Blog

Christ All Merciful
“Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened and I will give you rest...”
Matthew 11:28-30
This year for Divine Mercy Sunday instead of the St Faustina Icon, I decided to show a very early icon, (number 22) Christ All Merciful, which resides in a small Orthodox Chapel with a companion piece, Mother of God of Vatopedi. It shows another image of Jesus’ Divine Mercy. I remember so well, painting this icon and the joy I felt especially doing His face. For some reason, with some icons, you can never get the full radiance in a print but I hope you experience His love for you, the way I did while working on it.
“Heart of My Heart, be filled with joy!” (Faustina’s Diary #1669)
“O God of fathomless mercy, who allow me to give relief and help to the dying by my unworthy prayer, be blessed as many thousands times as there are stars in the sky and drops of water in all the oceans! Let your mercy resound throughout the orb of the earth, and let it rise to the foot of your throne, giving praise to the greatest of your attributes; that is, your incomprehensible mercy...
“When you reflect upon what I tell you in the depths of your heart, you profit more than if you read many books. Oh, if souls would only listen to My voice when I am speaking in the depths of their hearts, they would reach the peak of holiness in a short time.”
(Jesus speaks in the Diary of St Faustina #584)
“Be at peace, My daughter. This work of mercy is Mine; there is nothing of you in it. It pleases Me that you are carrying out faithfully what I have commanded you to do, not adding or taking away a single word.” #1667
Faustina asked the Lord about the meaning of the rays on the painting or image of the Divine Mercy, Jesus told her in reply:
“The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender Mercy when my agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross... Oh, how much I am hurt by a soul’s distrust! Such a soul professes that I am Holy and Just, but does not believe that I am Mercy and does not trust in My goodness. Even the devils glorify My Justice but do not believe in My goodness. My Heart rejoices in this title of Mercy. Proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God. All the works of My hands are crowned with mercy.” #299
According to the spirituality of St Ignatius one is advised not only to refrain from defending oneself when reproached, but to rejoice in the humiliation. As Jesus said in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me...” Matthew 5:11
“You will encounter disapproval and persecution. They will look upon you as a hysteric and an eccentric, but the Lord will lavish His graces upon you. True works of God always meet with opposition and are marked by suffering. If God wants to accomplish something, sooner or later He will do so in spite of the difficulties. Your part, in the meantime, is to arm yourself with great patience.” #270
“My daughter, if you knew what great merit and reward is earned by one act of pure love for Me, you would die of joy. I am saying this that you may constantly unite yourself with Me through love, for this is the goal of the life of your soul. This act is an act of the will. Know that a pure soul is humble. When you lower and empty yourself before My majesty, I then pursue you with My graces and make use of My omnipotence to exalt you...Do not fear anything. I am with you. These matters are in My hands and I will bring them to fruition according to My mercy, for nothing can oppose My will... I am always in your heart; not only when you receive Me in Holy Communion, but always.” # 575
Because Pope Francis has written so much on the Mercy of God, (Apostolic Letter “Misericordia et Misera” 20 November 2016) and he, himself is being persecuted just like Faustina, I have been particularly devoted to the Feast of Divine Mercy.
On October 5, 1938, Sister Faustina whispered to Sister Felicia, “The Lord will take me today.”
Fr William Hart McNichols 💮 Divine Mercy Sunday 2022
PS) The Nobel Peace Prize In 1976 was awarded jointly to Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams “for the courageous efforts in founding a movement to put an end to the violent conflict in Northern Ireland.” They received the prize in 1977.
After my father died in November of 1997, I was able to travel through Ireland, to Belfast in January 1998 with Fr Daniel Berrigan, SJ, Fr John Dear, and meet Mairead. She is absolutely irrepressible with her sense of non-violence within the Gospel, and a forever memorable gift to be with. Her incredible joy is contagious. One of my favorite jokes she’d often say, when things got really violent in Ireland or around the world is “Mi non-violence is being sorely tested !” Only a woman like Mairead who has lived mercy can show us the way. In these days of senseless violence and war I look to people like Mairead to teach us the virtue of hard-won Mercy.
And with everything going on , right outside now, spring is in full bloom...
“Let him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us, be a crimson-cresseted east...”
Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ

The Risen Christ
“Not even for a moment
do things stand still - witness
color in the trees.”
