Dominican Friars

Apr 03 2023

Living the Triduum at Home

On the evening of Holy Thursday, the whole Church moves from Lent to the Sacred Paschal Triduum–the days from Holy Thursday until Easter Sunday. These are the most important days of the year for through them we enter into the saving mysteries of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, we should try to enter into them with a particular attentiveness and devotion so that the graces the Lord merited for us through the mysteries that make up this time may bear abundant fruit in our lives. These days are not only concerned with the major liturgies in our churches though. They should also lead to a conversion of our lives, and as such they can impact every aspect of this time. From the way that we approach work to the practices we take up at home, these days can bear great fruit if we do our best to enter into them in everything that we do. To help draw this out, here are some practical recommendations on how the mysteries that make up the Triduum can guide us both in our churches and in our homes. Feel free to choose whichever ones you would like or other cultural customs that you or your family have found helpful. The whole goal is to enter more deeply into this sacred time. From our devotional practices to our culinary customs and to everything in between, these days can be rich with grace and lead to a flowering of holiness in our hearts and in our homes. May the Lord bring that about for you and your loved ones.

Download the guide

Download Living the Triduum at Home: A Practical Guide to Christian Living During the Sacred Paschal Triduum by Fr. Peter Martyr Yungwirth, O.P.

Apr 03 2023

Holy Week and the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In the upcoming liturgies of Holy Week, the Church recalls the final events of Jesus’s earthly life day by day, and, once the Triduum begins, even hour by hour. The Church makes this yearly commemoration of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus in order to give us the time to reflect more deeply on the meaning of these mysteries. One way of doing so is to meditate on these events with Mary, to look at them with her and from her perspective. The Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary give us one good way of following the events of Holy Week with Mary. In the Middle Ages, however, another Marian devotion sprang up that became much more closely associated with Holy Week. This was the devotion to our Lady of Sorrows, and in particular to the Seven Sorrows, or Seven Dolors, of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

We can see why this devotion became associated with Holy Week by looking at the Seven Sorrows themselves:

The prophecy of Simeon foretelling the Passion and Death of Jesus
The flight from Herod into Egypt
The loss of Jesus for three days
Meeting Jesus as he carried his cross to Calvary
Standing at the foot of the cross and witnessing the death of Jesus
Watching as the soldier pierced Jesus’s side with a lance and receiving his body from the cross
Seeing the body of Jesus buried in the tomb

Beginning with the very first sorrow, each of these is connected in some way, either directly or indirectly, to the Passion of Jesus. They also provide us with a unique Marian perspective on some part of this great mystery.

For example, consider the third sorrow. We typically think of this event from the perspective of the fifth Joyful Mystery, the finding of the child Jesus in the Temple. The third sorrow, however, focuses on the loss Mary experienced during the three days Jesus was separated from her and Joseph. These three days prefigure the three days Mary would be separated from Jesus while his body lay in the tomb.

Because of this intimate connection with the Passion, devotion to the Seven Sorrows became a common way for people to reflect on the mysteries of Holy Week. In fact, the devotion became so popular that, in 1727, Pope Benedict XIII instituted a universal feast commemorating the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Friday before Palm Sunday. With this, the Church officially recommended devotion to the Seven Sorrows as a privileged means of preparing for and entering into the commemoration of Jesus’s Passion and Resurrection during Holy Week.

Today, the Church no longer celebrates the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Following the revision of the liturgical calendar, it was combined with Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15th in order to keep the focus of the final weeks of Lent directly on the events of the Passion. But the revision kept the connection between the Seven Sorrows and the Passion because the new feast directly follows that of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14th. Thus, reflecting on the events of Holy Week by meditating on the Seven Sorrows remains a great way to delve deeper into the meaning of Jesus’s Passion.

Lastly, the most common way of meditating on Mary’s sorrows is by reciting the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is similar in form to the standard Rosary.

Here’s how to pray the chaplet:

Begin by making the Sign of the Cross
Recite the Act of Contrition and say the optional Opening Prayer
Announce the First Sorrow
Say one Our Father and seven Hail Marys
Repeat (3) and (4) for each of the Sorrows
Say three Hail Marys in honor of the tears which Mary shed in her sorrows
Say the optional Closing Prayer and finish by making the Sign of the Cross

(The optional prayers, as well as short passages that can be used to announce the sorrows, are found on page 107 of the 1910 Raccolta.)

