This is an excerpt of a homily given by Benedict XVI on Sept 7, 2008 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria

It is the Lord’s Day, but - given this special circumstance - the Liturgy of the Word has proposed to us the Readings for the celebrations dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. These are in particular texts planned for the Feast of the Birth of Mary which for centuries has been fixed on 8 September, the date of the consecration of the basilica built in Jerusalem above the house of St Anne, Mother of Our Lady. They are Readings which effectively always contain the reference to the mystery of her birth. First of all there is the Prophet Micah’s marvelous oracle concerning Bethlehem, in which the birth of the Messiah is announced. The Messiah, the oracle says, was to be a descendant of King David, like him a native of Bethlehem but a figure who would exceed human limitations: his “origin”, it says, are “from ancient times”, lost in the most remote ages, at the frontier of eternity. His greatness would reach “to the ends of the earth”, as would also be his peace (cf. Mi 5,1-4). The coming of the “Lord’s anointed”, who was to mark the beginning of the people’s liberation was described by the Prophet with an enigmatic expression: “until the time when she who is in travail has brought forth” (Mi 5,3). Thus the Liturgy - which is a privileged school of the faith - teaches us to see in Mary’s birth a direct connection with that of the Messiah, Son of David.

The Gospel, a passage from the Apostle Matthew, proposed to us precisely the account of Jesus’ birth. However, the Evangelist introduces it with a summary of his genealogy, which he sets at the beginning as a prologue. Here too the full evidence of Mary’s role in salvation history stands out: Mary’s being is totally relative to Christ and in particular to his Incarnation. “Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ” (Mt 1,16). The lack of continuity in the layout of the genealogy immediately meets the eye; we do not read “begot” but instead: “Mary, of whom Jesus was born who is called Christ”. Precisely in this we perceive the beauty of the plan of God who, respecting the human being, makes him fertile from within, causing the most beautiful fruit of his creative and redeeming work to develop in the humble Virgin of Nazareth. Then the Evangelist brings on stage the figure of Joseph, his inner drama, his robust faith and his exemplary rectitude. Behind Joseph’s thoughts and deliberations is his love for God and his firm determination to obey him. But how is it possible not to feel that Joseph’s distress, hence his prayers and his decision, were motivated at the same time by esteem and love for his betrothed? God’s beauty and that of Mary are inseparable in Joseph’s heart; he knows that there can be no contradiction between them; he seeks the answer in God and finds it in the light of the Word and of the Holy Spirit: “The Virgin shall be with child and give birth to a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel (which means, God with us)” (Mt 1,23 cf. Is 7,14).

Thus, once again, we can contemplate Mary’s place in the saving plan of God, that “purpose” which we find in the Second Reading, taken from the Letter to the Romans. Here the Apostle Paul expresses in two verses, unusually dense with meaning, the synthesis of what human life is from a meta-historical viewpoint: a parabola of salvation that starts from God and returns to him; a parabola entirely motivated and governed by his love. This is a salvific design totally permeated by divine freedom, which nonetheless awaits a fundamental contribution by human freedom: the creature’s corresponds to the Creator’s love. And it is here, in this space of human freedom, that we perceive the presence of the Virgin Mary, without her ever having been explicitly mentioned: she is in fact, in Christ, the first fruits and model of “those who love him [God]” (Rm 8,28). The predestination of Mary is inscribed in the predestination of Jesus, as likewise is that of every human person. The “here I am” of the Mother faithfully echoes the “here I am” of the Son (cf. He 10,6), as does the “here I am” of all adoptive children in the Son, that of us all, precisely.

[We] are called to be integrated in the spiritual “genealogy” of the Gospel. Christianity did not arrive […] with the swords of conquerors or by foreign imposition but germinated from the blood of the martyrs who gave their life […] as an act of love for God and for men and women.

I well know that Mary is in your hearts. A hundred years later, let us thank her today for her protection and renew our trust in her, recognizing her as the “Star of the New Evangelization” at whose school we may learn how to bring Christ the Savior to the men and women of our time.

May Mary help you to bring Christ to families, little domestic churches and cells of society, which today more than ever are in need of both spiritual and social trust and support. May she help you to find appropriate pastoral strategies to ensure that Christ is encountered by young people who by their nature bring new dynamism but often fall prey to the widespread nihilism, thirsting for truth and ideals precisely when they seem to deny them. May she render you capable of evangelizing the world of work, the economy and politics which need a new generation of committed lay Christians who can seek competently and with moral rigour sustainable solutions of development. In all these aspects of Christian commitment you can always count on the guidance and support of the Blessed Virgin. Let us therefore entrust ourselves to her maternal intercession.

Mary is the harbor, refuge and protection for [those] who have within them the strength of oak. When the storm has passed the oak stands strong; fires rage and it sends out new shoots; the drought comes and it wins through once again. Let us therefore renew joyfully our consecration to such a caring Mother. […]May Mary Queen of Peace and Star of Hope intercede for us. Amen!

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

Today is the Feast of St. Raymond. He is also the patron of pregnant women. If you are acquainted with any expectant parents, a short prayer to St. Raymond may bring comfort and peace to the mothers-to-be.

Raymond is often called “not-born” since his mother died in labor and he was taken from her. He entered the religious order of Our Lady of Mercy, also known as the Mercedarians. The order had a simple, singular purpose: they bought captives out of slavery in North Africa.

Besides the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Mercedarians also assumed a fourth vow. They gave themselves as hostages to the slaveholder if ransom money ran out. In Algiers, Raymond’s money ran out. He kept his vow, and gave himself over so that others could go home.

One cannot help but recall the words of Jesus that “no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friend.” (John 15:13, NRSV). There is a tradition that his captors padlocked Raymond’s lips to stop him from preaching the Gospel. Eventually, he was ransomed back to Rome and made a Cardinal by Gregory IX.

Raymond’s singular charity was redeeming those in slavery. The Gospel truly frees one from the slavery of sin. Raymond’s perfect resignation to God’s will reminds us that, in Christ, we are freed from the bondage of sin.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

“It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” That was the phrase that cost John the Baptist his life. John directly confronted Herod Antipas with the fact that he had taken his brother’s wife, Herodias.

By stating this simple truth, John was arrested and subsequently imprisoned at Machaerus, a bleak fortress on the eastern side of the Dead Sea.

As we learn from the account given in Mark, Herod had respect for John because “he knew him to be a righteous and holy man.” He even enjoyed hearing him speak, though he always left him feeling confused.

Then came the birthday banquet. While all eyes were on her, Herodias’s own daughter was the main attraction, doing a lively dance for Herod and his entourage. All these men were utterly mesmerized by her and so impressed with her dancing that Herod made a careless vow before all the men at the feast: “Whatever you ask of me, I will give you—up to half my kingdom.”

Prompted by her mother, she asked for the head of John the Baptist. Herod was distressed. But rather than lose face before his guests, he ordered John beheaded. His head was brought into the banquet on a platter.

Josephus, writing independently of the Gospels, also records that Herod imprisoned and executed John at Machaerus. He gives a political reason: Herod feared John’s influence over the people.

But the Gospel takes us deeper. John died because he would not remain silent about the truth. He did not lead an army against Herod. He did not organize a revolt. He did not threaten the throne. He simply looked at a powerful man living contrary to the law of God and said: “It is not lawful for you.”

Herod could imprison John. He could silence his voice. He could even take his head. But he could not make what was unlawful lawful. And John would not pretend otherwise.

That is why the Church remembers his martyrdom. There are times when fidelity to God requires very few words, sometimes only one sentence: “It is not lawful for you.” For John the Baptist, that sentence cost him his head.

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True happiness and pure joy are not found in cheese coneys, chocolate fudge, fame, fortune, power, wine, beer, bourbon, scotch, cocaine, marijuanna, LSD, rock music, rap music, country music, classical music, motion pictures, digital devices, cell phones, shopping sprees, sporting events, military conquests, runner’s euphoria, venereal pleasures, sexual orgasms, dopamine, anandamide, endorphins, endocannabinoids, or any other good of the body or the senses.

They are found in God alone.

We can learn this difficult lesson by experience and reason, as St Augustine did, or we can learn it far more easily by education and faith in a reliable source of wisdom, such as a good mother, like St Monica or the Catholic Church, or a good book, like the Confessions or the Bible.

But those who fail to learn it ultimately find only sadness and sorrow.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

Today is the feast day of St Monica, the mother of St Augustine. We are all familiar with the story of how St Monica pursued her son’s conversion with tears, prayers, and sacrifice. Augustine tells us that Monica wept for him more than mothers weep for the bodily death of their children. (Confessions III.11) Her prayer was not passive. She carried the salvation of her son before God with persistence. With suffering. She refused to stop hoping in grace. St Augustine records St Monica saying in his book, Confessions.

For my part, my son, I no longer find pleasure in anything that this life holds. What I am doing here still, or why I am still here, I do not know, for worldly hope has withered away for me. One thing only there was for which I desired to linger in this life: to see you a Catholic Christian before I died. And my God has granted this to me more lavishly than I could have hoped, letting me see even you spurning earthly happiness to be his servant. What am I still doing here?

Love is laying down one’s life for another. Life, with all its promises and material gain, is empty when it is not resting in the heart of Jesus. Monica’s great mission was to offer herself, in union with Christ, through prayer and sacrifice, for Augustine’s conversion. When God granted this, her mission was complete.

God calls all of us to enter into this sort of mission on behalf of those we love. You could call this a cruciform evangelization because it demands the giving of our life for another. This is the life of Christ and what he calls us to. When those we love return to him, we will be able to say with St Monica, “What am I still doing here?”

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Today the Carmelite Order celebrates the Memorial of the Transverberation of the Heart of Saint Teresa of Jesus (Avila). See The Book of Her Life, Chapter 29, in which she describes the experience and a vision of an angel with a fiery dart, which has been represented in various famous pieces of art.

The transverberation, or spiritual piercing of the heart, is a personal grace of Pentecost and Mission that is typically received in the Sixth Mansions and the dark night of the spirit after many years of spiritual growth in faith, hope, and charity. St Teresa probably received it in 1559, at the age of 44. She died in 1582, and when her body was exhumed, there was very little decay, and her incorrupt physical heart had an actual physical puncture wound in it.

St Teresa and St John of the Cross taught that every baptized Christian is called to imitate the sacrificial life of Christ and to receive the stigmata spiritually, but it is an extraordinary grace to receive the stigmata physically, including the piercing of the heart.

