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The Infant of Prague : (a statue of Spanish origin brought to Prague c.1556)
“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.” (Matthew 6:33)
“The more you honor me, the more I will bless you.”
The Infant of Prague
“The image of the Master, one glimpse and we are in love.”
Zen Master Ikkyu (1394-1481)
“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.”
Isaiah 11:6
“This passage is a discussion of the Day of the Lord. This is the day that Christians look forward to when Jesus Christ will remove the curse of sin from our world and restore peace to all of creation. As a result of this peace, wolf, lion, lamb, cobra, calf, bear, and children will all live in harmony...Let us stop using this phrase as if the Bible tells us that children will one day lead adults...If we are going to quote Bible verses, let us quote them in context. Isaiah 11:6-9 is a wonderful passage that describes what God has in store for this fallen world that has so much violence, fear and death. It will be a world of peace.”
Tim Farley : “Theologically Speaking” (2009)
I began my formal “illustration vocation” with my first book, “The Cathedral Book” by Maureen Gallagher, published by Paulist Press in 1982. I was so excited to get my first copy that I took the bus to Paulist Press in Mahwah, New Jersey and honestly, had an ecstatic, tear filled look, on the way back to Brooklyn where I was living. It seemed next to impossible to get a book as an art student, but after getting one book, Paulist Press hired me for more. Even during the years I spent as an AIDS Hospice chaplain, I continued to illustrate children’s books, and a few for adults. I talked my dear friend Fr Jim Janda (1936-2010) into writing a trilogy of legends about the Child Jesus, that were actually parables about the kingdom of God; “The Legend of St Christopher,” “The Legend of the Holy Child of Atocha,” and (the legend of the Infant of Prague) “Appointments With The Little King.” In many ways I think illustrating children’s books during those painful years of never ending death, really kept me hope filled, young and alive.
I am aware how many people find the very idea of the Infant of Prague almost embarrassingly incredulous. But I have always been attracted to the inherent contradiction of the infant king, because of the Gospel reversal of everything we deem important in the Beatitudes of Jesus (Matthew 5, Luke 6).
Part of the tradition of the Infant statue, is that you cannot buy one for yourself. He has to be given to you or “appear.” During the late 1980’s I held Healing Masses, once a month, for people with HIV-AIDS at Our Lady Guadalupe Church on 14th street in Manhattan; walking distance from St Vincent’s Hospital. I had been working on the illustrations for “Appointments With The Little King” and the legend was very much a part of my life. In many stores around the section of little Italy in Manhattan, there were statues of the Little King in the windows and I was tempted to buy one. But one night I showed up for the healing Mass, and there he was, on a table in the sacristy. Someone had brought him to me not knowing a thing about the book I was illustrating. There are many references in the Gospel about becoming like a child (not childish but childlike) and to me it boils down to being open, capable of receiving the surprises of gratuitous grace, humble and ... always “looking up” - mouth wide open like a baby bird, waiting for God to feed you. The legend of the Spanish statue being brought to Prague is the story in the children’s book and it was a real delight to draw the pictures. My dear friend JJ, (Fr J Janda) wove another story within the legend, of the child appearing in different places round the world startling people and in some cases being outright rejected. These surprise visits JJ called, having an “appointment” with the little king.
This icon was commissioned as a wedding gift for a young married couple. It was so joyful for me to return to the Little King. I robed him in the healing color of green (Hildegard’s “viriditas”) and placed 3 Japanese style birds in flight in a yellow medallion on his breast. These are for the continual movements or (see a beautiful theology of Fr Bernard Lonergan, SJ) the “processions” of the Holy Trinity. He holds the orb of the world in one hand and blesses you with the other. One bare foot is stepping out of the Icon; he’s on his way to an appointment with you.
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb down the middle of the great city. On each side of the river stood the Tree of Life,
bearing twelve crops of fruit for every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of nations...and night will be abolished they will not need lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will be shining upon them...The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’ ... I am indeed coming soon. Amen: come, Lord Jesus.”
