Preview: 25th Anniversary of St. Thomas More as Patron Saint of Politicians

Twenty-five years ago, Pope Saint John Paul II proclaimed Saint Thomas More the Patron Saint of Politicians and Statesmen, so we will remember this 2025 anniversary on the Son Rise Morning Show on Monday, October 27. I'll be on at my usual time, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

Pope John Paul II acted quickly after he received the petition for this action, "begun by former President of Italy Francesco Cossiga and signed by leaders from around the world" according to The Center for Thomas More Studies. The “Petition for Sir Thomas More as Patron of Statesmen,” is dated September 25, 2000, and by the end of October that year, the Pope issued his Motu Proprio Apostolic Letter "Proclaiming Saint Thomas More Patron of Statesmen and Politicians".

The petition highlighted and connected several attributes of More's life: "as [a] humanist, apologist, judge, legislator, diplomat and statesman" because he personified "the idea that holiness is the fulness of humanity". It also emphasized the connections between More and the laity and between More's lay holiness and the Pope's own ideas about holiness among the laity:

Precisely among the laity, the growing appeal of this extraordinary man speaks to us of one whose presence becomes, with the passing of time, ever more vivid, more striking, and more permanently timely.

He shines forth as an example of that unity of life which Your Holiness has called a characteristic of lay holiness: "The laity's unity of life is enormously important: for, indeed, they must sanctify themselves in their ordinary professional and social life. In order to be able to respond to their calling, then, the laity should look upon the activity of daily life as an opportunity for union with God and the fulfillment of His will and for service of their fellow man." (Christifideles laici, n. 17). In Saint Thomas More, there was no sign of that split between faith and culture, between timeless principles and daily life, which the Second Vatican Council laments as "among of the gravest errors of our time" (Gaudium et spes, n. 43)

The petition also emphasized More's service to his country as judge and statesmen for higher purposes:

Politics was not, for him, a matter of personal advantage, but rather an often difficult form of service, for which he had prepared himself not only through the study of the history, laws and culture of his own country, but also and especially through the examination of human nature, its grandeur and weaknesses, and of the ever-imperfect conditions of social life. For him, politics was the overflow of a tremendous effort of comprehension. As a consequence, he was able to show the proper hierarchy of ends to be pursued by government, in the light of the primacy of Truth over power and Goodness over utility. He always acted from the perspective of final ends, those which the shifting sands of historical circumstance can never nullify. Hence the strength which sustained him in the face of martyrdom.

In the conclusion the petitioners presented More's life and death as a model for service and integrity:

the lesson of flight from success and easy compromises in the name of fidelity to irrevocable principles, upon which depend the dignity of man and the justice of civil society — a lesson truly inspiring for all who, on the threshold of the new Millennium, feel themselves called to expose and eradicate the snares laid by new and hidden tyrannies. 

Therefore, certain that we act for the good of future society and trusting that our petition will find a benevolent welcome with Your Holiness, we ask that Sir Thomas More, Saint and Martyr, faithful servant of the King, but God's first, be proclaimed "Patron of Statesmen."

In response, Pope Saint John Paul II issued his proclamation, recounting aspects of More's life and concurring throughout with much that the petitioners had argued--even echoing their citation of his Christifideles laici!

He concurred with the petitioners and even found more pertinent contemporary reasons for granting their request:

There are many reasons for proclaiming Thomas More Patron of statesmen and people in public life. Among these is the need felt by the world of politics and public administration for credible role models able to indicate the path of truth at a time in history when difficult challenges and crucial responsibilities are increasing. Today in fact strongly innovative economic forces are reshaping social structures; on the other hand, scientific achievements in the area of biotechnology underline the need to defend human life at all its different stages, while the promises of a new society — successfully presented to a bewildered public opinion — urgently demand clear political decisions in favour of the family, young people, the elderly and the marginalized.

In this context, it is helpful to turn to the example of Saint Thomas More, who distinguished himself by his constant fidelity to legitimate authority and institutions precisely in his intention to serve not power but the supreme ideal of justice. His life teaches us that government is above all an exercise of virtue. Unwavering in this rigorous moral stance, this English statesman placed his own public activity at the service of the person, especially if that person was weak or poor; he dealt with social controversies with a superb sense of fairness; he was vigorously committed to favouring and defending the family; he supported the all-round education of the young. His profound detachment from honours and wealth, his serene and joyful humility, his balanced knowledge of human nature and of the vanity of success, his certainty of judgement rooted in faith: these all gave him that confident inner strength that sustained him in adversity and in the face of death. His sanctity shone forth in his martyrdom, but it had been prepared by an entire life of work devoted to God and neighbour.

We're not the only ones remembering this anniversary: the Center for Thomas More Studies will launch an online video course on Friday ,October 31, “Thomas More: Leading Citizen,” for the 25th Anniversary of Thomas More as “Patron of Statesmen”. So check it out.

A question for us today might be: have many Catholic politicians and statesmen and -women responded to this patronage and conformed to St. Thomas More's model in the last 25 years?

Saint Thomas More, pray for us!

Saint John Paul II, pray for us!

The picture at the top and this picture are of the bas-relief of Saint Thomas More in the Basilica of Saint Clothilde in the Seventh Arrondisement of Paris, taken in 2012.

Preview: 2025 Anniversaries: Fisher and More, Canonized

Ninety years ago, Pope Pius XI presided over the canonizations of John Cardinal Fisher and Sir Thomas More in Vatican City on May 19, 1935. It's important to note that Pope Pius XI beatified many other martyrs from the English Reformation and Recusant era (136 on December 15, 1929, witnessed by G.K. Chesterton!) and canonized several other significant men and women during his pontificate (1922-1939): Saints Therese of Lisieux, John Eudes, John Vianney, Robert Bellarmine, Bernadette Soubirous, and the North American/Canadian Jesuit martyrs.

So we'll remember this anniversary on Monday, June 16 on the Son Rise Morning Show. So I'll be on the air at the usual time at about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

Before we go any further, you have to see this brief video of how men risked life and limb to illuminate Saint Peter's Basilica for the canonization Mass celebrated inside!!

Pope Pius XI spoke of Fisher and More in his homily as being: 

the bright champions and the glory of their nation, were given to the Christian people, in the words of the prophet Jeremias, “as a fortified city, and a pillar of iron, and a wall of brass.” Therefore they could not be shaken by the fallacies of heretics, nor frightened by the threats of the powerful. They were, so to speak, the leaders and chieftains of that illustrious band of men who, from all classes of the people and from every part of Great Britain, resisted the new errors with unflinching spirit, and in shedding their blood, testified their loyal devotedness to the Holy See.

