Blessed Mannes

Friar, Priest and Brother of St. Dominic
Optional Memorial of the Order

Blessed Mannes, an older brother of St. Dominic, was born at Caeruega, Spain, about 1170.  He was among his younger brother's first followers and later assisted in establishing the priory of Saint-Jacques at Paris in 1217.  In 1219 he was entrusted with the care of the Dominican nuns at Madrid.  According to an early source he was "a contemplative and holy man, meek and humble, joyful and kind, and a zealous preacher."  He died at the Cistercian monastery of San Pedro at Gamiel d'Izan near Caleruega about the year 1235.

For a more extended life, see this version from St. Joseph Province.

[From the Supplement to the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of Preachers]

Homily from the Feast of Saint Dominic

Yesterday, for the feast of Saint Dominic, the prior and superior of Saint Albert's, Fr. Reginald Martin, OP, said and preached the Mass. The following is the homily he gave. While this is not from a student brother, it might be considered one of the examples of preaching to which we aspire:

In the last couple of weeks, Fr. Augustine Thompson and I had the chance to visit a number of fabled cities built on hills. I confess, to my embarrassment, that I had hitherto, appreciated them for their scenic beauty, but this go-round Fr. Augustine’s scholarship helped me realize the immense responsibility citizens must be willing to embrace when they undertake to build their city on a hill.

The strategic advantages are obvious, of course, but once your life cannot be hidden, you must make all sorts of provisions and take all sorts of precautions that your more secluded neighbors don’t have to worry about. Noblesse oblige, after all, or – as we learned when we were growing up, beauty is, as beauty does.

Which is why no one lights a lamp to hide it. We may take light for granted, but it was extremely valuable – and costly – for Jesus and his contemporaries. It’s no wonder the ancients should have considered light an ordering principle, or that God should have created it first.

Physicists can tell us what light is, but we don’t need to be scientists to know what light does; it makes things safe and it makes them warm. But it does so by making them bright. When the Albigensians let their ears be tickled by a dualist fable that denied the Incarnation, St. Dominic countered with the light of his study. He got the Albigensians’ attention by studying their doctrine to understand it well enough to point out its errors.

The dictionary defines “study” as “the application of the mind to the acquisition of knowledge…by reading, investigation, or reflection….” St. Dominic didn’t invent study, but he invested it with a purpose that was wholly his own. Benedictines study a great deal. They may become smart along the way, but Benedictines study to become holy.

The Franciscans have produced great scholars, but legends say that St. Francis himself was suspicious of school. Fr. Augustine’s book will probably deny this, so let’s repeat it one last time. St. Francis is reported to have said,

The Lord told me that He would have me poor and foolish in this world and that He willed not to lead us by any way other than that.

A Dominican’s study is an act of piety ordered to an end outside of us. It may not make us holy, but it ought to make us smart – at least smart enough to cause the people we preach to, to think – and to call them to God. Study is our obligation, and everyone we preach to has the right to expect it of us.

How beautiful, Isaiah tells us, are the feet of the one who brings Good News. Notice, it’s the preacher’s feet that are beautiful, not the shoes. The light of Christ equips us to look beneath the surface of things, to penetrate to the truth. As St. Dominic did when the Albignesians said that matter and spirit are so opposed that God could never be united with something so fallen as this flesh, or reveal Himself in anything so corrupt as food and drink.

We are the light of the world, Our Savior tells us – a light that makes things bright, keeps them safe and makes them warm. Warmth may not be a quality we immediately associate with St. Dominic, but one of his peers wrote,

... the tranquil composure of the inner man was revealed outwardly by the kindliness and cheerfulness of his expression [which] easily won the love of everybody. Without difficulty he found his way into people’s hearts as soon as they saw him.

“As soon as they saw him.” Like that city on a hill. The life of our founder, no less than the example from the gospel, warns us, if we’re going to enjoy the prominence, we must be prepared to embrace the responsibility.

