SAINT CHARLES BORROMEO

PUT YOUR TRUST AND CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE

It is better to trust in the LORD 
than to put confidence in man.

Psalm 118:8

God wishes us not to rest upon anything but His infinite Goodness. Do not let us expect anything but from Him, and let us put our trust and confidence in Him alone.  -- St Charles Borromeo

In order to make known His infinite goodness towards the subjects of His mercy whom He has prepared beforehand for glory (Rom 9:23). Or is it that you think slightingly of His infinite goodness, forbearance and patience, unaware that the goodness of God is gently drawing you to repentance? (Rom 2:4)



PROGRESS IN THE SERVICE OF GOD

"Who will grant my wish? 

I wish God would grant what I'm hoping for" 

Job 6:8

If we wish to make any progress in the service of God we must begin every day of our life with new eagerness. We must keep ourselves in the presence of God as much as possible and have no other view or end in all our actions but the divine honor. -- St. Charles Borromeo

CARLO BORROMEO

St. Charles Borromeo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Borromeo (Italian: Carlo Borromeo, Latin: Carolus Borromeus, 1538–1584) was the cardinal archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584. Among the great reformers of the troubled sixteenth century, Borromeo, with St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Philip Neri, and others, led the movement to combat the inroads of the Protestant Reformation. He was a leading figure during the Counter-Reformation and was responsible for significant reforms in the Catholic Church, including the founding of seminaries for the education of priests. He is honoured as a saint in the Catholic Church and his feast day is 4 November.
His life was originally written by three eminent persons who all had occasion to live some time with him. Two in Latin, by Agostino Valerio, afterwards Cardinal and Bishop of Verona, and by Carlo Bascape, General of the Barnabites, afterwards Bishop of Novara; plus a third in more detail in Italian by Pietro Giussano, a priest of the congregation of the Oblates at Milan.[1]
Early life

His father, Count Gilbert Borromeo was a man of piety and ability, and his mother was a member of the Milan branch of the House of Medici. The third son in a family of six children, Carlo was born in the castle of Arona on Lake Maggiore, fourteen miles from Milan, on October 2, 1538.[2] The family of Borromeo was one of the most ancient and wealthy in Lombardy, and famous for several great men, both in the church and state.[1] The aristocratic Borromeo family's coat of arms included the Borromean rings, sometimes taken to symbolize the Holy Trinity.

He received the tonsure when he was about twelve years old. At this time his paternal uncle, Julius Caesar Borromeo, turned over to him the income from the rich Benedictine abbey of Sts. Gratinian and Felin, one of the ancient perquisites of this noble family. In spite of his youth, Carlo made plain to his father that all revenues from the abbey beyond what was required to prepare him for a career in the Church belonged to the poor and could not be applied to secular use. The young man attended the University of Pavia, where he applied himself to the study of civil and canon law. Due to a slight impediment of speech, he was regarded as slow; yet his thoroughness and industry more than compensated for the handicap.[2] In 1554 his father died, and although he had an elder brother, Count Federico, he was requested by the family to take the management of their domestic affairs. After a time, he resumed his studies, and on December 6, 1559 he earned a doctorate in utroque iure (Canon and Civil Law).
Rome period

On December 25, 1559 his uncle, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Medici, was raised to the pontificate as Pope Pius IV. The new elected pope required his nephew Charles Borromeo to come to Rome, and on January 13, 1560 appointed him protonotary apostolic.[3] Shortly thereafter, on January 31, 1560 the Pope created him Cardinal, and thus Charles Borromeo as Cardinal-nephew was entrusted with both the public and the privy seal of the ecclesiastical state.[4] He was also entrusted in the government of the Papal States and appointed supervisor of the Franciscans, Carmelites and Knights of Malta.

During his four years in Rome Charles Borromeo lived in austerity, compelled the personnel in the Roman Curia to wear black and established an academy of learned persons, the Academy of the Vatican Nights, publishing their memoirs as the Noctes Vaticanae.[5]

Charles committed to organize the third and last section of the Council of Trent, in 1562-63. He took a large share in the creation of the Tridentine Catechism (Catechismus Romanus). In 1561, Borromeo founded and endowed a college at Pavia, today known as Almo Collegio Borromeo, which he dedicated to Saint Justina of Padua.