(Seiju : 15 August 1776) December “
“In the wood of the Cross the Lord sees the tree and human work united. Men must work because they have sinned, and so they lay a curse of their own sin into their work; they hammer the Cross together in order to nail him who brings salvation to it... It is clear that Christ had to become a carpenter, for he had to cut down the tree of knowledge. Like the first Adam, he the second Adam had also to deal with a tree. The first Adam had to do with the fruit; by eating it he made the tree unfruitful. The second Adam has to cope with the dead tree. During his years of contemplation, he takes the dead material of the felled tree and makes it his life’s work ... He has to rededicate the tree desecrated by eating of the fruit so that it can become the Cross... it is Christ who has to purify Adam in soul and body and restore the tree to its place... When one sees with what tenderness he dies on the wood, one understands what its rehabilitation means. The tree of the Cross was found worthy to carry the Lord and experience its own death as a tree as part of the Lord’s death...”
from “The Passion From Within” by Adrienne von Speyr ( Doctor, convert, mystic, 1902 - 1967)
All around Albuquerque in mid-April, the lush lavender grape-like wisteria flowers are blooming. As extravagantly generous and delicate as the falling blossoms appear, it’s amazing how tough the trunks, stems and vines are; they can break wooden lattices with ease, and have to be trained onto sturdier metal frames or just allowed to spill over walls all over the city. They are usually at their peak around the feast of St Gemma Galgani, or tomorrow, on April 16, the feast of St Bernadette and St Benedict Joseph Labre. Yet this year, Holy Saturday falls on this day. I have been drawn to the mystery of Holy Saturday for a very long time. At the end of my teaching career at Regis High in Denver, when I was 26, I did a painting of Holy Saturday I named after a hypnotic song I heard sung by Joan Baez written by Miguel Hernandez Gilabert and Juan Manuel Serrat; “Llego’ Con Tres Heridas,” - “ I Come With Three Wounds.” You can see it on my website, it’s a Deposition painting of a man (fashioned after Fr Pedro Arrupe, SJ) taking Christ down from the Cross. The man staggers under the weight of the body of Jesus. Above them are the flaming spokes of an eclipsed sun. Later, in the Hospice years of the AIDS pandemic in Manhattan I was to discover that medical doctor and mystic, Adrienne von Speyr had a very well articulated and controversial theology about the descent into Hell, “burned” into the Apostles Creed; “He descended into Hell, on the third day he arose again from the dead... “ How I wondered what that meant, (!) as I was just a child of 5 when I memorized that Creed. Why did Jesus descend into Hell after he died and why is this so essential, so important? For this theology and many other things, Adrienne is a stumbling block to the right and left theological wings of the church. I can only say briefly that she taught Jesus experienced Hell in all its utterly dark hopelessness. This seemed right to me. But I do not have the requisite credentials to argue why it seems right. It just hit me in an intuitive way, that as part of the Father’s plan of salvation, it had to be so.
This icon was commissioned by the Church of the Risen Christ in Denver as a companion to The Holy Family In 1992. Jesus is wearing a lavender garment and behind him are the blue colors of the mandala of eternity. The borders are yellow-gold, and now, that’s very meaningful to me as these are colors of the flag of Ukraine.
He bears the wounds of being nailed to the tree of the Cross. Why does he keep those wounds while all the other marks of flagellation, and the other violent wounds disappear? In fact he is so healed of his many wounds that the disciples do not recognize him. That Jesus can be resurrected by the Spirit of Love, from a horrific violent death and survive a descent into Hell, is staggering to my imagination, heart and soul, this teaches me something I cannot express in words about these holy days. This image of resurrection provides a harrowing contemplative experience I feel all the more, in these times, as we witness the relentless evil of rapes, slaughters, and tortured bodies of dead people we are seeing daily in Ukraine.
Personally, any experience (especially in the church) of a purposeful , willful injustice is enough to drive one mad, and tests the soul to the very end of its tether. I don’t see any case in the Gospels where Jesus is tolerant of this kind of arrogant cruelty, and he cautions us not to seek vengeance, to let God deal with this. But when it reaches this extent it becomes an apocalyptic struggle between good and evil. “How many graves? I don’t know. Go count them,” said the caretaker of the cemetery on Severodonetsk’s southern edge, which started to grow when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. “We’re digging new ones almost every day now.”
For many past years this terrible struggle which is the Easter story, was far distant from most of us. We celebrated a cheerful Easter without really living in the story. This year is different. Because it’s so real, we wait again with the terrified women and men disciples of the first Easter. And because of the original story we have the advantage of tremendous hope. We don’t know how God will transform this present Crucifixion but we know He will. We wait and watch for the angel to appear at the empty tomb; this barren tree to flower...
“In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruit for every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
Revelation 22:2
A most blessed Easter to you all
Fr William Hart McNichols 💮 Holy Saturday 2022

Our Lady of Pochaev (Ukraine) and photo of the icon arriving in Magadan, Russia
“... if my words don’t come together, listen to the melody, ‘cause my love is in there hiding. I love you in a place where there’s no space or time...”
