2010 Aquinas Lecture

Saints This Month - 31 January: St John Bosco

In the year for priests it is appropriate to recall the life and work of one of the greatest priests of the 19th century, St John Bosco (1815-1888). He founded the Salesian Order to work especially with young people and his feast is celebrated on 31st January. An account of Don Bosco's life may be found here.

Celebrating Priesthood in Fiction - Don Camillo

In 1946 the journalist and humorist Giovanni Guareschi published a short story in the satirical magazine Candido. This tale (the first of many) of a small post-war Italian village and its hotheaded parish priest, Don Camillo Tarocci, is a charming and very human snapshot of the struggles between the Communist Party and the Church within Italy and it is no surprise that the works have resulted in numerous adaptations to TV, radio and film. Guareschi's writings however are much more than a clever piece of satire.

Don Camillo is a dedicated and faithful priest. He has a fiery temper and at times equally fiery fists! He is is constantly at odds with the communist mayor, Peppone, and their clashes are the driving force of the stories. Both were partisan fighters during the war and both want the best for the people of Ponteratto, though for different reasons. Nevertheless neither man is a clear-cut caricature: although he publicly opposes the Church as a Party duty, Peppone takes his gang to the church and baptizes his children there, which makes him part of Don Camillo's flock. If Peppone can be a Communist and a Catholic at the same time, Don Camillo, on the other side, gets labeled by local rich landowners and traditionalists as a "Bolshevik priest" because he is not afraid to decry the avarice of rich people.

The most interesting relationship Don Camillo has is with the Crucifix in the village church. Through the figure on the crucifix, Don Camillo often hears the voice of Our Lord and unsurprisingly this is the voice of reason! The figure of Christ often has far greater understanding than Don Camillo for the troubles of the people, and has to constantly but gently reprimand the priest for his impatience.

The character of Don Camillo has much to offer Christians, particularly priests. All Christians have to live in the real world. We have to deal with people who will not agree with us or who even oppose us. We have to work with people not just for a quiet life but so that they might hear the Gospel too. Whilst we should never give up our principles or beliefs, we should take care not to demonise and not to be aggressive in our zeal.

Don Camillo himself reminds us that priests are human and will have flaws but they have been entrusted with the care of souls and the only way this possible is by having a deep relationship with the crucified Christ. Not everyone will have a talking crucifix but Our Lord does speak to us in many ways: we just have to be prepared to listen.

Our brother, the Dumb Ox!

This statue of the great Dominican friar and Doctor of the Church, St Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274), surmounts the reredos of the former priory church of St Thomas in Hawkesyard, Staffordshire, which was once a study house of the English Dominicans. On his feast day (28 January) we are invited to look at this image of the saint, and pause to think of him as a person and a friar, and to thank God for enlightening him with the wisdom which he put at the service of the Church.

The first thing that strikes us when we look at someone is their appearance. The rounded face and large stature which the artist has given to St Thomas is one that is almost immediately recognizable, and it is similar to one of the earliest paintings of St Thomas. There is a certain verisimilitude in such depictions of the saint, for according to contemporary accounts, Thomas was noted for his height and bulk. So, his mentor, St Albert the Great, famously called him a 'dumb ox', on account of both his size, we suppose, and also of his quietness in class. Later in his life, a Cistercian priest commented that Thomas was "large and heavy and had a bald forehead", and indeed, Thomas' own student, Remigio of Florence, says that he was "very fat". St Thomas' biographer, Tocco, also mentions that he was "large in body" with a "large head", and adds that he had thin blonde hair. This physical characteristic and his height are both thought to be derived from his noble Norman ancestry.

The second thing we might notice is what the person is wearing. St Thomas, of course, is shown in the habit of the Order of Preachers. It is thought that St Thomas joined the Order perhaps as young as the age of 16, around 1242/3. Certainly, he had been clothed in the habit by April 1244. He was then a student in Naples, and he was soon sent to Rome to evade the grasp of his angry parents who had hoped that Thomas would become a Benedictine at Monte Cassino and rise to become abbot of that great monastery! Perhaps here we see another reason for his being called an 'ox'. For he showed great tenacity and refused to succumb to family pressure. Despite being kidnapped by his brother Rinaldo d'Aquino, and placed under house arrest, and locked in a room with a prostitute who failed to endanger his chastity, St Thomas refused to renounce the Order. A year later, his family gave up and delivered him back to his priory in Naples.

What attracted St Thomas to the Dominicans, which was then a new and untried kind of religious life in the Church? Was it just teenage rebelliousness? Many years later, in his well-known Summa Theologiae, St Thomas would write about the right of adolescents to enter religious life, even against the wishes of their parents because it is "better to obey the Father of spirits through whom we live than to obey our parents" (ST IIa IIae 189, 6). Of course, something of his own experience is reflected in this. Nevertheless, we see that St Thomas prioritized obedience to God, and so he must have felt very keenly a call from God to join the Dominicans.