Of Saint John Fisher, he contrasted the Cardinal Bishop's pastoral gentleness with his doctrinal and moral zeal:

Nevertheless, whilst he was meek and affable towards the afflicted and the suffering, whenever there was question of defending the integrity of faith and morals, like a second Precursor of the Lord, in whose name he gloried, he was not afraid to proclaim the truth openly, and to defend by every means in his power the divine teachings of the Church. You are well aware, Venerable Brethren and Beloved Sons, of the reason why John Fisher was called in judgment and obliged to undergo the supreme test of martyrdom. It was because of his courageous determination to defend the sacred bond of Christian marriage—a bond indissoluble for all, even for those who wear the royal diadem—and to vindicate the Primacy with which the Roman Pontiffs are invested by divine command.

Of the layman, Thomas More, he praised the continuity of his life and death:

Endowed with the keenest of minds and supreme versatility in every kind of knowledge, he enjoyed such esteem and favour among his fellow-citizens that he was soon able to reach the highest grades of public office. But he was no less distinguished for his desire of Christian perfection and his zeal for the salvation of souls. Of this we have testimony in the ardour of his prayer, in the fervour with which he recited, whenever he could, even the Canonical Hours, in the practice of those penances by which he kept his body in subjection, and finally in the numerous and renowned accomplishments of both the spoken and the written word which he achieved for the defence of the Catholic faith and for the safeguarding of Christian morality.

A strong and courageous spirit, like John Fisher, when he saw that the doctrines of the Church were gravely endangered, he knew how to despise resolutely the flattery of human respect, how to resist, in accordance with his duty, the supreme head of the State when there was question of things commanded by God and the Church, and how to renounce with dignity the high office with which he was invested. It was for these motives that he too was imprisoned, nor could the tears of his wife and children make him swerve from the path of truth and virtue.

Of course, this event was not without controversy: in Great Britain, King George V and Queen Mary were celebrating their Silver Jubilee; Catholics had just been granted more rights in 1929--being allowed to include bequests in their last wills and testaments for Masses said after their deaths for example--and this raising of two Englishmen who had defied their King and Parliament could raise some hackles. 

Arthur Cardinal Hinsley, the Archbishop of Westminster (1935-1943) even "asked the British Minister to the Holy See, Sir Charles Wingfield whether it would be possible for the king to send a special mission to the canonisation ceremony to highlight the special patriotic loyalty of the English and Welsh Catholic community" according to Moloney, Thomas, Westminster, Whitehall and the Vatican: the Role of Cardinal Hinsley 1938–1943, (London, 1985), p. 41." which could be considered rather bold!

But King George V, like his father Edward VII before him, had wanted the anti-Catholic denunciations to be removed from the Parliamentary/Coronation Oath he was required to make, and they were, in the "Act to alter the form of the Declaration required to be made by the Sovereign on Accession" in 1910, so perhaps he was not offended at all. But unlike the canonization of Saint John Henry Newman, which then Prince Charles attended, I found no indication that any official delegation attended in 1935.

You might recall that when Pope Benedict XVI made his state visit to Scotland and England during which he beatified John Henry Newman, there was a diplomatic incident, when an internal memo got out: 

The memo suggested that Pope Benedict XVI, during his visit, could launch a range of branded condoms, visit an abortion clinic, bless a gay marriage and apologise for the Spanish Armada.[3] The cover note to the memo read "Please protect; these should not be shared externally. The 'ideal visit' paper in particular was the product of a brainstorm which took into account even the most far-fetched of ideas."

Perhaps not all brainstorming sessions should be documented. The government apologized, of course.

Saint John Fisher, pray for us!

Saint Thomas More, pray for us! 

Note that 25 years ago, Pope Saint John Paul II declared St. Thomas More Patron of Statesmen and Politicians (October 31, 2000). The anniversaries just keep coming! And in my research for this post I found this article about St. Thomas More as one of the intercessors for Opus Dei!

Image Source (Public Domain): Portrait of King/Emperor George V by Arthur Stockdale Cope, 1933

2025 Anniversaries: Fisher and More, 490 Years Ago

As we resume our 2025 anniversaries series on the Son Rise Morning Show, the first of two significant anniversaries for Saint John Fisher and Saint Thomas More: 490 years since their martyrdoms on June 22 and July 6, respectively, in 1535. 

So I'll be on the Son Rise Morning Show on Monday, June 9 at the usual time at about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

We'll mark the second significant anniversary, the 90th of their canonizations in 1935, the following Monday, June 16.

In preparing for these anniversaries, I've read two books about Saint Thomas, by Travis Curtright and from Cluny Press, and I'm still reading a great book by Saint John Fisher, defending the Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. There's another new book translating Fisher's defense of Free Will against Martin Luther's ideas, but it's a little out of my price range (but very important). What these four books demonstrate is that these two martyrs were actively defending the teachings of the Catholic Church before and, in More's case, while they were already suffering for their defense of the Unity of the Church with the Vicar of Christ, the Pope.

What Travis Curtright's book emphasized for me is that Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell targeted Sir Thomas More in the November 1534 Supremacy Act and Treasons Act by eliminating his defense of Silence against disclosing his reasons for not swearing the required oaths. The Treasons Act described the reach of the law that silence could not protect, in the wish, the will, the desire, the imagination, the invention, the practice or attempt to harm Henry VIII's "dignity, title [Supreme Head of the Church in England] or name", finding guilty anyone who

do [sic] maliciously wish, will or desire by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's or the heirs apparent, or to deprive them of any of their dignity, title or name of their royal estates, or slanderously and maliciously publish and pronounce, by express writing or words, that the king should be heretic, schismatic, tyrant, infidel or usurper of the crown . . .

thus they presumed to read his mind and the law implied treason IN his silence. Curtright's comment: "Spoken malice could be determined by any rejection of or refusal to admit to the king's title in the Treasons Act, and this same language of sedition was part of More's attainder . . ." (p. 113) Spoken malice need not be be stated out loud; it was implied and implicated by silence (?!?). Note that the publication and pronouncement of this harm of the king, queen, or heir is mentioned after the word "or": the first violation is as bad as the second.

As Curtright notes, Saint John Fisher, good and holy bishop that he was, was not the lawyer that More was, and thus Sir Richard Rich tricked him into speaking against the King's ecclesiastical title and control of the Church in/of England: Rich promised that "Fisher would suffer no harm for" giving his opinion about the King's new title because Henry VIII "desired to hear it". Offering an opinion could be charged as treason. (footnote #33 to page 112 on page 199). This was entrapment.

