Memorial St.Thomas More, Martyr

Memorial St. Thomas More, Martyr
In pursuit of the truth – www.cinopsbegone.com – Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Ref. also St. Thomas More # 1 to 8 - Dec. 21, 2008 to Jan. 26, 2009 on the blog:

Today is a Memorial to St. Thomas More. Thomas More was an outstanding statesman and is an appropriate religious role model for all Catholic-label politicians. He is also the patron of this blog.

FROM SPIRITUALITY OF ST. THOMAS MORE: A SUMMARY BY JAMES MONTI –MAGNIFICAT –JUNE /1 0

“Closely related to Thomas More’s devotion to the passion of Christ was his love for the Eucharist. As a layman who attended Mass daily, he composed an entire treatise on the subject of Holy Communion. In his Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body of our Lord, More advocates the worthy and fruitful reception of Holy Communion,…

“More’s devotion to the reserved Eucharist is implicit in numerous passages from his writings. Thus in his Dialogue concerning Heresies, he observed that just as God supported the Israelites in their earthly pilgrimage by “walking with them in the cloud by day and in the pillar of fire by night,” so does more does now “assist and comfort us with the continued presence of his precious Body in the Holy Sacrament.

Other motifs of spirituality:

“There are several other major motifs in Thomas More’s spirituality. He stressed the remembrance of death as a medicine for the soul, prescribed for us by God, “the Divine Physician,” as an antidote to false allurements of sin and earthly pleasure. His devotion to the Sacred Hear of Jesus is deductible from his writings…

Vocation:

“In the duties of his career, Thomas More made a point of going to confession and receiving Holy Communion before making any important decision. More brought to the married state of life a deeply spiritual understanding of his vocation, which he was later to express when commenting upon Saint Paul’s discussion of marriage in his letter to the Ephesians (Eph 5; 25-27): … In a letter to his four children, More reveals his devotion as a father :

“It is not so strange that I love you with my whole heart, for being a father is not a tie which can be ignored. Nature in her wisdom has attached the parent to the child and bound their minds together with a Herculean knot… Ah, brutal and unworthy to be called father is he who does not himself weep at the tears of his child… But now my love has grown so much that it seems to me I did not love you at all before.

Personal piety:

“As already mentioned, Thomas More attended Mass daily, often serving the priest at the altar. Rising at two in the morning, he spent the first five hours of his day in prayer and study. Twice a day he gathered the children to pray with them – in the morning, the penitential psalms and the Litany of the Saints, and in evening, four more psalms and the Salve Regina…”

George H. Kubeck