Leon Russell, “ A Song For You” 1970
The other day I was driving and this song came on the radio (Karen Carpenter’s beautiful version) and the words were suddenly illumined for me. It honestly felt like Heaven had entered the car and filled it with such overflowing Love, that I had to pull over. Similarly, you can hear the word of God; words you’ve heard a hundred times, which then light up your soul and fill it with hope. As Jesus said, “ The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed grows, he himself knows not how. All by itself the soil produces grain - first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain that ripens within.” (Mark 4: 26-28)
Our Lady of Pochaev, has been in the Pochaev Lavra (monastery) since 1597. A miraculous legend has been associated with this icon. In 1198 a monk ascended Mount Pochaev to pray and was met by a Pillar of Fire which in moments, revealed the Mother of God. Almost immediately the monk shared the news with the other monks in the Pochaev Lavra, who did not believe him. So he went back to the place of the apparition
and Our Mother had left her foot print seared into a rock to convince the monks she had actually been there. This foot print always appears in the icon, as you see here.
In 1995 I was blessed to go to Magadan, Far East Russia (four hours flight from Anchorage, Alaska) to visit the former place of a horrible concentration camp, where millions died, (1938-1955) so that I could come back to Alburquerque and create a new icon, Our Lady of Magadan. This was commissioned by Archbishop Hurley of Anchorage to be given as a gift to the Orthodox Bishop of Magadan. While there, my guide, the late Mr Bill Lavin who spoke Russian fluently, took me to a new Monastery, the St Sergius of Radonezh Lavra.
So as I was talking with some of the young Orthodox monks (Bill was translating), Bill decided to tell them I was an iconographer . They perked up visibly and joyfully told him “Ah, this is wonderful ! He will do three icons for us ! St Sergius of Radonezh, St Seraphim of Sarov and Our Lady of Pochaev.” Now .... Magadan was (is?) an impoverished city, struggling so much they only had paper-print icons or small hand painted ones with no real gold leaf halos, just painted ones. I was waiting for their furrowed brows of disapproval and rejection when they found out I was Catholic. So I said “Bill, you better tell them I’m not Orthodox and in fact, a Roman Catholic priest.” He did and they all smiled, laughed, and said, “ O that doesn’t matter at all, we’re poor!” So I said, “I’d be most honored to write/paint one for you. Please pick one.” And they chose Our Lady of Pochaev.
I will never forget that moment and imagine my joy when Archbishop Hurley sent me the above photograph taken in October 1996 when the icon of Our Lady of Pochaev arrived at the Lavra. I saw in the photo, an Orthodox monk bending to kiss/venerate the icon, and I know that She is still with them today. Holy Martyr St Nestor Savchuk had been in the seminary in the Pochaev Monastery, Ukraine, and I felt that connection too. As Jesus said, these things happen, who knows how?
With all the tragedy of Ukraine and Russia, I offer this prayer I found, to the Mother of God, Our Lady of Pochaev , I quote :
“Rejoice, O Glory of the Universe.
Rejoice, O Temple of the Lord.
Rejoice, O Mountain overshadowed by the Holy Ghost.
Rejoice, O Refuge of all.
Rejoice, O Golden candelabrum.
Rejoice, O Honorable Glory of all Christians.
Rejoice, O Mary, Mother of Christ Our God.
Rejoice, O Paradise.
Rejoice, O Divine Altar.
Rejoice, O Golden Urn.
Rejoice, O Hope of All...
Mother most good, cover our Church and our Ukrainian people with your mantle. Help our brothers and sisters in Ukraine in their suffering. Give them strength in their struggle with their atheist enemies, be consoling and unfailingly firm in their harassment and shield them in their misery.
Be for them and us All-Merciful Guardian, and let them praise you openly and freely together with them, Oh Virgin, among all Virgins, and your Son, Our God, Jesus. Let there be glory, honor and adoration now, and always, and forever. Amen “
Fr William Hart McNichols 💙💛 April 2022

St Vasily the Holy Fool of Moscow (feast day 2 August)
“If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool.”
1 Corinthians 3:18
In these days with Russia and Ukraine continually in the news, I turn to a woman like the incredibly courageous Marina Osvyannikova who was “foolish” enough to risk everything for the truth. In this way, she follows in the ancient footsteps of the men and women Holy Fools of Russia. Few people know that the gorgeous church we always see on the news in Moscow, is named for St Vasily (Basil in English) the Holy Fool.
No one could ever get away with castigating the Tsar without being murdered, except Vasily. I am presently painting/writing an Icon of St Marina (Margaret in English) as a prayer for the brave Marina Osvyannikova. I am copying an old Bulgarian icon of this ancient great Martyr, who happened to also appear to the brave young St Joan of Arc, along with St Michael the Archangel and St Catherine of Alexandria.
St Vasily, the Russian Orthodox saint, is also known as ‘yurodivy’ or holy fool for Christ.
He was born of serfs in a village near Moscow in December 1468. Legends say he was born on the portico of the local church. As a young apprentice shoemaker, he became incensed at the Russian government’s carelessness and disregard, especially towards the poor and sick. He was known for mocking the Tsar, then Ivan the Terrible, to provoke change and ran naked through Moscow’s snow filled streets, weighed down with chains.