The sacraments of the Church impart the indwelling of the Holy Spirt to all the faithful, and when a member of the faithful becomes sufficiently mature to sacrifice themselves unconditionally for the Mission of the Church, the spiritual piercing of the heart produces an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1129)

We must distinguish the ordinary grace of spiritual transverberation and outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which we should all desire, from the extraordinary vision and extraordinary physical piercing of the heart, with miraculous manifestations of Holy Spirit, which we should not desire. Only a few of the faithful are called to be miracle-workers in the Mission of the Church.

But having our heart spiritually pierced and set on fire by the Holy Spirit, thus becoming a living flame of divine love by participation, is something that we should all desire. We already have the Holy Spirit hidden in our hearts through the sacraments of the Church. We should pray for a spiritual wounding to pierce our hearts and to manifest the presence and love of God, who dwells there.

Such a wounding is a communication from God that transforms us and unites us to God more perfectly, but since transformation is difficult and painful, most people resist it. As Flannery O’Connor puts it, “All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful” (The Habit of Being).

To communicate is to produce something in common, such as ideas, thoughts, emotions, longings, delights, affections, or volitions, but the communication proper to transverberation is ineffable, thus a trans-conceptual and non-propositional participation in God’s own knowledge and love, which is received by not knowing and not desiring, at least not in a human mode of knowing or desiring.

Pseudo-Dionysius in his Mystical Theology calls it a secret and hidden “supersubstantial radiance of divine obscurity,” which leaves it rather mysterious, as it should be. If you want to understand this apophatic Christian goal better, a good place to begin is with The Dark Knowledge of God by Charles Journet (Sheed & Ward, 1948, or Cluny Media, 2020).

To emphasize the external, miraculous, or extraordinary manifestations of it is to misunderstand it from the start.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

My dear son, in the first place I teach you that you must love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your strength; unless you do so you cannot be saved. You must guard yourself from everything that you know is displeasing to God, that is to say, from all mortal sin. You must be ready to undergo every kind of martyrdom rather than commit one mortal sin.

If God sends you tribulation, you ought to endure it, giving thanks, realising that it is for your good, and that, perhaps, you have deserved it. If however the Lord confers some benefit on you, you must humbly thank him, and be on your guard not to become the worse for it, either through vainglory or in any other way. You must not offend God with the very gifts he has given you.

Assist at the Divine Office of the Church with joyful devotion; while you are present in church do not let your gaze wander, do not chat about trifles, but pray to the Lord attentively, either with your lips, or meditating in your heart.

Be compassionate towards the poor, the destitute and the afflicted; and, as far as lies in your power, help and console them. Give thanks to God for all the gifts he has bestowed upon you, so that you will become worthy of still greater gifts. Towards your subjects, act with such justice that you may steer a middle course, swerving neither to the right nor to the left, but lean more to the side of the poor man than of the rich until such time as you are certain about the truth. Do your utmost to ensure peace and justice for all your subjects but especially for clergy and religious.

Devotedly obey our mother, the Roman Church, and revere the Supreme Pontiff as your spiritual father. Endeavour to banish all sin, especially blasphemy and heresy, from your kingdom.

Finally, my dear son, I impart to you every blessing that a loving father can bestow on his son; may the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and all the saints, guard you from all evil. May the Lord grant you the grace to do his will so that he may be served and honored by you, and that, together, after this life we may come to see him, love him and praise him for ever. Amen.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

In a letter dated May 30, 1889, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus encouraged her cousin Marie Guérin to resist the natural power of fear and to return to the frequent reception of Holy Communion. In that letter, Thérèse makes it very clear that Jesus wants to enter the hearts of his disciples frequently through Holy Communion, and that he is filled with sorrow whenever someone who believes in him is deprived of this grace. Jesus is not only concerned that all Christians would believe in his real substantial presence in the Holy Eucharist; he also wants to enter the hearts of all those who do believe, through frequent Holy Communion. As Thérèse sees it, one of the devil’s main goals is to prevent the faithful from receiving Holy Communion frequently. At one point she says to her cousin, “The devil…wants to deprive Jesus of a loved tabernacle, and, not being able to enter this sanctuary, the devil wants, at least, that it remain empty and without any Master! ...Alas, what will become of this poor heart? ...When the devil has succeeded in drawing the soul away from Holy Communion, he has won everything. …And Jesus weeps!”

When Pope Pius X read this letter after Thérèse’s death, he said, “This is most opportune! It’s a great joy for me.” Then he opened the process for her canonization and recommended her letter in support of the practice of frequent reception of Holy Communion by the Catholic faithful. The fervent letter of Thérèse to her cousin confirmed what he already sensed: that Jesus wants to enter the hearts of the faithful frequently, even daily if possible. Jesus weeps whenever his disciples are deprived of the grace of frequent Holy Communion. Wherever the Eucharist is being celebrated validly, he remains substantially present in the tabernacles of those churches and desires to be received frequently in the tabernacles of the hearts of those who believe in his real substantial presence.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

In Christian theology, there are two fundamental and complementary ways to grasp something of the mystery of God – the positive way and the negative way – which can then be reconciled through the analogical way of eminence and transcendence (Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, Revised Edition: Baronius Press, 2018, Book One – “The Unity and Trinity of God,” Part One – “The Unity of God: His Existence and Nature,” Section Three – “The Nature of God,” Chapter I – “The Knowledge of the Nature of God”). Positive theology proceeds by way of the dogmatic affirmations which can made about God, while negative theology proceeds by way of the difference between God and created beings and emphasizes the ineffable knowledge that existential union with Christ by faith, hope, and love brings to the human heart. Think of the difference between Boethius and Pseudo-Dionysius, or between Peter Lombard and St Bernard of Clairvaux. These two ways are complementary and should be integrated. Integrations are offered by St Thomas Aquinas, Bl John Duns Scotus, St Edith Stein, and St John Paul II, for example. The abstract language of dogma and the mystical language of poetry are both valid means of knowing God and should never be set in false opposition. In the gradual ascent of our minds and hearts to the presence of God in our souls by nature and grace, the positive and negative modes of theology work together to help us to grow in holiness and to receive a higher knowledge of God through the transformation of our capacity to participate in his divine Wisdom and Love. This higher mystical knowledge is attained only when God begins to reveal his divine Presence to us in our souls through infused contemplation, which is a non-conceptual and non-propositional mode of cognition and affectivity.

In order to understand the nature of the infused gift of contemplation, we first need a definition of the essence of contemplation as such.

Many definitions have been given of contemplation. The following one is from Richard of Saint Victor: “Contemplatio est perspicuus et liber contuitus animi in res perspiciendas. Contemplation is an attentive synthetic view, penetrating and loving, which attaches the mind to the realities that it is beholding.”

Saint Thomas defines it: “Simplex intuitus veritatis. A simple gaze on truth.”

The Carmelite theologians of Salamanca, the Salmanticenses, commentators of Saint Thomas, added a word to that definition. They say: “Simplex intuitus veritatis sub influxu amoris. A simple gaze on truth, under the influence of love.” (Blessed Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, OCD, A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality – Volume One: I Want to See God, FIDES Publishers, 1953, Part Three: “Mystical Life and Contemplation,” Chapter VII: “Contemplation”)

Thus contemplation is a kind of intellectual knowledge that is produced by love and terminates in love. The human gaze has often been subjected to philosophical analysis and both honored and condemned. Intellectual knowledge is here understood in the Aristotelian sense of a formal conceptual union between the knowing subject and the object known, which presupposes hylomorphism (matter-form metaphysics) and immediate realism. The specific difference about contemplation as a form of intellectual knowledge is that it is an act of understanding mediated by loving attention. As an attending to what is known and then comprehending it through love, contemplation is a reflexive and secondary form of intellectual knowledge, which is posterior to the will (the rational appetite for the good which is understood by the intellect). Philosophy (the love of wisdom) is the dialectical art of understanding clearly what we already know implicitly. This reflexive art, made possible by the natural power of the intellect and gradually perfected by grace, attends not merely to subjective ideas but also to things themselves present in cognition. Contemplation may be aesthetic (art), intellectual (science), theological (dogma), or supernatural (infused).

As emphasized by St Thomas Aquinas, “Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur. Everything received is received according to the mode of the receiver.” The purpose of Christian prayer under the effects of divine grace is to surrender completely to the difficult but delightful spiritual transformation of the mode of the receiver. Corresponding to the positive and negative modes of theology are the two fundamental modes of prayer: the effable kataphatic (Gk. “according to speaking”) way and the ineffable apophatic (Gk. “away from speaking”) way. Both ways are essential to the transforming union of the soul with God. Kataphatic prayer is active and proceeds by way of percepts, imaginations, concepts, memories, words, devotions, creation, truth, goodness, beauty, and discursive reason. Apophatic prayer is passive and proceeds simply by way of the loving wisdom that God infuses in our souls through Christ and the Holy Spirit. The integrated practice of the active and passive modes of prayer in union with Christ ordinarily gives rise to mystical prayer, which is fully contemplative and directly infused by God. The ultimate goal of Christian prayer is a continuous loving trinitarian communion with God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. A transformation of the heart is required because in the conditions of sin and attachment to sensible goods we do not naturally or easily attend to God in loving communion with his Presence in the soul. The transformation of the heart is possible only by personal effort and the help of grace. The spiritual life of prayer is therefore a battle, for we must struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. Spiritual marriage between Christ and the soul is the Biblical and analogical representation of the struggle to overcome temptations and vices, to acquire self-mastery and virtues, and to remain faithful and attentive to God and his inspirations. This is the supernatural goal of every true disciple of Christ. Ultimately it is Christ who makes this goal attainable, and he offers his help to everyone who sincerely seeks God above all things in every state and walk of life.