Thomas More protested at his trial not only that he was never malicious but that he and Richard Rich were only conducting a legal "moot"--arguing a case without reference to a real case, a "what if" conditional scenario in the Tower of London, and he famously commented:

Can it therefore seem likely to your Lordships, that I should in so weighty an Affair as this, act so unadvisedly, as to trust Mr. Rich, a Man I had al­ways so mean an Opinion of, in reference to his Truth and Honesty, so very much before my So­vereign Lord the King, to whom I am so deeply indebted for his manifold Favours, or any of his noble and grave Counselors, that I should only impart to Mr. Rich the Secrets of my Conscience in respect to the King's Supremacy, the particular Secrets, and only Point about which I have been so long pressed to explain my self? which I never did, nor never would reveal; when the Act was once made, either to the King himself, or any of his Privy-Counselors, as is well known to your Honours, who have been sent upon no other ac­count at several times by his Majesty to me in the Tower. I refer it to your Judgments, my Lords, whether this can seem credible to any of your Lordships.

But both Fisher and More were found guilty at their trials. Through the years I've contributed to the Son Rise Morning Show program we've described their martyrdoms, but here's some narration of Saint John Fisher's last moments:

When he came out of the Tower, a summer morning's mist hung over the river, wreathing the buildings in a golden haze. Two of the Lieutenant's men carried him in a chair to the gate, and there they set him down, while waiting for the Sheriffs. The cardinal stood up and leaning his shoulder against a wall for support, opened the little New Testament he carried in his hand. "O Lord," he said, so that all could hear him, "this is the last time I shall ever open this book. Let some comforting place now chance to me whereby I, Thy poor servant, may glorify Thee in my last hour"----and looking down at the page, he read

Now this is eternal life: that they may know Thee, the one true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou has sent I have glorified Thee on earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do (John, 17:3-4).

Whereupon he shut the book, saying: "Here is even learning enough for me to my life's end." His lips were moving in prayer, as they carried him to Tower Hill. . . . 

He was offered a final chance to save his life by acknowledging the royal supremacy, but the Saint turned to the crowd, and from the front of the scaffold, he spoke these words: 

"Christian people, I am come hither to die for the faith of Christ's Catholic Church, and I thank God hitherto my courage hath served me well thereto, so that yet hitherto I have not feared death; wherefore I desire you help me and assist me with your prayers, that at the very point and instant of my death's stroke, and in the very moment of my death, I then faint not in any point of the Catholic Faith for fear; and I pray God save the king and the realm, and hold His holy hand over it, and send the king a good counsel."

Witnesses were shocked at how thin and weak he was and at how much blood poured out of his body after the beheading. His decollated body was left on the scaffold on Tower Hill. 

Saint John Fisher, pray for us!

Saint Thomas More, pray for us!

Image Source (Public Domain): Drawing of one the frescoes by Niccolò Circignani in the Venerable English College in Rome, depicting the executions of Saint John Fisher, Saint Thomas More, and Blessed Margaret Pole (which did not take place at the same time!) A=Fisher beheaded; B=More being beheaded; C=Pole, next to be beheaded.

Progress Report: "The Controversial Thomas More"

I tell you what: Travis Curtright--based on the first few chapters I've read--has written an extraordinary book about Saint Thomas More. It highlights crucial problems caused by the presentation of his "Tower Works" by his heirs, Rastell and Roper and Harpsfield, and how they--especially Rastell who edited More's works--have influenced biographers and even the modern editors of the collected works from Yale University Press. 

The received argument is that More eschewed controversy, about papal/Church and royal authority, about the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, and other matters once he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. As he prepared for death, either natural or judicial, he is thought to be completely focused on spiritual matters, meditating on the Four Last Things and preparing for Judgment.

But authority in the Church and the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist are spiritual matters, and as he cared passionately about the Truth, More had to continue to defend those Truths. For example, when I read The Sadness of Christ in the Vintage Spiritual Classics edition ten years ago, I noted:

Even as he devoted himself to meditating on the Agony in the Garden, with the drama of Jesus's three prayers to His Father to let the cup of suffering pass by, the sleeping Apostles neglecting His vigil, and the betrayal of Judas, More was thinking of his own day. He compares the sleeping Apostles to their negligent successors, the Bishops, in the midst of the attacks on the Church and  at the same time he contrasts the negligence of the Apostles to the activity and decision of Judas, betraying Jesus and turning Him over to the Sanhedrin. He was as much concerned by the betrayal of Jesus in the 16th century as he was [about] Judas' betraying kiss that first Holy Thursday night. He was concerned about the growing disbelief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and also about those "autodidacts" who interpreted Scripture on their own authority, not based on the teaching and Tradition of the universal Catholic Church.

(As Curtright states on page 23, in his discussion of how firmly More upheld the authority of the Pope and the Councils, Henry VIII had been such an autodidact when he argued that the passages from Leviticus condemning a brother marrying his brother's widow trumped the command from Deuteronomy for the brother to marry his brother's widow if she was childless "to continue the family line." Henry chose his interpretation over "the Church's traditional practice and . . . canon laws" in weighing the authority of these passages.)

Scholars through the centuries may have relied too much on Rastell's publication of More's works during the reign of Mary I and how he edited and interpreted them, Curtis explains. It's clear that Rastell produced these works for the Marian reign, even revising More's comments on the Nun of Kent, Elizabeth Barton, in that context. Since Barton had upheld the validity of Henry and Katherine of Aragon's marriage, More couldn't be seen as disparaging her. That's just an example of how Rastell "framed" More's involvement in the controversial issues of his last years as a private citizen and then prisoner in the Tower.

More (!) to come of course, as Curtis re-examines four major works:

A Treatise upon the Passion (1534, before entry to the Tower)
A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, 1534-1535
A Letter from Prison to Alice Alington, 1534
De tristitia Christi, c. 1535 (The Sadness of Christ)

Saint Thomas More, pray for us!

On my Reading Wish List: "The Controversial Thomas More"

I received an email from The Center for Thomas More Studies last Wednesday night and contacted my favorite bookstore, Eighth Day Books, the next morning to ask the proprietor to special order a paperback copy of The Controversial Thomas More: Politics, Polemics, and Prison Writings by Travis Curtright.

Curtright confronts the issue head-on, as the interview posted at the University of Notre Dame Press website notes: More is Controversial:

He is controversial in many ways. More’s trial and execution were part of a prolonged and public dispute over the laws passed by Parliament in 1534. His death, too, was subject to competing narratives about his character and conduct from early modern detractors and hagiographers.