--- Posted by Ambrose Sigman, OP

Inside Darkness

Paranoia and suspicion, fear and disagreement
This short online film explores politics like you have not seen before.

Dominican Filmmaker's Election Thriller

What would happen if the presidential candidates were trapped in a dark cell with no way out? Depending on who you are, that scenario may sound like a nightmare or a dream come true, but Western Dominican friar and filmmaker Dominic DeLay has made it real -- for the length of his new thriller anyway.

One by one, the characters in Inside Darkness regain consciousness and discover their grim predicament. Fear of their unseen, presumably terrorist captors gives way to paranoia and suspicion of each other. And, by the end, they come to fear even themselves and the dark tendencies they hold within themselves. On top of all this, they can't even agree whether the walls are closing in on them.

"I wanted to see if the threat of death -- or worse -- could lead these three to cooperate with each other," says DeLay. "Maybe even listen to and respect each other. After the last presidential election, I was frustrated over how good and smart people could think so differently -- from me." While some may question how good or smart their political opponents are, everyone knows the frustration of running up against someone with wildly and stubbornly different views from their own.

Karen Landry, a Lutheran Democrat who plays the conservative evangelical incumbent, admits the role was quite a stretch. "If she wasn't such an accomplished actor," says DeLay, "I would have been worried by her initial distaste for her character." Scott Alan Smith plays the liberal, third-party candidate, an agnostic religious studies professor who finds himself in way over his head politically. Russell Andrews plays a Marine colonel turned senator, a Catholic whose desperation calls his ethics and faith into question.

DeLay and Mud Puddle Films, one of the Western Dominican Province's filmmaking ministries, are releasing the film in a way that should catch the eye of other independent filmmakers. He released the DVD over the summer but has the trailer and first nine minutes of the movie playing for free on the movie's website, which will show the rest of the movie in free weekly episodes during the last few weeks before the election. "The free, online episodic version of the movie allows people who can't afford the DVD to join the discussion," says DeLay, who also warns that the movie contains some violence.

The DVD includes discussion questions and probing interviews with DeLay, Rassulo, and the actors. And the film's website has more discussion questions, a forum, and a link to Brave New Theaters, a website which allows people to easily invite the general public to screenings at their home, church, school, or other location. "I'm encouraging people to invite their friends and enemies both," says DeLay.

See the free video trailer

Each week, leading up to the election, more free content is offered free.

Inside Darkenss

Fr. Dominic Delay, OP presents his film
where three presidential candidates are mysteriously trapped in a room.
The last thing they remember is being at their final debate.
Then they make a terrifying discovery....

What happened under Soviet oppression?

This film documents the fifty-year-long struggle
between the people of Lithuania and the Soviet KGB and their predecessors
to impose Soviet control on a free and democratic, Western republic.

Documento Artístico

Br. Lupe Gonzalez, OP helps to film a documentary on
Holy Rosary Chapel, Puebla, Mexico.
This Baroque style chapel is beatiful.

La Capilla del Rosario es un documento artístico de estilo barroco que explica el misterio de Dios según la fe cristiana. Su arquitectura, así como sus pinturas y esculpturas sabiamente colocadas conducen de la mano al creyente cristiano a reflexionar y gozar de aquello que Dios hace por sus hijos. Cargado en la Fiesta de Santo Santiago.

Message of His Holiness
John Paul II
For Lent 2005

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Each year, the Lenten Season is set before us as a good opportunity for the intensification of prayer and penance, opening hearts to the docile welcoming of the divine will. During Lent, a spiritual journey is outlined for us that prepares us to relive the Great Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ. This is done primarily by listening to the Word of God more devoutly and by practicing mortification more generously, thanks to which it is possible to render greater assistance to those in need.