Torrell thinks that St Thomas was particularly drawn to the Order because of his love and aptitude for study. Moreover, he later wrote that "if it is good to contemplate divine things, it is even better to contemplate and transmit them to others" (IIa IIae 188, 6). So, St Thomas was not just drawn to study but to the preaching and teaching of what he had studied. Hence, his formulation of the goodness of the Dominican's preaching charism became one of the mottos of the Order: to contemplate and to hand on the fruits of contemplation.

In addition, Chenu thinks that St Thomas was drawn to the Order's poverty, expressed in its mendicant lifestyle. This was then in sharp contrast with the landed wealth of the ancient monasteries, and so Chenu says that "the refusal of Monte Cassino is, for Thomas, the same gesture made by Francis of Assisi". Thus, St Thomas later defends mendicant poverty as "the prime example [of Christ] that we must imitate" and he says that "it is that nakedness on the Cross that those who embrace voluntary poverty wish to follow" (Contra Retrahentes 15).

The third thing we notice about a person is the things associated with him. In religious art, symbols placed around the image of a saint help us to identify the person being depicted. Three symbols can be seen around this statue of St Thomas, but they are common attributes in artistic depictions of the Angelic Doctor: a sun on his chest, the Chalice and Host in his hand, and a book at his feet.

Pope Pius XI said that the sun is St Thomas' symbol because "he both brings the light of learning into the minds of men and fires their hearts and wills with the virtues". More recently, Pope John Paul II noted the special place of St Thomas in the tradition of Christian thought, for St Thomas "had the great merit of giving pride of place to the harmony which exists between faith and reason. Both the light of reason and the light of faith come from God, he argued; hence there can be no contradiction between them". This truth stands at the heart of a Catholic approach to study and to the science of theology, and it is thus that the Dominican Constitutions (echoing the Church's Code of Canon Law) says that "the best teacher and model for the accomplishment of [study in the Order] is St Thomas whose teaching the Church particularly commends". Indeed, it is not only the Church who, in the words of Pope John Paul II, holds St Thomas up as "a master of thought and a model of the right way to do theology", but G. K. Chesterton has also said that "Thomas Aquinas was one of the great liberators of the human intellect ... a very great man who reconciled religion with reason". As Pope John XXII said that "he alone enlightened the Church more than all other doctors", so the sun is a symbol of this saint. Yet it is important to recall that the brilliance of St Thomas' teaching comes from Christ, the light of the world, who is the source of all wisdom. As St Thomas himself said in 1256 at his inaugural lecture in Paris: "the minds of teachers… are watered by the things that are above in the wisdom of God, and by their ministry the light of divine wisdom flows down into the minds of students".

The book, often shown as the Summa Theologiae is related to what we have already seen above. It is yet another sign of his learning and of his many writings which have illuminated the minds of so many. Indeed, his influence is so great that Pope Pius XI declared: "We consider that Thomas should be called not only the Angelic, but also the Common or Universal Doctor of the Church; for the Church has adopted his philosophy for her own". However, something should also be said about the way St Thomas wrote. Noteworthy is the sobriety of Thomas’ writing style and language. As Josef Pieper explains: “He avoids unusual and ostentatious phraseology … the firm rejection and avoidance of everything that might conceal, obscure, or distort reality.” This indicates his concern as a Friar Preacher to communicate the fruit of his contemplation as succinctly and simply but as precisely as possible.

Finally, the Eucharistic emblems which he holds in his hands are a symbol of his also being called the Doctor of the Eucharist. Although many might think of the Summa Theologiae as St Thomas' great masterpiece, his work for Corpus Christi is arguably his greatest legacy. As Simon Tugwell notes: “it is fitting that a theologian whose piety was so dominated by the Eucharist should have been the author of the liturgy for such a feast.” And it is the liturgical texts of this feast that have shaped the Eucharistic piety of generations of Catholics. St Thomas' sequence for Corpus Christi, the Lauda Sion is singled out by James Weisheipl as being “remarkable not only for its poetry, but also for its theological content; the individual stanzas can easily be aligned with the Eucharistic teaching of Thomas found in the third part of his Summa theologiae”. Thus, we see another side of his genius, which his shy demeanour may have kept latent: an affectivity and creativity that led him to compose such fine poetry. But this should not surprise us if, as Tugwell puts it, “the presence of Christ in the Eucharist was somehow the focal point and motivation of all his theology.”

Connected to this love for the Eucharist is a final point. For St Thomas, the 'dumb ox' was indeed struck dumb on 6 December 1273. Although some people think he had a stroke or even a nervous breakdown caused by overwork, Tugwell rightly says: “It looks as if Thomas had at last simply been overwhelmed by the Mass, to which he had so long been devoted and in which he had been so easily and deeply absorbed.” This suggests a mystical experience, and so William Hinnebusch writes: “Before every major occupation, whether debating, teaching, writing, or dictating, [Thomas] had recourse to prayer. His ardent love for God revealed itself in his fervent prayer before the Crucifix, in his intense love for the Sacrament of the Altar. His mystical intuition of divine things and his burning desire for union with God carried him at times into ecstasy. His mystical experiences reached such intensity towards the end of his life that all he had written seemed to him ‘so much straw’.” Therefore, towards the end of his life, having received a vision of God, St Thomas said: "Everything ... seems to me straw - compared to the vision I have had". Given all the praise that the Church has heaped upon St Thomas, this is a striking comment. It reminds us of just how great God is and how much his wisdom and truth and being surpass our human capacity to know and love Him. But even though the ox was struck dumb at the end, this did not jeopardize St Albert the Great's prediction concerning St Thomas Aquinas: "We call him the dumb ox, but one day he will emit such a bellowing in his teaching that it will be heard throughout the world".

