To Write Well of God and the Church…

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Jul 19, 2012

I was just reading about Blessed Dominic of the Mother of God, CP, known in civilian life as Domenico Giovanni Luigi Barberi. He lived from 1792 until 1849, and he had a mystical experience in which he was called to be a missionary to England. This would have been during the period after the suppression of Catholics but before Catholic bishops were reestablished there.

Blessed Dominic offered God his life for the revival of the faith in England. Between 1840 and 1849 he labored on English soil, and he received many converts into the Church, most notably Blessed John Henry Newman. Remarkably, he died a year before the restoration of the English hierarchy.

Before he was permitted to go to England, Blessed Dominic spent much of his time teaching and writing philosophy and theology. He used to offer this advice to those who would write well of Christ and the Church: “Ten years of learning, twenty of meditation, and an hour of composition.”

Now me, I write almost daily, and usually for far over an hour.

If you read my work and then do Blessed Dominic’s math, well, you’ll lower your expectations.