Even today, More himself remains a subject of contention. Some argue for Thomas More, the humanist; others present Chancellor More, the heresy-burner; there is also Saint Thomas More, the martyr. Such multiple Mores are signs of how he remains a controversial figure.

I allude to all the above in the book’s title, but I write of “controversial More” in reference to him as a participant in and one subject to religious and political disputes even while a prisoner and during the last months of his life. He is an author of controversial literature. More wrote his way through the religious and political events in 1534-35, and he wished to convey his thinking on these contested matters to others before his death. Every major Tower Work, in effect, responds to a perceived threat to Church unity presented by the Henrician Reformation.

Please read the rest there.

There's an excerpt from the book here.

I look forward to reading it and posting a review here!

I don't think there should be any surprise that More is controversial (isn't everyone?) but I certainly want to read Curtright's thoughts about him and this crucial period of More's life.

Saint Thomas More, pray for us! On April 17, 1534, More was sent to the Tower of London after refusing to sign the Oath of Succession.

Saint Thomas More and the Princes in the Tower: New Evidence?

Last December, Channel 5 in the UK broadcast a documentary on the mystery of the fate of the Princes in the Tower--one of whom was the uncrowned King Edward V--titled Princes in the Tower: A Damning Discovery. 

The BBC History Magazine's December 2024 issue, which I perused in a local chain book/game/gift/toy store, featured an interview with two historians about that "damning discovery". Whom does that discovery damn? Hint: Not Saint Thomas More.

The evidence is that King Edward V's gold chain was handed down by a wealthy London woman in her will -- and that woman was the sister-in-law of Sir James Tyrell, the man Thomas More identified as the organizer of the murder of the Princes in the Tower at King Richard III's command.

Tim Thornton, Professor of History at the University of Huddersfield, found the will and shared his discovery with Jason Watkins and Tracy Borman, an historian and chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces during the documentary. From the BBC History article, Thornton explains his methodology:

One of the key sources we have on the disappearance is a detailed account written around 30 years later by Thomas More. He will be a familiar name to people interested in the Tudor era, and his account is the first that identifies how the deed was done and who was to blame. More claims that two individuals – Miles Forest and John Dighton – carried out the murder for an agent of Richard III called Sir James Tyrrell.

When I began looking at More’s account, I was working against a background of very great scepticism about his story. Many people believed it was a simple exercise in propaganda on behalf of the Tudors – Richard’s enemies who were on the throne at the time. Other people have suggested that More was more interested in literary flair and political philosophy than historical accuracy; he was writing an abstract account of how a country can fall into tyranny.

First, Thornton found a letter from More written while he was on embassy in Bruges and Miles Forest, son of the Miles Forest named above was a messenger, carrying More's letters back to England. Then he found the will of Lady Margaret Capell, widow of Sir William Capell or Capel, bequeathing a chain which had been King Edward V's, which her husband had left to her. (Margaret was a daughter of Sir John Arundell VII of Cornwall by his second wife, Katherine Chideocke or Chiddiock.)

Thornton adds another twist to the story:

It’s also worth noting that the Capells’ lawyer in the 1510s was a man called John More – the father of (you guessed it) Thomas More. So not only have we identified a physical object from the princes that survived in the hands of the sister-in-law of the man that More says organised the murders, but we’ve also established another connection with More himself.

I'd note that we don't have the chain nor do we have any record of the chain to test its provenance; there's some evidence on paper, but nothing concrete. Nevertheless, Tracey Borman expressed careful enthusiasm about the discovery:

As someone who has followed the story of the princes so closely throughout my whole career, I would say that this is undoubtedly the most significant discovery, not just in recent years, but in my entire tenure as a historian. I haven’t heard anything more compelling in this case than Tim’s latest discovery. This is the next chapter and it’s a hugely significant one.

She admits the discovery may strengthen the case against King Richard III, suggesting more evidence that he ordered the princes murdered. 

There's also a BBC News story summarizing the discovery. Other pictures are available at the University of Huddersfield website. And there's an article  (with open access now), "Sir William Capell and A Royal Chain: The Afterlives (and Death) of King Edward V" in History: The Journal of the Historical Association.

A further note: Lady Margaret Capell's will has been described before in a book by Susan E. James, Women's Voices in Tudor Wills, 1485–1603: Authority, Influence and Material (Ashgate, 2015):

The bequest was intended to entail the chain, the Capel bed with anchor badges, and other items to her grandchildren and the Capel family

"his faders cheyne which was younge kyng Edwarde the Vth's. To have the forsaid stuffe and cheyne during his life with reasonable werying upon that condicion that after his decease I will that yt remain and be kept by myn executors to the use of Henry Capell and Edward Capell from one to another, And for default of these two children, I will that my daughter Elizabeth Paulet shal'have the forsaid goodes".

I guess the next link in the mystery would be to find the chain!

Image Credit (Public Domain): The Two Princes Edward and Richard in the Tower, 1483 by Sir John Everett Millais, 1878, part of the Royal Holloway picture collection. Edward V at right wears the garter of the Order of the Garter beneath his left knee.

The Benedictines of Gower, Missouri and Saint Thomas More

I just received the latest CD from the Benedictine nuns in Gower, Missouri, Martyrs at Ephesus, and then heard some amazing news about their growth and expansion--with a Saint Thomas More connection! 

Because two of the nuns are having problems renewing their visas, they have to leave the USA and have found a home in England, in the Birmingham Archdiocese, a former, now vacant convent in Colwich, England named St. Mary's. From the Spring Newsletter from Mother Cecilia, OSB:

Colwich Abbey was founded by Saint Thomas More’s great-great-granddaughter, with nuns once exiled from England during the Elizabethan persecution, and exiled back there during the French Revolution. As I write this, I will be traveling to England tomorrow to visit our Sisters, and to see about the possible purchase of Colwich Abbey as a place of expansion, especially for future foreign vocations to our community. The buildings will need some work, but are certainly liveable as they stand. What a grace it would be to save these beautiful buildings for their intended purpose and historical value. I will be bringing our Sister Katarina from Lithuania with me as a fourth member for our little English band. So we are indeed financially strapped at this time, and we humbly ask you to do whatsoever you can to help us with the final months of construction bills at Ava, as well as for our needs at our new locations. Please don’t forget to stream our music, which can carry on in the background throughout the day and night! Physical copies of our two latest recordings are now available, one in honor of the martyrs and the other in honor of Sister Wilhelmina.

That great-great-granddaughter of Saint Thomas More, I think, was Dame Bridget More, who was Dame Gertrude More's sister. They both lived and died in France, but founded the houses there from which the nuns who were exiled during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror came to England. The nuns who settled at Stanbrook Abbey wore the lay clothing the Blessed (to be canonized) Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne had been wearing before they had to wash them, so that the martyrs were sent to the guillotine wearing their habits! When St. Mary's in Colwich closed in 2020, the two remaining nuns went to Stanbrook.

