Twelfth Tuesday
Transcript
“While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.” Luke 24:51
Christ ascended into heaven, the purest man, who, as God, reigns in heaven in His holy and glorified body. St. Dominic always desired to imitate the purity of his Lord in body, mind, and heart. St. Dominic, whom we salute every night as “ivory of chastity,” lived his whole life having preserved his chastity and celibacy. At the end of his life he confessed to his friars that through God’s grace he had never sinned against chastity and had always maintained his virginity.
St. Dominic did not content himself merely with physical purity, but in imitation of his most pure Lord, Jesus, and that most pure woman, Mary, he lived a life of purity in mind and heart as well as in body. Dominic’s thoughts were always directed to God; his heart was always dwelling on the things of heaven. His one desire was to do God’s will and so bring souls to God.
It was Dominic’s purity of mind and body that allowed for his success as a preacher. His heart was totally set apart for God and thus was set apart to love all men with the love of God. Dominic’s chaste love of God and man was fanned by the Holy Spirit into a blazing zeal to bring all men to Christ.
We, too, are called to imitate St. Dominic’s purity. Let us remember that our vow of chastity should lead us to that same zeal for which St. Dominic and our Order are renowned. May we keep our loving Spouse always before the eyes of our mind and heart that our intention in all things may be to please him. Relying on the grace of God, may we always work and pray that our lives bring forth much fruit for souls; that we may be true spiritual mothers to each soul to whom we are sent.
Let us honor today the second glorious mystery of the Rosary, the Ascension, and let us beg, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and St. Dominic, the grace of purity in heart, mind, and body.