The Apocalypse (Revelation) chapter 22
Maranatha ‼️ Come Lord Jesus !
Fr Bill McNichols 💮Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe 2021

St Albert the Great : Patron of Scientists and Students (1206-1280)
“The moment he is able to in the morning, he enters into his contemplation. And it is in contemplation that he then goes to Mass. He thus allows himself in his contemplation to be led by just what the Mass of the day offers to him, for example, a visit, and seeks to illuminate the situation that occurs there in contemplation. He has a great devotion to the Mother of the Lord and sees her very much as the contemplative of the Son.”
From “Book Of All Saints” by Adrienne von Speyr
“On December 16, 1941, Pope Pius XII designated St Albert the Great as patron of all who engage in scientific studies. As such, he is the special saint for researchers, technologists, and all who engage professionally in any of the sciences, as well as of those who study science...St Albert, from his heavenly eminence, can appreciate exactly the task of scientific research. He did a great deal of it himself, not only in one subject, but in the whole field of science, which today is divided into so many specialties. St Albert’s specialty was no less than ‘everything created.’ He wrote on botany, mineralogy, astronomy, physics, chemistry, anthropology, cosmography, and other subjects. No single science escaped his attention.”
From “The 35 Doctors of the Church” by Christopher Rengers, OFM, Cap.
I cannot fully explain why, but November has always been my favorite month. It may be that that one of my mentors and a dear friend, the late poet and playwright, Fr Jim Janda, taught me to see into the beautifully muted colors of late autumn. November also begins with the Feast of All Saints, then the Holy Souls. In this month we also celebrate many saints I love, ... Andrew, Martin de Porres, Charles, Martin of Tours, Elizabeth of Hungary, Hugh of Lincoln (with his pet swan), Stanislaus, Padre Miguel Pro, Catherine of Alexandria ,Catherine Laboure’, Margaret, Gertrude, Mother Cabrini, Philippine, Dorothy Day (to name a few !) and Albert, whose feast on November 15th is exactly 40 days to Christmas.
I am full of admiration for St Albert precisely because he was interested in everything God created. It’s difficult to imagine any of the saints, engaging in such widespread interests, except St Hildegard of Bingen, also a Doctor of the Church, who died about 27 years before Albert was born. Albert is also remembered for being the teacher/mentor to St Thomas Aquinas, and defending Thomas ... “In 1277 he traveled to Paris to uphold the recently condemned good name and writings of Thomas Aquinas, who had died a few years before, and to defend certain Aristotelian doctrines that both he and Thomas held to be true... His importance for medieval science essentially consists in his bringing Aristotelianism to the fore against reactionary tendencies in contemporary theology... He was the most prolific writer of his century and was the only scholar of his age to be called ‘the Great’; this title was used even before his death.” (from the Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica)
Now it almost goes without saying that at this very moment, there are wild, often irrational debates, about science due to the present pandemic. I wish I was scientific enough to defend a Jesuit high school and college graduate like Dr Anthony Fauci, who was born on Christmas Eve in 1940. I became aware of him during my life in New York, amidst the AIDS pandemic, when he began his work as Director of NIAID In 1984. I wish I had met him because at that time we all admired his dedication and compassion. Everything I know or have seen of him tells me he sees his work as a Vocation, informed by his Jesuit training (“a man for others”) and Catholicism. Like St Albert, Dr Fauci is interested in just about everything. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Disease Society of America, the American Association of Immunologists, and author or coauthor, or editor of more than 1,300 scientific publications, including several textbooks. So this year, on St Albert’s Day, we give thanks for all contemplatives, doctors, nurses, scientists, pharmacists ... anyone in the field of medicine ... and all those giving their lives now, in often dangerous situations, so that we can continue to live.
Now here is the prayer for Day 1 of a novena to St Albert...
“God, You made St Albert great by enabling him to combine human wisdom and Divine Faith. Help us so to adhere to his teaching that we may progress in the sciences and at the same time come to a deeper understanding and love of You.