Dandelion and Burdock

Dandelion and burdock is a very British drink, thought to have been drunk within these isles since 1265. One of the apocryphal tales of the origins of this naturally fizzy concoction credit St Thomas Aquinas as its inventor. It is said that Thomas, during a bout of writers' block, had a sleepless night praying for inspiration from God. He was moved to get up and walked straight into the countryside. After a while he developed a thirst. Trusting in God to provide he made a drink from the first plants he came across and it was this drink that aided his concentration when seeking to formulate his theological arguments that ultimately culminated in the Summa Theologiae.

Now it is very possible that this story is the product of a salesman marketing D&B as a brain tonic but I think we can also understand it on a deeper level. We are constantly given situations, responsibilities, successes and failures. These are our ingredients. If we approach with God in mind, putting our trust in Him, we can face anything and deal with whatever comes along, confident that in the end, things will work out. God will and does provide, our spiritual thirst will always be satisfied by the Living Water, and when we drink of this water our minds will be focused on Truth itself.

Celebrating Priesthood- Father Edward J. Flanagan

With young offender institutions overflowing, and "gangs of Hoodies" roaming the streets, youth crime is a hot button issue in Britain today. Despite the Daily Mail's protests this is not a new problem: there never was a golden age of juvenile civility. This was certainly the case in Omaha, Nebraska, in the early twentieth-century, where large gangs of homeless boys formed a significant part of the criminal community. In 1917 a young Irish priest saw this problem on the streets of this mid-western city and decided that something needed to be done.

Edward J. Flanagan was born in 1886 in Roscommon. From an early age he decided he was being called to the priesthood. When he turned 18 he, like so many of his fellow country-men, crossed the Atlantic to the United States of America. He graduated from Mount St. Mary's university in 1908 and then entered St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, New York. He continued his studies in Italy, and at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, where he was ordained a priest in 1912. He was then sent as a curate to a parish in O'Neil, Nebraska and in 1915 to St. Patrick's, Omaha.

Father Flanagan became a familiar figure to many of the young homeless men and boys in the city, offering them food, shelter and support when they ran into trouble with the law. Father Flanagan developed an understanding for the boys and young men who were orphaned by society. He realized that children who were neglected often turned to crime. He realised that they had had so little love in their lives that they could not show love themselves. In 1917 he opened his first Boys’ Home in a run-down Victorian mansion in Omaha. He firmly believed that every child could be a productive member of society if given love, a home, an education, and a trade.He believed that this was true of everyone and he accepted boys of every race, colour, and creed. The home was soon full and the downtown facilities were inadequate. In 1921 he established Boys Town, ten miles west of Omaha. Under Father Flanagan's direction, Boys Town grew to be a large community with its own boy-mayor, schools, chapel, post office, cottages, gymnasium, and other facilities where boys between the ages of 10 and 16 could receive an education and learn a trade. The community was underpinned by Father Flanagan's belief that "there are no bad boys, there is only bad environment, bad training, bad example, bad thinking.”

The success of Boys Town gained it fame and in 1938 MGM made a film version about its founding, starring Spencer Tracy in an Oscar winning performance, as Father Flanagan. The film gave Father Flanagan and his Boys Town model an international reputation and he was called upon by the US government to help children both nationally and internationally. In 1948, President Truman asked him to travel to Europe to attend discussions about children left orphaned and displaced by World War II. During this tour, he fell ill and died of a heart attack in Berlin, Germany, on May 15, 1948. Funeral services for Father Flanagan were held in the Dowd Memorial Catholic Chapel, located at the heart of his beloved Boys Town, which is also the site of his final resting place.

Boys Town has grown into an organisation across the United States helping 404,679 children and families across America. Father Flanagan himself had predicted this: "The work will continue, you see, whether I am there or not, because it is God’s work, not mine.”

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Film Review: A Serious Man

Having been an admirer of the films of the Coen Brothers for most of my adult life I was, as might be expected, eager to see their new movie, A Serious Man. My anticipation was further fanned by the movie being seen by many in the press as a modern interpretation of the Book of Job. This is one of the most personal Coen films. It is set in 1967 Minneapolis where Jewish professor of physics and family man Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) lives with his troubled family and this reflects the childhood of the Brothers Coen who grew up in a similar setting with their academic parents.

This dark comedy charts Larry’s attempts to make sense of the woes that befall him. He has health concerns and his wife is leaving him for his best friend. His son is listening to rock 'n' roll in Hebrew classes and smoking pot. His daughter is stealing money for a nose job. His brother-in-law is sleeping on the sofa and lurking in unsavoury bars. His gun-nut neighbour frightens him. A student tries to bribe him and blackmail him at the same time. The tenure committee is getting unsigned libelous letters about him. Whilst he can understand the laws of physics and the notion of cause and effect, Larry struggles to understand why he is the subject of such calamity. His constant refrain throughout the film is “I didn’t do anything!” In a more general sense this film is generally asking 'why'?