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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)

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This article was originally published in the dominicanajournal.org and was written by Brother Gregory Santy. Brother Gregory entered the Order of Preachers in 2018. He received a Licentiate in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America.

Mar 13 2023

The Value of Suffering

We Must Teach Young People the Value of Suffering: Q&A with Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P.

By Vladimir Mauricio-Perez for the Denver Catholic. Reprinted with permission and edited for brevity.

Fr. Peter Cameron, O.P., former editor- in-chief of Magnificat, serves as the Director of Formation for Hard as Nails Ministries, a nation-wide apostolate for young people. Fr. Cameron recently gave a talk titled “Evangelizing Youth Today” as part of the St. John Paul II Lecture Series in Denver.

Based on your experience, what would you say are some of the greatest needs of young people in the Church in the United States?

I would say one of the greatest needs facing young people in the United States is loneliness. Loneliness isn’t simply the result of being without people in our lives or being solitary. It’s possible to succumb to loneliness when we have people around us, when we have family. Part of the problem comes from the fact that young people don’t have someone to give them that gaze of love and appreciation, and similarly, they have no one that maybe listens to them.

Sometimes young people can be carrying very hefty burdens and even their best friends don’t know what they’re going through. These issues are never talked about and these young people feel completely isolated with this burden that they’re forced to carry along. I think that’s really the principal issue. In reading the document of the Synod on Young People, I noticed that that was one of the principal concerns listed, as well.

What aspect from the Synod on Young People do you think can be especially useful in evangelization?

One of the points is that nobody can evangelize a young person like another young person. As the document points out, when young people speak about their experience, it is something that can’t be discounted or debated. So, if evangelization starts with presenting arguments or theological judgments, it’s possible that people will not pay attention. But when someone speaks about their own sufferings, how they overcame them, how that led them to Jesus Christ, etc., this is something that nobody can gainsay.

And secondly, that it is important to implement new methods for listening to young people. It means being willing to suffer with them and not be intimidated by their problems.

I think there’s a tendency to give up too easily on young people because of their struggles. But I think the job of the modern-day evangelist is primarily to walk with the person and love them, bring them to the awareness that they’re amazing, that they’re valuable, not because of what they have or what they have accomplished, but simply because God has loved them into existence, that the person is a child of God and there’s nothing anyone can do to ever change that.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I give a lot of talks to priests and they are very often fatalistic about the possibility of evangelizing young people. And I think that they consider the lure of the world to be greater than anything that we or the Gospel can propose to them, and it’s simply not so. Once a young person is paid attention to and their dignity is shown to them and they’re cared for, something breaks open and you just see them radiate. It’s not difficult to do that with a young person. So, I hope that the talk will be an encouragement to anyone who listens to it to be certain that they can be that message of grace for youth, especially those who are suffering — that the love of Jesus Christ that we have is exactly what they’re waiting for, and that we’re courageous, authentic, and obedient enough to offer it to young people.

Mar 06 2023

To Scripture, Through the Rosary

You have likely heard that famous line from Saint Jerome’s commentary on Isaiah: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ” (CCC 133).

It’s a bold claim and can be especially startling when we first hear it, but St. Jerome is hitting something right on the head: the truths we learn from Scripture really put us into contact with Christ, with the real and living God. That contact should not be fleeting. Once we cease to read Scripture, we are not forced to forget God—like the way someone is only in contact with the ocean as long as he is swimming in it. Christ ought to linger in our hearts. Our Lady is the model for this: hearing the mysterious words of the angel Gabriel, “Mary kept all these words, reflecting on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). We could even say she “treasured” the angel’s words.

How can you follow St. Jerome in cherishing Christ in the Scriptures and imitate our Lady in lingering over the words of God? Pick up a rosary!

To begin with, the words themselves that we pray during the Rosary are drawn from Scripture (Mt 6:9-13; Lk 1:28, 42-43; Rom 11:36). But the other part of the Rosary—and sometimes the more difficult part—is the meditation on the “mysteries” of Christ. We are to ponder in our hearts the life of Christ and, frankly, there is no better way to do this than to have the words of Scripture inscribed upon our hearts.

I will give but one little example, and you will see that every mystery of the rosary can cast our minds “into the depths” (Lk 5:4). Let’s take the second Joyful Mystery, the Visitation, consisting of some 17 verses (Lk 1:39-56).

