By: Br. Dismas Bartolo Baume










The epithet “Doubting Thomas” has always seemed unfair to me. All the Apostles doubted the
Resurrection (Mt 28:17; Mk 16:14 Lk 24:36-43); so why is Thomas singled out? Thomas is not singled out because he uniquely doubted or because he doubted more than the others. Thomas is singled out because through him Our Lord chose to perfect the witness of the Apostles.

After the Resurrection, Our Lord can appear anywhere at any time. He chose to appear to the remaining Apostles when Thomas wasn’t with them. More importantly, He gave them exactly the proof Thomas would demand (Jn 20:20). The Apostles tell Thomas, “We have seen the Lord” (Jn 20:25). The “doubt” in Thomas is not rejection of Our Lord or of the Resurrection but in the testimony of his friends. They testified to a statement of fact that was incredible without a sense of their submission and confession.

Our Lord, however, gives Thomas the opportunity to teach the Apostles how to testify. When Our Lord
appears to the Apostles again, a week later, and presents His Wounds to Thomas for inspection, Thomas replies “My Lord and My God!” (Jn 20:28). Thomas confesses a personal, relational, and devotional testimony of the Resurrection and submits to Jesus as Divine Lord. Thomas does three things in his exclamation: he assents to the identity of Jesus as Lord and God; he submits to that truth personally; and he expresses it as an act of joyful worship. His friends give cognitive assent to the Resurrection. Thomas gives confessional assent to the Risen Lord.
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One might argue this is where we move from teaching about Our Lord to preaching about Him – when
we move from reporting fact to adoring confession. Perhaps this is what the Lord meant when He tells
Thomas “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (Jn 20:29).

When members of the Lay Dominicans are initially received into the Order, they
have the opportunity to choose a saint’s name (or two) as a patron to whom they
can pray and ask for help. Names can be male or female or in various languages,
and everyone seems to have a different reason for choosing a particular name. We
will share these reasons from our Joy of the Just members over the next few
months.

Petra Paula: Simon Peter the Apostle was hot tempered, often spoke before
thinking, and impulsive—jumping into the water to meet Jesus as He was walking
toward the boat during the storm, but then losing his faith when he realized the
strength of the wind and calling on Jesus to save him. When he says that Jesus is
the Christ, Jesus renames him the “Rock” upon which He would build His church.
Later, Peter denied Jesus those three times before the cock crowed and he wept
bitterly, because though full of faults, he truly loved the Lord.
I always thought Paul was an arrogant misogynist, but a little voice inside my head
kept saying “Petra Paula” while I was considering a name, and so many of our
friars liked him and had taken his name, that I did as well. Though the Pharisee
Saul had persecuted Christians, after a stunning vision, Paul, now chosen by the
Lord, preached the Gospel to the Gentiles. Most of us wouldn’t even be Catholic
let alone a Dominican, without him. In reading more of his writings from that
perspective, it is clear how much he was loved by the many communities he started
during his journeys around the Mediterranean. Both of these sinful men were
changed by the Lord in more than their names, and both were ultimately martyred
in Rome in the mid 60’s.

Pio Benedict: I chose Padre Pio (1887-1968) for prayers answered after a sign was
given to me confirming my prayers were heard during a difficult time of my life. 
He has helped me more since then and I have had the experience of smelling the
flowers.
St. Benedict of Nursia (480-547) is considered one of the patron saints of exorcists
(a topic that I have been interested in and studied for years). The initial drawings
for the St. Benedict medal came from an anonymous monk in 1415.  The CSPB
stands for Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti and the other two translate to "May the
Holy Cross be my Light; let not the dragon be my guide." The other side means
"Begone Satan, do not suggest to me your vanities.  What you offer me is evil;
drink your own poison."  I wear rings of both of these great saints at all times to
remind me of their gifts and holiness. 

Paul: I chose Paul as my religious name because I wanted to pay homage to St.
Paul of the Cross (1694-1775). He was the Saint I chose for my confirmation back
in 1989. I had been looking in a book trying to decide on a saint for confirmation
and the book said his feast day was on my birthday. Turns out the book was
wrong, but I’m still happy with my choice. These days, when people see Brother
Paul, they automatically think of St. Paul the author of a third of the New
Testament, and I have more and more leaned towards him as my religious
namesake, but I can keep them both.

Raymond de Pennafort (1175-1275): Raymond was the third Master of the Order.
He was much older when he joined than most though he lived the other half of his
life as a Dominican. He had been a noted professor of canon law and his joining
brought many other notables behind him. In his humility, he worked quietly along
with the other novices, some of whom had been his students. He put the
Dominican Constitutions into permanent form and was elected Master after the
death of Jordan of Saxony. Due to illness, he resigned from that position after only
two years but worked quietly in the Order for the next thirty years. I also chose
him because my father’s name was Raymond.

Mary Magdalene: Mary Magdalene was a woman transformed through her
interaction with Jesus: healed and loved.  She followed more closely than even
some of Jesus' most ardent apostles.  She was there at the Crucifixion. 
Her love was greater than her fear. Jesus showed Himself to her first after his
resurrection and sent her to tell the others so she is the Apostle to the Apostles.

                                                                                                    ​By: Br. Dismas Bartolo Baume

With the exceptions of the Nativity, Passion, and Resurrection of Our Lord, the Wedding at Cana is the
first Gospel story I distinctly recall learning about as a child. I remember the mild look of shock on my
mother’s face when I came home from kindergarten and told her that it is important to serve good wine before people are drunk so they can appreciate it and to serve cheap wine when they are too drunk to care. Perhaps not exactly the lesson Sr. Helen intended to teach me that day – but practical,
nonetheless.