Larry’s quest for understanding - to bring rational though to seemingly mystical fate - leads him to seek the advice of three Rabbis, but he only receives peculiar analogies concerning parking lots and baffling fables. The most memorable is the tale of a Jewish dentist who discovers the Hebrew phrase "Help Me" engraved on the back of an unaware gentile patient's teeth. When the rabbi finishes his story, Larry asks if the dentist ever found out why the writing was there, and asks what became of the patient. The rabbi responds "who cares?"

After failing to meet the third Rabbi, things seem to level out for Larry. His son makes his bar mitzvah, his wife expresses regret over the recent strife, and he is granted tenure. Larry then decides that he will accept the bribe of his failing student and gives him a passing grade. This is the first immoral act Larry performs in the film. Just then Larry's doctor calls worried about the results of a chest X-ray he took at the start of the film. Meanwhile, a massive tornado is approaching Larry’s son’s school. The final scene shows the children looking at an enormous and destructive funnel cloud, whilst the teacher struggles to unlock the storm shelter.

Virginia Woolf said: “I read the Book of Job last night. God doesn’t come out very well in it”. This reflects a very narrow reading of Job, which seems to be the Coens’ mistake as well. There are obvious similarities on the surface between the film and Job but the film lacks the richness and depth of the biblical story. The directors are masters of twisting genre but setting up the Job narrative as a dark comedy - by turning the perceived lack of a rational answer to the central question of suffering into ‘the joke” - actually leaves a slightly nihilistic black hole, exemplified by the sudden and dramatic ending. There are no answers.

The intention of the Book of Job is not to lament an apparent absence of God; but to reaffirm his presence. The ending of A Serious Man could be seen as the only reference to the Divine but it is a reference to a vengeful and destructive deity. The Book of Job does show an angry God. The Lord makes a similarly dramatic appearance in Job. When He finally answers Job’s demands for an explanation, it is with a litany of examples of how nature reflects His omnipotent might and power. How dare man, God demands, question Me! How dare man, try and limit Me to a system! Nevertheless this is the same God who goes on to forgive Job for his impertinence, praises him for his steadfastness and eventually replenishes all that he had lost and more.

This is an enjoyable film but to see it as an authentic interpretation of Job is not really to understand what Job is about. The Book of Job is more devastating but also more hopeful. A Serious Man, its supposed counterpart, is lightweight and sadly empty in comparison.

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Pope Benedict on the Mendicant Orders

During his General Audience address last week Pope Benedict reflected on the example of the mendicant orders, the Franciscans and Dominicans, in renewing the spiritual and intellectual life of the medieval Church. He called on Christians today also to read "the signs of the times" and to find new and radical ways to spread the Good News. The full text of his address has been translated into English at ZENIT and can be found here.

A Compass Weekend

This weekend fr Robert Verrill OP visited Worth Abbey to speak to this year's Compass participants about Dominican life. Compass was set up in 2004 and was envisaged as a way of helping people discern whether or not they had a religious vocation. fr Robert was a Compass participant back in 2005 and found it an invaluable experience in helping him decide to join the Dominicans. He writes:

'It was lovely to come back to Worth and speak to the current Compass participants. This year there are six of them, three men and three women. All of them have full time jobs, but since last September, they've been coming to Worth Abbey once a month for a weekend retreat to learn about various aspects of religious life.

'When I first started thinking about becoming a religious, I also had a full time job. At the time I remember feeling at a total loss as to how I could go from being a software engineer to a religious. Religious life was just a thought - the prospect of actually doing anything about it was very daunting. There was a combination of fear of rejection as well as the fear I might get sucked into something I was totally unsuited to. Before I found out about Compass, I didn't feel there was anyone I could confide in, so when I stumbled across the Compass website, it was clear the programme was offering just what I needed: it was a safe supportive environment, one in which I could discuss my fears and anxieties about religious life and where I could obtain the information I needed in order to make an informed and free decision as to whether this life truly was for me. Starting Compass was like coming into the warmth from the cold. I no longer felt alone. I was able to continue working but at the same time I could remain fully focused on trying to understand God's plan for me.


'The process of going from having no religious aspirations at all to joining the Dominicans only took two years. Without Compass, I'm sure this process would have taken much longer. I would probably still be a software engineer who occasionally had fantasies about religious life. I will always be grateful to the people involved with Compass. They helped to give me confidence to take the plunge. Now I'm in the position where I can give the best years of my life to the Dominicans.

'The discernment process can be a very anxious time, a time of great confusion and fear. But it can also be a time of great excitement, a time when one discovers the richness and diversity of the Catholic Church, when one learns really to trust in God's love and let go of the things that prevent us from being what He wants us to be. Please pray for this year's Compass participants in their journey.'