Through the intercession of Saint Thomas More, may the Benedictines thrive and grow in Colwich, England! 

More about all the CDs from the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, here.

Preview: St. Thomas More's "A Godly Meditation": A Guide for Lent

For February 19 and 20 in his Mementoes of the English Martyrs and Confessors For Every Day of the Year (and he does include an entry for February 29 during a Leap Year!), Father Henry Sebastian Bowden chose one of the prayers Saint Thomas More wrote in the Tower of London. Some sources date this prayer to sometime in 1534 (More was imprisoned on April 17, 1534; he was tried on July 1, 1535 and executed on July 6), as he began his life in prison.

Since Saint Thomas More spent the last months of his life, as he said, meditating on the Passion of Christ and preparing himself for death, I thought it could make a good guide for the Lenten Season.

Therefore, on Monday, February 19, Anna Mitchell or Matt Swaim and I will start our discussion of this great prayer on the Son Rise Morning Show, continuing to reflect on its riches each Monday of Lent 2024. 

I'll be on at our usual time, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central. Listen live here or catch the podcast later. 

Father Bowden titles the two entries, on pages 63 and 64, "In the Shadow of Death" (1) and (2) with the final verse from the Benedictus, "To enlighten them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death" and "To direct our feet into the way of peace" divided between them. (Luke 1:79)

For our first episode, we'll just review the issues More is dealing with in this prayer: all that he's lost and all that he hopes to gain. The entire text is a litany of petitions. As he wrote this in the margins of his breviary Thomas More was preparing himself for death, either in prison or by execution. He had already lost his freedom, his influence, his power, his friends, and many of the comforts of his family and he was praying to be reconciled to those losses. I don't think this was easy for Saint Thomas More: Although the petitions seem measured and calm, More was facing a great struggle.

Here is the text as Father Bowden presents it:

"In the Shadow of Death" (1)

Give me thy grace, good Lord,
To set the world at naught.

Note: you may see these first two lines written at the top and bottom of a page from More's breviary here.

To set my mind fast upon thee and not to hang
Upon the blast of men’s mouths.
To be content to be solitary,
Not to long for worldly company.
Little and little utterly to cast off the world
And rid my mind of all the business thereof.
Not to long to hear of any worldly things,
But that the hearing of worldly fantasies may be to me displeasant.
Gladly to be thinking of God,
Piteously to call for his help.
To lean unto the comfort of God,
Busily to labour to love him.
To know my own vility and wretchedness,
To humble and meeken myself under the mighty hand of God.
To bewail my sins past
For the purging of them patiently to suffer adversity.
Gladly to bear my purgatory here;
To be joyful of tribulations.

"In the Shadow of Death" (2)

To walk the narrow way that leadeth to life,
To bear the cross with Christ.
To have the last thing in remembrance,
To have ever afore mine eye my death that is ever at hand.
To make death no stranger to me,
To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of hell.
To pray for pardon before the Judge come,
To have continually in mind the Passion that Christ suffered for me.
For his benefits incessantly to give him thanks,
To buy the time again that I before have lost.
To abstain from vain confabulations,
To eschew light foolish mirth and gladness.
Recreations not necessary to cut off;
Of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all 

To set the loss at right naught for the winning of Christ.

To think my most enemies my best friends, for the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good with their love and favour as they did him with their malice and hatred.

Father Bowden does not include this final line in these two entries:

[These minds are more to be desired of every man than all the treasure of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered and layed together all upon one heap.]

Saint Thomas More starts out preparing to lose much that he held dear; then he prays for what he needs not just to replace but to surpass those things; then he meditates on preparing for death and repenting of past sins--then he mentions again all the things he needs to give up and what he'll gain thereby. As Father Bowden concludes the prayer, More wants to be grateful, even, to those who've put him in the Tower of London, comparing his situation to the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. 

Finally, More compares worldly treasures to spiritual goods, with the latter far surpassing the former.

Each Monday of Lent, we'll discuss More's " A Godly Meditation" as a pattern for Lent, as it serves as a model of detachment, repentance, and faith in God. Some of the things More gave up may easy for some of us, or as hard or harder for some of us as they were for him, but what he stood to gain--"the comfort of God" and "the winning of Christ" are as precious to us as they were to him.

Saint Thomas More, pray for us!

A "Merry Christmas" from Saint John Fisher to Thomas Cromwell

I saw this letter cited on a Facebook post and wanted to research it more: On December 22, 1534, the great, deposed bishop of Rochester, John Fisher, wrote to Thomas Cromwell, begging for some clothing, food, and a Confessor. 

He had been in the Tower of London since April that year; Fisher was used to poverty and fasting, but since his serious illness in December of 1533, he had been much weaker. Fisher was arrested on April 26 and would not leave the Tower until his trial on June 17, 1535 in Westminster Hall and again on the day of his execution, June 22 on Tower Hill.

Here is a transcript from the letter, cited on the Tudor Society website from the Letters and Papers, Volume 7, page 583 ('Henry VIII: December 1534, 21-25', in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 7, 1534, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1883), pp. 582-585. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol7/pp582-585 [accessed 2 January 2024].):

“John [Fisher] Bishop of Rochester to [Cromwell].

Does not wish to displease the King. When last before him and the other commissioners he swore to the part concerning the succession for the reason he then gave, but refused to swear to some other parts, because his conscience would not allow him to do so. “I beseech you to be good master unto me in my necessity, for I have neither shirt nor sheet nor yet other clothes that are necessary for me to wear, but that be ragged and rent too shamefully. Notwithstanding, I might easily suffer that if they would keep my body warm. But my diet also God knows how slender it is at many times. And now in mine age [he was 65 years old] my stomach may not away but with a few kind of meats, which if I want I decay forthwith, and fall into coughs and diseases of my body, and cannot keep myself in health.” His brother provides for him out of his own purse, to his great hindrance. Beseeches him to pity him, and move the King to take him into favor and release him from this cold and painful imprisonment. Desires to have a priest within the Tower to hear his confession “against this holy time;” and some books to stir his devotion more effectually. Wishes him a merry Christmas. At the Tower, 22 Dec.”

The OED (consulting my two volume tiny type edition) lists various meanings of the word merry, often using the word pleasant:

Of things: pleasant, agreeable

Of a place or country: pleasant, delightful in aspect or conditions: Merry England!

Of sound or music: pleasant, sweet

Of weather: pleasant, fine

Of dress: handsome, gay (original meaning!)

