The monastery doorbell rang at two o’clock in the morning. Father Solanus Casey ran down the steps to the door before anyone else was awakened. When he opened the door, a big, burly fellow blurted out, “Where’s that Father Solanus? I want to kill him.”
“Well, now,” said Solanus, “we’ll have to talk that over.” He ushered the man into the small office next to the door and sat down with him. The man said he was a communist and hated all priests. Solanus patiently listened to his angry tale of a dissolute life. Then Solanus gently spoke of God and God’s love for all people, even sinners.
The man calmed down and gave up all thought of violence. Solanus told him to come back later in the day and make his confession. He returned, met another priest in the church who helped him to make a sincere confession, and after receiving absolution soon turned his life around.
Many people have said that after meeting Fr. Solanus and listening to him speak of God, they left with the feeling that a great weight had been lifted from their shoulders. I know that meeting Fr. Solanus had a profound effect on my life, and now I would like to share his life and goodness with people everywhere. This is the story of a man whom, once you have met him, you will never forget.
Enjoy this seven-day celebration of Blessed Solanus Casey….
Day 1: Simple, Sublime Faith
Solanus (Barney) Casey was a simple man, a simple priest—not a man of letters, not a man of degrees—yet his thought reached to profound poetic and theological depths. Like a prophet, he was a man with a message for the future. That’s what the bishop of Marquette, Michigan, the Most Reverend Thomas L. Noa, said when he learned of his death in 1957: “Father Solanus has a message for the people of God.”
The message—always based in faith and trust in God, always consoling and encouraging, and bringing peace into troubled hearts—is embodied in the new and radical definition of religion Solanus devised: “Religion is the science of our happy relationship with, and dependence upon, God and our neighbor.” Read more…
Day 2: A Creative Spirituality
As I look back now, I realize how fortunate I was to be in the presence of Fr. Solanus. I could see the patience and compassion with which he greeted each person who came seeking help for body or soul.
There were two chairs in front of his desk, and he would invite visitors to sit down, putting them at ease. After listening to each one’s story of sickness or pain, he would speak gently of God and God’s great mercy and goodness, sharing his own faith and trust. In this way he would spark the flame of faith and hope in the other person, and then wonderful graces and cures would come about. Read more…
Day 3: An Attitude of Gratitude
Many were the occasions, when speaking with the friars or other people, that Solanus would extol the importance and necessity of gratitude. His letters express this theme over and over. He calls gratitude “the first sign of a thinking, rational creature.” Another simple expression of gratitude is found in a short poem that he wrote:
God made me to know Him.
O! what a blessed aim!
To love Him and serve Him
Sure rests in the same.
It’s heaven begun
For the grateful on earth.
To treasure aright—
Highest Heaven, its worth.
Read more…
Day 4: A Prophetic Friar
This love for children made Solanus their special intercessor. When the dreaded polio epidemic struck in the thirties, many who called on his prayers were wonderfully restored to health, to the surprise of their doctors.
One case, that of twelve-year-old Charles Rogers, was described vividly by his sister when she was interviewed a few years ago. Young Charles was getting stiff in the neck and limbs. The doctor, a well-known specialist, came to the house to examine him. He wanted to get the boy to the hospital right away, but his father waited. He asked one of his workers to see Fr. Solanus and ask for his prayers. Fr. Solanus enrolled Charles in the Mass Association and told his father, “Don’t worry. The boy will be all right tomorrow.” Read more…
Day 5: Holy Witness to History
While Solanus was at Sacred Heart in Yonkers, he had the opportunity to reunite with that fond family when his parents observed their golden wedding anniversary. It was a long train journey from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, but Solanus experienced great wonder and joy in the panoramic beauty of the vast United States. He joined his brothers Edward and Jim in St. Paul, Minnesota, and they met Maurice in Plains, Montana.
On October 6, 1913, all fourteen of the living Casey children, with spouses, children, and grandchildren, gathered at Immaculate Conception Church in Seattle for the Solemn High Mass of thanksgiving. Read more…
Day 6: Relying on Mary
Throughout the summer and fall of 1896, Solanus prayed often that he might discover God’s will for his life. He asked himself, “Does God want me to become a priest?”
He sought out Fr. Eustace Vollmer, whose spiritual advice had guided him before. The kindly Franciscan reminded Solanus of the suggestion the seminary superiors had made: Try some religious order. Fr. Eustace advised him to write to the provincial superiors of the Franciscans, the Jesuits, and the Capuchins, all well-known throughout Wisconsin. Read more…
Day 7: From Holy Life to Eternal Life
Solanus’ digression on death in his letters reveals his own solid hope in the resurrection. In many of his letters he speaks of the beauty of death and how we should look forward to it.
For example: “Many are the rainbows, the sunbursts, the gentle breezes—and the hailstorms we are liable to meet before, by the grace of God, we shall be able to tumble into our graves with the confidence of tired children into their places of peaceful slumber.” Read more…
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