SAINT MARGARET OF CASTELLO CHAPTER 

           It was the year 1193, immediately after the close of the Third Crusade; our Saint was born in Bavaria, Germany, at a place called Swabia.  His father was a count of local fame.  After his youthful education, he continued his upper level studies at the University of Padua—known for its classical education of the liberal arts—a man uniquely qualified to study these subjects.
            As a brilliant student he came under the irresistible preaching of Blessed Jordan of Saxony, the second Master of the Order of Preachers.  He joined the Order of Preachers in 1223 A.D., known as the Dominicans.  The Saint lectured at many schools in Germany and in 1245 he reported to the University of Paris where he received his doctorate degree in theology.   Known as the universal doctor or teacher, for his study of the beauty of the natural order, and for his study of creation, revelation, and science, he became the expositor of faith and reason. 
            Who is this saint from the 13^th Century with a 21^st Century significance?  And, why is he significant to you and me? 
In the modern world we live in, there is a growing belief in a gulf between faith and reason, as if faith and reason are opposed to one another; yet the Saint we speak of now, while a Saint of the 13^th Century, is as relevant today as ever; a relevance that bridges 800 years. 
            One might presume that this narrative is about St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, so named, of the same 13^th Century.  It is not.  St. Thomas was the pupil of this great Saint at the University of Paris in the 1240s.  St. Thomas became the great Saint’s close colleague and his good friend in later years.
            Imagine for a moment to be the teacher and preacher to the youthful St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the world’s greatest theologians.  It is no wonder we called this Saint “the Great.” 
            In 1248, the so called “Universal Doctor” returned to his home country, where he was elected the provincial of the Dominican Order in Germany.  St. Thomas Aquinas followed him to Germany.
            He was a notable preacher and teacher, renowned throughout Europe.  True to the Dominican charism of teaching as a form of preaching, the Saint’s passion for knowledge of God and God’s Creation he loved to share with his students and congregation.
            Noted for his leadership, at an assembly of the friars of the Dominican Order in 1250, the Saint set up a system of study and graduation for the Order, setting in course the method of formation for Dominican friars.
            His lifelong library of writings is encyclopedic; advancing the divine science of theology and with equal vigor the study of the natural sciences.  The Saint we speak of was a great preacher of the divine knowledge of God and a great teacher and student of the natural sciences; his knowledge of was wide and vast—with his knowledge of physics, geography, astronomy, mineralogy, chemistry, zoology and physiology. 
Our Saint said that the focus of science is to investigate the “causes that are in nature.”  In studying science, he says that we “inquire what Nature with its immanent causes can naturally bring to pass.” 
            The irony does not escape the modern faithful; especially considering this Dominican Saint who at the height of the Faith that he practiced and resting on the idea of objective reality; he helped to formulate the experimental sciences and the scientific method—an inestimable influence that helped to be the well-spring of knowledge to the applied sciences. 
            St. Albertus Magnus, aka St. Albert the Great, doctor, priest, professor, scientist, preacher, bishop, and priest who said Holy Mass and preached daily, heard confessions, ministered to the sick and dying, baptized the faithful, who was a priest…proved in his time of the 13^th Century—800 years ago—and for us in the 21^st Century that the Church was not and IS not opposed to the study of nature with science, that faith and science go hand in hand, where one cannot be without the other without creating disorder.
            St. Albert the Great gives to us an exposition and love for faith and reason; teaching that theology, the study of revealed truth, is the master of all other inferior or natural sciences.  For the study of Theology is the study of God Himself.
            Our beloved Dominican Saint Albert the Great, the universal doctor of the Church, was canonized in 1931, by Pope Pius XV and we celebrate this great reveal of truth, on November 15^th of each year.
            Faith and reason are instruments for us to learn the Truth.  Reason to understand the natural world; and by faith to learn of divine and eternal things. By the use of reason, as the second Vatican Council stated, God can be known certainly through the light of human reason.  As it says in the Scriptures at the Book of Romans 1:20; this certain knowledge of Him can be known to all men and women “with firm certainty and without the contamination of error.”
Yet, with faith, the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen, as it says in the Book of Hebrews (Hebrews 11:1), God, through faith, opens to mankind the divine benefits and wisdom—as the Vatican II council states—which entirely surpasses the powers of the human mind to understand in the natural order.  With faith, we can understand divine truths.  
  It was through St. Albert and his contemporaries that the dawn of applied science began to change the world.  It is in our troubled age, for people to once again understand how faith and reason are to be applied in seeking the Truth, in making the world a better place, and for the ultimate purpose of the salvation of souls.
It is here where St. Albert’s understanding of faith and reason can be applied to the modern world: to seek the Truth.  As Pope Benedict says, “it is important to recall the truths of faith and of reason never contradict one another.  It is our duty our struggle to arrive at the Truth, for ourselves and for the greater human community. 
Where truth is accepted and understood, it serves all members of society by purifying our reason, ensuring that it remains open to the consideration of ultimate truths.”
If we as Catholics abandon Faith and see science and reason as the enemy of Faith, rationalism arises. It admits to no objective Truth. All is relative. Human life becomes cheap, men and women objects to be manipulated, and the immoral killing of innocent persons becomes the lawful norm.  Expediency is the measure of ethics and politics. Christ is abandoned.  Anything goes. 
On the other hand, if we abandon reason, and look to faith alone, fideism rises; feelings and experiences become the measuring stick of truth.  Mysticism and superstition spread.  The universal Faith that guides the world is abandoned and we become the priest and prophet of our own personal church.
Therefore, faith and reason are “like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth” as St. John Paul II says; he notes that “God has placed in the human heart the desire to know the truth — in a word, to know himself — so that by knowing and loving God, men and women can come to the fullness of the truth about themselves."
It is in these footsteps of St. Albert’s, Lay Dominicans study and strive to comprehend the wonders of Creation, the natural order, and all the truths of the Faith, to grasp the goodness and beauty of God.  It is this one path of faith and reason together, that can bring us to the fullness of the knowledge of God.
Pray to St. Albert the Great for our world and the triumph of the Cross over the minds and souls of humankind.