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An Interesting Gargoyle

This gargoyle at the National Cathedral in Washington might find a lack of faith disturbing

Celebrating Priesthood - Father Patrick Peyton CSC

One of the priests whose life has inspired me from a young age is Fr Patrick Peyton CSC (1909-1992). He came from the parish of Attymass in my home diocese of Achonry in County Mayo, Ireland. My grandmother’s family also lived there so they knew him and his family well. He was always spoken of with great affection and respect for his many qualities but especially his gentleness and kindness.

Fr Peyton was born into a large and deeply Catholic farming family. The praying of the family rosary was a daily feature of their lives. He wanted to become a priest from his early teens and thought about entering Maynooth seminary to train for his diocese but his family could not afford the costs. It was a difficult time economically so, like many other Irish people, he emigrated to America to find work. Sadly, he was never again to see either of his parents alive. But he was to remember always the last words he heard his mother say: “promise to be faithful to Our Lady. Be faithful”.

Once he arrived, Patrick took many odd jobs including coal mining and working as a janitor. While working as the sexton in the local cathedral thoughts of a vocation to the priesthood came back to him. Determined to follow the call, and since he needed more education, he went back to school. After a time the call to be a missionary priest led him to enter the Congregation of the Holy Cross at Notre Dame, Indiana in 1932.

However during his time in training he fell seriously ill with tuberculosis. Death was feared. However Patrick prayed his rosary intensely and left everything in the hands of the Blessed Virgin, to be used as she saw fit for the glory of God. Eventually his prayers were answered miraculously when the doctors found that the patches on his lungs had just disappeared. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1941. He wondered how he could pay back the debt he owed to the Lord, His Mother and his family. After much prayer he saw the answer - the family rosary crusade. He coined the phrases “the family that prays together stays together” and “a world at prayer is a world at peace”. He began with a radio programme on Mother’s Day 1945 and was so popular that he soon had both a radio and television show in which many famous personalities appeared to promote the rosary and family prayer. Prominent among them were Grace Kelly, James Cagney, and Bing Crosby. He soon earned the title ‘the rosary priest’ and through his famous rosary rallies held all over the world, preached to millions the importance of prayer, faith and the love of Jesus. Through it all he remained as gentle and humble as ever.

Fr Peyton died peacefully in 1992 holding his rosary. His cause for canonisation is before the Vatican. Fr Peyton is for me a wonderful example of deep faith in God and a humble trust in the love of Mary and her intercession before her Son which he experienced so powerfully in his life. He was a man deeply in love with Christ and constantly faithful to his life as a priest and to preaching the love and mercy of God. Through his life the Lord touched the hearts of millions with faith, hope and love. It reminds us all how much the Lord can do through us if we just have the faith to trust in Him.

- David Barrins OP

Province Day 2009

Christmas, it is said, is a time for family. It's not often that the brothers of the English Province manage to come together as one family, but each year we try to do so around Christmas at a Province Day. We last met on 16 December 2009 in St Dominic's Priory, London, for prayer, recreation and reflection.

Bishop Malcolm McMahon OP, Bishop of Nottingham, joined us for the day and talked to us about his life as a bishop and also as a Dominican. Other talks were given by various brothers about developments at Blackfriars Hall, the challenges of the credit crunch, and our involvement in the international community in Brussels. After a period of silent prayer together in the priory church, the day closed with solemn Vespers during which fr Nicholas Crowe OP was instituted as a Lector.

Below are photos from the day:

Bishop Malcolm McMahon sharing his reflection on the episcopal ministry with his Dominican brothers

fr Benjamin Earl OP, Provincial Bursar, gives the brethren an overview of the financial health of the Province

"The Cambridge Boys": some of the brothers of the Province who are graduates of Cambridge University.

Lunch and coffee breaks are a time to catch up informally

The first snowfall of the season lent a festive mood to the day!

Brothers in choir during solemn Vespers

fr Nicholas Crowe OP is given a copy of the Scriptures as a symbol of the Word which he is instituted to proclaim in the Liturgy and to reflect in his life

The High Altar is reverenced with incense as the Magnificat is sung

Dominican Seminar 2010 - The Prodigal Son

This year's Dominican Seminar in Leeds looked at the writing and theology of St Luke. In the opening session, we considered the parables of Luke's gospel. Three parables were chosen for special consideration: Janet Wiltshire OP looked at the Good Samaritan and Patrick Doyle OP pondered the Parable of the Rich Fool. Below is the reflection offered by fr Lawrence Lew OP on the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

"I’d like to offer some thoughts on what is often called the parable of the prodigal son. I think I can only hope to sketch some ideas that will barely scratch the surface of this well-loved parable, but what I wish to do is briefly to consider some elements of this parable within the context of a theology of grace, and particularly of repentance.

