St. Thomas Aquinas, OP Day

Happy Feast of St. Thomas Aqunias to all my readers!
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This past weekend was a lot of fun. We student brothers were sent out to various ministry sites to preach on vocations. A brother and I were sent to Purdue University in Indiana. I was very much impressed, both with the Christian community there, and the community of friars. They are, indeed, joyful men serving the Lord.
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It was also a nerve wracking weekend in some ways. First of all, I hadn't really prepared properly to preach. I was so busy Friday, that I had to wait until around 10 that night before I could sit down and order my thoughts. Plus, I usually prepare preaching out loud, but because I didn't really have to space for that, I had to do it all in my head and on paper. So when I got up to preach after communion at the 9 am mass, it was the first time I had gone through it completely. And you know what--it went well! I only had one more time to practice before the evening mass, and still I managed to do well, better even. I really do love preaching, but it does something to my nerves just before!
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As you can imagine, I'm backed up on homework, so I must be going.
May the prayers of St. Thomas Aquinas lead to a renewal of solid theological and philosophical studies throughout the Church! And may St. Thomas intercede on the behalf of Catholic students everywhere, esp. graduate students doing papers on the Summa.
P~

Brother Franciscus Romanus, OP (and Savonarola)

I was wandering around the web last night, and came across an article on a cooperator brother that I hadn't heard of before. Like Fra Ristoro and Fra Sisto and Michael of Zamora, this brother was an architect. Franciscus Romanus was born in Ghent in 1647. Sometime after, he entered the Dominican Order as a cooperator brother and went about restoring structures. According to the article I read, he "renewed" one of the arcs to the "old" bridge that crossed the River Maas for the city of Maastricht (depicted above in photograph taken by Daniel Spichtinger). Brother Franciscus also restored a Dominican monastery built in the 14th century.
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Apparently, Brother Franciscus was so good at his job that King Louis XIV of France's advisors called him to Paris to restore the Pont Royal and Pont Neuf. Brother Franciscus died in Paris in 1735.
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It was great to read of another intelligent, industrious, and talented Dominican cooperator brother.
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Another interesting bit of info I stumbled upon had to do with the famous preacher Girolamo Savonarola. According to Pasquale Villari's book, "The Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola", Savonarola joined the Dominicans as a cooperator brother. He wanted the more contemplative life of the brother, to focus (as so many did) on penance and service. This was not to be, however, and he went on for studies and was ordained. The rest of his preaching career is controversial. I'm in the camp that he was a prophet, and ought to be canonized. Others disagree, because he was brave enough to call the pope and civil leaders of his time out for their unholy and unfitting lifestyle.
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I found information on two other cooperator brothers, as well, and look forward to sharing that soon.
Paulie~

Feast of St. Agnes, Virgin Martyr

It's not often that you actually envy a saint, especially a martyr--in the sense that you wish that what is said of the particular saint would be said of you. But in today's morning prayer, the antiphons in honor of St. Agnes are so terrific in how they express the desire to be completely united to Christ, that it would be the greatest honor to have them said of me. They are:

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"My Lord Jesus Christ has espoused me with his ring; he has crowned me like a bride."

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"I am espoused to him whom the angels serve; sun and moon stand in wonder at his beauty."

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"Rejoice with me, and be glad, for I have taken my place with all the saints in the kingdom of light."

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"What I longed for, I now see; what I hoped for, I now possess; in heaven I am espoused to him whom on earth I loved with all my heart."

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The marriage imagery used to describe one's relationship to God goes back to the Hebrew scriptures. God is the one who describes the relationship in this way (the people wanted a ruler, He wanted a spouse). He is the faithful spouse, too often broken-hearted by our infidelity to him. On this, the feast of a faithful virgin, St. Agnes, I pray to renew my commitment to love God above all else.

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Happy Martin Luther King Day, as well!

Paulie~

Br. Herman Johnson, OP--First Cooperator Brother Superior

Thanks to one of my readers (Faith), I visited the website http://www.domlife.org/ and found out that the Southern Province of U.S. Dominican friars has elected a cooperator brother to be the superior of St. Anthony of Padua priory. As the article states, this is the first time in 751 years that a cooperator brother has held such a position. The brother's name, by the way, is Herman Johnson, OP. Br. Herman teaches spanish at Xavier University in New Orleans (a school tied to the great American saint, Katharine Drexell).