“When the soul is called the Bride of God, there is not only a relationship of similarity between two things which permits one to be designated by the other. There is, much more, such an intimate union between the image and the reality that it is almost impossible to speak of them any longer as a duality. Turned around: the meaning of the expression, being engaged [to be married] has nowhere as fitting and perfect a fulfillment as in the love relationship of God with the soul. That is the hallmark of a symbol-relationship in the strict and actual sense. The relationship of the soul to God as God foresaw it from all eternity as the goal of her creation, simply cannot be more fittingly designated than as a nuptial bond. Once one has grasped that, then the image and the reality directly exchange their roles: the divine bridal relationship is recognized as the original and actual bridal relationship, and all human nuptial relationships appear as imperfect copies of this archetype – just as the Fatherhood of God is the archetype of all fatherhood on earth. By reason of this copy-relationship, the human bridal relationship becomes useful as a symbolic expression of the divine, and in view of this function that which is a purely human relationship in actual life takes second place. Its actual reality has its highest reason for existence in that it can give expression to a divine mystery (Ephesians 5:23 ff).” – St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), OCD, The Science of the Cross, translated by Sr Josephine Koeppel, OCD, ICS Publications, 2018

“By this likeness of charity…the soul is wedded to the Word, when, namely, loving even as she is loved, she shows herself, in her will, likened to Him to Whom she is already likened in her nature. Therefore, if she loves Him perfectly, she has become His bride. What can be more sweet than such a likeness? What can be more desirable than this love, whereby thou art enabled of thyself to draw nigh with confidence to the Word, to cleave to Him steadfastly, to question Him familiarly, and to consult Him in all thy doubts, as daring in thy desires as thou art receptive in thy understanding? This is in truth the alliance of holy and spiritual wedlock. Nay, it is saying too little to call it an alliance: it is rather an embrace. Surely we have then a spiritual embrace when the same likes and the same dislikes make of two one spirit. Nor is there any occasion to fear lest the inequality of the persons should cause some defect in the harmony of wills, since love knows nothing of reverence. Love means an exercise of affection, not a showing of honor…. Love is all sufficient for itself. Whithersoever love comes, it keeps under and holds captive to itself all the other affections. Consequently, the soul that loves, simply loves and knows nothing else except to love.” – St Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist., Sermons on the Canticle of Canticles, LXXXIII, 3, Migne, P. L., CLXXXIII, 1182-c, d (quoted in Doctor Mellifluus, Encyclical of Pius XII, 1953, https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_24051953_doctor-mellifluus.html

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

St. John Eudes (1600s) was a saintly priest in France at a time when the Church suffered corrupt clericalism among the rich and powerful. Many Catholics had turned to the heresy of Jansenism, which, stating that human nature was depraved, claimed that perfection was necessary to enter Heaven.

It is only in the union with our Lord’s humanity, where salvation is to be found, that true perfection of living is realized.

St. John Eudes was devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He was one of the first people to promote this devotion. Why? Because the Sacred Heart of our Lord is the source and salvation of life.

He once wrote:

While we live, we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die, we die as his servants. Both in life and death we are the Lord’s. That is why Christ died and came to life again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. Finally, you are one with Jesus as the body is one with the head. You must, then, have one breath with him, one soul, one life, one will, one mind, one heart. And he must be your breath, heart, love, life, your all.

These great gifts in the follower of Christ originate from baptism. They are increased and strengthened through confirmation and by making good use of other graces that are given by God. Through the holy Eucharist they are brought to perfection.

There is much to learn from St John Eudes. It’s so easy to convince ourselves we are living in a the worst of times and the case is already lost. The fact is that holiness is the cure for a wounded society. It is the cure for our own sinfulness.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a place of peace in which if we stay, we can be faithful in a world that is lost.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

Today the Carmelite Order remembers and honors the Blessed Martyrs of Rochefort. The resolutions drawn up by the priests imprisoned on the ship Les Deux Associés teach us how to suffer and conduct ourselves in difficult and unjust situations. Christ is the model of perfect love and perfect obedience to God the Father.

In order to imitate Christ as his blessed Mother and other faithful disciples have done, we must accept the evil and unjust things that happen to us and we cannot avoid, and all the unfortunate difficulties that we encounter, knowing full well that God could have prevented them and spared us of the suffering that they cause us, but also knowing that in permitting them God will bring some greater good out of it, both for ourselves and for others.

This acceptance does not mean that we should ever condone unjust acts or abusive conduct in others, but it does mean that we must strive to forgive those who trespass against us as Christ forgives those who trespass against him.

We must often judge the unjust actions of others, hold them accountable, and call them to true contrition and a firm purpose of amendment, but at the same time we must never presume to judge or condemn their hearts, and we must always strive to forgive even those who should have known and done better.

Then we must be generous to them as God has been generous to us. This is the heroic path of mercy, to which Christ has called all his faithful disciples.

Optional Memorial - From the Supplement to the Carmelite Proper of the Liturgy of Hours, Rome Institutum Carmelitanum 1993:

Fr. Leonard Duverneuil (b. 1737 at Limoges), Fr. Michael-Aloysius Brulard (Michel-Louis) (b. 1758 at Chartres), and Fr. Hubert of Saint Claude (b. 1753 at Frolois), were among a group of 64 Martyrs beatified 1st October 1995, victims of the French Revolution who came from 14 French dioceses and from various religious Orders. In their loyalty to God, the Church and the Pope, they refused to take the oath of the Civil Constitution for the Clergy imposed by the Constituent Assembly of the Revolution. As a result, they were imprisoned, massed like animals, on a slave-trader ship in Rochefort Bay, waiting in vain to be deported into slavery. During 1794, the first two Carmelites died on board ship: Fr. John-Baptist on 1st July, and Fr. Michael-Aloysius on 25th July, both being buried on the island of Aix. After the plague broke out on the ship, those remaining disembarked on the island of Madame, where Fr. Hubert died and was buried on 10th September. Noted for their loving ministry to their fellow prisoners and their patience in accepting every type of outrage, privation, and cruelty, not to mention the vicissitudes of weather, hunger and sickness, our three Discalced Carmelite priest martyrs and their companions in martyrdom gave unsurpassed Christian witness to their faith and love.

From the Common of Martyrs - The Second Reading

Resolutions drawn up by the priests imprisoned on the ship Les Deux Associés:

They bore in silence the cross that was placed on them.

They will never give themselves up to useless worries about being set free. Instead they will make the effort to profit from the time of their detention by meditating on their past years, by making holy resolutions for the future, so that they can find in the captivity of their bodies, freedom for their soul.

If God permits them to recover totally or in part this liberty nature longs for, they will avoid giving themselves up to an immoderate joy when they receive the news. By keeping their souls tranquil, they will show they support without murmur the cross placed on them, and that they are disposed to bear it even longer with courage and as true Christians who never let themselves be beaten by adversity.

If there is question of receiving back their personal effects they will show no eagerness in asking for them; rather, they will make the declaration that may be required of them with modesty and strict truth. They will receive without lament what is given to them, accustoming themselves, as is their duty, to despise the things of the earth and to be content with little, after the example of the apostles.

They are not to satisfy curious people they might come across. They will not reply to superficial questions about what happened to them. They will let people glimpse that they have patiently supported their sufferings, without descending into detail, and without showing any resentment against those who have authored and been instrumental in their suffering.

They will sentence themselves to the severest and most absolute silence about the faults of their brothers and the weaknesses into which they happened to fall due to their unfortunate situation, their bad health and the length of their punishment. They will preserve the same charity towards those whose religious opinion is different from their own. They will avoid all bitter feeling or animosity, being content to feel sorry about them interiorly and making the effort to stay on the way of truth by their gentleness and moderation.

They will not show grief over the loss of their goods, no haste to recover them, no resentment against those who possess them….

From now on they will form but one heart and one soul, without showing distinction of persons, and without leaving any of their brothers out, under any pretext. They will never get mixed up in the new politics, being content to pray for the welfare of their country and prepare themselves for a new life, if God permits them to return to their homes, and there become subjects of edification and models of virtue for the people, by their detachment from the world, their assiduousness in prayer and their love for recollection and piety.

Responsory

God and his angels look down upon us;
Christ, too, looks on as we do battle in the contest of faith.
—What great dignity and glory are ours,
what happiness to struggle in the presence of God,
and to be crowned by Christ our judge.

Let us be armed with a great determination and,
pure in heart, sound in faith, and full of courage,
be prepared to face the combat.
—What great dignity and glory are ours,
what happiness to struggle in the presence of God,
and to be crowned by Christ our judge.

Prayer

Lord God,

to the martyrs Blesseds Leonard, Michael Aloysius,
Hubert of Saint Claude, and their companions,
you gave the grace to remain faithful and to pardon others while suffering dismaying hardship.

Through their intercession grant also to us,
to be always willing to remain faithful to your Church
and to be reconciled
with one another.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever, amen.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

Today we celebrate and meditate on the Assumption of Mary body and soul into heaven at the end of her life on earth. The doctrine of the Assumption is a divinely revealed truth that has always been implicit in Catholic Tradition. It is also the fourth Glorious Mystery of the Rosary, and in 1950 it was explicitly defined by Pope Pius XII as a dogma of the Catholic Church. Dogmas give us certainty. All sciences have dogmas. In arithmetic, it is a dogma that 2 + 2 is 4. In geometry, it is a dogma that triangles have three interior angles. In chemistry, it is a dogma that water is H₂O. In the Christian faith, it is a dogma that Jesus is God. Karma cannot change dogma. All dogma is written in stone. Dogma is man’s best friend. Thank God for the dogmas of the Catholic Church. No one honors their Mother more than Christ and the Catholic Church. What do we believe about Mary?

In 1968, Pope St Paul VI formulated it in the Credo of the People of God:

We believe that Mary is the Mother, who remained ever a Virgin, of the Incarnate Word, our God and Savior Jesus Christ, and that by reason of this singular election, she was, in consideration of the merits of her Son, redeemed in a more eminent manner, preserved from all stain of original sin, and filled with the gift of grace more than all other creatures.

Joined by a close and indissoluble bond to the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption, the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate, was at the end of her earthly life raised body and soul to heavenly glory and was likened to her risen Son in anticipation of the future lot of all the just.

And we believe that the Blessed Mother of God, the New Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven her maternal role with regard to Christ’s members, cooperating with the birth and growth of divine life in the souls of the redeemed.

The four Marian dogmas are her Motherhood of God, her Perpetual Virginity, her Immaculate Conception, and her Assumption into Heaven. As the Mother of Christ, Mary is the Mother of God. That truth of the Catholic faith necessarily follows from Christ’s divinity. Every Christian who denies it falls into a contradiction. The Council of Ephesus in 431 explicitly defined that Mary is the Mother of God because Christ is God. She is the Daughter of God the Father, the Spouse of God the Holy Spirit, and the Mother of God the Son.

Mary is the model of faith and Christian discipleship. To become the Mother of God the Son, she had to be immaculately conceived. Since she was immaculately conceived, she was taken body and soul into heaven at the end of her earthly life. There is a pious tradition that Mary chose to die because she wanted to be like her Son in all things. But we do not know for certain that Mary died, because that is not part of the dogma. It has not yet been defined. So perhaps Mary was assumed directly into heaven without dying. That’s what many Eastern Orthodox Christians believe, so they call her passing a dormition, like falling asleep. Neither Christ nor his Mother was obligated to die. If she died, then she chose to die in imitation of the sacrifice made by her Son. She would have died for love of her Son and for love of us. Mary shows us our destiny. We are destined for heaven. Christ desires to make us like his Mother, to some degree or another.