Amen”
Fr William Hart Dominic McNichols 💮 November 2021

The Souls of the Just Are In the Hands of God
“...Only me beside you. Still you’re not alone.
No one is alone, truly. No one is alone.
Sometimes people leave you
Halfway through the wood. Others may deceive you.
You decide what’s good. You decide alone, but
no one is alone... Someone is on your side.
Someone else is not. While you’re seeing your side,
maybe you forgot; they are not alone. No one is alone.
Hard to see the light now, just don’t let it go. Things will
come out right now. We can make it so.
Someone is on your side, no one is alone...”
From “Into the Woods” by Stephen Sondheim 1986
“...And sorrow, sorrow like rain.
Sorrow to go, and sorrow, sorrow returning...”
Ezra Pound
It’s impossible to overestimate the daily effects of all the deaths and catastrophes we are living with at this moment now, and have been for years. Don’t run away from this... please, but contemplate what you believe is happening and why us ? Why now ? I always tell people at Mass, we were born to live now, this is not an accident. God knows we are capable of making some difference now. Think of the people born in the eras of the Medieval devastating plagues, or just recently, WW 1 or WW 11 ? They must have wondered why us ? Why now ? On November 2 we celebrate the feast of the Holy Souls and we are watching millions of souls rising into God every day. As if every day was 9/11. As the song says....... “over and over I keep going over the world we knew...”
I remember living in Manhattan during the beginning of the AIDS pandemic and I felt my vocation was to be a “midwife to the second birth.” At that time Stephen Sondheim came out with another one of his masterpieces- always centered on the cultural kairos times- and I was blessed to see the original broadway version of “Into the Woods,” in the late 1980’s, several times. I’d go to broadway shows as gifts from/with young men who were afflicted with AIDS and I saw many shows, but none affected me more than this show. The words, “...sometimes people leave you, halfway through the wood...” were too close for comfort, and would wound/afflict my heart so deeply. I never got used to these young men dying by the thousands but I accepted my vocation to accompany them right to the doorway. Often they would die before I could get back to the hospital, and when I went in to see them, and found they had gone, I’d go outside in a kind of instantaneously, violently forced trance. I would take to the streets and walk miles up and down Manhattan; to get my bearings. I was disoriented; vertiginous. It was as if some huge part of me left too, or wanted to, and I needed to be grounded. Walking was my way of pounding the earth as an assurance that I was still here . I identified with the image of the tarot card “le pendu” or “the hanged man” - halfway on earth and halfway in the realm beyond life. I have never gotten back to the way I was before that time; fully on earth. My heart collapse in 2012 exacerbated this precarious state and I have accepted it as a “supra-normal, ab-normal,” condition. I mean it’s how we all live right now; part here, part there. I imagine that anyone who had these daily experiences would feel exactly the same way. The young men who were dying would often tell me that their relatives or someone they loved who had passed, was visiting them and “coaching” them into the process of coming home, of letting go. Almost any hospice doctor or nurse will tell you exactly the same things.
I have always been attracted, since childhood, to the devotion around the Holy Souls and you can read about this in the lives of many of our saints like Catherine of Genoa, Anne Catherine Emmerich, Padre Pio, Adrienne von Speyr, or the Austrian mystic, Maria Simma. But you don’t have to go into these Catholic visionaries to understand that we ache to remember and communicate with those we have deeply loved. I have often read that the feeling on their part, is mutual . They are literally waiting to hear from us and are willing, longing, to help us out in any way they can, for our brief time on earth. For some people the accounts of these holy people visited by souls, are terribly frightening, and so, there is no need for that. The best thing you can possibly do is to have Masses offered for them and to pray for and with them yourselves.
Every year on November 2, I place a large scrapbook filled with pictures and names of people who have passed into God, beneath the Eucharist at Mass and pray for them. Because we ultimately live forever, this passing is part of our continuing lives. The wildly veeringly/creative psychologist, Carl Jung thought of death as a Wedding. Right before he died, he asked a friend to drive him around his native villages, and the car was joyfully halted by several Weddings. This delighted him.
