Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos

Today is the first time the Jesuits and Spain celebrate the liturgical memorial of the new beatus, Blessed Bernard Francis de Hoyos. When Blessed Bernard was lifted to the altars in April, I posted on him, and here. For me, he’s an attractive contemporary apostle of the Sacred Heart Jesus. The second reading for the Office of Readings of the Divine Office follows:

From the Instruction of
Blessed Bernard Francis de Hoyos to Brother Ignatius Osorio

(Vallalodid, 14
September 1732, nn. 40-41; MS 1596, University Library of Salamanca.)

A divine
and heavenly peace in your heart

Try to have, my beloved brother, a divine and
heavenly peace in your heart. I do not speak of peace with others, called by
another name, charity; for that I repeat (the words) of the Apostle to the
Thessalonians: Now concerning love of the brothers, you do not need to have
anyone write to you, for your yourselves have been taught by God to love one
another (1 Thessalonians 4:9). I speak of peace within one’s own heart,
which often is the greater struggle for us, arousing in the soul a thousand
disturbances, anguishes, and disquiet with which the demon succeeds in his aim
of thwarting us in the way of perfection. The distinguishing
characteristic of the friends of God consists in this interior peace, which
Christ so often recommended to his disciples, repeating: Peace be with you (Luke
10:5; 24:36) for he is called “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
Disturbance, on the contrary, is characteristic of reprobates: There is
no peace for the wicked. (Isaiah 48:22). Jesus cannot abide where there
is no peace. The soul is a mirror; it is a crystal-clear steam which
reflects all the beauties placed before it; in which the image of our God is
reflected: into the same image we are being transformed (2 Corinthians 3:18),
so long as the waters of this stream are nit disturbed or agitated, so long as the
clarity of this mirror is not dimmed or obscured.

Continue reading Blessed Bernard Francis de Hoyos, priest

Today, in Valladolid, Spain, Father Bernardo de Hoyos (1711-1735) was beatified. I previously mentioned Father de Hoyos on this blog. Here is a précis of Father Adolfo Nicolás’ letter to the Jesuits. The full text of the letter can be read here Bernard de Hoyos letter.pdf

“He is considered the first apostle of the Sacred Heart in Spain. To recapture who he was and what he contributed, I offer some biographical information that should be understood in the religious and cultural context of the 18th century.” Thus begins Nicolás’ for this occasion. More than a century ago, in 1895, the cause for Father De Hoyos was introduced; due to many ecclesiastical vicissitudes and the political history of Spain, it was repeatedly postponed. Father Nicolás, in his letter, traces the major events in the very short life of the newly beatified who died on the 29th of November 1735 at the age of 24. Near to the time of his death, de Hoyos was ordained a priest and in Tertianship.

“His reputation for holiness,” the letter continues. “spread immediately after his death. However, because of the difficult situation in which the Society found itself opposed by the Jansenists, the cause for beatification was not introduced at that time. Later the suppression of the Society would leave many projects unfinished. When the Society was restored in 1814 by Pope Pius VII, a strong devotion to the Sacred Heart emerged in the whole Church. In accord with the religious sensibilities of the time, the reborn Society dedicated itself to the spread and propagation of this devotion with significant results.” The letter outlines the steps of this recovery of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, beginning with Jesuits’ General Congregation 31st in 1965, through the generalate of Father Pedro Arrupe and then with generalate of Father Peter Hans Kolvenbach.

Then Father Nicolás goes on: “Bernardo de Hoyos’s passion for the Heart of Jesus faithfully corresponds to the devotion that Saint Ignatius felt for Jesus poor and humble, before whom he asks that our affections be moved in order to accompany Him in each step of His life: As companions with him on mission, his way is our way (GC35, D.2, nº 14), so that in what we do in the world there must always be a transparency to God (GC35, D. 2, nº 10). On the occasion of this beatification, I invite the whole Society, together with our collaborators, to renew our personal love of Jesus Christ and to open ourselves to the grace of identifying ourselves with Him, so that in Nadal’s words, we might understand with His understanding; will with His will; remember with His memory; and that our entire being, living, and doing be not centered in us, but in Christ (MHSI vol 90. p.122; GC35, D. 2, nº14), as the cornerstone of the particular vocation to which each of us has been called.”

Father Nicolás concludes his letter: “May the Father who has hidden these things from the wise and the learned and has revealed them to the childlike (Mt 11, 25) through the intercession of Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos, grant the Society the grace of accomplishing its mission of being in the Church a loving response to Him who was pierced by the pain and the aggressive injustice of a world in need of forgiveness and reconciliation.”

May Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos show us the way to the Heart of Jesus!

Tag: Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos

Blessed Bernard Francis de Hoyos, priest

Bernardo de Hoyos beatified