Christ gave his Mother to us to be our Mother. Do we love and honor our Mother? What are the signs?

• Seek the intercession of Mary for your pressing needs and concerns. It works. Cast your cares on her, because she cares for you. Try it and see what happens.

• Pray the Rosary and meditate on the mysteries, joining mental prayer to vocal prayer. Mary has asked us repeatedly to pray the Rosary, especially for world peace, which we need worse than ever.

• Tell others about the graces and blessings you have received through Mary’s intercession. Give witness and recommend Mary’s intercession to others, especially to non-Christians. To give a testimony freely and joyfully is not proselytism. It is part of Christian discipleship. It is part of being a good son or daughter of Mary.

• Today we honor our Mother Mary in the highest way possible, with the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Mass Collect

Almighty ever-living God, who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, body and soul into heavenly glory, grant, we pray, that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

Maximilian Kolbe was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941 for sheltering refugees, among them Jews. He was sent to Auschwitz as prisoner 16670.

That July, after a man escaped, the commandant condemned ten prisoners to death by starvation. One of the prisoners cried out for his wife and children. Kolbe stepped forward and asked to take his place. It was in the starvation bunker he led them in prayer and hymn.

On August 14, 1941, the vigil of the Assumption, he was killed by an injection of carbolic acid. John Paul II canonized him a martyr of charity in 1982.

Maximilian Kolbe once wrote:

See then, […] the tremendous honor of the position that God in his kindness has placed us in. Through obedience we transcend our own limitations and align ourselves with God’s will, which, with infinite wisdom and prudence, guides us to do what is best. Moreover, as we become filled with the divine will, which no created thing can resist, so we become stronger than all others.

Kolbe’s sacrifice is not only a story of human courage. It is a story of supernatural love that becomes possible when a person’s will is perfectly surrendered to God.

When we surrender our will to God’s will, we become more open to His grace. That grace changes and strengthens us, enabling us to love and act beyond our natural abilities, even to the point of laying down our lives for another. This may be what St. Peter means when he says that through God’s grace we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). The more our will becomes united with God’s will, the more His life and love can work through us.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

There is a strong analogy to be made between our own times and the times of Pontian and Hippolytus. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Pontian was the Pope—a humble man considered to be too lax. Hippolytus was the anti-pope and a popular theologian considered to be too rigorous.

Hippolytus believed that the authentic papal magisterium of Pontian lacked rigor and was too tolerant, and therefore needed to be resisted and corrected. So he took a public stand against it and led people into schism.

And how did God providentially heal this schism in the Church? The Roman Emperor Maximinus Thrax exiled both of them to the salt mines of Sardinia, where they found themselves laboring side by side and slowly dying together.

There they reconciled and became friends. They both renounced their claims to be the Pope and allowed a new Pope (St. Anterus) to be elected.

They both died martyrs for the faith, although only Pontian was the true Pope.

The moral of the story is clear: we must never direct our rigor and our intellectual gifts against the authentic magisterium of the Pope. It is a perennial temptation within the Church, but to give in to it is to become an agent of schism.

Schism is healed by learning to suffer together. If we do not learn the lessons that the history of the Church and the lives of the saints teach us, then God will teach us these lessons again, providentially, by allowing us to suffer through them again.

The choice is ours to make. In the end, Hippolytus repented of disobedience. It is much easier simply never to abandon the authentic papal magisterium, no matter how lax it may appear to us.

Today’s Mass Collect

May the precious long-suffering of the just, O Lord, we pray, bring us a great increase of love for you and always prompt in our hearts constancy in the holy faith.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

We are all called to perfect union with God through Christ. “Be perfect,” Christ tells us, “as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

The Greek word τέλειός, often translated “perfect,” carries the sense of being complete and is analogical or relative to one’s nature.

Our desire for perfection may be good or evil. What is the difference between desiring the perfection or completion of spiritual union with God and desiring instead the perfection of never making any mistakes or doing anything wrong?

In the former kind of desire we are convinced and peacefully accept that we have limited powers and make mistakes necessarily by nature, even apart from sin. We thus are content with our finitude.

In the true way of perfection we are happy that we essentially are not God and are not essentially good, and by grace we are striving to do his will. We are happy that we are only human and only contingently good. We desire to be one with God only contingently, not essentially. We do not divinize ourselves and our own judgments and desires. We habitually practice self-accusation and self-abnegation.

But the other kind of desire—the desire never to be in error—is the desire to be God essentially. Such a desire is a product of the original sin which rejects God’s will and self-divinizes one’s self and one’s own will. It is the intellectual desire that also led to the fall of the angels.

In the false way of perfection we cannot stand to be wrong, and thus we habitually practice self-justification and self-affirmation.

In the true way of perfection we are happy to be wrong, to be weak, to try and fail and try again, and to be recognized as imperfect. Indeed, we are even happy to be misjudged and to have our virtues overlooked, as Christ was.

In order to advance along the true way of perfection, we must receive the grace of infused contemplation and pass through the dark night of the senses and the dark night of the spirit, described by St John of the Cross (1542-1591) and other Christian saints and mystics. The dark nights are levels of participation in the Cross of Christ. They are similar to a long slow martyrdom and dying to self.

When asked what form this martyrdom takes, St Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641) answered:

“Yield yourself fully to God, and you will find out! Divine love takes its sword to the hidden recesses of our inmost soul and divides us from ourselves. I know one person whom love cut off from all that was dearest to her, just as completely and effectively as if a tyrant’s blade had severed spirit from body.”

“From the moment when we commit ourselves unreservedly to God, until our last breath, we suffer the martyrdom of love. I am speaking, of course, of great-souled individuals who keep nothing back for themselves but instead are faithful in love. Our Lord does not intend this martyrdom for those who are weak in love and perseverance. Such people he lets continue on their mediocre way, so that they will not be lost to him. He never does violence to our free will.”

Born in Dijon, France, St Jane Frances de Chantal was a Christian saint who received good spiritual instruction and direction from St Francis de Sales (1567-1622) and possessed the courage and generosity to pursue the way of perfection to its completion.

She committed herself unreservedly to God and kept nothing back for herself. She persevered in the practice of charity and passed through the dark nights of the soul. She surrendered herself completely to the will of God and suffered greatly in union with Christ.

Her mother had died when she was only 18 months old. At the age of 21 years old, she married Baron de Chantal. They had six sons, and three of them died young.

She was habitually generous to the poor and the sick. After only seven years of marriage, her husband was killed in a hunting accident, and she struggled to forgive the man who was responsible.

She was forced to move in with her father-in-law, an unkind man, but she bore the difficult circumstances with love and patience.

She sank into grief and deep dejection for four months, overwhelmed by the loss of her husband. She faced many periods of illness and experienced interior anguish and spiritual dryness.

She raised and provided for her remaining sons and then entered religious life.

Amid great opposition and resistance, she founded the Visitation Order and worked tirelessly during the plague to help the victims, putting her convent at their disposal.

Many of her companions and friends died, including her director St Francis de Sales. There was nothing weak or mediocre about her love and perseverance.

What about us? The way of perfection is open for us, but do we have the courage and generosity to take it?

Do we ask God to help us grow in holiness, or do we prefer to continue on our mediocre way?

Do we abandon ourselves to divine providence, or do we keep many things back for ourselves?

In her first apparition (May 13, 1917), Our Lady of Fatima asked the shepherd children, Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta, “Do you wish to offer yourselves to God to endure all the sufferings that He may be pleased to send you, as both an act of reparation for the sins with which He is offended and an act of supplication for the conversion of sinners?”

Lucia responded for all three of them, “Yes, we do.” And Our Lady said, “Well then, you will have much to suffer. But the grace of God will be your comfort.” Immediately her words began to come true in their lives.

Are you a faithful Christian who is continually faced with many trials, tribulations, and sufferings? Have you already been given much to suffer?

Then consider that by this means God is working for your perfection and completion. He is calling you to sainthood. He does not want you to be weak and mediocre.

If you respond with love and generosity and surrender yourself completely to the will of God, then the grace of God will be your comfort. And there is no greater comfort.

By the grace of God, you will grow in holiness. You will become strong and heroic in union with the Cross of Christ.

You will be a blessing to your loved ones and even to people whom you have never met.

Like St Paul, in your challenges and in your flesh you will “complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” (Colossians 1:24).

May the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Jane Frances de Chantal, and the shepherd children of Fatima help us to offer ourselves unreservedly to God and say “Yes” as they did.

COLLECT

O God, who made Saint Jane Frances de Chantal
radiant with outstanding merits in different walks of life,
grant us, through her intercession,
that, walking faithfully in our vocation,
we may constantly be examples of shining light.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

Saint Clare once wrote to Blessed Agnes of Prague:

Happy the soul to whom it is given to attain this life with Christ, to cleave with all one’s heart to him whose beauty all the heavenly hosts behold forever, whose love inflames our love, the contemplation of whom is our refreshment, whose graciousness is our delight, whose gentleness fills us to overflowing, whose remembrance makes us glow with happiness, whose fragrance revives the dead, the glorious vision of whom will be the happiness of all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem. For he is the brightness of eternal glory, the splendour of eternal light, the mirror without spot.

Christ is Truth Itself, Love Itself, and Beauty Itself. Christ is the Source of all Happiness. He is also the Mirror of Contemplation into which the human soul must gaze in order to acquire virtue and grow in holiness.

God is present in our souls by nature and by grace. We need to recollect ourselves continually in God’s presence through the bodily humanity of Christ.

Even in the highest stage of prayer, the humanity of Christ is constantly the object of our contemplation. We ought never to abandon the humanity of Christ, and we should habitually imagine him present with us bodily as a friend.

We ought to meditate constantly on the mysteries of his life and passion as much as possible. Why? Because He enables us to see and judge things clearly. He enables us to see ourselves as we really are.

In the film “The Most Reluctant Convert,” C. S. Lewis gazes into the mirror in his room and sees himself as he really is—because he is looking at himself through Christ. It can be a shocking and unpleasant experience to see yourself and all the goods of the world in the light of Christ.

The universal means of sanctification are poverty, chastity, and obedience. These must be pursued at least spiritually even by those who live in the secular state of life.

They are very valuable goods, and Christ enables us to see and judge their value correctly.

In Christ, the one true Good, we see the true value of all things, and we see ourselves as we were meant to be.