“Hard to see the light now, just don’t let it go. Things will come out right now. We can make it so...”
I love the last Requiem Mass ever composed for the dead by Maurice Durufle’. All the ones after Durufle’ are concert pieces. It is so soft, gentle, and like a small boat floating peacefully down a stream. Not at all the grand and portentous electrifying Mozart or Verdi. Durufle’ is a premonition of Vatican II and it’s theology of death-into-life. Just listen; you’ll hear and see. White vestments instead of black. An emphasis on life everlasting. It’s just utterly beautiful, and comforting.
“May light eternal shine upon them O Lord, with your saints forever, for you are Merciful. Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord. And may perpetual light shine upon them. With your saints forever, for you are Merciful. With your saints forever, for you are Merciful.”
Fr William Hart Dominic McNichols 💮 November 2021

Jesus, Listen and Pray
This is a very small image, 5”x7” - the first one I had the energy to paint after open heart surgery, in 2012. I had seen a card with Jesus in the lotus position praying and I knew I needed to go into it more, by painting/living with Him.
“The Jesuit Bernard Lonergan was one of the first theologians to recognize that God’s revelation is embedded in the personal narrative. The concrete stories of women and men carry within them the traces of the divine. As we come to know flesh-and-blood people in all their mystery, and all their ordinariness, we come to know more of the Creator and Redeemer and Sustaining Spirit. So it is with Monika Hellwig...As the Carmelite poet Jessica Powers noted, to live in the Spirit of God is to be a listener. Monika listened deeply and well.”
Dolores Leckey from the book “Monika Hellwig: The People’s Theologian”
I have not read all of Monika’s work but what I have has moved me to listen and pray. She has the inspired Art of writing about deep theological issues that are understandable and it seems to me, in a “clean” way, of having no agenda. I think the best Christian apologists have this grace. They assume your natural intelligence and don’t have to coerce you because their clarity is both scholarly and lovingly invitational. They trust the Holy Spirit. In these days of hourly rancor, that often explodes into some form of violence, such a person as Monika was/is a minor miracle. I’m hoping I will get the chance to paint her image too.
I’ve met many people, throughout my life who start off a conversation by putting you on the defensive. I’ve always wondered what do they have to hide ? Because this tactic actually kills any chance for a conversation. I don’t really know, maybe that’s the whole point ? Conversation assumes a vulnerability on both sides, a true listening and responding with a word or two that shows you’ve heard, an immediate rebuttal (and most of us are guilty of this) is another conversation killer. Oddly enough, I once read a very interesting take on this many years ago in ,maybe (?) chapter 5, of “The Celestine Prophecy.” I think it was about the reason people take swipes, verbal snipers. It might have answered that question, but it didn’t provide any lasting comfort.
The Gospels have several stories of Jesus going off to be alone and pray. And I was so taken with the image of Piero Pasolini’s Jesus, (The Gospel According To St Matthew) Enrique Irazoqui, that he became a living image for me from age 19, onward...of Jesus in a prayer. To talk with God, one has to be completely vulnerable and honest...
“Today, perhaps your soul can sense Jesus saying, Be unafraid to know yourself. Be fearless in your inward search. God’s care for you never wavers. No threat can silence God’s whispered call to you. No shadowy valley you walk through can extinguish the light that leads you to salvation. Hypocrites cannot damn you because God has deemed you precious. You count. So take courage. Come clean. Tell God, who never changes, everything you know about yourself, and more will be revealed. You will be counted among my disciples, one of my beloved friends.”
