Howard Laurence Sparks was born on December 18, 1905, in Mattoon, Illinois, the youngest of the two sons of James H. Sparks and Mary M. Kolb. He attended St. Joseph Grammar School in Mattoon and then Mattoon Public High School. After graduation from high school he spent two years at Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island (1921-23) and on August 15, 1923, he entered the Dominican Novitiate at St. Joseph Priory, Somerset, Ohio, where he was given the religious name Timothy to which he devoutly added the name of Mary, the Mother of God.

After completing his novitiate year Brother Timothy made his first profession of vows on August 16, 1924, and was sent to St. Rose of Lima Priory, Springfield, Kentucky, to begin his philosophical studies. A year later he was sent to St. Thomas Aquinas Priory, the newly completed House of Studies in River Forest, Illinois, where he finished his philosophical studies and was awarded an A.B. degree. He was then sent to Immaculate Conception Priory, Washington, D.C., for his theological studies (1927-31) where he obtained the Lectorate in Sacred Theology and was ordained a priest by Archbishop Michael Curley on June 16, 1930.

Following his initial studies Father Sparks was sent to the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome ("Angelicum") where he completed his Ph.D. in philosophy. Upon returning to the United States he was assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas Priory, River Forest, Illinois, to teach philosophy and theology (1933 -1946). For a time he served the community as Master of Lay Brothers (1933-37). It was also during this time that he was a Moderator of the General Studium of the Order (1940-46) and, when a Pontifical Faculty of Philosophy was established there in 1943, became one of its administrators (1943-46). On December 17, 1944 the degree of Master of Sacred Theology was conferred upon him by the Order. In addition to his principal ministry Father Sparks found time to teach in the Department of Philosophy, De Paul University, Chicago ; conducted a weekly seminar at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish for the students of the University of Chicago; was chaplain to a Third Order Chapter of Dominican Laity; was a lecturer in the Thomist Association (1938- 46) which he helped to establish ; and became active in the National Liturgical Movement.

In 1946 he was called by the Master of the Order to be the Socius for the North American Provinces in the General Curia of the Order in Rome, a ministry which he faithfully carried

out for nine years. He also returned to his Alma Mater, the University of St. Thomas Aquinas, to teach theology; served as a member of the Commission to Revise the Constitutions of the Order; worked diligently to assist many American congregations of Dominican Sisters and monasteries of Dominican Nuns; and was Secretary General of the General Chapter of Washington, O.C. (1949).

After nine years in the General Curia of the Order Father Timothy returned again to River Forest, Illinois, and taught on the Pontifical Faculty of Philosophy (1955-60). In addition to his teaching he again served as a lecturer for the Thomist Association, taught theology at Rosary College (now Dominican University), was a professor in the summer Institute of Spiritual Theology and became the national chaplain for the Secular Institute Caritas Christi.

In 1960 he was asked to become a chaplain at the Dominican Motherhouse at Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, a ministry which he fulfilled for twenty years. He continued to serve the Province as a member of the Provincial Council (1969-73), as Promoter of Causes and as a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Self-Study of the Province conducted in 1964-65. In 1966 he became Vice-Postulator for the Cause of Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, O.P., and was rewarded in his efforts by seeing Father Samuel declared Venerable.

After twenty years as chaplain at Sinsinawa, Father Sparks once again returned to St. Thomas Aquinas Priory, River Forest, Illinois, where he served as Assistant Provincial Archivist (1 980-83) and then As Archivist of the Province (1983-85). He was responsible for having space in the Priory set aside for the Archives and for developing the library there. He continued his research on St. Joseph, a topic which had occupied many hours of personal study and wrote a series of monographs on Dominican theologians and their contribution to Josephology. He became the United States coordinator of the Cause of Blessed Margaret of Castello and was always available to assist those who were promoting the causes of other holy men and women.

As Father Sparks entered upon his nineties, his health which had always been fragile began to decline. For some time he was cared for at the Juan Macias Center at St. Thomas Aquinas Priory, but as his general condition began to require more constant medical care, he was moved to Resurrection Life Center, Chicago, Illinois. In late March 2001, his condition became more acute and he was admitted to Resurrection Hospital, Chicago, where he died late on the afternoon of March 27th. A funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Thomas Aquinas Priory on March 30, 2001, and burial was in the Dominican Plot at All Saints Cemetery, Des Plaines, Illinois.

A Tribute to Fr. Timothy M. Sparks. O.P. Offered at the Vigil Service by his friend Mr. Allan J. Santos March 29, 2001

Fr. Sparks, I am sure, is known in many different ways. It all depends on how you interacted with him. It all depends on how he touched your life and on how you touched his. Some of us may remember him as a learned teacher, as a quiet philosopher, or as a spiritual theologian.

