Dominic and the Goodness of God’s Creation
Saint Dominic died in 1221, four years before his most famous spiritual son, Thomas of Aquinas was born, was, like the famed ‘Dumb Ox’, to fulfil much in a relatively short life: They both died at around the half-century mark, when some are just getting going. After all, Aristotle, whom Thomas did much to make a household name, claimed a man was not mature enough to study metaphysics until the tender age of 40, which was the age the Jews thought requisite to have developed a similar maturity to have a spiritual opinion; hence, their reply to the Christ, that He – yes, the Eternal One – was yet still but a relative youth in his early thirties.
But to God, all time, all ages, are relative, and from our human perspective, our main purpose is, by the grace of God, to save our souls, and help save those around us. Everything else, to paraphrase Einstein in a different context, is detail. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength, and thy neighbour as thyself.
The first and foremost way to love the other is to offer them the truth, which is a task to which Dominic dedicated his life, founding the ‘Order of Preachers’, Ordo Praedicatorum, whose primary task is to contemplate, study and hand on the fruits of this work to those who ‘know not the truth’. I heard somewhere that in their Rule, Dominicans are supposed to study four hours a day; I hope that is still true, both in theory and in practice, for God’s people still perish for lack of truth – now perhaps more than ever.
Dominic was more clear in his purpose and vision than his contemporary Francis, who was always ambivalent about beginning an Order. For how does one build an organization on the principles of a man whose principles were to own nothing? Hence, the persistent fissiparity of the followers of Francis; they would be the largest Order in the Church, if there not so many branches and types of them, all seeking to return to that ideal of their founder. Much to the good, and there have been countless saints, missionaries and martyrs amongst the Franciscans.
Yet, from the beginning, Dominic was clear that he wanted an Order of scholarly priests, firm and resolved in their work and purpose. Their first opponent – that for which they were originally founded in the early years of the 13th century – were the Cathars, then-modern-day Manicheans, who denied the goodness, even the ‘reality’, of creation, the body, marriage, sex, children – going so far as to call them evil, and that the best thing one could do was commit suicide, preferably by slow starvation – which sadly sounds a lot like some of the shrill modern environmentalists.
This rejection of God’s goodness really is at the root of all heresy, of the deep link that He made between heaven and earth, soul and body, written into the very nature of creation, and manifested most clearly in the Incarnation, in the Word taking our very flesh, the denial of which, as Saint John wrote, is the clearest message of Antichrist.
Dominic preached the goodness of good things by sacrificing many of them to God, going barefoot, abstaining from meat, an ascetical life and strict chastity, but always praising the Almighty for all He had given, as his son Thomas would do even more clearly and systematically.
So pray to Dominic and Thomas today for a return to that clarity of vision, the truth in all its depth and wonder.
Praise God, for we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→
Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: A Teacher for Teachers
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 – 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God. Destined for ordination from an early age, Jean-Baptiste never looked back, even[…]Continue reading→