The Tsar and high-ranking government officials tried to cajole Vasily with gifts, to silence him, but he gave everything away to those in need. He was clairvoyant and often warned people of their future tragedies, to beg them to become humble before God. Upon his death, August 2 1557, the humiliated Ivan the Terrible served as his pall bearer and then commissioned the magnificent church of St Vasily (St Basil) in Red Square. This is the Church that you see almost every night on the news, with the glorious multi-colored domes of the Holy Spirit’s tongues of fire, that we’ve learned to call “onion domes.”
I suppose that the closest thing we have to Holy Fools in the western church would be St Francis of Assisi and especially his most memorable foolish Friars, Brother Juniper and Brother John the Simple, or one of my favorite saints, St Benedict Joseph Labre.
Troparion for the feast of St Vasily the Holy Fool of Moscow:
“Your life, O Basil (Vasily) was true and your chastity undefiled/ In fasting, vigilance and exposure to heat and frost/You subdued your flesh for the sake of Christ/ Therefore your countenance shone with the brilliance of the sun./Today the faithful glorify your Holy falling-asleep./ Implore Christ to deliver us from all bondage, dissension and war./ And to grant mercy to our souls...
And dear Courageous Vasily, encourage all of us to be brave in our telling the truth; especially those like Marina and all the other Russians who risk their lives by speaking against this tragic war. In the name of Our Lord Jesus who truthfully told us “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” (John 14:6)
Amen
Fr William Hart Dominic McNichols 🗣 for April Fool’s Day 2022

The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
“On Friday 25 March , during the Celebration of Penance at 17.00 in St Peter’s Basilica, I will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pray together.”
Pope Francis
“Yaroslavl the Wise, the grand prince of Kyiv, dedicated his lands to Mary in 1037 and she has been known since then as Queen of Ukraine. Pope Francis used the title in his Angelus address on March 6, saying : ‘Let us pray together, as brothers and sisters, to Our Lady, Queen of Ukraine.’
Before the revolutions of 1917 that overthrew the Russian Empire and led to the creation of the Soviet Union, Russia was colloquially known as ‘House of Mary’ because there were more shrines and churches dedicated to Our Lady than any other country at the time.
During the Fatima apparitions in 1917 ... Our Lady asked for ‘the Consecration to my Immaculate Heart ... in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.’
In a letter to the Pope, the Ukrainian bishops wrote to him, ‘in these hours of immeasurable pain and terrible ordeal for our people...we humbly ask Your Holiness to publicly perform the act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Ukraine and Russia, as requested by the Blessed Virgin of Fatima.”
In 1984 Pope St John Paul II performed this consecration to the satisfaction of one of the three visionaries of Fatima, the late Sister Lucia.”
From the Vatican website Angelus
Many years ago I was painting/writing an icon of one of the other Fatima visionary’s,
St Francisco Marto for my dear cousin Kathi Hart’s son, Billy. Kathi most kindly named him for me, and he asked me to be his Confirmation sponsor so I decided to give Billy Hart the Icon as a Confirmation gift. I had already created this icon of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as a response to studying the apparitions for years. I read almost everything I could and came up with this image of Mary’s Heart as stronger even, than the nuclear war threatening the entire world. Now, in these days, I see so many people are writing about the possibility of a disastrous world war.
Recently I decided to watch the 1943 film “The Song of Bernadette” with my friend Kenny Greer, because he was born on 11 February, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, and the International Day of Praying For And With the Sick. I had seen the film several times and knew that Jennifer Jones won the Oscar that year for her portrayal of Bernadette.
But this time, we both noticed something in the film which thrilled us, gave us tremendous Hope. There is a scene where the Officials at Lourdes desperately want to close the grotto of the apparitions down, and make it illegal to go there and try to take home some of the healing waters. They succeeded in closing it to pilgrims and only the Emperor of France can open it, which they are positive will never happen. Then Our Lady quietly yet firmly “steps in.” The son of the Emperor gets a fever and his wife, the Empress sends his governess to collect some healing water. She is arrested, along with all the disobedient pilgrims, and ... you can guess what happens next. The Emperor orders the grotto to be opened. It’s delightful to see how God can get through any man made opposition, and this scene shows that, the Gospel way, or the simple way of Heaven can conquer anything. We can never have too much hope in God. I wait with all humanity again, to see how Heaven conquers another monstrous human made demonic disaster.
“...It is not merely a military operation, but a war which sows death, destruction, and misery...The use of atomic energy for the purposes of war is immoral, just as the possession of atomic weapons is immoral...War is like a cancer that grows, expands and feeds on itself. It is an adventure with no return, to use the prophetic words of St John Paul II...
