CSVF Blog

We may not remember his name, but his sculptures are recognizable around the country.

In the period before the Second World War, Lee Lawrie collaborated closely with architects Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Goodhue.  His works ornament some of their most famous designs, including the Cadet Chapel at West Point, St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York City, the Nebraska State Capitol, the Los Angeles Public Library, and our own Church of St. Vincent Ferrer (pictured above). Later in his career, Lawrie won commissions for the US Capitol, the Louisiana State Capitol, the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, and Rockefeller Center.

A Flickr page has been created to collect images of Lawrie’s work.  It’s interesting to see the sculptures he produced for St. Vincent’s grouped together with his other and more recognizable creations.

How blessed we are at St. Vincent’s to enjoy the fruits of one of America’s most noted sculptors.

(H/T: Matthew Alderman at The New Liturgical Movement)

(photo credit: Flickr)

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This photograph was taken last week at the House of Studies in Washington.  The novices from Cincinnati were there for a few days to visit with the student brothers.  Therefore, all of the men currently in formation for the Province of St. Joseph are depicted above.  As you can see, God has been very good to the province.  Please keep all of our student brothers in your prayers.

And here’s another prayer intention . . . this weekend 35 men from around the country are gathered at the House of Studies for a “vocation weekend.”  They sense a call to priesthood and the religious life, and in response they are looking closely at the Order of Preachers.  I’m told that this is the largest group for the February weekend in many years.  Because of a lack of room, half of the men are bunking in sleeping bags on the floor.  Now that’s dedication!  Let us assist their prayers with our own.

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Because these holy men proclaimed his truth,
God made them glorious and gave them his friendship.

On this day when our fellow citizens share tokens of human love and affection, the Church celebrates the divine love extended to Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe through the missionary preaching of Saints Cyril and Methodius.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

These brothers, the Apostles of the Slavs, were born in Thessalonica, in 827 and 826 respectively. Though belonging to a senatorial family they renounced secular honours and became priests. They were living in a monastery on the Bosphorous, when the Khazars sent to Constantinople for a Christian teacher. Cyril was selected and was accompanied by his brother. They learned the Khazar language and converted many of the people. Soon after the Khazar mission there was a request from the Moravians for a preacher of the Gospel. German missionaries had already laboured among them, but without success. The Moravians wished a teacher who could instruct them and conduct Divine service in the Slavonic tongue. On account of their acquaintance with the language, Cyril and Methodius were chosen for their work. In preparation for it Cyril invented an alphabet and, with the help of Methodius, translated the Gospels and the necessary liturgical books into Slavonic. They went to Moravia in 863, and laboured for four and a half years. Despite their success, they were regarded by the Germans with distrust, first because they had come from Constantinople where schism was rife, and again because they held the Church services in the Slavonic language. On this account the brothers were summoned to Rome by Nicholas I, who died, however, before their arrival. His successor, Adrian II, received them kindly. Convinced of their orthodoxy, he commended their missionary activity, sanctioned the Slavonic Liturgy, and ordained Cyril and Methodius bishops. Cyril, however, was not to return to Moravia. He died in Rome, 4 Feb., 869.

At the request of the Moravian princes, Rastislav and Svatopluk, and the Slav Prince Kocel of Pannonia, Adrian II formed an Archdiocese of Moravia and Pannonia, made it independent of the German Church, and appointed Methodius archbishop. In 870 King Louis and the German bishops summoned Methodius to a synod at Ratisbon. Here he was deposed and condemned to prison. After three years he was liberated at the command of Pope John VIII and reinstated as Archbishop of Moravia. He zealously endeavoured to spread the Faith among the Bohemians, and also among the Poles in Northern Moravia. Soon, however, he was summoned to Rome again in consequence of the allegations of the German priest Wiching, who impugned his orthodoxy, and objected to the use of Slavonic in the liturgy. But John VIII, after an inquiry, sanctioned the Slavonic Liturgy, decreeing, however, that in the Mass the Gospel should be read first in Latin and then in Slavonic. Wiching, in the meantime, had been nominated one of the suffragan bishops of Methodius. He continued to oppose his metropolitan, going so far as to produce spurious papal letters. The pope, however, assured Methodius that they were false. Methodius went to Constantinople about this time, and with the assistance of several priests, he completed the translation of the Holy Scriptures, with the exception of the Books of Machabees. He translated also the “Nomocanon”, i.e. the Greek ecclesiastico-civil law. The enemies of Methodius did not cease to antagonize him. His health was worn out from the long struggle, and he died 6 April, 885, recommending as his successor Gorazd, a Moravian Slav who had been his disciple.

In 1980, Pope John Paul II joined Sts. Cyril and Methodius to St. Benedict as “Co-Patrons of Europe.”

Click here for more on the holy lives of these two apostles to the Slavs.

Father,
you brought the light of the gospel to the Slavic nations
through Saint Cyril and his brother Saint Methodius.
Open our hearts to understand your teaching
and help us to become one in faith and praise.

Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.

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