Regardless of our sins and faults, we can enjoy daily intimacy with God through friendship with Christ because He is the divine Mirror and perfect Image of God.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18 RSV

Christ is the standard and the way to perfection. We can reach it only by his grace. It requires daily discipline and contemplation, which free us from ourselves and give us happiness and holiness.

Let us pray for one another. St Clare, pray for us.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

Let us pray for our Deacon friends today.

Today is the feast day of St. Lawrence, a deacon. He was one of seven deacons of Rome under Pope Sixtus II. Deacons in the early Church were charged with caring for the Church’s goods and for the poor. Lawrence was roasted alive on a gridiron. The infamous line of St. Lawrence is that, while he was being burned, he told the executioners to turn him over because one side was done.

St. Lawrence’s martyrdom reminds us that the world despises those who live out the call of the Gospel through total self-giving, especially for the poor and less fortunate.

As we seek to detach from the world’s empty promises, we should work out our own salvation “with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). This is why a blunt tombstone epitaph can sound like wisdom: “He didn’t like it here anyway.” Not because life is worthless, but because it’s too small to be ultimate. It’s the wisdom of Solomon, who understood “vanity of vanities.” The world and its emptiness offer nothing compared to union and friendship with Christ.

On Lawrence’s feast, we pray for that same freedom. We pray that we can hold the world lightly and be more generous with our neighbors and family. Perhaps we can come to a deeper understanding of just how much we need Christ. Everything else passes away.

St. Lawrence, pray for us.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

“Does God offer spiritual marriage, like the grace of faith itself, to every human soul?” The answer to this question requires a certain level of spiritual maturity and some reflection on the spiritual meaning of human sexuality and traditional marriage. The Christian doctrines that Christ is God and that the Church as a whole is the Bride of Christ and the universal sacrament of salvation do indeed entail that each and every human soul is called to be a bride of Christ. Incorporation into the Church through sacramental Baptism or the baptism of desire or martyrdom is not a loss of our souls but a spousal union of our souls with the divine life of the Trinity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly states that “Baptism, the entry into the People of God, is a nuptial mystery; it is so to speak the nuptial bath which precedes the wedding feast, the Eucharist” (§1617).

Many pagans such as the ancient Neoplatonists pursue and promote a nuptial union between the human soul and God based on natural reason. Many Christian mystics likewise affirm that God is the Bridegroom of the human soul, but the doctrine is based on the grace of faith and infused contemplation, not natural reason. The traditional Judeo-Christian interpretation of The Song of Songs understands it as a dialogue of love between a human soul and God in the context of covenantal faith and spiritual marriage. This is how Origen and the Cappadocian Fathers understand it. St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross interpret it in the same way. All the Doctors of the Church, including St Gregory of Narek, speak of each human soul in the feminine as a bride of Christ. St Bernard of Clairvaux, for example, says that if the human soul loves Christ with her whole being, then “she possesses the marriage bond with him perfectly.” St Gertrude the Great affirms the same mystical doctrine. St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) explains that this identity is not merely a metaphor or resemblance: the relationship between Christ and the human soul is to be understood as nothing less than the archetype of all nuptial relationships (The Science of the Cross, Chapter 19 “The Bridal Song”).

Every human soul is called to be a bride of Christ by its very nature. As puzzling as this doctrine may seem, it is one of the fundamental analogies that make Christian anthropology a unique synthesis of faith and reason. In the act-potency metaphysics of Aristotle, the soul is simultaneously in act in relation to the body and in potency in relation to the Unmoved Mover. The soul is the substantial form of the living and moving body, and whatever is moved is moved by another. The Catholic Church affirms the hylomorphic insights of Aristotle regarding the nature of the soul and proposes that in relation to the Pure Act who is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, all souls are spiritually female by their very nature, even though they are also consubstantial with a material body which is physically either male or female. The soul of a material substance is not identical to its essence. The essence includes the body. Physical truths analogically reflect spiritual truths. As the female body is physically receptive to the male body by its very nature, so also the human soul is spiritually receptive to Christ by its very nature. As the human sexual faculty is by nature inherently irreducible either to the female organ alone or to the male organ alone, so also the spiritual faculty of grace is inherently irreducible either to human nature alone or to divine nature alone. As male and female are contrary perfections and inconceivable without each other, so also Creator and creature are contrary perfections and inconceivable without each other, though of course God can exist without creating. God is Pure Act and Pure Existence by his very nature, but in the act of creation he is also the Uncaused Cause of all creaturely perfections, and he has also assumed a human nature and given us his Spirit in order to redeem and sanctify us.

Christian doctrine has always implicitly and necessarily taught that every human soul is called to be a bride of Christ by its very nature. The mentality characteristic of modernism is unable to grasp such a doctrine, but no true Christian can dispense with it. The truth is that nothing is ontologically self-moved or self-caused. Self-motion in living things, including humans, is always relative to the end being sought; it is not absolute. The human soul itself is neither divine nor unmoved by nature. It exists contingently and has a Cause. It needs grace as its soul-food, and it needs Christ as its Soul-Mate. The human person is by nature a potency in two fundamental dimensions to receive and exercise natural and supernatural acts. The whole human person is not identical to its soul or to its body, even though it is simultaneously both wholly a soul and wholly a body. Soul and body are consubstantial, in accord with the Neoplatonist doctrine of holenmerism, of which most people nowadays have never heard. In the vertical dimension, our persons are actualized and informed ontologically by existence, essence, subsistence, and grace, and our souls are actualized and informed cognitively by the sensible and intelligible forms of the material objects we perceive. Natural human knowledge is inherently a union of complementary opposites, and so is supernatural knowledge. In the horizontal dimension, we are actualized and cultivated socially and inter-subjectively by the mind and heart of a human culture but also potentially by the Sacred Mind and Heart of Christ and his Church. Spiritually the human soul is therefore analogous to an ovum or egg. It cannot be fruitful or actualize its supernatural potential apart from Christ.

Human marriage is likewise a physical union of complementary physical opposites. Spiritual marriage is analogously and inherently a mystical union of complementary spiritual opposites. In the first chapter of the Seventh Dwelling Places of The Interior Castle, St Teresa of Avila explicitly defines spiritual marriage as an infused but ineffable form of intellectual knowledge of all three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity present in the human soul. This enlightenment is offered to the faithful through Communion with the Sacred Humanity of Christ. Christ is the Bridegroom of the human soul and is a Hypostatic Union of complementary opposites in his divine Person. Anyone who rejects grace and says “I don’t need God to be the Bridegroom of my soul” is saying “I am naturally self-fulfilled and divine and the source of my own goodness and happiness.” Such a person has fallen into a delusion and will make himself miserable. The truth is that in the order of grace as well as the order of nature the human soul is a spiritual emptiness that only God can spiritually fill and make fruitful. It is in potency to God, and nothing else can actualize it and make it virtuous and holy. If we reject God, then we are trying to find fulfillment in creatures like ourselves, rather than in the Person who is Goodness itself and is the complementary opposite of our souls. Because God became man in Christ, to reject Christ is to place our souls in relation to something that cannot satisfy them, either ourselves or another. To reject Christ is to accept self-actualization and self-causation and to land ourselves in a fundamental confusion and contradiction.

In Christianity, the female is exalted. Catholicism proclaims that the most holy human person is the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it protects the female consecrated religious state of life as the most perfect form of marriage to Christ. Accepting Christ as the divine Soul-Mate by the grace of faith is typically easier for women than for men. Christianity is often accused of being “a woman’s religion” or “a religion for sissies.” Nietzsche exemplifies this attitude and says that if a man must have a religion, he should choose Islam instead. Nietzsche thinks that Islam is a man’s religion, “a religion for men.” It is true that Islam is a Christian heresy that in its more fundamentalist expression tends to negate and suppress that which is female. Nietzsche and Islam both reject Christ as the divine Soul-Mate, but for very different reasons. Sufi Islamic mysticism with its perennial emphasis on spiritual union with God through love recognizes the analogy of the human soul to the female, but it rejects the incarnation of God in Christ. When the noble project to make Aristotelian philosophy compatible with the Qur’an waned, theological voluntarism was adopted by much of Islam, just as it was later accepted by many Protestants and modern deists. There is a modern fideistic temptation within Western religions to de-Hellenize themselves and thus to embrace voluntarism and individualism. Traditional Hellenized religions are then typically regarded as morally impure, doctrinally corrupted by paganism, and perversely effeminate. The accusation is unjust and fallacious, but unfortunately it still convinces many men to forsake religion. The irony is that succumbing to the fear of being thought unmanly is itself unmanly. Real men defend their faith. So do real women. Many men and women nowadays are confused and insecure in their sexual identity. The modern secular world, not the Catholic Church, has undermined sexual identity and created that social problem.

All such attacks on Hellenized Christianity are ad hominem fallacies. The vice is not in Christian doctrine or morality but in the minds of those who are desperate to find a reason to reject all or part of it. The divine deposit of faith and morals that we have received from Christ and his Apostles itself entails a robust classical metaphysics and moral philosophy. With the rejection of the real essentialism of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Neoplatonists such as Plotinus, the distinction between nature and culture quickly collapses. Many people who possess a valid Christian Baptism also have a very modern and nominalist way of thinking and thus suffer from cognitive dissonance and lack of congruence. They tend to be suspicious, uncharitable, and willing to believe whatever negative suspicions happen to occur to them or get communicated to them, including unwarranted conspiracy theories about rampant immorality at the Vatican or in Catholic clergy in general, theories which for political reasons are often deliberately promoted by unreliable “LGBTQ” sources. They casually accuse Catholic pastors of being “in the closet” and effectively undermine clerical authority but seldom stop to consider that calumny done knowingly and deliberately is a mortal sin. They rationalize their own sins by the sins committed by members of the clergy, but all such reasonings are likewise fallacies.

There are sexual predators everywhere, like Cardinal McCarrick, but the rate of occurrence among Catholic clergy and Catholic seminaries is not significantly different from that of any other group of Christians, including Protestant clergy and Protestant seminaries. It is also not significantly different from the rate of occurrence among other religions and the population in general. The truth seems to make little difference to those who reject the magisterium of the Catholic bishops and the Pope and throw at them whatever falsehood might stick and make them look evil. Such conduct is itself evil, and it consists of acting viciously in making ridiculous claims and carrying out character assassinations at will. It is not significantly different from anti-Catholic witch-hunting techniques used by fundamentalists at various times in the history of the Church. Such Christians have fallen into pride and the error of subjectivism. They authorize their own suspicions and without any objective evidence assume that they are true. Such people have lost or never acquired the ability to reason clearly and cogently by means of objective criteria.

