Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Dominican Wisdom V: Mystical Contemplation

Taken from The Dominican Life by Ferdinand Donatien Joret 1883-1937

As Dominicans we are bound daily to recognize it to be our primary duty to think of God with love, and to apply ourselves heart and soul to the consideration of one or other of the mysteries of Jesus, and all available means must converge towards that end theological studies, liturgical offices, spiritual reading, and meditations properly so called.

But as we proceed with our efforts we are apt to be woefully astonished at the meager results we achieve. How paltry and dim is the thought that faith strives to fix upon God, and how quickly our spirit is distracted and drawn down to inferior objects!

Actually we have no cause for astonishment. It is difficult even to rise from the tangible world to the world of ideas, and very few human beings can breathe the rarefied air of those heights long enough to dwell there. When we pass from philosophical knowledge to supernatural truths, it is only natural that the effort should be greater and the success very poor. But. a dim light upon such subjects is worth more than knowing all the contents of the daily paper, and seeing all the busy world which throngs the streets.

Dominican Wisdom IV: Contemplative Prayer

Taken from The Dominican Life by Ferdinand Donatien Joret 1883-1937

We have already recommended two methods which the soul can use during the time of prayer private
prayers and religious meditation. There are two others which have an even greater claim to be called mental prayer because they are loftier ascents of the soul to God.

These likewise have their source in charity. We have seen how, in the case of those other methods, charity gives an impetus to the virtue of religion which makes us pray or meditate in order to serve God. But here our charity asserts itself more directly and admonishes us that we are servants of whom God has made His friends. After that, it is satisfied with stimulating our faith to behold the divine Friend in order to love Him better. This is a simpler, and at the same time a higher, kind of prayer which deserves the name of " theological " prayer because of the virtues which underlie it.

Dominican Wisdom III: Religious Meditation

Taken from The Dominican Life by Ferdinand Donatien Joret 1883-1937

We will now apply to St. Thomas for the principles which must underlie these various forms of meditation. Let us start by saying a few words about the lowest moral meditation. Religious meditation will come next and then contemplative meditation.

Moral meditation itself is useful for the contemplative life. If we consult the Treatise that St. Thomas devotes to the latter, at the close of the Second Part of the Summa, we shall see that, after a first article upon the principal part played by divine love in the contemplation of God, he asks himself whether the moral virtues are not also necessary for this contemplation. Yes, he replies, they are needed to place the soul in the right disposition. It is they that impart the purity and the peace without which the soul, troubled by its passions within and by the disorders which assail it from without, is incapable of resting in the thought of God. At the same time, therefore, that the moral virtues are perfecting the soul on the plane of the active life, they are also preparing it to devote itself to contemplation.

Dominican Wisdom II: St. Thomas and St. Catherine

St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Catherine of Siena
Taken from The Dominican Life by Ferdinand Donatien Joret 1883-1937

On March eigth, 1924, the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius XI, wrote to the Superiors of Regular Orders as follows: " Above all we exhort religious to take as their model their own founder, their fatherly lawgiver, if they wish to have a sure and certain share in the graces which flow from their vocation. Actually when those eminent men created their institutions, what did they do but obey divine inspirations ? Therefore the character which each one strove to impress upon his society must be retained by all its members if it is to remain faithful to its original ideal. As good sons let them devote themselves heart and soul to honour their father and lawgiver, to observe his precepts and to imbibe his spirit."

Dominican Wisdom I: St. Dominic and the Respect He Deserves

St. Dominic, By His Greatness, Deserves The  Respect Of All 

Taken from The Dominican Life by Ferdinand Donatien Joret 1883-1937

He was great amongst men. What was the nature of his greatness ? Greatness of temporal power? Greatness of intelligence and genius? Greatness of virtue and sanctity ? To which of these three orders of greatness which Pascal has taught us to distinguish does the greatness of St. Dominic belong? Temporal power descended to him by right of birth. On the summit of Caleruega his grandfather had built a fortress for the protection of the countryside against the raids of the Moors. The Senor de Guzman ruled the village which grew up at the foot of this castle. Dominic might, like his father, have sallied forth at the head of his men on a crusade against the Moors, who were ravaging the south of Spain, or he might have imitated his friend, Simon de Montfort, the commander of the crusade against the Albigenses who infested the South of France. There were actually some religious amongst those who shared with Simon the direction of the crusade. Several of them were advanced to bishoprics. Powers and honours of this kind Dominic refused consistently to the end, in spite of much pressure. After he had founded his Order he attempted more than once to pass on to another his office of Superior General. He despised "worldly greatness," and all that resembled it.