Today,
in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of Blessed Henry
Suso, confessor of the Order of Preachers.
The feast is III Class and the ordinary office is prayed according to
the rubrics. What is proper to the feast
is given in the Proper of the Saints.
At Ulm, in Germany, Blessed Henry Suso of Swabia, confessor, of our Order. He was celebrated for observance of the rules of religious life, for the holiness of his fife, and the reputation for miracles. He died January 25, but his feast is observed today.From “Short Lives of the Dominican Saints” (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1901):
Henry Suso was a German by birth, and at the age of thirteen
took the habit in the Dominican Convent at Constance. He showed but little fervor
during his novitiate and lived in negligence and dissipation till he had
completed his eighteenth year. But the Divine Wisdom, whose devoted disciple he
was destined to become, was pleased to touch his heart. One day, as he sat at
table in the refectory, he heard read aloud some passages from the Book of
Wisdom, which produced a powerful effect on his soul. He began to undertake a
thorough change of life, but was beset by March 2 grievous temptations, all of
which he generously and perseveringly overcame. For two-and-twenty years he practiced
the most terrific austerities. During eight years he wore on his shoulders a
cross studded with sharp nails; twice every day he disciplined himself to
blood; day and night he wore a hair shirt armed with one hundred and fifty
sharp iron points; and in addition to these mortifications he observed extraordinary
abstinence, enduring in particular the utmost extremity of thirst.
Nevertheless, when he had come to his fortieth year, it was
revealed to him, that, after all these sufferings, he had only reached the
first degree of true mortification, and that, if he would attain the perfect
love of God, he must consent to pass through far more searching trials. He had
to endure the most cruel calumnies, frightful interior desolation, the loss of
friends and of reputation, and a thousand other crosses ; yet in the midst of
all these afflictions, which were exquisitely painful to his sensitive heart,
he never lost confidence or courage.
Blessed Henry Suso bore a tender devotion to the Holy Name
of Jesus. He engraved it with a sharp penknife over his heart, and found in
that adorable Name a buckler of defense against all the assaults of his
enemies. This devotion to the Holy Name was widely diffused amongst his
spiritual children, many of whom used to wear a small scapular, on which were embroidered
the letters I.H.S.
His love for our Blessed Lady was of the tenderest and most
childlike description. During the Christmas season he always deprived himself
of a portion of the fruit served at table, offering it in spirit to her and praying
her to give it to her Divine Child, for whose sake he went without it. As soon
as the first flowers appeared in spring, he hastened to weave a garland which
he placed on the head of Mary's statue in the Lady Chapel, in the hope that, as
she was the fairest of all flowers and the bliss of summer to his heart, she would
not disdain to accept these first flowers from her servant. He had many
devotional practices in honor of his Heavenly Mother and she sometimes deigned
to show herself to him in vision.
Full of zeal for the salvation of souls, Blessed Henry labored
constantly in the ministry of the Word, and was one of the most renowned
preachers and spiritual directors of his day. He was endowed with a sublime gift
of prayer and the numerous spiritual works which he composed won for him in his
own time the title of the Ecstatic Doctor. The best known of his writings is
his "Little Book of Eternal Wisdom," which treats chiefly of the
Passion of Our Lord.
Blessed Henry passed to a better life in the Convent of Ulm
in Germany, on the 25th January, A.D. 1365. From the time of his death he was
beatified by the voice of the people, and Pope Gregory XVI approved of the
veneration which had been paid to him from time immemorial and gave permission
for his Office to be celebrated throughout the Dominican Order.
Prayer
O God, you made the blessed Henry, your confessor, wonderful
both in mortification of body and in charity; grant that we may show forth
Christ crucified in our deeds, and live him in our hearts. Through the same…