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Today we had a funeral Mass for one of our Dominican priests here at Our Lady of Wisdom. He was Father Ronald Henery who had been here in the center for about three years, with increasingly failing health until his death about a week ago. Thus, his death was certainly not a surprise to anyone; on the contrary, I believe that he welcomed it as the entrance into eternal life.
The wake service for him brought a number of friends of ours from here and there to pray for him and celebrate his life. He was 86 years old, and born in Newport, Rhode Island. One of the things about the wake that I found interesting is that a couple of the parishioners of St. Dominic Parish in New Orleans whom I had not seen in a number of years showed up. It was a joy to see them, and to learn that their two sons, in their 20's or 30's, have now married and are both expecting children. It was an unusual scene: we stood near the casket in which the body of one of our elderly brothers was lying, talking happily about the beginnings of new life in two young families!
This is just a vignette of my new life in this healthcare center. I hope to give you more information about life here as time goes on. God bless you.
Victor Brown, O.P. FrVBrownOP@juno.com
from Father Brown in Texas |
Here I am, back on the Catholic Daily Message, but now located in my own home town of New Orleans instead of my previous location in Houston, Texas. Lots of things have happened in the past several weeks, but I hope to get back into a regular routine. A number of you have been kind enough to express interest and a desire for the continuation of the daily message.
I am now in Our Lady of Wisdom Healthcare Center, in New Orleans, but in that part of the city across the Mississippi River from the main part of in which I was born and grew up. I came here with one of our priests who drove me on August 14, so I was able to begin my stay here on the solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady. And then, as so often happens, a hurricane came! We did not have to evacuate our premises, nor do without power, air conditioning, or lights. Today I looked out of my window to watch workmen pick up shingles that had been blown off the roof. Other than that, our home here is in pretty good shape.
During the next two days, we will have the wake service and then the funeral Mass for one of our Dominican priests, Fr. Ronald Henery, who lived at Holy Rosary, Houston, for some months before coming here. His health had failed steadily until his death a week ago. Two other Dominican priests are here with me, and a number of Jesuit priests whom I've known over the years.
In the days ahead, I will tell you a bit more about my present situation. Let us pray that the rest of this hurricane season will treat us well, without more bad weather.
Thank you for continuing to read the Catholic Daily Message. God bless you.
Victor Brown, O.P. FrVBrownOP@juno.com
from Father Brown in Texas |
Here I am, back on the Catholic Daily Message, but now located in my own home town of New Orleans instead of my previous location in Houston, Texas. Lots of things have happened in the past several weeks, but I hope to get back into a regular routine. A number of you have been kind enough to express interest and a desire for the continuation of the daily message.
I am now in Our Lady of Wisdom Healthcare Center, in New Orleans, but in that part of the city across the Mississippi River from the main part of in which I was born and grew up. I came here with one of our priests who drove me on August 14, so I was able to begin my stay here on the solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady. And then, as so often happens, a hurricane came! We did not have to evacuate our premises, nor do without power, air conditioning, or lights. Today I looked out of my window to watch workmen pick up shingles that had been blown off the roof. Other than that, our home here is in pretty good shape.
During the next two days, we will have the wake service and then the funeral Mass for one of our Dominican priests, Fr. Ronald Henery, who lived at Holy Rosary, Houston, for some months before coming here. His health had failed steadily until his death a week ago. Two other Dominican priests are here with me, and a number of Jesuit priests whom I've known over the years.
In the days ahead, I will tell you a bit more about my present situation. Let us pray that the rest of this hurricane season will treat us well, without more bad weather.
Thank you for continuing to read the Catholic Daily Message. God bless you.
Victor Brown, O.P. FrVBrownOP@juno.com
from Father Brown in Texas |
Here I am, back on the Catholic Daily Message, but now located in my own home town of New Orleans instead of my previous location in Houston, Texas. Lots of things have happened in the past several weeks, but I hope to get back into a regular routine. A number of you have been kind enough to express interest and a desire for the continuation of the daily message.
I am now in Our Lady of Wisdom Healthcare Center, in New Orleans, but in that part of the city across the Mississippi River from the main part of in which I was born and grew up. I came here with one of our priests who drove me on August 14, so I was able to begin my stay here on the solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady. And then, as so often happens, a hurricane came! We did not have to evacuate our premises, nor do without power, air conditioning, or lights. Today I looked out of my window to watch workmen pick up shingles that had been blown off the roof. Other than that, our home here is in pretty good shape.