Of herbs or medicines: pleasant to taste or smell

Of a saying: amusing, diverting

Of looks: pleasant, agreeable, bright

Of persons: joyous, mirthful: The Merry Monarch (Charles II)

Of times or seasons: characterized by festivity or rejoicing

And in that last use of merry as an adjective, the OED uses the term Merry Christmas! but does not cite Saint John Fisher's letter to Cromwell but a couple of 17th century literary uses. 

The OED does cite Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 2, Act V, scene 3 when Falstaff and company are ready to receive the benefits of Henry V's accession to the throne after Henry IV's death: "And welcome merry Shrovetide." (line 35)! Since in Shrovetide, the period before Lent, Catholics would be both eating up all the meat and fats they could before Lent and going to Confession for the forgiveness of sins, it would be a festive time to rejoice (and a time the Church knew could be abused as at Carnival--Carne, Vale: Meat, Farewell!--when the partying could get out of hand). 

Bishop John Fisher certainly did not have a festive Christmas in the Tower of London, but with his great devotion to Jesus Christ, he rejoiced withal at the Savior's birth.

One more comment on the word merry, because it calls to mind the other English martyr saint in the Tower of London that December, Saint Thomas More and his use of the word "merrily":

He wished the members of the Court and the jury that condemned him that they "may yet hereafter in heaven merrily all meet together to our everlasting salvation" and he wrote his daughter Margaret in his last letter to her: "Farewell my dear child and pray for me, and I shall for you and all your friends that we may merrily meet in heaven."

And so may we all!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Preview: Mementoes of Saint Thomas More

July 7 was the Feast of the Translation of St. Thomas Becket at the time of St. Thomas More's execution. In 1220 the relics of Becket were moved (translated) from his tomb in the Cathedral Crypt to a new elaborate shrine in the Trinity Chapel. 

Canterbury Cathedral still remembers this date with Solemn Evensong and a Procession, even though Henry VIII had Becket's shrine destroyed and his remains desecrated in 1538. Henry VIII went even further than that, of course, in his Proclamation of November 17, 1538:

Therefore his Grace strayghtly chargeth and commandeth that from henseforth the sayde Thomas Becket shall not be estemed, named, reputed, nor called a sayncte, but bysshop Becket; and that his ymages and pictures, through the hole realme, shall be putte downe, and avoyded out of all churches, chapelles, and other places; and that from henseforthe, the dayes used to be festivall in his name shall not be observed, nor the service, office, antiphoners, colletes, and prayers, in his name redde, but rased and put out of all the bokes.”

But in 1535, that hadn't yet been decreed and St. Thomas More cited this feast of Becket in his last letter to his daughter Margaret, as he thought it appropriate for his execution to occur the day before it:

I cumber you, good Margaret, much, but I would be sorry, if it should be any longer than tomorrow, for it is Saint Thomas' Even and the Utas [Octave] of Saint Peter and therefore tomorrow long I to go to God, it were a day very meet and convenient for me. 

On Monday, July 10, we'll discuss the mementoes of St. Thomas More in Father Henry Sebastian Bowden's daily reflections on the English Martyrs and Confessors. I'll be on the Son Rise Morning Show at my usual time: about 6:50 a.m. Central/7:50 a.m. Eastern: please listen live here and/or listen to the podcast later here!

Father Bowden did not surround the date of More's execution with as many memories as he did Bishop Fisher's; he highlights More's behavior on the scaffold on July 6, which might provide an answer to the question: did More say "but God's servant first" or "and God's servant first"?

The account Bowden is basically chronicler Edward Hall's version: More was so weak that he had to ask for help up the scaffold: 'See me safe up,' he said to Sir William Kingston, Constable of the Tower. 'For my coming down I can shift for myself.' He had been asked not to speak much so he  asked those witnessing his execution for their prayers, and desired "them to bear witness for him that he died in the faith of the holy Catholic Church, and a faithful servant of God and the King."

Since there is no use of the word "but" and the Paris Newsletter, published on August 4 (less than a month later) the same year doesn't use the word "but" either, perhaps we should always the word "and":

He then besought them earnestly to pray to God to give the King good counsel, protesting that he died his faithful servant, and God's first.

He prayed the Miserere Psalm, thanked the executioner and then asked him to please aim true:

'Thou art to do me the greatest benefit that I can receive,' he said. 'Pluck up thy spirit, man, and be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is very short. Take heed therefore that thou strike not awry for saving of thine honesty.'

More stopped the executioner briefly to move his beard off the block, saying it had done no treason. "So with great alacrity and spiritual joy he received the fatal blow." 

Edward Hall didn't know what to think about More's humor on the scaffold, with these jokes about his beard, his short neck, and his method of getting off the scaffold:

I cannot tell whether I should call him a foolish wiseman, or a wise foolishman, for undoubtedly he beside his learning, had a great wit, but it was so mingled with taunting and mocking, that it seemed to them that best knew him, that he thought nothing to be well spoken except he had ministered some mock in the communication . . .

Like Saint John Fisher, who demonstrated his faithful and resolute demeanor before his execution, I think More was just being himself, able to face death with good humor and even wit. He had prepared for his death by meditation on Our Lord's Passion and ready to face this more merciful execution (instead of being hanged, drawn, and quartered), but he still didn't want the headsman to miss!

Saint Thomas More, pray for us!

Radio Interview: St. Thomas More on "Treasures of Faith"

Tomorrow morning, I'll be on a radio program called Treasures of Faith on Divine Mercy Radio (WDMC, 920 AM) in Melbourne, Florida, 10:00 a.m. Central Time, 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Listen live here; the host, Mike Gisondi, will send me a link to the podcast of the show about a week later. The reason for the interview is that it just so happened that Mr. Gisondi and I watched the recent broadcast of A Man for All Seasons on Turner Classic Movies during their "31 Days of Oscar" on March 7th. He emailed me and we set up this interview to talk about the movie and its subject, Saint Thomas More--we also want to talk about Saint John Fisher, of course.

After Saint John Henry Newman with 336 tracked posts, Saint Thomas More is the second most featured person on my blog, with 194. Many of those posts were responses to the late Hilary Mantel's traducement of More in Wolf Hall, though I have also considered Fred Zinnemann's version of Robert Bolt's depiction of More in this movie, based upon his stage play.

I look forward to another opportunity to discuss this great saint on the Friday of Passion Week, as Saint Thomas More prepared himself for his own passion and death in the Tower of London, meditating on the Agony in the Garden (De Tristitia) and the Passion (Treatise on the Passion).

Saint Thomas More, pray for us! Saint John Fisher, pray for us!