Mr. John Keenan, O.P.
St. Margaret of Castello Chapter
Boise, Idaho USA
November 15, 2023
 

Here is the Oath Against Modernism, set forth by Pope Pius X, in 1910.  Are you willing to take such an oath before God?

I . . . . firmly embrace and accept each and every definition that has been set forth and declared by the unerring teaching authority of the Church, especially those principal truths which are directly opposed to the errors of this day. And first of all, I profess that God, the origin and end of all things, can be known with certainty by the natural light of reason from the created world (see Rom. 1:19), that is, from the visible works of creation, as a cause from its effects, and that, therefore, his existence can also be demonstrated. . .. [CONTINUE BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW:]

LINK

"I think I am a better scientist bcause my faith is grounded in the Catholic Church."  Karin Oberg, Ph.D., Harvard University.  Go to www.aquinas101.com

On Saturday, October 16, 2021, at the Chapter's 2021 Colloquium at St. Paul's Catholic Student Center in Boise, the Chapter joyfully received and professed the following members: From L to R:  Tom Lester; Andrew Bartel; Bonnie Keenan; Brendan Earle; Emily Gossard; Fr. Brian Mullady, O.P.; Alexandra Johnson; Katherine Lockyer; Fr. Anselm Ramelow, O.P.; and (seated) David Charnock.  Not pictured:  Joanne Baker; Joseph Rekiere; and Brian Walker. 

      Members of the Saint Margaret of Castello Chapter in Idaho, welcome you to the Chapter's website, dominicanidaho.org.  The Chapter meets on the 3rd Saturday of each month at St. Mark's Catholic Church in Boise, Idaho at 10:00 o'clock a.m., with prayer, discussion and fellowship.  The Members are committed to the practice and holiness of the Rule of St. Dominic for the Laity.

You are welcome to attend.  Check our calendar not only for the monthly meetings but periodic events, such as its annual Magdalene Retreat, held on or near the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, celebrated on the 22nd of July of each year.  In addition, we will notify other events such as Chapter encore, visits by the Friars, and other key Dominican events.

The Chapter is known as the Third Order of St. Dominic, Inc., a 501(c)(3) tax exempt Idaho nonprofit corporation; in affiliation with, and under the authority of, the Most Holy Name of Jesus Province of the Dominican Friars in the western United States of America.
 

May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and be with you all the days of your life.   Would you like more information via email?  Click on the following link: REGISTER

Come, Holy Spirit, Divine Creator,
true source of light and fountain of wisdom!
Pour forth your brilliance upon my dense intellect,
dissipate the darkness which covers me, that of sin and of ignorance.
Grant me a penetrating mind to understand,
a retentive memory, method and ease in learning,
the lucidity to comprehend, and abundant grace in expressing myself.
Guide the beginning of my work, direct its progress,
and bring it to successful completion.