Some may remember him as a strict disciplinarian, or as a wise mentor, or as a faithful pastor and superior. There may be a few of you who remember him as a very intelligent and diligent student. There are a lot of you who may remember him as an obedient, down to earth, humble subject.

To those of you who have worked closely with him you will know that he was a meticulous, exacting, very particular, and very regimented sweet old man. He had a certain ritual of doing things: from getting out of bed in the morning to going to sleep at night. Those of you who have helped him to bed at night, will know what I am talking about. But in all his regiments, you can be assured that God played an important role in it. To give you an example: a simple coffee break would not take place without having said grace first. Not with Fr. Sparks around.

In matters of personal differences and personality conflicts, some may remember him as a peace maker and as a seasoned diplomat, graced by his years of experience, knowing when to say or not to say anything; or when to simply raise your eyebrows and shrug your shoulders thereby giving a response without actually approving or disapproving the other person's idea or opinion. I called this his silent answer.

Many may remember him as a spiritual and holy man: one who would pray for you and one who would pray with you. One who would lead you to God, one who would lead you to Jesus, Mary and Joseph. He loved reciting the rosary and he loved praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament. He was a true model when it came to devotions. The Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, and St. Therese the Little Flower were among his favorites. In promoting and defending devotions to the Blessed Mother, he would tell me, " No matter how much I honor the Blessed Mother, I can never honor Her the way God honored Her by making Her the mother of His Son.."

But Father never imposed his faith on others. He did not expect anyone to do the practices he did. The most he would do, was to preach by his example.

Many instances during the daily afternoon masses, here at the Priory, some people would come late or miss communion. He would have an eye for them and after mass he would quietly approach them and offer to give them communion privately. He was very sensitive towards the needs of others.

If you were inflicted with a serious illness, he would pray with you; he would direct you or take you to a pilgrimage to seek comfort, strength, and healing not only for the body but also for the spirit. If you lost your job or some misfortune befell you, if you were broken hearted or simply depressed, he would be there to comfort you with his words of wisdom and faith; and he would pray for you. It didn't matter who you were - rich or poor, sinner or saint - he would make time for you.

As a family man, he was a son who loved his parents dearly. He felt he couldn't do enough for his parents. As a faithful younger brother, he consistently looked after the spiritual welfare of his older brother and his family. As a cousin, he made it a point to keep in touch with relatives and friends in his hometown - Matoon, Illinois. On a regular basis and on special occasions, he would call his cousin Dorothy and Jean Gover just to say hello. As an uncle, he gave his unconditional love to his brother's daughter - Mary Ann Sparks who lives in Boston. He made sure he called her at least every other week.

To strangers and visitors, Father Sparks was always gracious and hospitable. Even in the years after his hip surgery where he spent most of his time in a wheel chair, he would always make an effort to greet visitors in the dining room and to welcome them. Priests or brothers, lay people or religious, seminar attendees or not, passing bye or visiting, - he would greet you. If you were a foreigner, it was your luck. He would go out of his way to make you feel welcome and ease your transition to a different culture.

To the people who provided service, he made sure thanks and recognition were given to them. After every meal, he made it a point to always thank the Chef and the kitchen staff for the food they prepared. In the nursing home, he always expressed his gratitude to his aids and nurses, particularly Raul and Selinda.

To Mark Petrone who came to visit him weekly and helped him with his mail, he was very grateful.

To Rose Garcia who would stop by to check on him regularly, he was grateful.

To Lucy of the Provincial Office who would call him on his feast day, he was grateful.

He treasured the friendship of Ed and Rosemary Stepnowski who would come to have coffee with him every Sunday. He was very grateful.

As a Dominican, this much I knew of Fr. Sparks: He was an obedient follower. The best I have ever known. He did not complain. He did not challenge any authority. He may not have wanted or approved of a decision made, but you can bet your life he would be the first to be submissive to it. He often told me: "Obedience is what binds us together as an order." And after the decision is made, after he has submitted himself, he would not dare talk about his personal desires. Not even an opinion could you get out of him. The most you would get as an answer is " Whatever God's Will Is."

He loved the order and he loved his brethren. Without saying it explicitly, he was especially fond of Brother Henry - a model for Sainthood, he would say. He was grateful to Bro. Reginald for the wardrobe he made for him and for the cake he would deliver on his birthday. To Bro. Michael and Bro. Carlos, for the care they gave him, he was grateful.

He was proud of and highly regarded Fr. Hynous for his wisdom and his work at the tribunal. He was always grateful to Fr. Bernacki for moving from Fenwick to River Forest to save the House of Studies - this place which he dearly loves. He was proud that Fr. Bernacki and him shared the same birthday and ordination date (different years, of course). He always felt if Fr. Bernacki was on top of it, it would be taken care of.