Saint Thomas More and Monks and Friars

Sometimes Cambridge Core grants open access to journal articles and I happened upon this article by accident, from The Historical Journal, Volume 65 , Issue 4 , September 2022 , pp. 922 - 945, on "Thomas More and the Defence of the Religious Orders in Henry VIII's England" by Martin Heale.

He poses an interesting thesis:

The purpose of this article is not to revisit debates on the place of monasticism in More's spirituality or vocation, but rather to pursue a connected and less well-explored theme: Thomas More's views towards the religious orders in early Tudor England. There are a number of potential benefits to such a study. More's attitude towards the monastic ideal can be illuminated by an analysis of his position towards the concrete manifestations of that ideal in his midst. His writings on the religious orders also provide an interesting case-study of the degree of consistency in More's religious thought over the course of his career, and (a much contested topic) between his early humanist and later controversialist writings. They can equally shed light on the extent of Erasmus's influence on More's thinking, since (it will be argued) the two writers held rather different views towards the strictly observant branches of the religious orders. This article will also explore the wider implications of Thomas More's attitude towards the monasteries of early sixteenth-century England, which was by no means wholly enthusiastic. During the later 1520s and early 1530s – a moment when the role and reputation of the realm's religious houses were coming under intense scrutiny – he was the most active and influential apologist for the English church. Yet More's defence of the monasteries of his day was decidedly guarded, and there are signs that his ambivalent attitude towards the religious orders was held by others among the conservative-minded educated elites of early Tudor England. As a result, England's monasteries would receive relatively little support from this quarter when the Henrician assault on the religious orders began in the mid-1530s.

Please read the rest there.

My first thought as I began reading the article was that Thomas More's apologetic projects were more targeted at protecting Catholic doctrines and practices like prayer for the dead, the Seven Sacraments, the priesthood in general, intercession to and veneration of the saints, etc.

I don't know how long the article will be available, so access it as soon as you can if you are interested.

Preview: St. Thomas More on Zacchaeus's House and Holy Communion

On Monday, October 31 (All Hallow's Eve), we'll conclude our discussion of Saint Thomas More's Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body of Our Lord on the Son Rise Morning Show. 

So I'll be on about 6:50 a.m. Central/7:50 a.m. Eastern in the last segment of the second EWTN hour (there's a local hour after that just on Sacred Heart Radio). You may listen live here.

After the string of examples from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew of those who either begged Jesus for some healing (the father with the mute son and the Centurion) or whom Jesus used as an example of contrition and humility (the Publican in the Temple in contrast to the self-righteous Pharisee), More concludes this brief treatise with the reminder of our own need for contrition and humility, especially as we remind ourselves of all that Jesus suffered in His Passion for our redemption:

 . . . And yet with all this remembrance of our own unworthiness, and therefore with great reverence, fear and dread for our own part, let us not forget on the other side to consider His inestimable goodness, which disdaineth not for all our unworthiness to come unto us, and to be received of us, but likewise as at the sight or receiving of this excellent memorial of His death (for in the remembrance thereof doth He thus consecrate and give His own Blessed Flesh and Blood unto us) we must with tender compassion remember and call to mind the bitter pains of His most painful Passion. And yet there-with-all rejoice and be glad in the consideration of His incomparable kindness, which in His so suffering for us, to our inestimable benefit, He showed and declared toward us. So must we be sore afraid of our own unworthiness, and yet therewith be right glad and in great hope at the consideration of His immeasurable goodness…

The last two paragraphs are an extended application of the story of Zacchaeus from the Gospel of Luke (19:1-10) to how we should receive Holy Communion:

And entering in, he walked through Jericho. And behold, there was a man named Zacheus, who was the chief of the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was, and he could not for the crowd, because he was low of stature. And running before, he climbed up into a sycamore tree, that he might see him; for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus was come to the place, looking up, he saw him, and said to him: Zacheus, make haste and come down; for this day I must abide in thy house. And he made haste and came down; and received him with joy. And when all saw it, they murmured, saying, that he was gone to be a guest with a man that was a sinner. But Zacheus standing, said to the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have wronged any man of any thing, I restore him fourfold. Jesus said to him: This day is salvation come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Douai-Rheims translation)

Very appropriate timing, since the story of Zaccheus is the Gospel reading for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time October 30th!

More uses the story not only to encourage us to imitate Zacchaeus's repentance and penance, but to demonstrate the rewards we will receive from bringing Jesus into our bodies and souls (our own houses):

Let us (good Christian readers) receive Him in such wise, as did the good publican, Zacchaeus, which when he longed to see Christ, and because he was but low of stature, did climb up into a tree, our Lord seeing his devotion called unto him, and said: "Zacchaeus, come off and come down: for this day must I dwell with thee." (19:5) And he made haste and came down, and very gladly received Him into his house. But not only received Him with a joy of a light and fond feeling affection, but that it might well appear that he received Him with a sure, earnest, virtuous mind, he proved it by his virtuous works. For he forthwith was contented to make recompense to all men that he had wronged, and that in a large manner; for every penny a groat; and yet offered to give out also forthwith the one half of all his substance unto poor men, and that forthwith also; by and by, without any longer delay. And therefore he said not: Thou shalt hear, that I shall give it: but he said: "Ecce dimidium bonorum meorum de pauperibus. Lo, look, good Lord, the one half of my goods I do give unto poor men." (19:8)

More is emphasizing that Zacchaeus didn't just promise that he would do it: he did do it!

With such alacrity, with such quickness of spirit, with such gladness and such spiritual rejoicing, as this man received our Lord into his house, our Lord give us the Grace to receive His Blessed Body and Blood, His Holy Soul and His Almighty Godhead both, into our bodies and into our souls, that the fruit of our good works may bear witness unto our conscience, that we receive Him worthily and in such a full Faith, and such a stable purpose of good living, as we be bounden to owe. And then shall God give a gracious sentence, and say upon our soul as He said upon Zacheus: "Hodie salus facta est huic domui,:This day is health and salvation come unto this house" (19:9): which that Holy Blessed Person of Christ which we verily in the Blessed Sacrament receive, through the merit of His Bitter Passion (whereof He hath ordained His own Blessed Body in that Blessed Sacrament to be the memorial) vouchsafe, good Christian readers, to grant unto us all.