There is no such thing as a faithful Catholic who publicly sets himself against the authentic magisterium of his bishop or the Pope. The hermeneutic of suspicion toward Catholic moral doctrine originates in the same mentality that rationalizes sexual sins such as contraception, pornography, masturbation, adultery, fornication, and homosexual conduct, which the Church will never declare to be morally licit. The truth is that if any of these sins were excusable, then they all would be, which is exactly what the modern “enlightened” or “woke” mentality inconsistently proposes. Nowadays whenever someone has the audacity to speak against such sins, he immediately becomes a target of suspicion, and his motivations are misjudged. It is not difficult to imagine where this trend will end. In modern culture, it becomes necessary for faithful Christians to follow the old Muslim saying, “Never explain yourself to anyone, because your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe it.”

Catholic Christianity aligns itself with the natural moral law, and religion is the perennial solution to moral corruption and degradation, not the cause of it. Moral degradation comes from original sin, not from God or the Church. Catholic Christianity insists that the cultivated and horizontal dimension of the human person ought to be kept congruent with the natural and vertical dimension of the human person. Catholic Christianity affirms that the human soul is spiritually female to God and must accept Christ as its divine Bridegroom in order to have everlasting happiness. But this does not mean that Christian spirituality is essentially effeminate. Men and women have modally different psychologies and forms of subjectivity. Christ respects our natural identities and perfects us in the way that is appropriate for our nature. Everyone is called to be responsive and obedient to Christ, but responsiveness is modally different for men than it is for women. Christ helps females to be more feminine and helps males to be more masculine. Male persons are called to be faithful to God like Moses, Elijah, Joseph, John the Baptist, the Holy Apostles, Benedict, Francis, Dominic, John of the Cross, and other male Saints. Female persons are called to be faithful to God like Zipporah, Hannah, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Elizabeth, Mary Magdalene, Scholastica, Clare, Catherine, Teresa of Avila, and other female Saints.

How should we respond to modern commentators who analyze the writings of St John of the Cross, for example, and routinely accuse him of racism or homosexuality? We can easily find unjust accusations of this kind made against him in popular and scholarly media, but no one should be encouraged to read them. Such commentators typically argue that the contents of his writings reveal fundamentally racist and homosexualist attitudes and assumptions supposedly inherited from St Jerome, St Gregory the Great, St Bede the Venerable, and other allegedly biased translators of Sacred Scripture. St John of the Cross is also frequently found guilty of the cultural imperialism and genocide that informed the Spanish colonialism of his day. And all those who ignore moral imperfections as they engage in the veneration of such saints are typically regarded as complicit in their errors and guilty of prejudice and injustice.

The first thing to notice in such modern critiques of medieval Christian treatises is that if those critiques are sound, then they also apply to the content of the critiques themselves. If the writings of medieval authors implicitly contain prejudices and injustices, then so do the modern criticisms and condemnations of their works. One such bias is found in the modern tendency to ignore or underestimate the liberating and divinizing power of grace. If we conclude, for example, that the criticisms of the mystical theology of St John of the Cross are true, and that his works are the product of self-delusion, wishful thinking, and unconscious biases, then we must on pain of consistency also conclude that such criticisms themselves are likewise the product of self-delusion, wishful thinking, and unconscious biases, especially in their claims to superiority and greater perfection. Such criticisms might appear humbler and truer to the limitations of human nature but themselves be implicitly self-defeating, unsound, and unjust to the transforming power of divine grace.

The inherent problem with the hermeneutic of suspicion is that it typically assumes the very thing that it sets out to prove. If the testimony of John of the Cross and other mystics about the transforming and divinizing power of grace is true, then the only way that anyone can verify it is by believing it. The mere fact that the metaphorical and analogical language of the writings of the saints and mystics sometimes reflects the prejudices and assumptions of their socio-cultural contexts is never in itself a sufficient reason to doubt their testimony, any more than the mere suggestion that someone is suffering from self-delusion is ever in itself a sufficient reason to doubt any testimony. We must evaluate the credibility of testimony in accord with the signs and motives which have been made available to us for that purpose, and we must only doubt testimony when it is inherently doubtful according to the objective standards of such criteria. Furthermore, the theological basis for the perennial science of the Christian saints and mystics is supernatural faith, not human reason. Only insofar as we put away our personal doubts and suspicions and accept the testimonies of the Christian saints and mystics on their own authority do we truly have faith in them, either natural or supernatural.

A female consecrated religious person has a special vocation to be a bride of Christ in a manner that is higher, exclusive, and objectively more perfect than the universal vocation of every human soul to be a bride of Christ. Natural male and female responsivities are complementary opposites, as exemplified in St Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary and in every other truly married couple. Carmelites and other mendicant religious Orders live out this truth with different constitutions for friars and nuns, who have different ways of life and different spiritualities. Nuns do not live like friars, and friars do not live like nuns. Every human soul is called to a nuptial relationship with Christ, but the female human person spiritually relates to Christ in a manner that is different from the male human person’s relation to Christ, based on their objective identities and inseparable accidents. To be a human person is to be male or female, and to be a Christian is to be responsive to God like Joseph or Mary. As Patrick Kelly—the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus—emphasized at his installation in 2021, the imitation of St Joseph calls men to be guardians of the family and of truth, and the imitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary calls women to be distributors of mercy and of charity.

Christ seeks to cultivate a personal friendship with everyone. Everyone except the Blessed Virgin Mary suffers from the effects of original sin. Christ asks men and women to be obedient; he does not ask men to be effeminate, or women to be masculine. Bishops, priests, and deacons, like all male disciples of Christ, are called to be masculine and fatherly. Female religious superiors, like all female disciples of Christ, are called to be feminine and motherly. The teaching of the Catholic Church has always been clear about what is proper to the sexes. The modern secular world is seriously confused about it. To surrender to Christ is to accept him as Lord, Savior, King, and the fulfillment of all rightly ordered desires.

St Thérèse’s Story of a Soul is a witness-talk offered to the modern mind as a very credible death-bed testimony that Christ is the Bridegroom of every human soul. In The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis explains the specific difference between Eros and Venus, which the modern mind tends to conflate. St John Paul II’s Theology of the Body is a systematic biblical exegesis that summarizes the Christian mystagogy of marriage based on the inherent material differences between male and female. Benedict XVI’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est describes the development of human love toward spiritual maturity under the influence of sacramental grace. Our Lord must be loved and obeyed for himself alone, not for any subjective affirmations or spiritual delights that he happens to give us. Our obedience to Christ must transform our human subjectivity, emotions, affections and desires, but such a transformation must always be proportionate to our true nature and biological identity, either male or female. May the nuptial mystical union of Christ and the Church keep us grounded in reality and teach us the spiritual significance of our natural human powers.

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About Deacon Tracy Jamison, OCDS, PhD

Deacon Tracy Jamison was raised in a Christian family as the son of a Scotch-Irish evangelical minister in the Campbellite tradition. As an undergraduate he majored in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Cincinnati Christian University, where his parents had been educated. At this institution he met Joyce, who was completing a degree in Church Music, and after graduation they entered the covenant of Christian marriage in 1988. Through the study of philosophy and the writings of the Early Church Fathers, Tracy was received into the full communion of the Catholic Church in 1992. Under the influence of the theological writings of St. John Paul II he began to study the works of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross and entered formation as a Secular Carmelite of the Teresian Reform. In 1999 he completed the doctoral program in Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, and in 2002 he made his definitive profession as a Secular Carmelite. In 2010 he was ordained as a permanent deacon of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Currently he is a professor of philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West.

© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.

The Life of Saint Dominic

by Mr. Lawain McNeil, OP

Introduction

Jordan of Saxony, once said of his fellow friar, St. Dominic, “He was incessant in prayer, remarkable in compassion, fervent in shedding tears for his children, that is, in his zeal for souls, courageous in undertaking difficult things, strong in overcoming adversity.”[1] St. Dominic was a radiant beacon of Divine love and was an instrument of God’s grace that made him one of the most beloved and widely known saints.

He was born at a time when Christendom was giving new birth in theology, art, architecture, science, engineering, music and literature.[2] This period of time in the history “owes far more to the Catholic Church than most people—Catholics included—often realize. The Church, in fact, built Western civilization.”[3] St. Dominic, the simple mendicant friar, was one of the key players that impacted Western civilization in the preaching of the saving salvation of the Gospel. Even though the Church was flourishing in the arena of the arts and sciences, the Catholic Church was under attack from Islam in the East and heresies of the West. Urban II’s declaration of the Crusades sought to recapture Jerusalem from Muslim rule, unite the West by defending the East, and take up the Cross to stop the Islamic pogroms that were destroying Churches and annihilating her people.

In the West, Muslims at the time of Dominic occupied much of Spain. The Iberian Peninsula in the tenth century was mostly under the rule of Muslim Umayyad Caliphate, however Christian communities lived independently in the northern fringes of the Iberian Peninsula.[4] It is in this northern periphery that one of the greatest Catholic saints in the history of the Church was born.

Birth of Dominic

Dominic Felix de Guzman was born in the year 1170 to devout Catholic parents, Felix and Joanna (Joan) Guzman. He was born in the fertile area of the Castile region in the city of Caleruego. The Castile region was located in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula.[5]  Dominic’s parents were of Visigothic origin and belonged to noble stock. Dominic’s father Felix owned sizeable tracts of land in the Castille region. As a young man, Felix Guzman was an honorable soldier knight, fighting on behalf of the King of Castile and was the “royal warden of the village.”[6] Joan (or Jane) Guzman, Dominic’s mother, was the daughter of the Count of Aza and was known for her well-mannered nature.[7] Both parents were pious Catholics and lived a life of sanctity that influenced their three sons. Dominic’s mother was known for her acts of charity for the poor. Her holy life resulted in her beatification by Pope Leo XII in 1828. Like Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, the profound holiness of the parents permeated the souls of their children, resulting in religious vocations and disciples of Jesus Christ. Felix and Joanna’s three sons would enter into the religious priestly life, giving their lives in service for Jesus the Church. Antonio, Dominic’s oldest brother, served as a Priest to the poor by working in hospice care. His other priest brother, Mannes, one of the first Dominican Friars, was a contemplative and preacher known for his holiness and high moral conduct.[8] Mannes would ‘play a conspicuous part in the history of the University of Paris’ as well as be a gifted preacher and orator. He was beatified by Pope Gregory XV in 1831.[9] God’s providential love would manifest itself in a special way on Felix and Joanna Guzman regarding the birth of their youngest son Dominic.