Forgive us, if we continue like Cain to pick up the stones of our fields to kill Abel. Forgive us, if we continue to justify our cruelty with our labors, if we legitimize the brutality of our actions with our pain. Forgive us for war, O Lord. Forgive us for war, O Lord.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, we implore You! Hold fast the hand of Cain! Illumine our consciences; May our will not be done; abandon us not to our own actions! Stop us, O Lord, stop us! And when You have held back the hand of Cain, care also for him. He is our brother. O Lord, put a halt to the violence! Stop us O Lord!
Amen “
Pope Francis
Fr William Hart McNichols 💮 March 2022

Sister Wendy Beckett
“Beauty will save the world.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky (11 November 1821 - 9 February 1881)
“One day Dostoevsky threw out the enigmatic remark: ‘Beauty will save the world.’ What sort of a statement is that ? For a long time I considered it mere words. How could that be possible? When in bloodthirsty history did beauty ever save anyone from anything? Ennobled, uplifted, yes - but whom has it saved?... Dostoevsky’s remark, ‘Beauty will save the world”, was not a careless phrase but a prophecy. After all he was granted to see much, a man of fantastic illumination. And in that case art, literature might really be able to help the world today? It is the small insight which, over the years, I have succeeded in gaining into this matter that I shall lay before you here today...”
From the acceptance speech of Alexander Solzhenitsyn (11 December 1918 - 3 August 2008 ) for the Nobel Prize in 1970.
“The work with which we embark on this first volume of a series of theological studies is a word with which the philosophical person does not begin, but rather concludes. It is a word that has never possessed a permanent place or authentic voice in the concert of the exact sciences, and when it is chosen as a subject for discussion, appears to betray in him who chooses it an idle amateur among such very busy experts. It is finally, a word untimely in three different senses, and bearing it as one’s treasure will not win anyone’s favours; one rather risks finding oneself outside everyone’s camp ... Beauty is the word that shall be our first... We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along in an act of mysterious vengeance. We can be sure that whoever sneers at her name as if she were the ornament of a bourgeois past whether he admits it or not - can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love.”
From “The Glory of the Lord : A Theological Aesthetics, volume 1, Seeing the Form”
By Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar (12 August 1905 - 26 June 1988)
“...There lives the dearest freshness
deep down things;
And through the last lights off the
black West went
Oh, morning, at the brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the
bent
World broods with warm breast
and with ah! bright wings.”
Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ (28 July 1844 - 8 June 1889)
Through the kindness of Robert Ellsberg, I was able to “meet” Sister Wendy Beckett by corresponding by email with her, before she passed into God. She told Robert that she wanted to do a book with me about my icons, but she became too exhausted and ill to carry out this wonderful, precious gift of an idea.
With Robert, however, she opened herself so gently, so honestly, so beautifully in a way she had never done with anyone. The result of their email conversations is the remarkable, poignant and sometimes humorous book to be published this September; “Dearest Sister Wendy” lovingly put together by Robert. It’s a book like no other and contains just some of their hundreds of emails. Robert gave me the honor to read it in full, and I learned so much from both of them. When it comes out I’ll be sure to tell you how to order one for your own spiritual nourishment...and of course, with these two people, Dostoevsky is right; “Beauty will save the world.”
To “spend time with her” and to thank Robert for allowing me to read his book, I decided to paint a “spiritual portrait” of Sister Wendy, in glowing lavender and gold leaf. She truly lived the words about God, from the sixth preface for a Sunday Mass in ordinary time ... “For in You we live and move and have our being, and while in this body we not only experience the daily effects of Your care, but even now possess the pledge of life eternal.”
Here is a short written portrait by Robert Ellsberg.
“Sister Wendy Beckett
Hermit (25 February 1930 - 26 December 2018)
Born in South Africa, Wendy Beckett always knew she wanted to be a nun, which she supposed would mean a life of prayer and silence. Yet the Sisters of Notre Dame da Namur, which she entered at 16, were a teaching order. This meant a life in the classroom. While she cheerfully accepted every assignment as the will of God, she longed for a contemplative life. After suffering a physical breakdown, she was granted her wish and allowed to leave her order. In 1970 she became a consecrated virgin and hermit, living in a caravan on the grounds of a Carmelite monastery in Norfolk, England.
Her new life was given over to prayer and solitude, but she also pursued an intense study of art. Late in life, she was discovered by a BBC producer, who persuaded her to star in a television series, ‘Sister Wendy’s Odyssey.’ The program took her to museums around the world. Suddenly this diminutive woman in a black habit became the unlikeliest of celebrities. Audiences were fascinated and charmed by her intelligence and her intensely alive and compassionate spirit. Her attention to beauty, whether in nature or the human body, defied conventional stereotypes about a supposedly otherworldly nun. Sister Wendy accepted this as a kind of ministry, a way to talk about God to a secular audience, showing that everything true, good and beautiful leads back to its source, our Creator. But she was happy when this sideline ended, and she returned without distraction to her true calling: to spend her days in praise and contemplation of God. She died on December 26, 2018.”