During the next two days, we will have the wake service and then the funeral Mass for one of our Dominican priests, Fr. Ronald Henery, who lived at Holy Rosary, Houston, for some months before coming here. His health had failed steadily until his death a week ago. Two other Dominican priests are here with me, and a number of Jesuit priests whom I've known over the years.
In the days ahead, I will tell you a bit more about my present situation. Let us pray that the rest of this hurricane season will treat us well, without more bad weather.
Thank you for continuing to read the Catholic Daily Message. God bless you.
Victor Brown, O.P. FrVBrownOP@juno.com
from Father Brown in Texas |
Here I am, back on the Catholic Daily Message, but now located in my own home town of New Orleans instead of my previous location in Houston, Texas. Lots of things have happened in the past several weeks, but I hope to get back into a regular routine. A number of you have been kind enough to express interest and a desire for the continuation of the daily message.
I am now in Our Lady of Wisdom Healthcare Center, in New Orleans, but in that part of the city across the Mississippi River from the main part of in which I was born and grew up. I came here with one of our priests who drove me on August 14, so I was able to begin my stay here on the solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady. And then, as so often happens, a hurricane came! We did not have to evacuate our premises, nor do without power, air conditioning, or lights. Today I looked out of my window to watch workmen pick up shingles that had been blown off the roof. Other than that, our home here is in pretty good shape.
During the next two days, we will have the wake service and then the funeral Mass for one of our Dominican priests, Fr. Ronald Henery, who lived at Holy Rosary, Houston, for some months before coming here. His health had failed steadily until his death a week ago. Two other Dominican priests are here with me, and a number of Jesuit priests whom I've known over the years.
In the days ahead, I will tell you a bit more about my present situation. Let us pray that the rest of this hurricane season will treat us well, without more bad weather.
Thank you for continuing to read the Catholic Daily Message. God bless you.
Victor Brown, O.P. FrVBrownOP@juno.com
from Father Brown in Texas |
This Friday, August 10, is the feast of St. Lawrence, one of the most prominent of the Roman martyrs, a deacon who was in charge of the gathering of food, clothing, and housing for the poor of the city of Rome during his time. He was captured by the anti-Christian forces of the emperor, Valerian, and put to death because of his adherence to Our Lord Jesus Christ in the year 258. One of Rome's basilicas stands near the main railroad station of the city and bears his name.
When we read in our liturgical Office of Readings today, we find a passage by St. Augustine which is very instructive. Augustine quotes St. Paul as saying "Christ suffered for us all, leaving us an example, that we should follow in his steps." But lest we be misled, St. Augustine makes it clear that our lives don't have to end in martyrdom as did that of Our Lord. He tells us: I tell you ... that in the Lord's garden there are to be found not only the roses of his martyrs, but also the lilies of the virgins, the ivy of wedded couples, and the violets of the widows. No class of people may despair, thinking that God has not called them. Christ suffered for all. What the Scriptures say of him is true: "He desires all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth".
It is interesting that Augustine uses the world of flowers as an example of the variety of ways of following Christ in our world. There are martyrs whose blood is red like roses; there are the lilies of the unmarried, wedded couples who cling to one another like ivy clings to trees or walls, and there are the widows whose sorrow at being left alone is symbolized by the violets with their color purple. Are there others, too? Of course! The world of flowers contains many species; the Church likewise is composed of many people in different ways of life. We might not be able to think of appropriate flowers to symbolize housewives, businessmen, members of the military, students, merchants, artists, and those whose vocation is a life of illness, but they are the living stones in the temple of the Church and are very precious to God. Let's not underestimate ourselves just because others consider us unimportant or treat us as if we were.
Let us do our best, and then let God be the judge, always asking him for his mercy and compassion. from Father Brown in Texas |
My dear friends, today is the solemnity of St. Dominic, the Father and Founder of our Dominican family. I invite you to celebrate it with me and all the Dominicans throughout the world, and to join with us in rejoicing over the accomplishments of St. Dominic, and the fact that we have been called to be members of his religious community.