John the Evangelist presents the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana as the first sign of
Our Lord’s Divinity. Childhood misunderstandings aside, I have always been fascinated with this miracle because John packs so much into these eleven verses. We see the Mother of Our Lord interceding in her compassion (Jn 2:3). We see Our Lord imply this miracle is an unmerited grace (Jn 2:4). We see His Mother direct us to Our Lord (Jn 2:5). We also see allusions to the Crucifixion (His hour), the Eucharist (the wine of the new covenant), Final Judgment (the wedding feast of the Lamb), and an illustration of the importance of preaching all in just eleven verses.

The six stone jars of water, however, particularly fascinate me. Our Lord – the Incarnate Word of God,
through whom all things came to be (Jn 1:3) – asks the servers to fill these jars with water. All of creation came into existence ex nihilo through Him, but He asks them to fill the jars. He has the power to fill the jars as much as He has the power to change water to wine. Yet He asks the servers to work. When Our Lord tells them to fill the jars, the servers “filled them to the brim” (Jn 2:7). They complete the work fully. Their work isn’t half-hearted or mediocre. They are not lukewarm in their obedience.

These servers are rewarded in their obedience – they become witnesses of the miracle (Jn 2:9). They
know they drew water from the jars but hear the headwaiter celebrate the quality of the wine. To most
of the wedding guests, the miracle remains hidden. They drink the wine assuming their host provided it. While the miracle reveals Our Lord’s divine power, it is the work of John in preaching it through his
Gospel that reveals divine truth because “His disciples began to believe” (Jn 2:11). The miracle becomes a sign once preached.

With His first miracle, Our Lord teaches us that Grace is unmerited and freely given but we are still
expected to do work. His Grace provides for us, but we must prepare ourselves to receive it. For it to be fruitful and refreshing in our lives, we must cooperate with Grace. We must avoid lukewarm, mediocre, or half-hearted cooperation. Perhaps a way to cooperate fully with Grace is to contemplate His Gospel and pass on the fruits of that contemplation.

                                                                               by Br. John Gregory Ignatius
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​With Lent approaching, we are reminded of its traditional pillars of prayer, fasting, and
almsgiving. While we generally should intensify our prayer and almsgiving this season, there
is nothing strictly forcing us to do this. We are, however, compelled to fast on Ash Wednesday
and Good Friday, and to abstain from meat on Fridays. Since we will be fasting, it will be good
to consider how to fast well, that is, how we might fast in spirit as well as in body. To this end,
I will be using Saint Ephrem’s Hymns on the Fast as a guide for us.

Ephrem draws a distinction between different ways of fasting, writing that “[the
scriptures] set apart a fast from a fast.” 1 This does not mean that there are necessarily
external differences in fasting, but that it is the spirit in which one fasts that makes this
distinction. Fasting helps to empty a person, but we who fast need to make sure to be filled
with God, else our fasting will be harmful. How might our fasts be filled with harm? “[O]ur
prayer and fasting [the devil] soils with his envy that our offering be shameful.” 2 Temptation
comes to suggest evils to us in order that we might become more wicked through our lack,
“for someone he sees abstaining from food, he sates him with anger.” 3 Ephrem seems to
consider this as not fasting, giving us an image of “fasters who instead of food consumed a
man’s flesh.” 4
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So how do we actually fast in spirit? I think there are two things to consider. The first is
already suggested by Ephrem when he mentioned that the evil one seeks to undermine our
prayer and fasting. We should make sure to join prayer with our fast that we might rely on
God’s grace. Second, Ephrem says explicitly that God “gave us living speech to ruminate.” 5

1 Ephrem, Songs for the Fast and Pascha, trans. Joshua Falconer, Blake Hartung, and J. Edward Walters
(The Catholic University of America Press, 2022), 56. On the Holy Fast 1.7.
2 Ibid, 57. 1.9.
3 Ibid, 58. 1.10.
4 Ibid, 68. 3.5.

Ephrem would suggest that we empty ourselves of food and fill our minds and hearts with the
Scriptures, thereby having holy thoughts to consecrate our actions.

​                                                                                                by Sr. Mary Magdalene


I recently read a post by a Catholic writer who referred to a media event he had watched as having had a “Jesus veneer.”  His meaning did not escape me, but the phrase stuck with me and demanded a closer, and perhaps deeper, interpretation.

First off, when I think of “veneer,” I immediately go to an image of wood furniture.  A veneer is a very thin layer of more expensive or precious wood overlaid onto a less expensive, poorer quality wood substrate such as plywood or even particle board.  It was designed so that a piece of furniture could look nice without costing too much.

With regard to the human person, I think it is sometimes easier to put on a surface layer of piety and love of the Lord rather than to give any real attention to what resides in our thoughts, words, actions, the recesses of our hearts or even more so, the cost of being a follower.  

Jesus doesn’t just simply ask us to wear him on the surface, but rather to be transformed into his likeness from the inside!
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                                 Luke 11:39 So the Lord said to him, "Now then, you 
                                Pharisees clean the outside of your cup and plate,
                                but inside you are full of violence and evil.

                               Eze 36:26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I 
                               will put within you; and I will remove from your body the 
                               heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.


This Lent might be a good time to look below the surface of our own spiritual lives. (Not the spiritual lives of others, but of our own!)  What lies under the surface?  Is Jesus simply a veneer we show the world in order to portray something more beautiful than our lives and our personal affections?  Do we speak of Jesus without speaking like Jesus?

And what about the cost?  While it takes a certain boldness to speak of Jesus, it takes real courage to allow the Lord of Love access to the deepest places within the human heart and soul; to be transformed into His likeness.

But have no fear!  The One who transformed the Wood of the Cross into a precious piece of love-soaked salvation can certainly reach beyond our surface veneer and transform what is of poor quality into something of great value.