Rachel Srubas writing about St Teresa of Avila
Fr Bill McNichols 💮 October 2021

The Bride : The Church
“You are the ones who have stood by me faithfully in my trials...”. Luke 22: 28
Today happens to be the feast of Pope St John XXIII, this is also the feast of the
Maternity of the Mother of God. And, this is the day in 1962, Pope John chose to convene the Second Vatican Council, the first one in 92 years. I was aware and alive to the symbols of the Church, but was always drawn to the ship, or Barque of St Peter. Most people imagine the Church as Michelangelo’s St Peters Basilica in Rome, or the thousands of beautiful structures of every age around the world. But only later, did I truly encounter the Bride. She is a poignant symbol in the Hebrew Bible, with the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea and Ezekiel. And in the New Testament Matthew, Mark, John, 2 Corinthians, Revelation 19 and 21, but especially in the Letter to the Ephesians 5: 22-33. My dear friend and mentor Fr Daniel Berrigan, SJ named his first published book of essays, “The Bride : Essays in the Church,” Macmillan, 1959. In 1996 we would begin collaborating on a book about my icons published by Orbis Press, four years later in 2000, and I titled it “The Bride: Images of the Church.”
In 1992, I was two years into my Apprenticeship in Iconography when the child abuse scandal broke out in New Mexico. It was so overwhelmingly devastating for the victims, and destroyed any positive connection to the church, forever. And the priests, that were innocent of any abuse, all naturally went into an isolated state of shock and grief. I had to find an image of the Church that could never be abused or even touched, in any harmful way. I read the magnificent book, “The Splendor of the Church” (written lovingly while he himself was silenced by the church) by Cardinal Henri de Lubac, SJ. I began to see the Bride as the only possible image of the Church that I could feel and ponder safely inside me.
In 2008 I was given my first exhibit of solely original icons and images, at the Millicent Rogers Museum In Taos, I named, “Silence in the Storm.” For this exhibit I painted this image of the pregnant Bride, surrounded by a protecting radiance which shielded her from any and all evil. And this is my firm belief that nothing demonic can ever come near her essence. She is pregnant with always new members, new souls. She is led by the Holy Spirit and covered by the hand of the Father. She upholds a Medallion of the Holy Child, after the beautiful work for the Ospedale degli Innocenti, in Florence, by the Renaissance master, Andrea della Robbia.
Fr Bill McNichols 💮 11 October 2021

St Francis Wounded-Winter-Light
“He was always occupied with Jesus: Jesus he bore in his heart, mouth, eyes,ears, and in his entire body: Jesus.”
Blessed Thomas of Celano
“Put yourself out Brother Francis,” I used to cry. “Put yourself out before you burn up the world !”
Nikos Katzanzakis
This was originally a pen and ink illustration I made after returning from Assisi, which I later made into an icon commissioned by St Francis College in Brooklyn.
Francis came very early into my life as my favorite saint. My parents had traveled to his US city, San Francisco, and returned with an 8” porcelain white statue of a beardless young Francis with arms outstretched and a bird on each arm. Later I saw a holy card type version of the Esteban Murillo painting of St Francis beneath the Cross in one of my 4 “Miniature Lives of the Saints “ by Fr Daniel Lord, SJ. There was also a beautiful statue of him near the Franciscan Church of St Elizabeth of Hungary (herself, co-patron, along with St Louis the IX, of the Third Order Franciscans ) in downtown Denver.
To make a long story shorter, I would end up meeting the Third Order Franciscans in the Bronx, New York and being admitted as a member in 1984. After joining, I went on a pilgrimage to Italy to the graves of my patrons, St Ignatius, Francis and (my Confirmation name) Dominic. While Ignatius was convalescing in Loyola at his brothers estate, he had wondered, “What if I should do what St Francis did ? What if I should act like St Dominic ?” It was in March 84 and Assisi was so cold I wore my clothes in bed. For some odd reason I had expected Assisi would be much much warmer. One day I looked out my window and thought, O my God, Francis is outside in the snow barely covered p, and he’s suddenly caught in rapturous love, by the intricate artistry of the Creator, in a falling snowflake. When I was leaving Assisi I wrote this poem of my experiences, to say goodbye...
