Several years ago, shortly after becoming the U.S. director of the Apostleship of Prayer, I was talking with a cloistered Carmelite Sister of the Monastery of Our Lady of Providence in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. She had a present for me, something that she had treasured for a long time. She felt that I would appreciate some extra heavenly help in my mission of promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and so she gave me two items: a leaflet from the 1930's with a picture and favorite sayings of Fr. William Doyle, S.J. and a badge which contained a tiny piece of his clothing. I had never heard of Fr. Doyle and she shared with me some books from the convent's library. Since then Fr. Doyle has been my traveling companion and I depend upon his prayers, as well as those of Fr. John Hardon, S.J. and Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J., as I try to fulfill the mission that I have been given by the Society of Jesus.
Today is the 93rd anniversary of the death of Fr. Doyle who was killed on the battlefields of Flanders during World War I. I reflected on him today in my daily YouTube video and I would encourage anyone who wants to find out more about this great Jesuit to go to a new blog, "Remembering Fr. William Doyle, S.J."
Thanks for the link to the blog about Fr. Doyle. I had never heard of him before, but the site about him is very interesting and I plan to follow up with finding some books about him.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone intrested, Fr. Doyle's biography (written by Prof. Alfred O'Rahilly) is available for online reading here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.archive.org/stream/fatherwilliamdoy00orahuoft/fatherwilliamdoy00orahuoft_djvu.txt