Consider the words St. Elizabeth spoke to our Lady: “And why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Is not this indeed a supreme gift, that the sweet Mother of Jesus should wish to visit me? To be graced with the presence of the woman chosen by God to give human flesh to the Eternal Son: who am I to have merited such a prize? How deep is God’s love that he would send his mother to visit me—a prideful sinner—in this valley of tears!

Now, that is but one verse of the 17, and these are just a few thoughts that arise in my heart when I pray the rosary.

Each verse, phrase, image, and detail in the Gospels can take us right to the heart of Christ. If, while we pray the rosary, we are also aware of the very words of Scripture—which are like “honey from the rock” (Ps 81:17)—then our meditation will tend to be sweet, not dry. But we must have the words of Scripture inscribed upon our hearts, or at the very least, close at hand. Don’t be afraid to pass to and fro, from reading a passage of the Gospels to praying a decade of the rosary. The one will illumine the other.

A recently published example of what I’m talking about comes from one of the professors at the Dominican House of Studies, who just wrote a Eucharistic rosary meditation with Scriptural passages for each mystery. The chosen verses go beyond the obvious associations, and so draw our minds deeper into the Christocentric nature of Scripture (e.g., for the first Glorious Mystery, consider praying with Psalm 68: “May God arise; may his enemies be scattered…”).

St. Jerome counsels us to know Scripture in order to know Christ. With the help of our Lady’s rosary, we savor Scripture and so savor Christ himself. St. Jerome might not have prayed the rosary, but he would surely urge you to do so.

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This article was originally published in the dominicanajournal.org and was written by Brother Titus Mary Sanchez. Brother Titus Mary Sanchez is from Ft. Worth, TX. After studying business and history at Southern Methodist University, he entered the Order of Preachers in 2018.

Jan 19 2023

The Dominican Sculptor of Fatima

On September 13, 1917, Our Lady appeared for the fifth time at the Cova da Iria (“Irene’s Cove”) in Portugal to three children tending sheep. It is a little known fact that a Dominican friar of our Province of St. Joseph enjoyed a unique encounter with one of these child visionaries. The visionary’s name was Sr. Lucia, and the priest was Fr. Thomas McGlynn, O.P. Before recounting how this encounter took place, a little background must be given.

Fr. McGlynn was a Dominican priest with a gift for sculpture that manifested itself in early childhood and lasted throughout his entire life. Many of his works can be found throughout our province, the country, and even in the Vatican. His legacy is especially remembered in a studio dedicated to his life and work at our own Providence College in Rhode Island. Though he produced many masterpieces, none of his works has a more remarkable history than the statue he crafted under the personal direction of Sr. Lucia herself: the first accurate representation of Our Lady of Fatima.

In the fall of 1946, Fr. McGlynn, fourteen years ordained and forty years of age, found himself teaching oratory at Providence College. During this time, according to his biographer and understudy, Fr. Ambrose McAlister, O.P., Fr. McGlynn continued to apply himself to sculpture. With the permission of his superiors, he rented an old barn in the Olneyville section of Providence to serve as a studio.

The original inspiration to sculpt an image of Our Lady of Fatima actually came from a commission. The story goes that six years earlier, at the first meeting of the Liturgical Society of the United States, McGlynn had come into contact with the Rigali Brothers from Daprato Studios in Chicago. The Rigalis, who were in the business of making plaster replications of original works, approached Fr. McGlynn to commission sculptures that could be copied and then sold with significant savings to churches. McGlynn could not accept their offer at the time; but now, six years later, living at Providence College with his own studio, he was in a different position. He approached the brothers about their earlier proposal, and a formal contract was signed. For the first time, McGlynn was in business as a professional sculptor.

It was agreed that he would produce three pieces for the Rigalis: one of the Blessed Virgin, one of the Sacred Heart, and one of St. Joseph. At the suggestion of two of his classmates, Fr. McGlynn decided that his Marian statue would be a representation of Our Lady of Fatima. He completed his first version of the statue, which the Rigalis approved, but then he began to express concern to his friends that it would not be accepted as an authentic representation of the children’s visions. Fatefully, a woman asked him, “Why don’t you go to Portugal to see Sister Lucy?“

With that idea planted in his mind, Fr. McGlynn called the Rigalis, who gave their approval and even offered to pay for the trip. Having received the permission of his superiors, McGlynn flew to Lisbon in February of 1947 with a letter of introduction from Cardinal Spellman to Cardinal Cerejeira, Bishop of Lisbon.