As we celebrate the liturgy of St. Dominic, two things have seemed especially beautiful to me. One is that passage from the prophet Isaiah (52:7) : "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of one who brings good news, who heralds peace ... and proclaims salvation!" The feet were considered the least beautiful part of the body, especially since people in those days went bare-footed or wore only sandals. We can imagine the condition of most feet! But the prophet says that in the case of those who preach God's word, even their FEET are beautiful. It is an earthy Hebrew saying, but expresses so well the thought of the prophet.
Then, in our prayer for this great feast, we ask God: "Be our friend in prayer, our guide in study, and our companion on the way, that we might imitate Dominic." Prayer, study, and itinerant preaching were characteristics of the apostolate of St. Dominic; that's why we ask God for his help in our prayer, study, and "on the road" which leads us to our apostolate.
Think of this, my friends: the charming simplicity of asking God to "be our friend in prayer". I can remember an old pastor we had in our parish when I was a child. He always spoke of "Almighty God". That always bothered me a little. Did he HAVE to present God to us as so far above us, so intimidating, so, as we might say today, "humongous"? Far more attractive than that is this lovely petition: be our friend in prayer as St. Dominic was.
May he bless you on this feast of his. from Father Brown in Texas |
Today is the feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, and that event was chosen by Pope Blessed John Paul II as one of his new Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. Some years ago, during a trip to and through the Holy Land, my group and I were taken up to the top of Mount Thabor, the "high mountain" rising from the plain in northern Galilee which is probably the one where the transfiguration took place.
There, at the top of the mountain, there are three churches in honor of Our Lord, Moses, and Elijah -- the three persons whom the apostles Peter, James, and John saw in vision during that event. Why did those two figures from the Old Testament appear with Our Lord? Because the Old Testament was composed of "the Law and the Prophets". This expression was commonly used to mean the entirety of Jewish theology. Now, Moses was the great law-giver and Elijah was the greatest of the prophets. Thus when those two appeared flanking Our Lord on that mountaintop, the apostles who saw the vision were given clear indication that Jesus is the Savior, the Messiah, to whom the Law and the Prophets point and who fulfills their work.
St. Matthew tells us that the voice of God the Father is heard above the vision saying, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him." And St. Peter exclaimed "in ecstasy" as St. Anastasius tells us, "Lord, it is good for us to be here!" Yes, it is good indeed for us to be where the Father praises his Son, and the Law and Prophets add their witness to that of the Father himself.from Father Brown in Texas |
Today is the feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, and that event was chosen by Pope Blessed John Paul II as one of his new Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. Some years ago, during a trip to and through the Holy Land, my group and I were taken up to the top of Mount Thabor, the "high mountain" rising from the plain in northern Galilee which is probably the one where the transfiguration took place.
There, at the top of the mountain, there are three churches in honor of Our Lord, Moses, and Elijah -- the three persons whom the apostles Peter, James, and John saw in vision during that event. Why did those two figures from the Old Testament appear with Our Lord? Because the Old Testament was composed of "the Law and the Prophets". This expression was commonly used to mean the entirety of Jewish theology. Now, Moses was the great law-giver and Elijah was the greatest of the prophets. Thus when those two appeared flanking Our Lord on that mountaintop, the apostles who saw the vision were given clear indication that Jesus is the Savior, the Messiah, to whom the Law and the Prophets point and who fulfills their work.
St. Matthew tells us that the voice of God the Father is heard above the vision saying, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him." And St. Peter exclaimed "in ecstasy" as St. Anastasius tells us, "Lord, it is good for us to be here!" Yes, it is good indeed for us to be where the Father praises his Son, and the Law and Prophets add their witness to that of the Father himself.
from Father Brown in Texas |
In the gospel for today, the Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, we find Our Lord teaching the crowd when someone from the fringe of the assembly comes to him with the message that his mother and "his brothers" have come, and wish to speak to him. The term "brothers" was often used fairly loosely to mean any male relatives or even members of the group who had come to believe in one particular teacher and considered themselves his disciples.
Our Lord's response to the message is typical of his outlook on things. He rarely passes up an opportunity to turn any event into a teachable moment. So what does he say or do? I suppose that he thanks the messenger for the news, and goes to the back of the crowd to greet his mother and the men with her. But before he does that, he looks out over the multitude of his listeners and says, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" And then he answers his own rhetorical questions by saying, "Whoever does the will of my Father is brother and sister and mother to me." It is obvious that he is speaking figuratively, since no one can have more than one mother, and Our Lord is calling anyone who does God's holy will his brother, sister, and even mother. So he is saying in effect: I have many brothers, sisters, and mothers.