The parable is one of three in Luke 15, and they all have in common the notion of repentance, and in this parable we are presented with two sons: one who repents and the other who doesn’t. In the time available to me, I wish to concentrate on the repentant son and indeed on just verses 20-24. Within its context, then, the parable would seem to offer us some insight into how God deals with repentant sinners. I think it is important that the God we consider is always the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. With this in mind, then, we avoid the easy identification of the father of the parable with just God the Father. Rather, the father of the parable stands for God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Something that strikes me is that in the parable, the father sees the son from a great way off, and he runs out towards him and kisses him. There are two aspects here that I wish to look at: the going out of the father and the kiss. To speak of God as going out seems to me to suggest procession, and the kiss signifies love. So, as St Thomas says, that “what proceeds in God by way of love, does not proceed as begotten, or as Son, but proceeds rather as Spirit”. And elsewhere, in the Fathers of the Church, the Spirit has been referred to as the kiss of the Father and the Son. Hence, I wish to link the figure of the father in the parable to the Spirit.

This is not because the grace of repentance is limited to the activity of the Spirit alone. Indeed, the whole Trinity acts in the economy of salvation, but I think we can say that the work of repentance is appropriated to the Spirit, such that the Church can say that “the Father of mercies … has sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins”. Moreover, I think this emphasis on the person of the Holy Spirit in the work of repentance and reconciliation fits in well with the general Lucan narrative because, as I am hopeful we will see in these days, Luke-Acts is suffused with the Holy Spirit and with people who act under the Spirit’s prompting and inspiration. So, by linking the father of this parable with the Spirit, I hope to tie this parable more closely with a key Lucan feature: his pneumatology.

If I am permitted to make this kind of appropriation, then, let us proceed to consider what God does to the repentant sinner. First, note that the son in the parable says: “I am no longer worthy to be called your son”. And this is what happens when we fall into mortal sin, and so are cut off from the new life of divine sonship that is ours through our baptism into Jesus Christ; hence, the father in the parable says that the prodigal son was dead. In fact, we are never worthy of the grace of adoption as God’s children, which is why the prodigal son does not say, ‘I am no longer worthy to be your son’. No, he says, he is not worthy to be called his son. So too, the Christian who has sinned mortally after baptism cannot be worthy to be called daughter or son of God. And so repentance begins with a realization of the sorry state we are in, and how far we have put ourselves from the filial dignity to which we had been elevated by God’s grace. And we are moved to abhor sin and drawn to God’s goodness and mercy. Thus, the sinner moves by faith towards God, just as the son arose and went home.

But the father does not wait for the son to come to him but has compassion and runs out to him. This reminds me of the divine initiative, for it is God and God alone who stirs up faith in us, and who gives us the grace of repentance and who justifies the repentant sinner. For only God can restore the dead to life, just as only God can create out of nothing. And God does all this because of his love for us, and because he has compassion for us poor sinners.

Then, God does three things to the repentant sinner. He gives him a robe, a ring, and sandals for his feet. These indicate a restoration of the dignity of sonship, of course. But more specifically, I would suggest that the robe can be seen as a reference to being clothed in justifying grace, the grace of Christ which renders us pleasing to God. As clothing, it also calls to mind the restoration of the baptismal garment which we are charged to keep pure and spotless until Christ returns in glory. It is this same white garment that is worn by those who follow the Lamb of Revelations in heaven. So, St Thomas says, this white garment is given as a sign of the glorious resurrection, unto which men are born again by Baptism; and in order to designate the purity of life, to which he will be bound after being baptized, according to Rm. 6:4: ‘That we may walk in newness of life’.

The ring, a signet ring perhaps, bears the impression and seal of the father. So too the grace of baptism and repentance restores us in the image of God, an image which had been disfigured by sin. Since grace transforms us and fashions us in the image of the Son of God, so too the ring is a sign of our restoration to filial dignity as daughters and sons of God.

Thirdly, the shoes, I would suggest are an evocation of friendship with God. For it is Moses who was told to take off his shoes for he stood on holy ground, and the unshod state is symbolic of slavery and servitude. However, since Christ has called us his friends, a friendship which is ours when we are elevated by grace, so we no longer have to be unshod as slaves but are given shoes so that we can, as it were, stand on the same ground with God.

Finally, the father kills the fatted calf and feasts and makes merry with the prodigal son. The image of the banquet, which is given in honour of the sinner, is a sign of the Eucharistic feast. For in the Eucharist, all of us who are unworthy sinners, but who have been given the restorative grace of God through baptism and reconciliation, are called to rejoice and feast together. And this feast is itself a foretaste of the banquet of eternal life with God, which is the supernatural end of the life of grace. Does this mean that the fatted calf stands for Jesus Christ, who dies for our health and salvation, giving himself up so that we may make merry in the eternal feast of heaven? It does not require a terrible stretch of the imagination to move from calling him the Lamb of God, and of course, the calf would one day grow into an unblemished white heifer, which is precisely the Old Testament sacrifice offered to God, a sacrifice that is a prefigurement of the Cross.

So, I think it would not be unreasonable to read the text in this way, and indeed to look at this parable through this theological lens. And I ought to end here before I go too far or take up too much of your time!"

Dominican Seminar 2010

Like the three Magi who journeyed to the manger to find the Christ Child, thirty Dominicans journeyed to a snowy Yorkshire on Epiphany Sunday to contemplate divine Wisdom. Each year, the Dominican Seminar takes place in Hinsley Hall, Leeds, and Dominicans from almost every branch of the family - friars, sisters, laity, and members of the Dominican Secular Institute - come together to listen to talks on a given theme and to reflect upon and discuss the ideas presented. Study is interlaced with liturgical prayer, and time together for recreation.