“Our Blessed Lord is in the work-a-day world as truly as in the depth of silent prayer, and we will never find Him completely if we only want to engage with Him on the level we have chosen. He chooses the world and so must we.”
Sister Wendy Beckett
Fr William Hart Dominic McNichols 💙💛 March 2022

St Joseph Terror of Demons
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear...”
1 John 4:18
“There were many reasons for Christ’s Incarnation. A key one was to defeat the devil...Jesus did the Father’s will. He resisted the devilish temptations in the wilderness...He lived by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. And He went on the offensive against the devil’s darkness, practicing exorcism with the word of command. He also taught His hearers about the devil and the devil’s ways. He made the darkness visible, as it were...Jesus taught the awareness of evil in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:13): ‘And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.’ It is interesting to observe that Satan must ask God for permission to sift Peter like wheat. Satan’s power is circumscribed. Indeed Jesus’ words reveal that God is the object of a demand from Satan and a prayer request from Jesus.”
Adapted from “Against the Darkness: The Doctrine of Angels, Satan, and Demons”
By Graham A. Cole
At the beginning of the Litany of St Joseph is the appellation “Noble Offspring of David” which moved me so much last December I decided to do a painting called “St Joseph Flower of Jesse,” King David’s Father. At the very end of the Litany is a petitionary title I have been deeply considering lately; St Joseph Terror of Demons. Often the best way for me to understand a person or a theological truth is to paint an icon or image so I can spend the time needed to read, pray and beg for illumination.
So I decided to paint an image of St Joseph Terror of Demons. This title implies towering spiritual power and strength, but how did Jesus exercise that kind of power ? Did Jesus learn something from his foster father about the way you terrorize demons ? Because of watching Jesus in the Gospels, command with a word and subjugate demons with the strength of his holiness, I imagined Joseph would do the same. And so I could not represent Joseph as another St Michael with a sword or lance slicing or skewering the devil. I imagined his eyes averted, in a prayer, and the visible aura of holiness, his depth of connection to God, being all the strength he needs to send the devils fleeing.
Dear St Joseph
Flower of Jesse
Husband of Mary
Foster Father and teacher of Jesus
Model of true strength for all men.
Joseph scattering the ongoing damage of the father of lies,
Protector of Pope Francis and Holy Church.
St Joseph,
Sometimes the demons are without and sadly, sometimes within.
Lead us into your prayer, your intimate communion with God.
In this way be the Terror of Demons and at the hour of our death,
our passing into God, be there, be there, be there, and lead us to our eternal Home.
Amen
Fr William Hart McNichols 💮 February 2022
“Peacemaking goes nowhere; but it must be done.”
Holy Prophet Fr Daniel Berrigan, SJ
I never thought when I began this icon, I’d see the tragedies we are seeing in Ukraine in this last week of February into March. This icon has become more urgent to me now. And in my life, I have never seen so much love and support at one time from the entire world.
We have been watching lies, the insurrection, non-stop pettiness, rampant evil; perhaps only Ukraine can continue to unite us now watching their supernatural courage and heroism. Maybe you have heard that 400 Russian soldiers were sent into Ukraine to find and murder President Zelensky . He, his wife and children desperately need our prayers.
Dear Joseph, Terror of Demons, intercede for President Zelensky and his family, also the people of Ukraine and the good people of Russia.
Amen
Fr William Hart McNichols 💜 March 2022

Holy New Martyr Nestor Savchuk 1960 - 1993
“The news from Ukraine is very worrying. I entrust every effort for peace to the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the conscience of responsible politicians. Let us pray in silence…”
Pope Francis
“Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of the true self I already possess. Vocation does not come from a voice out there calling me to be something I am not. It comes from a voice in here calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.”
Holy World Evangelist -Thomas Merton
Nestor Savchuk was born in the province of Crimea, southern Russia, as Nikolai Savchuk, in 1960. As a youth he excelled in boxing, wrestling, martial arts, and painting. In his twenties he began to work as an apprentice painting religious murals in Odessa. There, the older artists told him the stories of the Russian saints. Inspired by the saints with a love for God, Nestor set out for the 13th century monastery of Pochaev to become a monk. This love grew naturally and expressed itself through his devotion and prayer with the holy icons, which one day would become the source of his martyrdom. After his ordination his spiritual father advised him to go to an isolated village in the Ukraine, by the name of Zharky. There he found a church dedicated to the Nativity of the Mother of God, which had many ancient icons and from that church he felt a deep mystical feeling and an invitation. There he also found many blocks and difficulties. The church caught fire once and also became the target of an icon stealing ring connected to the Russian mafia. He was warned by the mafia that if he continued to keep the icons from them, he would be killed. Nestor would stay up all night guarding
the church. He was then touched with a desire to ask for the grace of martyrdom. He began to pray for long hours. A friend warned him of this prayer and told him he ought to be asking for a long life of suffering for God instead. Nestor replied, “Yes, I understand that, but maybe if I will pray for martyrdom, perhaps I will be able to pray it out.” Late in the dark morning of December 31, 1993, the friend was awakened by a dream of St John the Baptist who told him to, “ Go immediately to Father Nestor.” But he did not go until that morning where he found Nestor murdered, outside his rectory in Zharky.