He drew strength and support and encouragement from Fr. Hereley. He looked forward to the weekly visits with Fr. Hereley and he took comfort knowing he was going to be there every week to look after his welfare.

And there are those whom he cherished fondly and silently. You know who you are. I need not mention your names. Actually, he always had some special good thing to say about each one of his brethren. Never have I heard him say anything negative about any of you.

I first met Fr. Sparks 14 years ago when I went to confession. In the weeks that followed, and after several more sessions, he taught me something. He said: "You know you don't have to wait to commit a sin to go to confession. It's a sacrament that is available to you. Take advantage of it." From then on we decided to do it on a regular basis and hence, he became my father confessor. As the months went by, our spiritual relationship grew. We became more than friends. He treated me like family and I adopted him as My Father Sparks.

Before his health started to decline, we would talk for hours about scripture and theology. He loved theology. He would often quote St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine. In deed, he was a student of theirs. One of the quotes he recited to me, from which I often take comfort especially during times of trouble is one from St. Augustine and the Council of Trent, and I quote:

God does not command the impossible; but commanding, He warns us both to do what we can, and to pray for what we can not; and He helps us so that we can. (From Fr. Sparks, 4/4/1992, 1:49pm)

I am grateful to God for bringing Fr. Sparks into my life. I am grateful for the times we spent together, for the wisdom he shared with me, and for the faith he has taught me. I will miss him and at the same time I will rejoice for him for he has completed his journey. He is home now with the Holy Family - Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Funeral Homily Offered by Fr. Benedict Ashley, OP: At the wake last evening Mr. Santos, a friend of Fr. Timothy Sparks for many years, gave us such a beautiful eulogy, that I am at loss to say anything more. Yet the Gospel in the liturgy today both illumines what Mr. Santos said about Fr. Timothy and that Gospel is also made more real for us by what Mr. Santos had tell us about Fr. Timothy as a spiritual guide.

The first reading speaks of God's love for his Son and hence for us a also his children. The Gospel speaks of how the God's law, that seems very heavy is made light by love. In the life of Fr. Timothy Sparks we see both the yoke the Law and how it is can be born to the end of life by the strength of love that makes it an "easy burden." Fr. Sparks was born in Matoon, Illinois 1905; was first professed 1924 and then ordained in 1930 in the Province of St. Joseph before the division of the Province. He later studied at the Angelicum and then returned to teach in new Province of St. Albert the Great and later became an Assistant of our Master of the Order in Rome, until he returned again to teach and write..

In the Gospel reading Jesus says that "My yoke is easy and my burden light." Yet the moral responsibilities that the Law of God places us are many and difficult. There is no question of our escaping these responsibilities. Jesus says in the same Gospel According to Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount that "I have not come to abolish the Law...not the least letter of it will be taken away until all has been fulfilled." Fr. Spark felt these responsibilities deeply and in his humility felt he was often failing in them. This caused him great sufferings and a period of deep depression after he returned from many years of service as an Assistant to the Master General in Rome. There he acquired something of that Romanitá or manner that the Romans have form long experience over the observance of law and order that enables them to meet difficulty situations with finesse.

This sometimes led Fr. Timothy to make fine distinctions that produced many anecdotes for our amusement. I will mention only one. Once when he was acting as secretary for a Provincial Chapter, he was much concerned in preparing a list of names of officials to be appointed that proper respect was given to each one by title and position. The student Brother who was assisting him grew weary of this indecision and finaly said, "Father, let's just leave the list as it stands, but underline the names of those of the brethren that you feel might otherwise not be given the honor due them. For Timothy was delighted by this section, but then hesitated, and finally said, "Fine, Fine, God ahead and underline them. Brother…. But don't hit the keys too hard!"

I want to stress, however, that this scrupulous obedience and observance of the least detail was not just scrupulosity…although it was that and cause him much suffering and when he returned from Rome worn out, a severe period of depression. No, more deeply it was Timothy's great love of the truth, the motto of our Order of Preachers. What he wanted to always obey was the truth, what ought to be, what the wisdom of God had provided. His one concern was to obey, to conform to the truth of God.He was always concerned, even to the point of scrupulosity that at several times of his life caused him to suffer seriously from depression, profoundly dedicated to obeying God even to the letter.

This love of Truth, especially as he found it in the great intellectual tradition of our Order in teaching the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, led him to make very important contributions to our Dominican Province of St. Albert, that was divided from the Eastern province of St. Joseph in 1939, when he was just nine years a priest. I often heard from the close friend of Fr. Timothy, Fr. William Humbert Kane that in their day as students in Washington philosophy and theology were not always taken with great seriousness and only a few of their professors were really scholars. The emphasis was on pastoral activities or being a member of the Preaching Band that gave parish retreats. But he and Fr. Tim were determined with the support of our first provincial Fr. Peter O'Brien, that our province would be outstanding in the intellectual apostolate. Since the studium of the Eastern Province had obtained a Pontifical Faculty of Theology all that our Province could hope for was a Pontifical Faculty in Philosophy and with great effort this the two obtained it.