This year, as the Church's cycle of Sunday Gospels is taken from St Luke, we decided to study the writings of St Luke, i.e., the Gospel attributed to him and the Acts of the Apostles. The Seminar began with Mass and Vespers of the Epiphany, followed by a session on 'St Luke the Storyteller', which introduced the theme and looked at the parables in Luke. Three Dominicans, led by Mr Patrick Doyle OP then gave their reflections on three different parables. fr Lawrence Lew OP presented his thoughts on the parable of the Prodigal Son, which will be posted on Godzdogz at a later date.

The second day began with Lauds and then there were talks by fr John Farrell OP on features of Luke-Acts, followed by a talk on the role of St Peter in Luke-Acts, and then a group study of the apostolic life as it is presented in Acts. In the afternoon, fr Richard Finn OP gave an account of St Luke's presentation of wealth and poverty, and how the rich and poor alike can participate in God's generosity through almsgiving. After Mass and Vespers, fr Richard Conrad OP gave one of his multimedia lectures on the Holy Spirit, with slides of Christian art and chants from the Dominican chant book. This evening ended with a gathering in the bar for informal chat, jokes, songs and good-natured revelry.

The final day opened with Lauds and then Sr Mary Cecily Boulding OP and Sr Ann Catherine Swailes OP gave an excellent appraisal of Our Lady, Obedience and the Joyful Mysteries. They drew on the richness of the theology of St Thomas and the Fathers of the Church to help us reflect on these themes and events in St Luke's gospel.

Although our group this year was smaller than usual, the Seminar was very enjoyable, enlightening and offered much food for thought. With its blend of study, liturgy, prayer, preaching and fraternity, it gave a fine witness of the Dominican charism shared by the different branches of the Order of Preachers, and was a good way for us to begin 2010 together as one Dominican family.

Below are more photos from the Seminar:

Bishop Malcolm McMahon OP in conversation with our novice, fr Andrew Brookes OP

fr Richard Finn OP, who is Regent of Studies, giving his talk

Meal times are convivial affairs at the seminar

Social evening on the last night in Leeds

Sr Alexia Dendere OP from Zimbabwe and Sr Ruth Chongo OP from Zambia, members of the general council of the Dominican Missionary Sisters (Crawley), are delighted at the sight of so much snow!

Saints This Month - 7 January: St Raymond of Pennafort

St Raymond was one of the bright young things of the early 13th century. He was born into a noble Catalan family and excelled from an early age in his studies. At the age of 20 he was already carving a reputation for himself as a canon and civil lawyer at the University of Barcelona. In 1210 he moved to Bologna, where he remained for twelve years, including three years occupying the chair of canon law at the university. Whilst at the height of his academic career, inspired by the preaching of Blessed Reginald of Orleans, he returned to Barcelona and on Good Friday 1222 took the humble habit of the Order of Preachers.

His preaching, especially to the Jews and Muslims of the Iberian peninsular, was renowned. This and his great spirit of humility and mortification endeared him to the King of Aragon James I, who appointed him as his confessor and occasional emissary to the Holy See. He also acted as a spiritual director to St Peter Nolasco and was instrumental in the founding of the Order of Our Lady of Ransom, which devoted itself to saving Christians captured by the Moors.

Raymond's dealings with the Holy See and his reputation in the juridical sciences led to Pope Gregory IX summoning him to Rome to help in rearranging and codifying canon law. Raymond's holiness and preaching so impressed the Papal Court that very soon after his arrival he was made Papal confessor. When Raymond completed his work, the pope appointed him Archbishop of Tarragona, but he declined the honour and returned to Iberia in 1236.The collection of canon law on which Raymond worked is known as the Gregorian Decretals and was the standard text of canon law for almost 700 years.

However his mission to the Jews and Muslims was interrupted in 1238 when he was elected Master of the Order. This honour too was unsought and undesired but he humbly obeyed the decision of his brothers and served for two years. During his tenure he revised the Dominican Constitutions but resigned because of ill health in 1240.

Although he was now an elderly man, Raymond had no intention of retiring. He was still vitally concerned with converting the Jews and the Moors, and so he contributed the alms he received from bishops and princes to schools where missionaries could be taught Hebrew and Arabic. Tradition says that he asked St Thomas Aquinas to "compose a work against the errors of the infidels, by which both the cloud of darkness might be dispelled and the teaching of the true Sun be made manifest" and that Thomas responded by composing the Summa contra Gentiles. He wa still very close to the King and used this influence to organise debates between leading Rabbis and Christians in the royal palace.

Whilst he respected and loved the King; he would admonish the Monarch's failings regarding chastity. Whilst on a visit to Majorca, on which Raymond had accompanied the king in the hope of strengthening Christianity there, Raymond discovered that the king was involved in a sinful love affair with a woman of the court. The king refused to listen to Raymond's protests, and when Raymond threatened to leave the island, the king threatened with death anyone who would give him passage. Thereupon, or so it is said, Raymond spread his cappa on the water, set up his staff as a mast, and, having rigged up a corner of the cloak as a sail, boarded this miraculous "boat," setting his course for Barcelona. He arrived there the same day, having covered 140 miles in about six hours. A great crowd assembled at the waterfront witnessed the end of this marvelous voyage, which inspired numerous conversions.