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In the article, Br. Herman says: "I am happy to accept being the first cooperator brother to be elected as prior. Having participated for years in the discussions on the vocation of the brother within the Order, I was anticipating major changes. Yet, I never thought that I would be the one to concretize the inevitable changes by way of being elected and approved as a prior. I don’t think St. Dominic had cooperator brothers as priors in mind when he asked that they manage all community affairs. However, it does convey his acceptance of them as full members, integral to the preaching mission of the Order. Perhaps Dominic has finally gotten his way in terms of emphasizing mission over an unchangeable hierarchical structure.

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"Contemporary challenges have caused a re-examination of the role of religious brothers. Diminishment in numbers worldwide has raised questions about the primacy of the Order’s commitment to religious life and forced a re-thinking of religious priesthood in comparison with diocesan priesthood. The presence of the brother’s vocation is a reminder of the primacy of religious life and minimizes the tendency to develop a solely clerical identity.

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"I wish to commend the St. Anthony of Padua friars for their broad thinking and courageous action in bringing about change. This election reflects their attention to what our life is about as a community of preachers and will contribute greatly to that expanded notion of preaching the brother brings (as addressed by recent masters of the Order). I hope that my election as prior will contribute to a worldwide renewal of vocations to the brothers’ way of life and, more importantly, to a better understanding of the vocation of male religious in the Dominican tradition."

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Speaking for myself, the election of Br. Herman is quite exciting. As I've written of before, there are different models of non-ordained religious life for men, some of which would not fit at all with this recent election. Some lay brothers in the past, certainly some of those canonized, would not have wanted such a responsibility--including St. Martin de Porres, who had to be ordered to receive the brother habit in the first place (he wanted to remain simply a servant associated with the convent). But as we think of St. Benedict of Nursia and St. Anthony of Egypt, there were certainly non-ordained religious who have been in charge of mixed communities of ordained and non-ordained religious who were successful. I agree with Br. Herman, when he writes about St. Dominic's vision for cooperator brothers becoming more of a reality with this election. With fewer friars, it is all the more important that the cooperator brothers be able to do what is needed for the community, taking a fuller share in the work of the Order. Now, this need never have meant superiorship, but circumstance, not politics, seems to have been determined otherwise.

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I'll continue to investigate this story and will pass on what I learn.

Paulie~

Comments

I think I've figured out the "comment" option trouble, and have reset it so that people can freely comment without having to email their comments to a friend. I hope this helps.

Anyway, thanks to Faith who emailed me a great story about how in the Southern Dominican Province of St. Martin de Porres a cooperator brother was elected a superior of a community. The election, despite Dominican constitutional restrictions, was confirmed by the Vatican. This sort of news supports the concept that in the Dominican Order we are all brothers, some are ordained and some are not, but we are all equal. It looks more like the model of St. Benedict than that of St. Martin de Porres, perhaps.

I'm definitely going to do some more research on this and talk about it more.

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As the picture above depicts, today is the Feast of St. Margaret of Hungary, OP. Her parents dedicated her to the service of God from the womb, and Margaret went on to lead a holy life of penance as a Dominican nun.
Peace,
Paulie~

Novena to St. Paul, Apostle

Here's the prayer I'll be using for the St. Paul Novena, which runs from Jan 17th through Jan 25th (the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul):

Lord God,

Our of your great love for St. Paul

you healed him of his blindness

and called him to live in your light.

We give you thanks for his conversion,

for his mission zeal, and for his letters

for in his life, we see your love for us, as well.

Imitating St. Paul, we humbly petition

you in the name of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ

for this request:

(here state the request)

If it be your holy will,

grant what we ask for in faith,

for you are our only hope.

Most Holy Trinity, Have Mercy on Us!

St. Paul, Pray for Us!

Feel free to email me with any prayer requests you might have: cooperatorbrother@gmail.com

Peace,

Paulie~

Paul and Anthony

Tomorrow, Thursday the 17th, begins the novena to St. Paul--nine days of prayer leading up to the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Great, Convert, Apostle, and Martyr. The intention of my novena prayer will be, as usual, vocations. We student brothers are preparing to go on preaching missions next week, so the novena comes at the perfect time.

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Tomorrow is also the Feast of St. Anthony of Egypt, the great hermit and "father of monks" as the breviary calls him. For non-ordained religious, Anthony is another model (like St. Benedict of Nursia) of what the non-ordained religious vocation looked like in the early centuries of Christianity. Far from the "lay brother" model, which focused on serving, the monastic/hermit model focused on asceticism and prayer (both of which, however, were incorporated into the lay brother model, as in the case of Bl. Simon Ballachi, OP and his contemplative gardening).