Reflections from Assisi : “Ciao Francesco”
Ciao Francesco of Assisi
whose bloody footprints in winter
(like carnelians cast upon snow)
can still disrupt Assisi….
Ciao Francesco of the Porziuncola
that blessed door too narrow
for me to enter, but led by you
I ask three things…….
Ciao Francesco of San Damiano
who led me along the same
road of renunciation
(while the silver olive trees wept)
and showed me that we
leave all our fathers…
Ciao Francesco of the Carceri
whose food was to do the
will of God, and when I
saw this—too true—I ran
all the way down Mt. Subasio…
Ciao Francesco of the Chiesa Nuova
your lively friar-son showed me
the prison where your father
tried to keep you and then
sensing my sins he let down his cape for me to walk on
--this still hurts…
Ciao Francesco who fought the devils
and guarded my own room with
Leo’s cherished blessing—while the
shutters rattled from the nightmare
howls, and the dark dreams
threatened to turn me back……
Ciao Francesco of La Verna
(my dearest home)
you climbed those rocks
to bemoan your sins and
left that mountain so transfigured,
so holy, that in that place
I could scarcely breathe…
Ciao Francesco of the Basilica
your body is the Feast of Fools,
parades, endless masses, cameras, dances
songs, candles, and those weeping
because they have put you up so high,
we can’t even touch you
for healing anymore….
Ciao Francesco wounded-winter light
you are stricken with love
by God’s smallest creatures…
Ciao Francesco of the Via Crucis
winter in Assisi is more harsh, silent
and bitter than I ever imagined,
and as I complained and nagged you
for comfort, you walked with me,
(like Jesus at Emmaus wounds aglow)
and taught me the grace of
Compassion….
Ciao Francesco of Assisi,
guide books, tapestries, and paintings
say you are dead,
but you still lead
the angels in song
at the Bronx Little Portion.
“Ciao Chiara”
Ciao Chiara of San Damiano
you led me up stone stairs
to the upper room and unbolted
the door to ancient visions,
and showed me how love
and the Holy Eucharist
put invaders to flight….
Ciao Chiara, Lady Poverty,
you are on display as some venerable mummy;
Your skeleton still observing
Stark humility and holy poverty….
Ciao Chiara who cried the Passion
every day (hope against hope)
and who bathed our father’s
wounds and kissed them when
he went Home…
Ciao Chiara de Favarone
the Spirit hovers in the mist
outside your basilica and
sits like manna on the olive trees
and the Spirit and the Bride say:
“God is enough.”

St Faustina Kowalska : Apostle of the Divine Mercy (25 August 1905- 5 October 1938)
“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
“Heart of My Heart, be filled with joy.” #1669
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
This year I had so many choices for the last days of September and the first few days of October. The 3 Archangels, St Therese of Lisieux, the Holy Protection of the Mother of God, the Guardian Angels, St Francis and Faustina. 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 she was, I chose Faustina.
On October 5, 1938, Sister Faustina whispered to Sister Felicia, “The Lord will take me today.”
Fr William Hart McNichols 💮 28 September 2021 feast of “Good King Wenceslas 👑”

St Padre Pio : Mother Pelican (25 May 1887-23 September 1968)
“I will ask the Lord to let me remain at the threshold of Paradise, and I will not enter until the last of my spiritual children has entered...Once I take a soul on, I also take their entire family as my spiritual children.”
St Pio of Pietrelcina
“O loving Pelican! O Jesus Lord! Unclean am I but cleanse me in your blood.”
St Thomas Aquinas
“Surely he has borne our infirmities, and carried our sorrows. And we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins. The chastisement of peace was upon him: and by his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53
“This wounding is for healing, now the hand raises only to cherish, to bless, to praise.”
Fr James Janda from the play “Julian of Norwich”
“The name Pietrelcina is of ancient, uncertain origin...One of the more colorful stories is that an old foundation stone (pietra) was found in the ancient castle of the town, and on it were carved a hen (pucina) and a brood of chicks, hence Pretapucina.”