Raymond died in 1275 at the age of 100. He is buried in the cathedral of Barcelona. He is the patron saint of canon lawyers and in Catalonia, he is the patron saint of all lawyers. Many wind-surfers hold him as their unofficial patron.

Epiphany Snowfall

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me ... SNOW! Many parts of the country had a white Christmas and we in Oxford felt decidedly left out then. But snow arrived in Oxford on the twelfth night, and Br Ursus OP was among the first to rush out and enjoy it, as fr Timothy (and a snow friar) looked on in amusement ...

Epiphany of the Lord

Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12

This year Epiphany was celebrated in many places on Sunday 3 January but elsewhere it is still celebrated on its proper day, 6 January. Here is a reflection for this great feast written by fr Gregory Murphy OP, a founder member of Godzdogz now ministering as a deacon at St Dominic's Priory, London. It first appeared in The Pastoral Review for January/February 2008.

Matthew’s exotic visitors from the East bearing gifts caught Christian imagination early. The depictions of the Magi in the Roman catacombs predate those of Luke’s shepherds by about two hundred years. The name seems originally to have meant someone belonging to a Persian priestly caste, but its usage had become broadened by the time of the evangelists to designate not only theologians, philosophers, and astronomers but also astrologers, sorcerers and charlatans from the pagan cultures to the East of Israel. However, Matthew does not sketch the Magi negatively. They are wise and pious Gentiles who from the beginning seek what is right, to worship the child Jesus.

‘Magi’ is probably best left untranslated: they were not kings; ‘wise men’ is too generic; and ‘astrologers’ probably too confusing to people today. Matthew, in fact, subtly deflects attention away from astrology by not indicating how the Magi recognised the significance of the star: it is enough that they were guided by God. It is true that there was a prevailing idea in antiquity that the births and deaths of great figures be accompanied by astral phenomena, and much ink has been spilt on various interpretations of the new star. This mistakenly conflates biblical and astronomical languages: a more plausible interpretation is that the “star at its rising” refers to the narrative of Balaam in the Book of Numbers. Balaam was summoned from the East by the Moabite king to put a curse on Israel; instead he foretold the future greatness of Israel, when “a star will come forth from Jacob”. The echoes of the Balaam story would remind the reader familiar with the Bible that already in the Old Testament God had revealed his salvific intent to gentiles. But this revelation, based on natural knowledge (the star), is imperfect: while it tells them of the birth, it does not tell them where to find the King of the Jews.

That is contained in the revelation of God to Israel, in the Scriptures. The Magi’s role as prefiguring the acceptance of Gentiles into the Christian community points towards the universal character of the gospel: it is to be shared by all, as Matthew will remind us in the great commission at its close.

Celebrating Priesthood - Fr Stephen

A priest of the Province, who wishes to remain anonymous, offers this reflection of a priest (whose name below has been changed) who has inspired him:

"I read somewhere that a priest is someone who unites heaven and earth. Wonderful but surely unrealistic. A priest is only human! All the same, St. Paul says that Christ unites “things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1.10), so perhaps this is what a minister of Christ the Head does for a community. And I believe it’s possible because I’ve seen it happen. I direct a dance project with a strong spiritual focus, and we put on a performance at a church in London. When I proposed it to Fr. Stephen as something to contribute to his church’s mission, he was open-minded, encouraging, and also set wise boundaries. The night before, the big paper screen was still not ready. The only way was for the artist, Daniel, to work in the church through the night. Would Fr. Stephen go this bit further with us? He stood contemplating Daniel’s work for a moment. Then he said, “This isn’t just a work of art. It’s an act of devotion. Of course you can stay. I’ll have to lock the church but will leave keys for you. And would you like music to keep you going?” Daniel, who’s not a Catholic, pointed to the tabernacle and said, “He’s there. That’s enough for me.” One happy artist, who finished a beautiful work, and the performance really grabbed the audience. Fr. Stephen had dared see a bit of heaven and earth, and passed that connection on to us."

Saints, Snow and Sledding

One of the finest Catholic blogs, Moniales OP, is written by our sisters, the Dominican Nuns of Summit, New Jersey. Through the Nuns' posts we get an inspiring glimpse into female monastic life in the twenty-first century. Their first post of 2010, Blessing for the New Year, really encapsulates the essence of the blog: that religious life is not a fairytale but a real and joyful life.

The juxtaposition of the community gathering in the chapter hall to draw patrons, prayer intentions and personal scripture quotes for the year 2010, and the novices playing in the snow really capture the full spectrum of monastic life. But what is really amazing is what we cannot really experience from reading the blog: their life of prayer, silence and contemplation which underlies everything they do. It is so essential for the whole church and is the heart of holy preaching. Please pray for the Dominican Nuns of Summit and visit their site. I hear that they also produce top-notch soap and hand-creme.