Adapted from a brief biography in the book
“Youth of the Apocalypse” by Monks John Marier and Andrew Wermuth
The moment I read Nestor’s life I was drawn to paint/write his icon. I felt his presence very deeply in my life. This icon ended up in the Orthodox Church of St John the Wonderworker, in Atlanta, Georgia. The youth there have a great devotion to St Nestor. In 1994 I was blessed to be asked by the late Archbishop Hurley of Anchorage, Alaska to paint an icon of Our Lady of Magadan, ( a former concentration camp from 1938-1955) which is in the Far East of Russia, four hours flight from Anchorage. When I visited there in October 1995, I went to the Lavra (monastery) of St Sergius of Radonezh. The monks there asked me to paint Our Lady of Pochaev for them. I asked if they knew of Nestor and his martyrdom. They said, “No, there are so many new martyrs in Russia.” I was stunned into silence by their answer. Months later I received a picture of Archbishop Hurley giving Our Lady of Pochaev to the monks and one was bending down to kiss the icon. That’s a picture I treasure and a great honor from the Russian Orthodox Church. We are all aware of the great suffering today in Ukraine and Russia with their need to continue to worship God freely. Our Lady of Fatima asked the three children when she appeared to in Portugal, in 1917, to pray for the conversion of Russia. This was just months before the bloody Bolshevik Revolution, which Russia celebrated in November 2017. St Padre Pio prophesied, “Yes, Russia will be converted as the Blessed Virgin said She would. However, Russia will teach the United States a lesson in conversion.” A vocation to intercede for others, to beg, to fast, to pray is incredibly powerful. I know a lot of you are doing just that right now. Thank you for saying yes to God, for fulfilling your vocation. We really need you now.
In this tense month of February, 2022, O Mother of God, Immaculate Heart of Fatima , Our Lady of Magadan … Lourdes, Pochaev, Kibeho, Akita, Medjugorje, Mother of All Nations, and Ukrainian Holy New Martyr Nestor, help us all move quickly toward the conversion and the peace you both desire for us and the entire World. We ask your powerful intercession especially for the people of Ukraine and Russia.
Amen
Fr Bill McNichols
February 2022

St Thomas a’ Becket (1118 - 29 December 1170)
“All my life they have been coming, these feet. All my life, I have waited.”
From “Murder in the Cathedral” by T.S. Eliot
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
From Apologeticus by Quintus Septimus Tertullian , AD 197
“O Lord, my God, by day I cry out and at night I clamor in your presence...”
Psalm 88
In 1964 I saw the Hal B. Wallis film “Becket “ based on the 1959 French play “Becket or The Honor of God “ by Jean Anouilh. Peter O’Toole is cast as King Henry II and Richard Burton as Thomas Becket. O’Toole is an out of control wild force of nature and tears up the screen with his savage tantrums, and also breaks your heart with his deep, suffering love for only one person in his life, Thomas Becket. Burton is a clean shaven Becket who seems, according to Anouilh, not to be able to truly love anyone. Then Henry makes the tragic mistake of making Thomas the Archbishop of Canterbury, thinking he will have the total loyalty, obedience and control of Thomas, he desperately needs. Thomas is “struck” by God (see the unique and searingly beautiful book by the late Sr Corona Bamberg, OSB, “The Cost of Being Human” concerning being struck by God).
Thomas undergoes a severe conversion, similar to Saul becoming Paul as a result of an apparition of Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:4).
Some are innocent and holy from birth onwards. Some come to God through an intellectual conversion as they begin to examine themselves and world religions. Some, like Paul and Becket have to be suddenly struck. I think most of us move slowly but surely closer to God as we age, and as nature takes away whatever blocked the way in our youth.
I have been drawn to Becket since 1964, and when I found out my friend, Jim Martin, SJ was born on his feast I knew I’d finally have a very good reason to paint/write, his icon. Becket and Holy New Martyr Nestor (+31 December 1993) are within the Christmas Season so each year I cannot help but think of them as the hushed atmosphere of the Holy Shekhinah descends upon the earth and then softly lifts in early January. We might refer to this as the Christmas spirit, but I think you’d agree it’s palpable in the days of the O Antiphons, right before Christmas Eve.