Cardinal Cerejeira welcomed McGlynn and in turn wrote him a letter of introduction to Bishop Don Jose de Silva, the ordinary of Leira-Fatima. It fell to Bishop de Silva to determine who would have permission to visit Sr. Lucia, who was living 200 miles north of Fatima in a convent at Vila Nova de Gaia. It was a permission rarely given, but Fr. McGlynn was granted his request, and, with the Irish Dominican Fr. Gerard Gardiner acting as interpreter, he finally met Sr. Lucia.

After careful examination of the statue, which McGlynn had brought with him, Sr. Lucia pronounced her verdict: the statue was inaccurate. Up to this point, McGlynn had thought only minor alterations would be necessary, but, confronted with the judgment of Sr. Lucia, he now faced a decision difficult for any artist: stay true to his own artistic intuition or start from scratch and take direction from another. To his credit and with another permission, he remained at the convent to produce an entirely new statue under the direction of Sr. Lucia. The result became the archetype for all subsequent representations of the image of Our Lady of Fatima. A few five foot copies of this original were made by Fr. McGylnn of which one now resides at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in New York City.

17592754725 535962ffb3 5k 1 614x1024 1 — A smaller version of Fr. McGlynn’s Fatima statue in the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, NYC / Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

The original would also serve as the model for the 20 foot statue Fr. McGlynn carved especially for the Basilica tower at Fatima.

fat finished 7.5 w 761x1024 1 — Fr. Thomas McGlynn, O.P., standing next to the larger statue of Our Lady of Fatima he carved for the Basilica.

McGlynn presented the opportunity to Catholics in the United States, who were devoted to Our Lady of Fatima, to raise the funds necessary to make the larger version of the five foot statue approved by Sr. Lucia for the niche above the main door to the Basilica as a perpetual symbol of American Catholic devotion to the Blessed Virgin at her newest great shrine. He was confident of American interest, generosity, and love for Mary. His statue now stands, centered, above the entrance to the basilica at Fatima, where it is seen by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims every year.

49890608897 37d32c90e8 k edited — The Fatima Statue by Fr Thomas McGlynn OP, photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

Fr. McGlynn also wrote a book titled, “Vision of Fatima,” in which he recounts his encounter with and privileged access to the last surviving visionary, Sr. Lucia, and how she gave direction as he sculpted Our Lady of Fatima.

The book Vision of Fatima is more than an enjoyable travelogue. “In your writing,” Sr. Lucia had asked Fr. McGlynn, “please stress the spiritual meaning of things, in order to raise minds that today have become so materialistic to regions of the supernatural; so that they may understand the true meaning and purpose of the coming of Our Lady to earth, which is to bring souls to heaven, to draw them to God.”

Fr. McGlynn reminds us that Fatima, like Cana, is a place of miracles. He also points us to the penitential character of Mary’s message. Penance seeks justice and communion with Jesus crucified. The Rosary is a prayer whereby we grow in the virtues of Mary’s contemplative heart.

Fatima has long been an invitation to prayer and Fr. McGlynn’s gifts for sculpture and writing beautifully present this invitation of the Blessed Virgin. His book is again a gift to our life of prayer, honoring Our Lady of Fatima, who enjoins us to pray the Rosary and ask her Son to forgive our sins and lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of his mercy.

The remarkable thing about Fr. McGlynn’s encounter with Sr. Lucia is that every step of his journey was taken under religious obedience. When entering religious life we bring our talents and gifts with us, but we have to be ready to put them aside or use them only as God sees fit. Yet, when we entrust our lives to those whom God has placed in charge of us, our gifts and talents often have a greater impact than we could ever have imagined possible. This was certainly the case with Fr. McGlynn’s sculpture. What began with a superior’s permission became a work of art glorifying God and giving honor to his blessed mother.

Click here to order Fr. Thomas McGlynn’s book Vision of Fatima.

This post contains content adapted from Dominicana journal.

Main image (clockwise from top left): Fr. McGlynn working on a sculpture of St. Martin De Porres, Fr. McGlynn standing next to the completed marble carving of Our Lady of Faitma that now resides in the Basillica tower at Fatima, and finally Fatima visionary Sr. Lucia in Portugal (1947) standing next to the completed image of Our Lady of Fatima that was crafted under her direction by Fr. McGlynn. All images and sources in the text above are from Thomas McGlynn: Priest and Sculptor, written by Fr. Ambrose McAlister, O.P. and published by Providence College Press in 1981.