man sent to Bethlehem then to Egypt the to Nazareth then to Jerusalem to be the father of our Lord?

Andre took his few hundred dollars and built a small wood shelter only fifteen feet by eighteen feet. He kept collecting money and went back three years later to request more building. The wary Archbishop asked him, "Are you having visions of Saint Joseph telling you to build a church for him?" Brother Andre reassured him. "I have only my great devotion to St. Joseph to guide me."

In our persistence, we will be questioned. The more Quixotic our quest, the more we are questioned. Not unlike the persistence of a father with his sons. Have great devotion to a good man. Let that devotion guide you. Let that devotion motivate you. Let that devotion be great enough to be worthy of that man you follow. Your best choice is Jesus. Andre Bessette got there through his devotion to St Joseph. You might pick a John or Thomas or Kenneth or William or Uriel or Joseph….

The Archbishop granted him permission to keep building as long as he didn't go into debt. He started by adding a roof so that all the people who were coming to hear Mass at the shrine wouldn't have to stand out in the rain and the wind; …and finally a place where Brother Andre Bessette and others could live and take care of the shrine -- and the pilgrims who came - full-time.
Through kindness, caring, and devotion, Brother Andre Bessette helped many souls experience healing and renewal on the mountaintop. There were even cases of physical healing. But for everything, Brother Andre thanked St. Joseph.

This all happened in early twentieth century Montreal. There are pictures. There are testimonials. There are stories handed down generation to generation. Brother Andre Bessette did heal souls and bodies. Go figure! This illiterate itinerant twenty-five year old was the cause of the building of one of the most beautiful, huge oratories in the world. Pilgrims come from all over the world to express their devotion to St Joseph and give thanks to St Andre Bessette. No telling where God is leading you. Don’t fight it. Discern his will. Be devoted to a person, a belief, a cause so much greater than yourself (think humility). Be the cause of the healing of souls, the building of basilicas!

The Basilica of St Joseph is still not finished. But like the roofless chapel that Andre Bessette started with, the pilgrims come, the Holy Cross Brothers greet them – in the spirit of St Andre Bessette, the Holy Spirit touched their souls and heals their bodies.
Despite financial troubles, Brother Andre never lost faith or devotion. I bet that the financial challenges, even the onset of the Great Depression, were the least of St Andre Bessette’s headaches. How many unbelievers and naysayers do you think swirled around him? How many people do you think scoffed and told him to give it up, stop wasting your time and our money? How often do you believe everyone but Andre Bessette believed that the Basilica will be built? I bet it was not the building that was the source of his persistence. People came. He opened the door – to the roofless chapel, to the infinite love in his soul.

As long as he lived, the man who had trouble keeping work for himself, would never have stopped working for God. So long as you are working for God, you are on the right path and you will not be unemployed or unsuccessful. Brother Andre Bessette started with what he had. Not much by any objective, external standard. But there is no measure for love and devotion – you know that by the experiences of love you have had so far. Small steps, the little way, plod along, persist with God’s grace and your unique spirit….

I love you,
Dad
101118