From “The Holy Man on the Mountain” later changed to “Padre Pio and America” by Frank Rega
I have read so so many books on Padre Pio, and I never tire of reading about him, and am always lifted and filled with spiritual joy and hope, when I read anything about his life. When I was a little boy he was still alive, and I remember looking into a book at Daleidens Catholic Church Goods Store, in downtown Denver, with pictures of his wounds which actually frightened me, but I never forgot those pictures of him. The wounds, or stigmata, have been a theme in my life and art ever since childhood. Later I would be drawn to the healing power of the wounds and the healing that has come from my (our) wounds if you accept them and fend off the bitterness and tragedy of injustice and rejection. Much later in my thirties, when I became a Third Order Franciscan in the Bronx, New York, I read and was deeply instructed, and deeply moved by the story that during the last two years of his life (1224-1226) the flabbergasted and astonished friars who changed St Francis’ bloody bandages, would dip the blood-soaked cloths in buckets of water and feed the water to sick people and animals, and all were healed by this “Mother’s Blood,” ( when he died the Poor Clare’s cried out, “What will we do without our father, without our mother, Francis?!”) I don’t think, to my limited knowledge, that any male saint has been referred to as father and mother. But Our Lord Jesus has these most tender qualities, and in his final grieving, referred to himself as a Mother Hen. (Matthew 23:37)
Let me suggest just two wonderful books:
“The Holy Souls : Viva Padre Pio!” and
“Send Me Your Guardian Angel”
Both by Padre Alessio Parente, OFM, CAP.
Padre Pio received the visible wounds of Jesus on 20 September 1916. He bore these wounds for 50 years and when he died, they disappeared and his flesh became soft as a child. Truly, just about any of the many, many books on Padre Pio will feed you. And you can never stop learning from and leaning on him for vital strength and support. He’s one of those “911 Saints” like Therese of Lisieux , who respond immediately. Because of the story of St Francis and the healing water from his wounds, I decided to portray Padre Pio holding a medallion of the ancient, pure legend, of the Mother Pelican who, when her chicks were starving, would open her side and feed them her own blood. We are actually all nourished in the womb by our Mother’s blood. But I wondered would Padre Pio approve ? Then right after I finished the Icon (early 90’s) I saw a VHS cassette of his last Mass at San Giovanni Rotondo , 22 September 1968. As the Friars helped him down from the altar, he turned his back to be led away, and on the back of his chasuble (vestment) was embroidered an image of the Mother Pelican. I felt okay then.
A most blessed feast of Padre Pio ! and why not ask him to become one of his spiritual children, all you have to do is ask. “🎶 Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the doors shall be opened. Ask and it shall be given, and the love come a’ tricklin’ down!🎶” ( “Love Come A’tricklin’ Down”) recorded by the Womenfolk 1964)
Fr William Hart McNichols 💮 20 September 2021

St Hildegard of Bingen : Doctor of the Church (1098-1179)
“Holy Spirit, you, quickening life, prime mover of the universe and root of all creation, cleanse your creation from impurity, heal the guilt and anoint the wounds. O radiant life, worthy of praise, awaken and reawaken the universe!”
St Hildegard
I have this little book of prayers of Hildegard with my teacher’s (Friar Robert Lentz, OFM) masterful icon on the cover, published by Franciscan Media, 1989.
They have been gathered by the former prioress for 23 years, of St Hildegard’s Abbey, in Rudesheim-Eibingen, Germany, Cecilia Bonn, OSB. I noticed that looking through them, I could have chosen just about any prayer and it would speak to us today. Such is the power of Hildegard’s connection to God. I could go into so many things about my relationship to her dating back to the first cassette of her songs I received as a gift in 1986. But let me send you to a few living experts and scholars, who will help you to find her on your own. My favorites:
“Voice of the Living Light : Hildegard of Bingen” edited by Barbara Newman, 1998
“Vision : The Life and Music of Hildegard von Bingen” 1995
By Barbara Newman and commentary on her visions by Fr Matthew Fox
“Vision : The Music of Hildegard von Bingen” CD, 1995
And once again ...