Fr. Sparks himself usually followed the ancient method, learned at the Angelicum, of dictating his lectures from an outline on the board. We fledgling students sometimes referred to him, therefore, as Section II-Big A-One- Little a-Little b. While this method would not go down today it did assure that our notebooks were meticulously exact and that no point, not even Section II Big A, One, Little b was missed. Today students who have the advantage of Aquinas Institute of Theology, with its varied faculty having degrees from excellent schools, its accreditation, and its university location must realize that none of this would be theirs if it had not been for Fr. Sparks unceasing devotion to one of the four great pillars of Dominican Life, study.

Another great fruit of Fr. Sparks' efforts for our intellectual mission was the Thomist Association that ran adult education classes in the work of St. Thomas Aquinas taken by many teachers, lawyers, physicians and other professionals in cities Illinois of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

The Gospel indicates that what ultimately makes the burden of the yoke of the law light is love. I believe this was the reason that devotion to St. Joseph was so important to Fr. Sparks as was shown in the articles he did in his later years now collected by Fr. Bail Cole in the book Dominicans on St. Joseph. In the Gospel Jesus prefaces his words about his easy yoke by saying that he and the Father are one, and thus only the Father knows the Son and the Son the Father. Where did Jesus in his humanity learn what it is to be a true "father" and a true "son. From St. Joseph, whom Mary in the scene of the finding in the Temple, speaking to Jesus, simply calls "your father." The Scriptures describe St. Joseph by a single adjective, "for he was a just man." The New Jerome biblical Commentary points out that in this passage we find that Joseph was "just" because he was deeply concerned to obey the law that concerned adultery, when he discovered that Mary was pregnant, yet his justice was so compassionate that he could not bear that she be stoned as the law seemed to require, and instead decided "to divorce her quietly." Thus in St.Joseph Timothy Spark found his model of that compassionate justice in which law and love are united.

Thus in dealing with others Fr. Timothy was always deeply compassionate, as I can witness, since soon after my conversion he was my first confessor. It was he too that when I wanted to enter the Order about only a year after my baptism, said to me, "But you are a neophyte, better finish your doctorate degree, and then enter." Wise advise then and I always found him a wise adviser. Mr. Santos related to you what a prudent and kind spiritual director Fr. Timothy was and many, many other Sisters and laypersons will bear witness to this when he directed them or heard their confessions.How many of us remember that it was always he who remembered to send a card of congratulation on our birth days or other important events.

This combination of obedience to truth in authority joined with compassion and cooperation became especially manifest in his attitudes and conduct when the great changes came with Vatican II. These changes were probably crushing to Fr. Timothy, as devoted as he was to tradition. I am sure it was very hard for him, especially when the existence of the Studium here became threatened, priests began to leave, and very liberal ideas circulated. For some this would have meant withdrawal from the Province's activities and bitterness about the disappearance of so many things that they held dear. What was most remarkable about Fr. Timothy, however, was the serenity with which he accepted these innovations and accommodated himself to new ways that must to him have appeared frightening and even disastrous. His faith, wisdom, and Roman experience told him that the Boat of Peter may rock in the waves, but it will not go under. I, at least, never heard him criticize whatever was done in our province by its leaders, or even withdraw from those whose antics that must have alarmed him most. He kept steadily to his own business and convictions, without judgment on others.

This it seems to me is in a special way the lesson we can learn from Timothy Sparks life, the lesson of how true charity leads to true loyalty to community life, a charity that does not judge others but simply seeks always to find what is right for one's own conduct. A charity, however, that he always tried to base on truth, on what we used to call "solid doctrine." This example was given not only to us but to many persons who cam to him for counseling. He was known throughout Chicagoland as an excellent spiritual director, always sympathetic, always moderate, understanding and wise. I want especially to recall Dr. Herbert Ratner, so long a resident in this village and a friend of this house, whose wonderful life and spirit were always under Fr. Sparks guidance.

Fr. Sparks was the oldest member of our Province, always deeply concerned for its future, as our Council meets here this weekend to make important decisions for the future of the Province may we seek his prayers for us, as we pray for him that the joy of his Lord if it is not already his will be so very soon. We thank God for his example. Let us by the intercession of St. Joseph and his most holy wife St. Mary ask God to help us have that spirit of dedication to this Province and its intellectual and preaching ministry that he had.

Again the Gospel today tells us that to those who love the law of Christ it is an easy burden, but what it demands of us as Dominicans is a great compassion for human weakness and a great patience in a mutual search for and fidelity to God's Truth.