0210 William of Maleval d. 1157

Thom (and Jack)
Good morning, I love you
110120, 1225

Thom, that was a surprise. Thank you.

I moved to GSO because your mother up and took y’all from Nashville to GSO to pursue her selfish nonparental interests. I moved because I believe that sons are given to two parents and it is necessary for both sons and father for us to be together in order to fulfill our created purpose. I moved for us to be together not separated. I moved and stayed and was involved – in spite of hurdles placed by your mother – because of my responsibility as father. A responsibility I have become more attuned to as I’ve become more attuned to my duties as a son.

Y’all were put in an anti-Catholic high school. I funded your college efforts in GSO. I put time and effort into being present on each of the multiple campuses y’all have attended. I have stayed in GSO because you are here.

Unfortunately, the shroud y’all have put over your lives, the veil between son and father has been perfectly effective until chance (?) stepped in today. We live within a mile-ish of one another. But I do not see y’all at Mass. I do not see y’all at the usual restaurants. I do not see y’all at the cinemas or theaters. In the same circles (?) but mostly travelling in circles that don’t intersect.

Until today. It was good and sad to see you today. I, like the father in the ‘prodigal son,’ like Monica to Augustine, I am always here for you and have many gifts God’s made available to you via me at your disposal. Like the boxes of stuff for you at my place – here/there any time for the asking. Not even asking, just be there.

I love you with the secret of a Father’s Love.

[p.s., your mother has done less well by you than her mother did for her son. Beware that you don’t find a woman for your life that matches that accomplishment and trend. In too many of the unconscious ways, I, like everyman, weddinged [not married in my case] my mother. My unconscious receptors connected the wrong sockets – matching up to wrong/deleterious aspects of the next generation’s persona. …. If I had done a simple due diligence, an adequate social history; if I had exercised will and freedom rather than inertia and hedonism we all would be much better off today. I’m sorry for you more than for me; I am very sorry for boffus.]

Yesterday, in preparation of our one parish one book discussion, I brought up several articles by Avery Dulles on Freedom. I recommend that saintly Jesuit to you. His writings are eloquent and clear and readily understandable. A tremendous talent. [I had one occasion during my novitiate to meet Fr. Dulles – holiness, wisdom, and brilliance emanated from him. In 1968, as we in the novitiate were on the cutting edge of the post-council [Vatican II] Holy Spirit breath of fresh air sweeping through the Church, I wound up in the presence of a man who [among many Jesuits] had an invisible hand on the workings of the Council.

I suggest that your read Dulles’ work on freedom – personal freedom. I also suggest you pick up JPII’s Veritas Splendor, a much denser piece, but foundational in the understanding of freedom. Freedom requires Truth. I’ll come back to my notes on that.



February 10

William of Maleval d. 1157 bl. 1202
(In Catholic encyclopedia online he’s referred to as “the Great.” Getting from death to beatification in forty five years tells us he had an impact on 12th c. Church.)

This saint, among many, but since he’s a William, he’s particularly relevant to us, led a dissolute early life. The two bioblurbs I’ve consulted do not have the details of the dissoluteness. Imagine the magnitude of it, commensurate with, I assume, his high social standing, because he went to the Pope for reconciliation. The Pope included in the penance a pilgrimage to the Jerusalem.

Both SPX and St Paul’s parishioners recently made pilgrimages to the holy land. Each person who went obviously was blessed with a transformative experience. It is on their face. It is in their voice. No doubt it filled their hearts and souls. I am also confident it will reinforce their Catholicity, their holiness.

William of Maleval also was married in his early life. Again, neither bioblurb elaborates on that or what happened to his wife (and family?). No matter what happens in ‘later life,’ e.g., William of Maleval’s becoming a hermit, the impact of wedding and marriage – and all the life experiences included for those to occur – these event have a forever effect on your entire life – for good and for bad. [Although, last night I was listening to a few women tell about the ‘perfectness’ of their marriages, the total devotion they and their husbands share.] Maybe it’s just me and my refusal to ‘get over it.’

Eugene III ordered William of Maleval to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land as penance for his sins. Yesterday I also read a very short blurb about Pope Benedict’s recent comments about purgatory. In a recent audience and talk about Catherine of Genoa, Pope Benedict XVI elaborated on The Mystic’s and his own understanding of purgatory as a process not a place. An experience of unworthiness to see the Face of God and the pain of being separated from Him. Purgatory is a purification process – one we should begin here on earth, with our own pilgrimage. If not to Rome or Jerusalem, to the nearest Church and wade through the muck to find the pure grace filled center of our souls.

About 1153, after maybe two years in Jerusalem, William of Maleval returned to Italy, near Pisa. He lived as a hermit. After periods of penance it seems maybe the inclination toward hermit-ness would be strong; it is in me. And yet, like for the more saintly among us, from whom we should take the lead, William of Maleval soon after, about 1155, became head of a monastery.

It’s risky for people to call someone to lead them who’s recently had a deep, penitential experience. William of Maleval tried to reform the monks on Monte Bruno.

William of Maleval left the monastery and once more took up the life of a hermit near Sienna. I can dig that. I’d rather let those who would not follow to their own devices and go off by myself to commune with God.

But, unlike me, William of Maleval was a holy man. His holiness and way of life attracted a group of followers who later developed into the Hermits of St William, later absorbed into the Augustinian Canons.

In his later years, William was noted for his gifts of prophecy and miracles.

I love you,
Dad
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