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Today is the feast of St. Berard and Companions. St. Berard was a Franciscan missionary to Morocco. He, two other priests, and two lay brothers were preaching amongst the Muslims, and thus earned for themselves the crown of martyrdom. The two lay brothers were St. Accursio (what a name) and St. Adjustus. According to my "saint of the day" online bulletin, St. Anthony of Padua was inspired by these martyrs, and so became a Franciscan himself.

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Studies are beginning again. I had classes on Thomas Aquinas and Pastoral Counseling yesterday. Today is Biblical Interpretation. Already, it looks like I'll be doing a lot of reading and writing. That said, I better get to my homework.

P~

St. Macrina Day

Above is a picture of my beloved family. I recently was back in Kentucky staying with them over the Christmas break. As I think back, there were several good moments that I would like to record for my own memory. The one that stands out most is the night I was doing dishes after dinner and began to sing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." I usually sing while I clean, and this song has been with me since at least high school as a song of comfort. As I washed and sang, my grandmother, who was also cleaning, joined in. It was so cool to share that moment with her, just grandma and I singing in the kitchen.

Just before visiting, I learned a new card game called "Spite and Malice." Fr. Tom taught me this game (and others) during a retreat. I knew that I had to share this new game with my grandfather, who's big on playing cards. Sure enough, by the end of my visit, my grandfather and mother were playing at least one round of this game a day. The great thing about this is that my mother, who usually would stay upstairs in her own room, now came down to spend time with my grandfather. Who knew a card game could bring a family closer together?

I also had a wonderful time talking with one of my cousins. He confided in me his own struggles with finding his place in life. He has the desire to do good for the world and others, but doesn't know yet what that we mean practically. I could see him being a priest, myself, but that's just my humble opinion. I think that there a lot of people in the world who have been given the holy desire to love others more than they love themselves, but who don't know how to enact that desire. In the Catholic faith, I think we have a great history of saints who do extraordinary things with that holy desire. I'm proud that my faith not only facilitates, but also promotes the call to active service, allowing people to give up everything in order to love others more freely. This is why I became a religious.

The Great Martyrs of Japan

To the left is a depiction of the martyrs of Japan (St. Lawrence Ruiz at the center). Among this group, St. Francis Shoyemon and St. Matthew Kohioye of the Rosary, both cooperator brothers. Among another group (lumped with Bl. Alphonsus Navarette and Companions) are Bl. Dominic of the Rosary, Bl. Peter of St. Mary, Bl. Mancio of the Cross, Bl. Thomas of St. Hyacinth, and Bl. Anthony of St. Dominic, all cooperator brothers, as well.

I learned more about these fantastic cooperator brother martyrs yesterday when I stumbled upon the work entitled Witnesses of the Faith in the Orient put out by the Eastern Province Dominicans. See: http://www.op-stjoseph.org/dom-images/pdf-files/witnesses.pdf for the work. You can search the document using the key word "cooperator" if you want to fast forward to the chapters of these seven particular martyrs.

What struck me most was the fact that these seven men, along with the clerical brothers from Japan, played such an important role in helping the missionary efforts of the European Dominicans. I think that several of them served as catechists of the faith and as interpreters for the missionary priests. And despite the fact that they could have abandoned their Christian faith in the face of persecution, these men not only went with the Dominican priests to the prison, they requested the holy habit and made their novitiates in prison! Just before they were executed, these holy brothers made profession of obedience. Some were beheaded, others burned, and some hung upside down to bleed to death. Each, through trust in God, planted the seed of faith in their beloved Japan. May the Dominican Order be blessed with men of such faith and courage today. Martyrs of Japan, Pray for us!

Happy Feast of St. Bernardo Latini de Corleone, Capuchin Lay Brother

It is fitting that I return to my blog on the Feast of St. Bernardo. Brother Bernardo was a rather wild character, who liked to fight. He was from Sicily, so perhaps this was a necessity (no offense), but eventually, God got a hold of him and Bernardo left behind his violent ways and became a Capuchin (Franciscan) lay brother. To make up for his past, Bernardo practiced severe penances and was rewarded with the gifts of prophecy, ecstasies, levitation, and other miracles. He died on this date in 1667.

I've just gotten home from my visit with my family in Kentucky. I had a nice visit and got to see some of my former coworkers, college professors, parish family, and relatives. While I was away, I was doing more research on non-ordained religious using the book Dictionary of Saints ed. by John J. Delaney. A wonderful resource full on saints I hadn't come across yet, including many entries on non-ordained religious. To see the result (a Calendar of brother feast days) visit my website: http://cooperatorbrother.googlepages.com/holylayreligiousfromotherorders.

I'm off to start the day.

Peace,

Br. Paul~