This I ask through Jesus Christ,
true God and true man,
living and reigning with You and the Father,
forever and ever.
Amen.

The Amazon Synod has highlighted one more point of great confusion in public opinion, it involves the environment and climate. The problem lies with the terms "environment" and "creation” which are interchanged as if they mean the same thing although they are two opposing and irreconcilable terms. 

LINK TO ARTICLE.

1. “participate in the Eucharistic celebrations organized by the Dominican Family in our churches and schools on the important occasions of the jubilee of the canonization and death of St. Thomas Aquinas, and
2. “on the faithful who will make pilgrimages to Churches, shrines and oratories under his patronage.”

1.  In order to obtain a plenary indulgence, the standards are:
   1. Perform the work to which the indulgence is attached (see above);
   2. Receive sacramental confession;
   3. Receive sacramental Holy Eucharist;
   4. Pray for the intentions of the Holy Father;
   5. Any disposition to, or attachment to sin, even venial sin, must be absent; and,
   6. If any such disposition or condition is absent, then a partial indulgence is granted, unless otherwise impeded.

Letter of St. Thomas to a student about the Method of Study:

     Because you have asked me, John, my dearest friend in Christ, how you should study to amass the treasure of knowledge, such is the advice I give to you.
      You should choose to enter not immediately into the ocean depths, but rather through small streams, for one should reach more difficult matters by going through the easier ones first. This is, therefore, my admonition and your instruction.
          -- I bid you be slow to speak and slow to approach the [“chatroom"] parlor.
          -- Embrace purity of conscience.  Do not fail to have time for prayer.
         -- You should frequently choose your own room if you wish to be led into the wine cellar.
         -- Present yourself as amiable to all. Do not look for deep, hidden meanings in the deeds of others. To no one should you show yourself to be too familiar, because too much familiarity gives birth to contempt and provides from its eagerness the raw material for backsliding. You should in no way involve yourself concerning the words and deeds of worldly people.
         -- Above all else you should flee from common conversation. You should not fail to imitate the steps of the saints and all good people.
        -- You should not consider the source from which you hear something, but whatever good is spoken, commit it to memory.
         -- Those things that you read and hear, make sure that you understand them. Make yourself certain about doubtful matters and make it your business to shelve in the bookcase of your mind whatever you can, as if desiring to fill a vase.
         -- Do not seek the matters that are above you.
 
     Following those well-known paths, you will bring forth and produce, as long as you have life, branches and fruits useful in the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts. If you eagerly follow these points, you will be able to attain that which you are striving after.
 

The Chapter's Religious Assistant, is Fr. Peter Do, O.P., Prior, Holy Rosary Parish, Portland Oregon.

Sr. Amata Marie of Divine Mercy, OP, has been praying for the St. Margaret of Castello Chapter, since the LPC meeting in May, 2023 at Menlo Park, CA.  The Chapter so appreciates her prayers and attention given to the Chapter, which is a blessing for each of our members.  She has invited us to attend her solemn Profession into the Order.  Thank you dear Sr. Amata Marie for your prayers, but also for your life commitment and Profession into the Order!     

1.  The Dominican Life, by Ferdinand Joret, O.P..  A book about the Lay Dominicans, also known as the Third Order of St. Dominic.  
2.  Private Property and the Common Good: Why the Road to Universal Destination Travels through Private Ownership, by Rev. Fr. Bradley T. Elliott, O.P.
3.  Open Letter to Fr. Wojciech Gołaski re: SSPX, by Andrew Bartel (Resources -> Chapter Member's Anthology) (Also see this LINK (Catholic World Report).
4. The First Four Principles (of Science) (from Metaphysics by Dr. Dennis McInerny).   LINK (Formation -> Study)
5.  Exorcism Prayer Against Satan (Public Use by Priest or Private Home Use).  Pope Leo XIII.  LINK (ABOUT/PRAYER -> Prayer)
6.  Biblical: The Divinity of the Trinity -- by Fr. Dennis Gordon, FSSP  LINK  (Formation -> Study)
7.  Catholic Bible Versions  LINK  (Formation -> Bible Study)
8.  PRAYER.  Divinum Officium Ribris 1960 (Divine Office)
9.  PRAYER:  Litany of St. Margaret of Castello
10.  PRAYER:  St. John Paul Society -- Rosary Meditation
11.  RESOURCES:: Chapter Members' Compendium:: "Global Activism as the Chapter Apostolate?" or "The Encounter of Bartimeus" or "St. Dominic Was Known for his Humility."