Kathryn Lopez
1.
Happy Feast Day of St Vincent Ferrer. St Vincent, pray for us! #holyland #franciscans #saintquotes #feastday pic.twitter.com/z3QRNq9Rbq
— FFHL (@FFHL_HQ) April 5, 2016
2. From Fr. Roger Landry’s homily notes today:
Today we celebrate a saint who constantly was growing from above and seeking to help his contemporaries learn how to live truly as Christians. St. Vincent Ferrer, the great Dominican preacher of the late 14th and early 15th centuries, was trying to help the Church rebuild when it wasn’t following the wind of the Spirit. There wasn’t unity but the great Western schism with a Pope and at least one anti-pope. There wasn’t generosity, but stinginess. There wasn’t trust, but total distrust even of God’s ability to lead the Church: when an Italian pope was elected, the French Cardinals concluded it obviously couldn’t have been God’s will and they elected a French anti-Pope. Rather than living from above, rather than living according to the risen life flowing from baptism, they were reluctant and recalcitrant disciples. St. Vincent Ferrer brought the people of his time to conversion. We pray that the Dominicans at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer close to us here, and all of us, can indeed both live by the Spirit and inspire other people to the same conversion and same life.
Today as we come forward to worship God, we ask through that we may correspond as fully to the work of the Holy Spirit as the first Christians did, as the Holy Spirit seeks to lift us up to be with Christ on the Cross, so that we may live from the blood and water flowing from his side, so that we may unite our whole lives to him including our sufferings, so that we may receive and imitate his self-giving love, sacrifice our things generously and with trust in him working through the Church, and come to be one mind and one heart with Him and with each other in this world so that we may be united in the communion of saints and each other forever.
3.
St Vincent Ferrer OP died today in 1419 but the Dominicans celebrate his feast on 5th of Mayhttps://t.co/EPXUfyKfo9
— Fr Lawrence Lew OP (@LawrenceOP) April 5, 2016
5. From the Liturgy of the Hours today: On the Spiritual Life by Saint Vincent Ferrer:
When you treat virtuous and sinful acts in you sermons and exhortations, use simple language and sensible idioms. Give apt and precise examples whenever you can. Each sinner in your congregation should feel moved as though you were preaching to him alone. Your words should sound as though they were coming, not from a proud or angry soul, but from a charitable and loving heart. Your tone of voice should be that of a father who suffers with his sinful children, as though they were seriously ill or were lying in a huge pit; and he struggles to free them, raise them up, and cherish them like a mother, as one who is happy over their progress and the hope they have of heaven’s glory.
This way of preaching has proven profitable to congregations; for an abstract discourse on the virtues and vices hardly inspires those who listen.
When hearing confession, you should always radiate the warmest charity. Whether you are gently encouraging the fainthearted or putting the fear of God into the hardhearted, the penitent should feel that you are motivated only by pure love. Therefore, speak in a pleasant friendly way before you use words that will prod his conscience.
Finally, if you truly want to help the soul of your neighbor, you should approach God first with all your heart. Ask him simply to fill you with charity, the greatest of all virtues; with it you can accomplish what you desire.
6. A treasure trove of his sermons.
8. From Magnificat today:
9.
"So learn to be silent for a time; you will edify your brethren and silence will teach you to speak when the hour is come"
St Vincent Ferrer— Fr Brad Sweet (@BradBradsweet) April 5, 2016
10.
When the Judge comes, Whom Saint Vincent Ferrer proclaimed on earth, may we be among those blessed to behold Him reigning in heaven.
— Bishop John LeVoir (@ourladyofnewulm) April 5, 2016
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