What a beautiful compliment he pays to all those who live in obedience to God! We, who do our best to keep the commandments and to do what we know Our Lord wants us to do, he calls his brothers, sisters, and mother. Does this indicate any lack of respect, affection, and love on the part of Jesus for his blessed Mother, as some who try to minimize the relationship between the two have claimed? Certainly not! Rather, it indicates the very great esteem in which Christ holds those who are obedient to God, and to him, who is God in human form. Today we reflect upon our relationship with Our Lady according to Our Lord's words. Tomorrow we will have the feast of St. James, one of his twelve apostles. Then, we can reflect upon our relationship with him who was a disciple, of Christ, a friend, an apostle, one of the first bishops of the Church, and finally, a martyr.
So, my dear friends, let us do the will of our heavenly Father the best we can so as to merit these marvelous words of praise from Our Lord and enter into a deeper relationship with him.
Fr. Victor Brown, O.P. from Father Brown in Texas |
This morning as I was celebrating the Liturgy of the Hours with our community, I was struck by the words of the 50th psalm which is the responsorial psalm for today's Mass. Early in the psalm, it says "Gather my faithful ones before me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." Here God speaks of how he wills his holy people to come before him, as the courtiers gather before a beloved king in his throne room. And how do they honor him? In this case, by covenant, that is, by entering into a friendship with God. And this friendship is attested to by sacrifice. Sacrifice is a form of worship and adoration in which the people offer to God something of value. Sometimes a physical thing, like a lamb or a dove, or a basket of olives or a sheaf of wheat. And sometimes what is not strictly physical, but is nonetheless pleasing to God, namely, the sincere praise of God's goodness and divinity and love.
Later in the psalm, God says, "He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me". This is one of the means for worshiping God; another would be a kind act to another person, alms to a needy one; an act of assistance to one who needs it.
Yesterday I returned to Houston from New Orleans where I spent the weekend. One of the things that impressed me there was a tremendous group of teen-agers (4,000 of them, someone said) who are taking part in a summer program of doing good for the city of New Orleans, so damaged by Hurricane Katrina seven years ago. The program is being sponsored and organized by the Lutheran Church; it invited these young people to come from different parts of the nation to put their summer vacation time to good use by working. Everywhere I went in the city, there were the groups of young people in their very conspicuous orange T-shirts with the Lutheran logo, doing various kinds of gardening and horticulture.
What a great idea! It was hard work, no doubt, but I'm sure that they enjoyed this unusual way to spend the summer, to meet new friends, and to get to see and experience the special character of New Orleans. I hope that they also referred their work for the people of New Orleans to God as a program of praise, sacrifice, and adoration. Whether it is a lamb or a dove or a helping hand, or the mulching of a newly planted tree on one of New Orleans' "neutral grounds" as we call them, it is a sacrifice which glorifies God and helps one's fellow men and women.
Fr. Victor Brown, O.P. FrVBrownOP@juno.comfrom Father Brown in Texas |
It seems to me that each year on July 11, the Church celebrates two things. One is the man whom we call St. Benedict. And the other is the document which we call the Rule of St. Benedict which has been so enormously important and influential in the Christian community for some fifteen centuries.
To help us remember a little of the history of the Church, it's well to hang the lives of the greater figures on a certain year. For example, SS. Peter and Paul were killed by the Roman persecution under Nero about the year 64. The emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which brought the persecutions to an end and began a new chapter in the history of the Church. In the year 430, the great St. Augustine died after becoming the greatest theologian since the apostles themselves. And then, at the end of that same century, St. Benedict whom we celebrate today wrote his Rule and fathered forth, not only the Rule, but also the Benedictine Order. First of contemplative monks, then the cloistered Benedictine nuns in cooperation with his sister, St. Scholastica, and later of all the many congregations of active sisters and brothers and lay associates called oblates. There have been thousands of them down the years since about the year 500 to the present time. They have been popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, nuns, active sisters, artists, missionaries, teachers, writers, musicians, doctors and nurses in the field of missionary health care in various parts of the world.