When Joanna was pregnant with Dominic, she had a vision in which the child she was carrying appeared under the image of a dog, who carried in its mouth a torch. With the torch in its mouth, the dog leapt from her womb and set fire to the whole world.[10] This vision greatly disturbed Joanna so she sought spiritual counsel by pilgrimaging to the Benedictine Abbey of Silos in order to pray at the tomb of Abbot Dominic (St. Dominic of Silos).[11] Jordan of Saxony writes of this vision:

This was to signify that her child would be an eminent preacher who, by “barking” sacred knowledge, would rouse to vigilance souls drowsy with sin, as well as scatter throughout the world the fire which the Lord Jesus Christ came to cast upon the earth.”[12]

Out of devotion to the holy Abbot, when Joanna gave birth to her son, she named him Dominic, which means ‘given to God’.[13] As always, those whose lives are marked by holiness receive special graces to live out the supernatural virtues. This was true in the life of Dominic. His Godmother reported that at Dominic’s baptism she saw a star “illuminating his brow and bathing the world in its brightness.” [14] The Coat of Arms of the Dominican Order as well as in artistic depictions of the holy saint, a dog with a torch in its mouth and an illuminated star are always illustrated.

Dominic’s early life was marked by great sanctity and the practice of penances. It has been recounted that at an early age that Dominic ‘preferred the floor to the bed’ as a sacrifice from bodily comfort.[15] When he reached elementary age, he was sent to live with his maternal uncle, the archpriest of Gumiel d’Izan, to receive a religious training and education.[16] It was under the care and study from his uncle that the seed that was planted in his soul by his holy parents (particularly his mother), took root and grew. He drank from the rich waters of Sacred Scripture, spending many sleepless nights in contemplation and prayer. At one particular Mass in which Dominic was serving, his uncle noticed that the young man broke out in laughter. Curious to find out what was so funny, his uncle asked Dominic for an explanation:

Very naïvely Dominic told him that he had seen two ladies speaking together excitedly. On the bench behind them, leaning his back on the memorable pillar, sat the devil, writing carefully on a parchment scroll whatever the ladies were saying. Not being able to unwind the scroll fast enough to keep pace with their animated conversation, the devil grabbed one end of the scroll with his fist, got a firm hold of the other end between his teeth, and pulled with all his might. The parchment suddenly tore apart, and the devil's head cracked against the pillar. "To see the devil hurting himself and unable to continue writing struck me funny. That is why I laughed during Mass."[17]

He proved to be a model student and disciple of Jesus. Unlike most boys who engaged in play, Dominic spent much time in prayer in front of the tabernacle, asking God to guide him and give him the necessary graces to live totally for Him. When his studies were completed with his uncle, he enrolled at the University of Palencia with the goal of entering the priesthood. It was here that he studied philosophy, theology, Latin, Rhetoric and canon law.[18] He was a model student and was admired by his teachers for the manner in which he executed his studies.[19] The vision of his mother and godmother were coming to fruition, Dominic grew not only in knowledge of all things religious, but his heart continued to grow in the imitation of Jesus Christ.

At Palencia, he began the penitential practice of abstaining from wine, the everyday drink of Spain. When a famine broke out in the city of Palencia, this disciple of Jesus, sold his personal belongings as well as his books and manuscripts that contained his personal study notes in order to feed the poor.[20]

Dominic Receives Holy Orders

In 1195, Dominic received Holy Orders and was called to serve the Cathedral Chapter of Osma. He made his profession according to the Rule of St. Augustine and served as the canon regular.[21] While at Osma, Dominic began the practice of night-watches in which he would spend the entire night in prayer. Due to his rapid growth in spiritual graces, he was named Subprior to the Bishop of Osma. In 1201, the Bishop of Osma died and was replaced by the Prior, Diego de Azevedo. It was common to replace the Prior with the Subprior, but Dominic pleaded to remain in his role. The vote was cast and the wishes of Dominic were fulfilled and he remained in his Subprior role. This pleased Bishop Diego since the Subprior could be appointed to various services on behalf of the Bishop.[22]

In 1203, Alfonso IX, the King of Castile, summoned the Bishop Diego for assistance in the arrangement of the marriage of his son to the daughter of a French lord.[23] Bishop Diego chose his Subprior Dominic to accompany and assist him on this journey. The first stop on their journey was in the French Languedoc region of Albi in the town of Toulouse. It was here that Dominic’s heart was moved to pity due to a great number of the Albigensian people who had embraced various heretical teachings. Dominic’s years of study and penitential practices prepared him to defend the Church’s teaching and to save souls from heretical belief.

In Toulouse, the innkeeper of the hotel in which he was staying had fallen away from the faith and was mired in the Albigensian heresy. Moved with pity, Dominic stayed up all night as he zealously defended the Church’s teaching and shared the immense wisdom that refuted the false heretical beliefs of this poor soul. By morning, the innkeeper was no longer “able to resist the wisdom and the spirit that spoke” and returned to the one true Church.[24] This event would mark the beginning of the Dominic’s apostolate of saving lost heretical souls.

The Albigensian heresy continued to gain momentum and was leading many away from the Catholic faith resulting in Pope Innocent III commissioning the Cistercian Order to combat the heresy through preaching. [25] Due to the minimal training in argumentation and their worldly ways of living , the Cistercian had limited success in the conversion of the Albigensians. Dominic and Bishop Diego urged the Cistercians to embrace a more penitential life.[26] Debate was one of the methods used by the Albigensians in the promoting the heretical propaganda. Due to the strict study and training that Dominic received at Palencia, he was well equipped to engage in argumentation with the heretics.

Through theological exposition coupled with their Christ like example of ascetical living, Bishop Diego and Dominic engaged the Albigensians in theological debate. In one particular disputation with the Albigensians, nearly two hundred souls returned to the Church through their teaching.[27] Given their ability to deliver cogent arguments regarding the theological truths of the one true, apostolic faith, Bishop Diego and Dominic produced fruits for the Kingdom and reinforced the faith of fellow Catholics.

The Famous Disputation at Fanjeaux

It was at Fanjeaux that God provided a miraculous sign of His divine truth in the presence of the Albigensians.  It was common practice to write out one’s argument in the form of propositions. These written disputations would then be judged by a panel to determine a winner.  At Fanjeaux, both sides issued their written arguments only to have the judges at an impasse regarding a winner. To settle this dispute, the Albigensians suggested that they throw the manuscripts into a fire to determine which teaching was the truth. The manuscript that would not burn would be considered the truth. When the books were tossed into the fire, the Albigensians books was immediately consumed while the texts of the holy priests leaped from the fire and remained unburned.[28] The judges threw the manuscript two more times into the flames—each time the book would leap from the fire remaining unburned.

Over the next few years Bishop Diego and Dominic with other mendicant priests, preached the Gospel to the Albigensians in the hopes of leading them back to Jesus Christ and the Church. In 1207, Pope Innocent III approved more missionaries in support of the work of converting the Albigensians. However, there was a setback when Bishop Diego died resulting in the Cistercians withdrawing from the work. Very few priests were left to preach the Gospel to the Albigensians, however, Dominic remained committed to the work of preaching the Gospel to those lost to this heresy. It was during this period that Dominic founded in Prouille a convent for women for the sole purpose of converting those from the Albigensian heresy.[29] It was at Prouille where he would form his base for preaching the Gospel.

In 1208, a Cistercian legate, Pierre de Castelanau, was assassinated by Raymond of Toulouse. The Pope responded by calling for a Crusade under the leadership of Simon de Montfort. Dominic did not participate in the Crusade with the sword but did the work of a preacher and lover of souls.

The religious fervor and holiness in which Dominic exhibited in his walk with Christ, attracted others to join his efforts to save souls from heresy. His ‘band of preachers’ soon set up a religious community of preachers in Toulouse. Here they practice living in common, sharing all things and living a life of poverty for the salvation of souls.

They were sustained out of the generosity of the Bishop of Toulouse, who committed proceeds from the offering to the poor on their behalf. The preaching and the apostolic defense of the faith of the diocese was entrusted to Dominic and his fellow preachers. [30] In 1215 at the Fourth Lateran Council, Dominic traveled to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent III for the approval of a new order  and the approval to accept the revenues offered by the Bishop. Dominic wished to call this new order the Preachers. The Holy See instructed Dominic to adopt an ‘already approved rule’ and be assigned to a Church by the Bishop and return to Rome for final approval.[31] The order officially adopted the Rule of St. Augustine and was granted approval by Pope Honorius III on December 22, 1216.

Dominic Meets Francis of Assisi

In 1215 when Dominic traveled to Rome to petition Pope Innocent III, he spent time in prayer at the tomb of the Apostle Peter and Apostle Paul. While in prayer, Dominic had a vision in which the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared with her Son in which she introduced Him to two men. One of those men was Dominic and the other was someone he (Dominic) did not recognize. The Blessed Mother told Jesus that these two men would transform the world. The following day, he met Francis of Assisi and realized that this was the person in his vision that he did not recognize. Dominic declared to Francis, “Let us remain together and be partners.”[32] This did not denote that the orders should be merged, but rather to use their unique charisms to spread the Gospel to the world.

Over the next five years Dominic worked diligently in providing the proper intellectual training for his brothers so they could be effective in the teaching, preaching and defending of the Gospel. Observing the rule of the order, the brothers spent time in manual labor, prayer and study. Their call was to convert mankind through the preaching of the Gospel by living out their vocation in poverty and prayer.

Dominic established priories in Lombardy, France, Spain, Rome and sent his preacher brothers on missions to England, Germany, Hungary and Scandinavia. He established convents throughout Europe in an effort to share the Gospel with the world. He worked exhaustively to preach the Good News of Jesus and convert those who were lost in heresy or who had never heard the saving salvation message of Jesus.[33]

Dominic’s Death

Dominic died on August 6, 1221 at Bologna from dysentery and fever. His participation at Matins was his last community exercise with his fellow brothers. Brother Guala, a fellow friar, was dozing off at his monastery at Brescia, when he received a vision from God upon Dominic’s death. In this vision there was an opening in the heavens in which two shining ladders descended. Christ was standing on one ladder and the Blessed Mother on the other. In between the ladders at the bottom was a seat in which a hooded friar was sitting.

