Upcoming: Tips for the New Year!

A dear, retired professor friend of mine shared something with me via e-mail recently, which made my day when I read it!

I’d like to share it with you…

Starting tomorrow.

Yes, starting tomorrow.

Today is the 12th Day of Christmas, January 6th.

Throughout the week, starting tomorrow, Friday, January 7th, 2011, and resuming the following Monday, every week day, I will publish one of Ten Great Tips for 2011.

Tomorrow will be January 7th, and will mark the day that is the Friday after Epiphany Sunday, and is the day of the celebration of the Saint Raymond of Peñafort, c.1175-1275, a priest in the Catholic Church.

Born in Villafranca de Benadis, near Barcelona, Spain, he was educated at the University of Barcelona, where he became professor of canon law in 1195, and taught for 15 years. Leaving Spain for Bologna in 1210 to complete studies in canon law, he later occupied a chair of canon law in the university for three years and published a treatise on ecclesiastical legislation which still exists in the Vatican Library.

Returning to Barcelona in 1222, he became a Dominican, and at the command of Pope Gregory IX, he organized codified and edited canon law, which before he began his work, was nothing more than a “chaotic accumulation of isolated decrees.”

Upon completion of his work, the pope appointed him Archbishop of Tarragona, but he declined the honor, and having completed edited the Decretals he returned to Spain.

He was not to remain in seclusion long.

Shortly, he was elected General of the Dominican order, and established a superior set of regulations for its improved governance. Among his works, the “Summa casuum” – which offers guidance on just administration of the Sacrament of Pennance, for the benefit of the penitent – is most noteworthy, and his “Summa de Poenitentia et Matrimonio” is said to be the first work of its kind. His feast is 23 January.