Belated Feast of St Albert the Great

The Dominican Breviary, unsurprisingly, provides a beautiful Proper for the feast of St Albert the Great on the 15th of November; pressure of work prevented me from doing more than praying the Day Hours yester-day, but that's life.

I always recall the moving homily of an elderly Dominican, Fr Hilary, who told of how Our Lady appeared to St Albert to reveal that God had gifted him with great understanding of all things – but that God's free gift would be withdrawn ere he died.  This sobering prophecy proved true: Albert was the stupor mundi, the wonder of the world, for his knowledge and skill in every field of science – he even built a greenhouse in Cologne and grew tropical plants, giving rise to the fable that he was a magician! – but, as he aged (for he lived a long life), he was afflicted with mental decay; and when one of the brethren came knocking at the door of his cell, asking for Albert, he replied in sad befuddlement, "Albert isn't here any more".

Such a great saint, and one who himself suffered such affliction, is apt to be invoked as patron of the elderly, especially those suffering from dementia and like conditions.  

St Albert, pray for us, and pray for them; pray for us that, if it please God we also suffer the mental and physical debilities of old age, we may have the strength to bear it, surrendering ourselves into the hands of the Lord Who loves us.

"Albert isn't here any more"

I always remember on St Albert's day an elegaic sermon preached by Fr Hilary, O.P., in which he reflected on the sadness of old age - for, as he told us, St Albert lived a great long life, became the wonder of his age for his prodigious learning in all spheres of knowledge, and yet, at the end, suffered the intellectual decline wrought by extreme old age, to the extent that, when a friar knocked at his cell asking for Master Albert, the saint replied "Albert isn't here any more".

I have been thinking on this because my own father is now in his eighties, having had a number of bouts of cancer, and only to-day Mum texted me that he'd suffered a fall, though praise God he seems alright.  His increasing ill-health and frailty is an important factor in my decision to move back to Tasmania for work; I think, and my sister also agrees, that I need to be closer at hand.

As my namesake Jesus son of Sirach says (Ecclus iii, 14f):

Son, support the old age of thy father, and grieve him not in his life; and if his understanding fail, have patience with him, and despise him not when thou art in thy strength: for the relieving of the father shall not be forgotten.

Dad when younger was always interested in learning, but nowadays he searches for the words he needs and doesn't always find them.  While his general health remains strong, I have a foreboding that all is not right; and my concern for Dad is especially that he's not a churchgoer, and so I worry that he needs to compose and settle his affairs with the Lord before much longer, as must we all.

I think the connexion with the Collect of St Albertus Magnus is clear enough:

Deus, qui beatum Albertum Pontificem tuum atque Doctorem, in humana sapientia divinæ fidei subjicienda magnum effecisti: da nobis, quæsumus, ita eius magisterii inhærere vestigiis, ut luce perfecta fruamur in cælis. Per...

(God, Who didst make blessed Albert Thy Pontiff and Doctor to be great in subjecting human wisdom to divine faith, give unto us, we beseech, so to inhere to the imprints of his magisterium, that we may enjoy perfect light in the heavens.  Through...)