Jesus and the Blessed Mother slowly raised the ladder and the seat until the hooded friar was received into heaven in the midst of a choir of angels. This vision, Brother Guala later learned, happened at the time of Dominic’s death. [34]

The Rosary

The devotion of the Rosary is most often attributed to St. Dominic. Tradition teaches that the Rosary came to St. Dominic in a period of extraordinary prayer in which he prayed incessantly for three days and three nights for the conversion of the Albigensians. Exhausted from petitioning God, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him with three angels and gave him the gift of the Rosary as method of prayer and means to convert souls to Jesus Christ.[35]

Conclusion

On July 13, 1234 Pope Gregory IX canonized the beloved St. Dominic. He said of Saint Dominic:

“Thanks to the deep friendship he had for us when we were fulfilling a more modest office, we had proof of his sanctity in the admirable testimony of his life; and now competent witnesses have given us a full certification about the real character of the miracles about which many have spoken. Moreover, in union with the Lord’s flock given to our care, we are confident that, by God’s mercy, we can be aided by his suffrages, and that we who merited to enjoy the consolation of his very gracious friendship here on earth, may now have the benefit of his powerful patronage in heaven.” [36]

Numerous miracles and intercessions were attributed to him as proof of his saintly life. As he assured his brothers on his death bed that he would be of better use in death than in life, he continues to care for those on earth and intercedes for the salvation of souls. Dominic was an ascetic, mystic and an apostle who “took all into the arms of his love, wide as the church-door”, and reminds us that a life of charity, humility and poverty is a life that all should strive to live.[37]

Today is the Feast Day of St. Dominic.

St. Dominic pray for us.

Lord, let the holiness and teaching of Saint Dominic

come to the aid of your Church.

May he help us now with his prayers

as he once inspired people by his preaching.

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Endnotes

[1] Jordan of Saxony, The Encyclical Letter of Jordan of Saxony, at OP Central, www.opcentral.org.

[2] Vidmar, John, OP, The Catholic Church Through the Ages, (Mahwah: Paulist Press, 2005), 119.

[3] Woods, Thomas, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2005), 1.

[4] Blanning, T.C.W, The Central Middle Ages Europe 950-1130, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 20.

[5] Wilms, Jerome, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic (Milwaukee: Mediatrix Press, 1956), 118.

[6] Vann, Father Joseph, Lives of Saints, (New York: JJ Crawley, 1954)

[7] Wilms, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic,147.

[8] Jordan of Saxony, The Libellus of Jordan of Saxony, at OP Central, www.opcentral.org.

[9] OP Central, www.opcentral.org

[10] Wilms, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic,158.

[11] Wilms, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic,158.

[12] Jordan of Saxony, The Libellus of Jordan of Saxony, at OP Central, www.opcentral.org.

[13] Wilms, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic,158.

[14] Wilms, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic,170.

[15] Jordan of Saxony, The Libellus of Jordan of Saxony

[16] VICAIRE, M. H. "Dominic, St." New Catholic Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 828-829. Gale Virtual Reference Library.

[17] Wilms, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic,192.

[18] Wilms, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic,216.

[19] O'Connor, John Bonaventure. “St. Dominic.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 

[20] Jordan of Saxony, The Libellus of Jordan of Saxony, at OP Central, www.opcentral.org.

[21] Wilms, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic,301.

[22] Wilms, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic,337.

[23] Jordan of Saxony, The Libellus of Jordan of Saxony, at OP Central, www.opcentral.org.

[24] Jordan of Saxony, The Libellus of Jordan of Saxony, at OP Central, www.opcentral.org.

[25] Wilms, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic,455.

[26] O'Connor, John Bonaventure. The Catholic Encyclopedia.

[27] Wilms, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic,523.

[28] Jordan of Saxony, The Libellus of Jordan of Saxony, at OP Central, www.opcentral.org.

[29] O'Connor, John Bonaventure. The Catholic Encyclopedia.

[30] O'Connor, John Bonaventure. The Catholic Encyclopedia.

[31] Jordan of Saxony, The Libellus of Jordan of Saxony, at OP Central, www.opcentral.org.

[32] Wilms, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic,852.

[33] O'Connor, John Bonaventure. The Catholic Encyclopedia.

[34] Jordan of Saxony, The Libellus of Jordan of Saxony, at OP Central, www.opcentral.org.

[35] De Montfort, St. Louis, The Secret of the Rosary, (Rockford: Tan Books, 1993), 4

[36] Jordan of Saxony, The Libellus of Jordan of Saxony, at OP Central, www.opcentral.org.

[37] [1] Wilms, As The Morning Star: The Life of St. Dominic,1797.

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When Jesus “saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick” (Matthew 14:14). What is pity, and does it move our hearts, as it moved the heart of Jesus?

At the beginning of The Lord of the Rings (Book One, Chapter II – “The Shadow of the Past”), we learn that when Gandalf explained to Frodo that the Black Riders were coming for the Ring that he had inherited from his uncle Bilbo, because its location had been revealed to Sauron by Gollum, Frodo exclaimed, “What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!”

And Gandalf responded from a theological perspective: “Pity? It was pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With pity.”

“I am sorry,” said Frodo. “But I am frightened; and I do not feel any pity for Gollum.”

“You have not seen him,” Gandalf broke in.

“No, and I don’t want to,” said Frodo. “I can’t understand you. Do you mean to say that you, and the Elves, have let him live on after all those horrible deeds? Now at any rate he is as bad as an Orc, and just an enemy. He deserves death.”

“’Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many – yours not least.”

As the story unfolds, and Frodo sees Gollum and begins to understand him, he does feel pity for him, and he treats him with mercy (Book Four, Chapter I – “The Taming of Sméagol”). He recognizes that he and Gollum are suffering from the same burden, the same affliction. He also teaches Sam to be merciful toward Gollum. For a while, Gollum trusts Frodo and repents, and he is almost cured, but sadly in the end he is conquered by his lust for the power of the Ring.

In a laborious act of daily self-sacrifice Frodo puts up with Gollum and carries the Ring to its final destruction, expecting to pay for this victory with the price of his own life. But in the end, the lust for the power of the Ring conquers even Frodo. Standing at the edge of the fires in Mount Doom he finds that he cannot dispose of it. He cannot resist the desire to keep it for himself (Book Six, Chapter III – “Mount Doom”).

The salvation of Frodo and Middle-earth comes about only through the mercy of God at the last minute when Gollum violently takes the Ring from Frodo and falls into the fires, perishing with it forever and ending the evil reign of Sauron. The moral of the story is clear. If Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam had not shown mercy to Gollum, but instead in justice had killed him, the Quest to destroy the Ring would have failed, and the outcome would have been far worse than death.

Like the Gospel stories of Jesus multiplying the loaves and the fishes and feeding the multitudes, the story of Frodo and Gollum teaches us the Christian Beatitude “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” It is in fact the one true story of all the saints of every time and place. It is the path of holiness and salvation. The practice of mercy is what rules the fate of us all, your fate, my fate, and the fate of our nation. When we learn that lesson, we will begin to have pity on those in need and put up with the inconvenience of assisting them.

In the face of human needs, the heart of Jesus was moved with pity. The hearts of his disciples were not, at least not at first. “This is a deserted place, and it is already late,” they said. “Dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.”

Jesus said to them, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” Do you know how difficult it is to feed 15,000 people, even when the food is provided? It takes a great deal of labor and patience. Did they deserve it? No. Did they get greedy and want more? Yes. When they began to follow Jesus around, he told them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life” (John 6:26-27). Christ puts up with our imperfections and helps us grow in virtue.

The practice of mercy gives people what they need, not always what they want. In the face of addiction, the most merciful thing that we can do is to deny people what they want and to help them to discover the joy of sobriety. We must not enable destructive behaviors and base desires. But for those who want to work, we must provide employment. For those who need to escape poverty and violence and find a place to raise a family, we must provide housing and a path toward citizenship. And toward our enemies, we must “not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.” We must not strike unless strictly necessary in morally certain conditions of imminent self-defense.

In order to live like children of our gracious and merciful God and to receive the benefits of the everlasting covenant, we must purify our hearts through the practice of mercy and self-sacrifice. In the end, mercy is received by those who are merciful. In the end, true happiness is obtained by those who live a life of small, hidden acts of mercy and self-sacrifice for others, even for our enemies. That is the way of Frodo, and that is the way of Christ. Christ blesses our feeble efforts, sanctifies them, and multiplies them.

The multiplication of the loaves and the fishes by Christ points to the Holy Eucharist, the multiplication of the substantial presences of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine. “As each consecrated host is really and truly Christ, because transubstantiation multiplies not the one Christ but rather the real substantial presences of the one Christ, so each Mass is really and truly the sacrificial act of Christ, because transubstantiation multiplies not the one sacrificial act of Christ but rather the real operative presences of his one sacrificial act” (Cardinal Journet, The Mass: The Presence of the Sacrifice of the Cross, St Augustine’s Press, 2008, page 71).

In regard to Eucharistic celebration, Benedict XVI taught us that “Faith, worship and ethos are interwoven as a single reality which takes shape in our encounter with God’s agape. Here the usual contraposition between worship and ethics simply falls apart. ‘Worship’ itself, Eucharistic communion, includes the reality both of being loved and of loving others in turn. A Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented” (Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 14).

Christ’s love for us is unconditional, and nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. But it is also true that there are conditions on receiving the mercy of God in Christ. To those who do not practice mercy, no mercy shall be given. The measure that we measure with will be measured back to us. Our Lord instructed us to pray “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” On the Cross he prayed “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” We must imitate the love of Christ, who suffers for others without enabling immoral conduct. True compassion is always willing to sacrifice comfort for virtue. Sacrifice for others is the purification of love. God’s requirements are reasonable and easy to satisfy. They give us true hope that we can obtain mercy through the imitation of Christ, who really and truly sacrificed himself for us.

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About Deacon Tracy Jamison, OCDS, PhD

Deacon Tracy Jamison was raised in a Christian family as the son of a Scotch-Irish evangelical minister in the Campbellite tradition. As an undergraduate he majored in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Cincinnati Christian University, where his parents had been educated. At this institution he met Joyce, who was completing a degree in Church Music, and after graduation they entered the covenant of Christian marriage in 1988. Through the study of philosophy and the writings of the Early Church Fathers, Tracy was received into the full communion of the Catholic Church in 1992. Under the influence of the theological writings of St. John Paul II he began to study the works of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross and entered formation as a Secular Carmelite of the Teresian Reform. In 1999 he completed the doctoral program in Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, and in 2002 he made his definitive profession as a Secular Carmelite. In 2010 he was ordained as a permanent deacon of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Currently he is an associate professor of philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West.

© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.