Blessed Peter Gonzalez, O.P.

Excerpt: The Order of Friar Preachers founded by Saint Dominic, his fellow countryman, offered him all he sought. He, therefore, went to the monastery at Palencia, recently built, the home of many holy men. There he received the habit, and began a life of penance, prayer, and apostolic labors. He seems to have been about the age of thirty, when he entered the Dominican Order. The year of his novitiate was a year of tears, shed for the sins of his youth, the memory of which was never absent from his mind; but the wonderful mercy God had shown him in his conversion was an earnest of the happiness of heaven he was so eagerly striving to attain. When he thought of the danger he had run of losing his soul he trembled - but the sweet memory of his conversion always re-assured him. He was one of the most fervent novices; one of the most mortified; was most edifying in conversation, and above all was distinguished for his exact observance of the rule; very prayerful and devout, more especially to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to the most holy Sacrament of the altar. He also became remarkable for his love of holy purity, the fruitful parent of all Christian virtues. He had turned his back upon the world and its delights, but the world was not content to lose him. Some of his friends, who pretended to be full of zeal for his welfare, went to see him and talked to him in this strain: "You have taken a very serious step, and as it seems to us, with but scant reflection, whereas it is a step which requires years of thought and prayer." Others said: "You have been brought up in luxury, and probably will not be able to observe the long fasts and observances of the rule you have embraced. Would it not have been better to have begun your penance more moderately?" Many suggested that he had thrown away the talent God had given him; that he would have been very useful among the secular priests of the diocese, on account of his rank, but that in the Dominican cloister his life would be hidden and of no particular use to any one; that as Dean of the Cathedral perhaps God had destined him for a great work; and in fine, all the usual arguments pious, but imperfect souls borrow from the maxims of the world when they see any one trying to lead a more perfect life than themselves. But the novice, happy in his life of penance and prayer, saw through all these specious arguments, and happily persevered in the course he had begun.