“Solanus Casey would never have considered himself a mystic but, paradoxically, his very insights about atheism point to his being so. Furthermore, he was not only a mystic, but a mystic in action: one who combined in himself the contemplative and active dimensions of the God-experience in such a way that he became a Christ-figure for many people.”—From Chapter Nine
Appointed by the Vatican as the “External Collaborator to the Relator” for the cause of canonization of Capuchin Father Solanus Casey, the first man born in the United States to be declared “Venerable” by the Catholic church, Michael Crosby gives us an inspiring and insightful story of one person’s unswerving faith in God’s abiding presence throughout the universe.
“For Solanus,” Crosby writes, “knowing God demanded a threefold response: appreciation, love, and service. Solanus wrote that everyone’s ‘purpose as a rational creature is to recognize and to know his Creator, so as to be able, intelligently to love him, confidently to hope in him, and gratefully to serve him.’”
Besides the gift of healing which brought happiness to many, Solanus Casey also used his gift of prophecy to encourage and challenge and to bring back hope to others. But the humble Capuchin’s greatest gift was charity—charity that not only characterized his happy relationship with God but that overflowed in the warm, caring, fraternal and even humorous way he related to his neighbor.
MICHAEL CROSBY, O.F.M. CAP., lives in community with other friars in a downtown Milwaukee parish that serves the urban poor, homeless and marginalized. His ministry attempts to develop a spirituality of discipleship for U.S. and other “First World” Catholics, primarily through corporate reform and church reform. He gives retreats, workshops and parish missions and is author of seventeen books. Visit his Web site www.MichaelCrosby.net.
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