All these years I had thought of Becket’s legend as something wonderfully medieval; like the story of Joan of Arc. And both of these saints’ lives and deaths have captivated artists for centuries. This past December I saw the film again in preparation for the Icon, and I was amazed at how relevant it is now. I think when you watch it you’ll see for yourselves. I can sum up Thomas’s longing for God, and perhaps many of us, with the English poet John Donne, born in the Elizabethan era...
“Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend...
Yet I dearly love you ...
Take me to you , imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Never chaste, except you ravish me.”
Taken from Holy Sonnet XIV by John Donne 1633
I end here, now, with a poem I wrote in the 1980’s AIDS Hospice Era. At that time I was so hungry, honestly desperate for healing, and I’d read that after Thomas’ many miracles, later in the next century, people would use the bandages from St Francis’ wounds to soak in water for healing. I’d found a 1974 Nonesuch recording of hymns and chants honoring St Thomas after his murder and one in particular worked its way into my soul and imagination written around 1295... “Thomas Gemma Cantuariae.”
“Thomas Gemma Cantuariae
Thomas ,
I saw the blood-rain today,
a video of images ...
You fell
skull cracked
sword shattered
the brittle sound of metal
on stone,
the quiet sound of your
last moan, the running
frightened feet pursued
forever by conscience;
a more relentless hunter
than ever man can be.
Then a legend grows on screen.
A peasant with wild eyes.
bold and gloriously hopeful faith,
dips his shirt into the red mud
sobbing from your head
and runs home to boil
the relic in water, Spirit’s recipe;
madness makes a healing soup
for children of belief.”
Fr William Hart McNichols 💮 January 2022

The Kenosis (self-emptying) of St Bernadette of Lourdes
“Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.”
Barry Lopez from his fable “Crow and Weasel”
“Wastefulness is the original Christian attitude...The entire Passion occurs under the sign of this complete self-wasting of God’s love for the world.”
From “Light of the Word” by Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar
“The Virgin used me as a broom to remove dust. When the work is done, the broom is put behind the door again. “
St Bernadette
“At my third request she (the Blessed Mother) put on a serious air and appeared to humiliate herself. She joined her hands, raising them above her breast. She looked towards heaven, then she slowly separated her hands, leaned towards me and said with a trembling voice: ‘I am the Immaculate Conception.’ “
From “Bernadette: The Only Witness” by Fr John Lynch, SM
“There was a child named Bernadette
I heard the story long ago
She saw the Queen of Heaven once
And kept the vision in her soul
No one believed what she had seen
No one believed what she heard
But there were sorrows to be healed
And mercy, mercy in this world...
We’ve been around, we fall, we fly
We mostly fall, we mostly run
And every now and then we try
To mend the damage that we’ve done
Tonight, tonight I just can’t rest
I’ve got this joy here inside my breast
To think that I did not forget
That child, that song of Bernadette...”
A truly inspiring, lovely song by the great Leonard Cohen (recorded beautifully by Jennifer Warnes in 1986)
In 1943 Jennifer Jones won the Oscar for her luminous portrayal of St Bernadette, in the film “The Song of Bernadette,” based on the 1941 novel of the same name by Franz Werfel. If you watch the incredible transformation on Jennifer Jones’ face when she first sees Our Lady of Lourdes, you see why she won. Her face goes from a shock-like fear, to disbelief or clearly bewildered...then into wonder and finally, total love. Her radiant face reflects the Woman she sees. It helps us all feel how we might feel if we were privileged to see the Mother of God. This icon was commissioned by the church of the Shrine of St Bernadette, here in Albuquerque in the early 1990’s. They asked for Bernadette to be in her religious habit of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers; the order she joined in 1866. I placed a candelabra behind her with 11 candles to signify the first time she saw Mary, February 11th, 1858. She is holding a bowl of water to signify the healing waters of Lourdes. When she was diagnosed with tuberculosis she refused the offer to be taken back from Nevers to Lourdes because she knew the healing waters were not for her. She is shown pouring them out of a bowl, symbolically emptying her life. She died on April 16, 1879 at the age of thirty five. St. John Paul II designated 11 February as World Day of the Sick in May of 1992. He wrote “a special time of prayer and sharing, of offering one’s suffering for the good of the Church and of reminding us to see in our sick brothers and sisters the face of Christ...” I’ll end with a most hopeful quote from St Bernadette: “If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again. We can always start all over again. Enjoy God’s amazing opportunities bestowed on us. Have faith in Him always.”
Fr Bill McNichols 💟 11 February 2022
Today is the XXX World Day of the Sick (in honor of the first apparition of the Blessed Mother at Lourdes , to St Bernadette , 11 February 1858)
“Jesus’ invitation to be merciful like the Father has particular significance for healthcare workers. I think of all those physicians, nurses,laboratory technicians, the support staff and the caretakers of the sick, as well as the numerous volunteers who donate their precious time to assist those who suffer. People who have made their service a mission. Because your hands, which touch the suffering flesh of Christ, can be a sign of the merciful hands of the Father.”
Pope Francis