That's where More ended his Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body of Our Lord, but he did not stop wanting to receive Holy Communion worthily himself. After his trial and condemnation on July 1, he wrote a long prayer in preparation for his execution, which as far as he knew at that time, was going to be the brutal torture of hanging, drawing, and quartering. In that prayer, he demonstrates that he was of the same mind as he urged his readers to be:

. . . And pardon me, good Lord, that I am so bold to ask so high petitions, being so vile a sinful wretch, and so unworthy to attain the lowest. But yet, good Lord, such they be as I am bounden to wish, and should be nearer the effectual desire of them if my manifold sins were not the let. From which, O glorious Trinity, vouchsafe, of Thy goodness to wash me with that blessed blood that issued out of Thy tender body, O sweet Saviour Christ, in the divers torments of Thy most bitter passion.

Take from me, good Lord, this lukewarm fashion, or rather key-cold manner of meditation, and this dulness in praying unto Thee. And give me warmth, delight, and quickness in thinking upon Thee. And give me Thy grace to long for Thine holy sacraments, and specially to rejoice in the presence of Thy very blessed body, sweet Saviour Christ, in the holy sacrament of the altar, and duly to thank Thee for Thy gracious visitation therewith, and at that high memorial with tender compassion to remember and consider Thy most bitter passion.

Make us all, good Lord, virtually participant of that holy sacrament this day, and every day. Make us all lively members, sweet Saviour Christ, of Thine holy mystical body, Thy Catholic Church. . . .

I don't know if Saint Thomas More was allowed to prepare spiritually for his execution with a visit by a priest to hear his last Confession or receive Holy Communion. I've never read that detail in any biography.

Saint Thomas More, pray for us.

Image credit: (Public Domain) James Tissot's Zacchaeus in the Sycamore Awaiting the Passage of Jesus

Image credit: (Public Domain) Zacchaeus by Niels Larsen Stevns. Jesus calls Zacchaeus down from his height in the tree.

Preview: St. Thomas More on "Every good gift" and Grace

As promised, we'll continue our discussion of Saint Thomas More's Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body of Our Lord on Monday, October 24 on the Son Rise Morning Show. 

So I'll be on about 6:50 a.m. Central/7:50 a.m. Eastern in the last segment of the second EWTN hour (there's a local hour after that just on Sacred Heart Radio). You may listen live here.

Saint Thomas More read and knew the Holy Bible very well. In his introduction to the Yale University volume of More's complete works that includes this treatise, Garry E. Haupt believes that More quoted Bible verses from memory (in Latin). Haupt also suggests that in 1534 More had two books with him in the Tower: the Catena Aurea of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Monotesseron of Jean Gerson, which provided him with passages from the Fathers of the Church and a harmony of the Gospels.

Furthermore, Haupt notes that More, like the other Christian Humanists of his time (John Colet, Erasmus, St. John Fisher, and others), while being most concerned about the literal meaning of Sacred Scripture, did not ignore the spiritual and moral applications of that meaning to the reader. In the three paragraphs we'll examine Monday on the Son Rise Morning Show, these concerns of More are readily displayed.

For example, More applies this verse from the Letter of St. James (1:17) to how Catholics should consider the gift of Holy Communion as one of the Father's good and perfect gifts, and how we should respond to that good and perfect gift with prayer and intention:

But for-as-much (good Christian readers) as we neither can attain this great point of Faith, nor any other virtue, but by the Special Grace of God of whose high goodness every good thing cometh, (for as St. James saith: "Omne datum optimum et omne donum perfectum, desursum est descendens a Patre luminum: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above descending from the Father of Lights"), let us therefore pray for His gracious help in the attaining of His Faith, and for His help in the cleansing of our soul against His coming, that He may make us worthy to receive Him worthily. 

Saint Thomas More balances God's Grace and our response to it in the best Catholic tradition:

And ever let us of our own part, fear our unworthiness, and on His part, trust boldly upon His goodness, if we are slow not to work with him for our own part. For if we willingly upon the trust and comfort of His goodness leave our own endeavour undone, then is our hope, no hope, but a very foul presumption.

More stated before that we cannot achieve any worthiness to receive Holy Communion on our own, but here he reminds us that we must cooperate with God's goodness, and that there is merit in doing so.

He further gives some instruction on what to do even as we go to receive the Eucharist with thoughts that certainly echo St. Thomas Aquinas' Adore Te Devote:

Then, when we come unto His Holy Board, into the Presence of His Blessed Body, let us consider His high glorious Majesty) which His high goodness there hideth from us, and the proper form of His holy Flesh covereth under the form of bread, both to keep us from abashment, such as we could not peradventure abide if we (such as we yet be) should see and receive Him in His own Form, such as He is, and also for the increase of the merit of our Faith in the obedient belief of that thing at His commandment, whereof our eyes and our reason seem to show us the contrary.

As Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ translated two verses of Aquinas's hymn:

Godhead here in hiding
Whom I do adore
Masked by these bare shadows,
Shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at Thy service
Low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder
At the God Thou art.

Seeing, touching, tasting
Are in Thee deceived;
How says trusty hearing?
That shall be believed;
What God’s Son has told me,
Take for truth I do;
Truth Himself speaks truly
Or there’s nothing true.

Remember that Pope Urban IV had added the feast of Corpus Christi to the universal Church’s liturgical calendar in 1264 and that this feast was celebrated with great devotion in England before the Reformation, with processions comparable to those on Holy Thursday and the performance of the Mystery Plays, which enacted salvation history from Creation to the Second Coming.

Finally, More strings together passages from the Gospels, like pearls of prayer for an increase of faith:

And yet, for-as-much as although we believe it, yet is there therein many of us) that believe very faint, and far from the point of such vigour and strength, as would God it had, let us say unto Him with the father that had the dumb son: "Credo, Domine, adjuva incredulitatem meam--I believe, Lord, but help thou my lack of belief" (Mark 9:24), and with His blessed Apostles, "Domine, adauge nobis fidem: Lord increase Faith in us" (Luke 17:5). Let us also with the poor publican in knowledge of our own unworthiness say with all meekness of heart, "Deus propitius esto mihi peccatori: Lord God be merciful to me, sinner that I am." (Luke 18:13) And with the Centurion, "Domine non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum (Matt. 8), Lord I am not worthy, that thou shouldst come into my house." (Matt. 8:8)

We'll conclude this series next week, on All Hallows' Eve (Halloween) on October 31, with the end of St. Thomas More's brief treatise on how to receive the Holy Eucharist as worthily as possible.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!

Saint Thomas More, pray for us!

Top Image Credit (Public Domain): Lord, I Am Not Worthy (Domine Non Sum Dignus) - James Tissot

Lower Image Credit (Public Domain): The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, presented in three scenes. Middle: the Pharisee kneels before the altar; Left: the proud Pharisee leaves with a devil; Right: the tax collector leaves with an angel. (Barent Fabritius, 1661)