This year, dear brothers and sisters, I wish to bring to your attention a theme which is rather current, well-illustrated by the following verse from Deuteronomy: "Loving the Lord ... means life to you, and length of days..." (30:20). These are the words that Moses directs to the people, inviting them to embrace the Covenant with Yahweh in the country of Moab, "that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord, your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him" (30:19-20). The fidelity to this divine Covenant is for Israel a guarantee of the future: "that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them" (30:20). According to the biblical understanding, reaching old age is a sign of the Most High's gracious benevolence. Longevity appears, therefore, as a special divine gift.

It is upon this theme that I would like to ask you to reflect during this Lent, in order to deepen the awareness of the role that the elderly are called to play in society and in the Church, and thus to prepare your hearts for the loving welcome that should always be reserved for them. Thanks to the contribution of science and medicine, one sees in society today a lengthening of the human life span and a subsequent increase in the number of elderly. This demands more specific attention to the world of so-called old age, in order to help its members to live their full potential by placing them at the service of the entire community. The care of the elderly, above all when they pass through difficult moments, must be of great concern to all the faithful, especially in the ecclesial communities of Western societies, where the problem is particularly present.

Human life is a precious gift to be loved and defended in each of its stages. The Commandment "You shall not kill!" always requires respecting and promoting human life, from its beginning to its natural end. It is a command that applies even in the presence of illness and when physical weakness reduces the person's ability to be self-reliant. If growing old, with its inevitable conditions, is accepted serenely in the light of faith, it can become an invaluable opportunity for better comprehending the Mystery of the Cross, which gives full sense to human existence.

The elderly need to be understood and helped in this perspective. I wish, here, to express my appreciation to those who dedicate themselves to fulfilling these needs, and I also call upon other people of good will to take advantage of Lent for making their own personal contribution. This will allow many elderly not to think of themselves as a burden to the community, and sometimes even to their own families, living in a situation of loneliness that leads to the temptation of isolating themselves or becoming discouraged.

It is necessary to raise the awareness in public opinion that the elderly represent, in any case, a resource to be valued. For this reason, economic support and legislative initiatives, which allow them not to be excluded from social life, must be strengthened. In truth, during the last decade, society has become more attentive to their needs, and medicine has developed palliative cures that, along with an integral approach to the sick person, are particularly beneficial for long-term patients.

The greater amount of free time in this stage of life offers the elderly the opportunity to face the primary issues that perhaps had been previously set aside, due to concerns that were pressing or considered a priority nonetheless. Knowledge of the nearness of the final goal leads the elderly person to focus on that which is essential, giving importance to those things that the passing of years do not destroy.

Precisely because of this condition, the elderly person can carry out his or her role in society. If it is true that man lives upon the heritage of those who preceded him, and that his future depends definitively on how the cultural values of his own people are transmitted to him, then the wisdom and experience of the elderly can illuminate his path on the way of progress toward an ever more complete form of civilization.

How important it is to rediscover this mutual enrichment between different generations! The Lenten Season, with its strong call to conversion and solidarity, leads us this year to focus on these important themes which concern everyone. What would happen if the People of God yielded to a certain current mentality that considers these people, our brothers and sisters, as almost useless when they are reduced in their capacities due to the difficulties of age or sickness? Instead, how different the community would be, if, beginning with the family, it tries always to remain open and welcoming towards them.

Dear brothers and sisters, during Lent, aided by the Word of God, let us reflect upon how important it is that each community accompany with loving understanding those who grow old. Moreover, one must become accustomed to thinking confidently about the mystery of death, so that the definitive encounter with God occurs in a climate of interior peace, in the awareness that He "who knit me in my mother's womb" (cf. Psalm 139:13b) and who willed us "in his image and likeness" (cf. Genesis 1:26) will receive us.

Mary, our guide on the Lenten journey, leads all believers, especially the elderly, to an ever more profound knowledge of Christ dead and risen, who is the ultimate reason for our existence. May she, the faithful servant of her divine Son, together with Saints Ann and Joachim, intercede for each one of us "now and at the hour of our death."

My Blessing to All!
From the Vatican, September 8, 2004
JOHN PAUL II

[Translation issued by the Vatican press office] cf. Vatican