“Vision : From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen” Zeitgeist Films, 2009
Margarethe von Trotta’s beautiful film using Hildegard’s actual words for the bulk of the film and starring the unforgettable Barbara Sukowa.
I watched that film over 10 times mostly when I was recovering from my heart collapse in 2012. It became so familiar that I no longer had to look at the subtitles anymore. As I write this on the Thursday evening before Hildegard’s feast, the 17th of September, the next day, “demonstrations” are planned round the country in support of the people who stormed the United States Capitol and wounded over 100 Capitol police on January 6. I have heard the best recreation of that day, is a 40 minute film called “Inside the Capitol Riot : An Exclusive Video Investigation.” After my work in the AIDS Hospice in New York (83-90) I couldn’t watch any movies about AIDS. And I haven’t been able to watch the video investigation of the violent riot for the same reasons.
When I got this commission to paint/write Hildegard’s icon (around 2005?) I chose an image of her own painting, from her book, “Scivias,” called “The Zeal of God.” I’ll let Fr Fox, an Episcopal Priest, now tell you about the image, though I did not include the walls, just the fiery angelic head.
“...Where the two walls meet, there is a ‘zealous red head.’ Hildegard describes this head as having ‘a fiery color, shining red like a flame of fire. It had a terrifying face.’ It had three wings ‘of amazing breadth and length which were white as a shining cloud’ and these wings grew larger as they beat and beat. The head itself did not speak and did not move. Christ, however, spoke. ‘This head signifies the zeal of the Lord,’ Hildegard says. The Zeal of God is essentially justice-making; it comes about when we are aroused by injustice. ‘In mirror (that is speculative) knowledge and in human work there is a common boundary of injustice,’ Hildegard tells us. God cares so much for justice that in the past, under the Old Law of Abraham and Moses as well as in the present, under the New Law of Christ, the divine zeal always and continues to be for justice.” One of my favorite (almost impossibly rational at this time) speakers, Beau of the Fifth Column, always ends his videos with “Just a thought.”
“O Shepherd of souls,
O first Word, through which we were all created, may it truly please you, to free us of our misery and from our brokenness.”
Doctor St Hildegard
16 September 2021

Our Lady of Sorrows
by Kathy Hendricks
I saw them as I entered the supermarket parking lot. A family of four crouched in the shade of a small tree. Two young boys sat with their mother and waved at passing cars. The father held a sign asking for assistance. I parked the car and made a mental note to buy something for them to eat before heading back home. My good intentions slipped away, however, as I made my way up and down the aisles, searching for all of the items on my list. As I exited the store the sight of the family brought me up short. I unloaded my bags and pulled out the lunch meat and rolls I bought for lunch with a friend. After handing over my meager offerings, along with a few dollars, one of the boys looked up and smiled. “God bless you,” he said.
Of all the feasts to honor Mary, the one I love most is Our Lady of Sorrows (September 15). It recalls not only the sufferings she experienced in her life, but also the way she consoles others in the midst of theirs. Mary, a woman who praised God for the blessing bestowed upon her, was not defeated by the sorrow that pierced her heart. She gave herself over to God’s grace, allowing herself to be transformed in the process. Her pierced and wounded heart is a sign of blessing and hope. Thus we turn to her in our own need, asking for her prayers on our behalf.
Mary’s response to our cries of pain is not unlike the little boy in the parking lot. It is a reminder that God’s merciful blessing is given to all of us, particularly in times of our greatest need. It is also a call to open our hearts to others, to be people who know sorrow and allow it to make us more generous and caring. What we have to offer may seem a pittance given the vast sum of human misery across the globe. The life and witness of this humble woman, however, should remind us that no act of charity is insignificant and that each extension of kindness is one more ripple in the vast expanse of love that consoles us all.