The engraving for January on the Calendar of the Christian Year from The Fellowship of St. James is The Prodigal Son Returns by Gustave Doré, who was born on this date in 1832. It's a wonderful image to contemplate at the beginning of the year, as the example of fatherly patience, forgiveness, and liberality in the parable of Luke 15 is a promise that fills the heart and transcends any alienation. It also, I think, forbids any morbid wallowing in the sins and faults of the past.



Here is the quotation from Saint John Chrysostom that Rev. Patrick Henry Reardon chose to accompany the engraving.



The prodigal son returned to the father, who could not remember what had happened; or rather, who could remember only as many of those things as were capable of moving him to sympathy, mercy, affection, and compassion.



The feast of the Doctor of Preachers is now celebrated on 13 September, but the traditional date in the Roman calendar was 27 January.



There's another reason that it's good to remember the Doctor of Preachers today. January 6 is also the anniversary of the conversion experience of that great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon in 1850. He records that it came during a sermon on the text of Isaiah 45:22 — Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else. Spurgeon describes the aftermath in his Autobiography: And as the snow fell on my road home from the little house of prayer, I thought every snowflake talked with me and told of the pardon I had found, for I was white as the driven snow through the grace of God.



All of us prodigal, all of us broken, all of us bereft and longing. But his mercies are new every morning. And, as Rich Mullins sang in Growing Young (Copyright 1992 - Edward Grant, Inc., 1992 - Kid Brothers of St. Frank Publishing),



I've gone so far from my home

I've seen the world and I have known

So many secrets

I wish now I did not know

'Cause they have crept into my heart

They have left it cold and dark

And bleeding,

Bleeding and falling apart



And everybody used to tell me big boys don't cry

Well I've been around enough to know that that was the lie

That held back the tears in the eyes of a thousand prodigal sons

Well we are children no more, we have sinned and grown old

And our Father still waits and He watches down the road

To see the crying boys come running back to His arms

And be growing young

Growing young



I've seen silver turn to dross

Seen the very best there ever was

And I'll tell you, it ain't worth what it costs

And I remember my father's house

What I wouldn't give right now

Just to see him and hear him tell me that he loves me so much



And everybody used to tell me big boys don't cry

Well I've been around enough to know that that was the lie

That held back the tears in the eyes of a thousand prodigal sons

Well we are children no more, we have sinned and grown old

And our Father still waits and He watches down the road

To see the crying boys come running back to His arms



And when I thought that I was all alone

It was your voice I heard calling me back home

And I wonder now Lord

What it was that made me wait so long

And what kept You waiting for me all that time

Was Your love stronger than my foolish pride

Will You take me back now, take me back and let me be Your child



'Cause I've been broken now, I've been saved

I've learned to cry, and I've learned how to pray

And I'm learning, I'm learning even I can be changed

And everybody used to tell me big boys don't cry

Well I've been around enough to know that that was the lie

That held back the tears in the eyes of a thousand prodigal sons

Well we are children no more, we have sinned and grown old

And our Father still waits and He watches down the road

To see the crying boys come running back to His arms

And be growing young

Growing young

Growing young





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My younger brother Vince was also born on this date.



Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine.

Et lux perpetua luceat ei.

Requiescat in pace. Amen



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