There are two statements in the Rule of St. Benedict that are particularly important and striking as we read that document: probably the most important one in the Church after the scriptures themselves. One of those statements is that "anyone is welcome to enter a Benedictine community if he or she is truly seeking God". And the other is that "absolutely nothing is to be preferred to Christ" in the Benedictine way of life.
These two statements are deceptively simple at first glance, but the more we ponder upon them, the more they can nourish our souls. So on this feast of St. Benedict and his Rule, we might ask ourselves first if we are truly seeking God, and then if we prefer absolutely nothing to Christ our Lord.
FrVBrownOP@juno.comfrom Father Brown in Texas |
On the 9th of July each year, we Dominicans celebrate the death by martyrdom of one of our members, St. John of Cologne, also called St. John of Gorcum, and his eighteen companions who died in defense of our faith in Holland in the year 1572, during the wars of religion in that part of the world.
Of this brave "band of brothers", only one was Dominican; the others were Franciscans, Norbertines, and diocesan priests. They were captured by the Calvinists in Holland and were told that they would be set free if only they would renounce two doctrines of our holy faith. And what were they? They were the primacy of the Pope, and the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. It almost sounds like a joke to tell Catholics, especially priests, that they could buy their freedom by the renunciation of those two doctrines in particular. Since any thought of renouncing those two basic dogmas of our holy faith was out of the question, the nineteen were hanged in a barn; one of them was ninety years old. Years later, their bodies, which had been thrown into a mass grave nearby, were exhumed and brought to the Franciscan church in Brussels, Belgium. All nineteen were canonized in 1867.
One Sunday morning, while traveling in Belgium, I wanted to visit that church, not realizing that the remains of these martyrs were enshrined there. But Mass was in progress, so I sat near the back of the church, next to a glass-enclosed casket with a series of hand-written papers in Latin inside the casket. I began to decipher the inscriptions, and discovered to my delight that those were the relics of the martyrs of Gorcum, including my Dominican brother, John of Cologne. I was very excited by my discovery, and felt like making a public announcement that a Dominican martyr's relics were there in that casket. I would probably have been put out of the church for disturbing the Mass, so I celebrated my "find" silently and alone. But the recurrence of the feast of St. John of Cologne always brings back to me that happy moment when I found myself sitting beside the relics of one of my Dominican confreres in Brussels.
Let us always be aware when we think of, or read the words of, our Holy Father, or when we visit or receive the Holy Eucharist in church or at Mass, that martyrs have gladly died in defense of these gifts of Our Savior to us. What a beautiful way of saying "thank you" to Our Lord. He gave his life for us; the martyrs give their lives for him.
Fr. Victor Brown, O.P.from Father Brown in Texas |
When I sit at my computer preparing these daily messages, I can look through the window to my right, through the trees, and to the Houston light rail trains that pass a block away on their way to their northern terminal just past downtown Houston, or to their southern terminal down near the Astrodome, a huge arena where ballgames and other activities are held.
The trains go by unendingly. One or two cars in the trains at the middle of the day, and sometimes as many as four cars hooked together in the rush hour traffic morning and evening, when thousands of people are going to work or returning home. It reminds me of a dear lady who worked for St. Dominic Parish in New Orleans where I was stationed during the '70's. She was of Irish extraction, and like most Irish, had a wealth of expressions which most of us non-Irish had not previously heard. On busy days, when I had to go back and forth into and out of my office, she would often say, "My! you're in and out today like a fiddler's elbow!"
So the trains passing this way, north and south, remind me of Delia and her "fiddler's elbow" simile. She has long since gone to her reward; I hope to join her there one day. Already, my days of coming and going are over, so that I don't resemble a fiddler's elbow any more. It's more like someone sitting quietly listening to a fiddler play. The beauty of music is that it can be tremendously fulfilling for those who play it well, and greatly enjoyable for those who don't play, but listen with delight. I remember one Sunday afternoon years ago, I watched and listened as a famous orchestra and pianist performed Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto on television. It was one of those peak moments which moved me deeply. As I sat there, weeping at the splendor of that music, I wondered if the pianist who played it enjoyed it as much as I who listened to it. The passengers in these passing trains going to and from work each day may sometimes envy those of us who are retired and can sit quietly and watch the passing trains without riding in them.
If we are wise, we will make the best of our present situations as life presents them to us, and try to give glory to God whether as a fiddler or a listener.
Fr. Victor Brown, O.P. from Father Brown in Texas |
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