On November 19, 1562 his older brother, Federico, suddenly died. His family urged Charles to quit the church to marry and have children, so that the family name would not become extinct, but he decided not to leave the ecclesiastic state.[6] His brother's death, along with his contacts with the Jesuits and the Theatines and the example of bishops such as Bartholomew of Braga, were the causes of a conversion of Charles towards a more strict and operative Christian life, and his aim became to put into practice the dignity and duties of the bishop as drafted by the recent Council of Trent.[5]

Archbishop of Milan

Charles Borromeo was appointed Administrator of the Archdiocese of Milan on February 7, 1560. After his decision to put into practice the role of bishop, he decided to be ordained Priest (September 4, 1563) and on December 7, 1563 he was consecrated bishop in the Sistine Chapel by Cardinal Giovanni Serbelloni.[7] Charles was formally appointed archbishop of Milan on May 12, 1564 after the former archbishop Ippolito II d'Este waived his claims on that archbishopric, but he was only allowed by the Pope to leave Rome one year later: Charles Borromeo made his formal entry in Milan as archbishop on September 23, 1565.[6]
Reform Program (Acta Ecclesiae Mediolanensis)
Intercession of Charles Borromeo supported by the Virgin Mary by Rottmayr (Karlskirche, Vienna)

After the death of his uncle, Pius IV (1566), Borromeo contributed materially to suppressing the cabals of the conclave. Before Borromeo went to Milan, while he was overseeing reform in Rome, a nobleman remarked that the latter city was no longer a place to enjoy oneself or to make a fortune. "Carlo Borromeo has undertaken to remake the city from top to bottom," he said, predicting dryly that the reformer's enthusiasm "would lead him to correct the rest of the world once he has finished with Rome."[8]

Subsequently he devoted himself wholly to the reformation of his diocese. It had deteriorated in practice owing to the 80-year absence of previous archbishops.[9] When Borromeo arrived in Milan, he faced a daunting task. Milan was the largest archdiocese in Italy at the time, with more than 3,000 clergy and 800,000 people. Both its clergy and laity had drifted from church teaching. The selling of indulgences and ecclesiastical positions was prevalent; monasteries were "full of disorder"; many religious were "lazy, ignorant, and debauched".[8] Borromeo made numerous pastoral visits, and restored dignity to divine service. In conformity with the decrees of the Council of Trent, which suggested simplifying church interiors, Borromeo cleared the cathedral of ornate tombs, rich ornaments, banners, and arms. He did not even spare the monuments of his own relatives. He divided the nave of the church into two compartments to separate the sexes at worship.

He extended his reforms to the collegiate churches, monasteries and even to the Confraternities of Penitents, particularly that of St. John the Baptist. This group was to attend to prisoners and those condemned to death, to give them help and support.

Borromeo believed that abuses in the church arose from ignorant clergy. Among his most important actions, he established seminaries, colleges and communities for the education of candidates for holy orders.[10] His emphasis on Catholic learning greatly increased the preparation of men for priesthood and benefited their congregations. In addition, Borromeo founded the fraternity of Oblates of St. Ambrose, a society of secular men who did not take orders, but devoted themselves to the church and followed a discipline of monastic prayers and study. They provided assistance to parishes where ordered by the church.[9] The new archbishop's efforts for catechesis and the instruction of youth were especially fruitful, initiating the work of the Confraternity for Christian Doctrine and the first “Sunday School” classes.

His reforms of the diocese, in accordance with the decrees of the council, were dramatic and effective. Borromeo faced staunch opposition of several religious orders, particularly that of the Humiliati (Brothers of Humility), a decayed penitential order which, although reduced to about 170 members, owned some ninety monasteries. Some members of that society formed a conspiracy against his life, and a shot was fired at him in the archiepiscopal chapel. His survival was considered miraculous.[10]

In 1576 there was famine at Milan due to crop failures, and later came an outbreak of the plague. The city's trade fell off, and along with it the people's source of income. The governor and many members of the nobility fled the city, but the bishop remained, to organize the care of those who were stricken and to minister to the dying. He called together the superiors of all the religious communities in the diocese, and won their cooperation. Borromeo tried to feed 60,000 to 70,000 people daily. He used up his own funds and went into debt to provide food for the hungry. Finally he wrote to the governor, and shamed him into coming back to his post.[2][4]

Borromeo had also been involved in English affairs when he assisted Pius IV. Many English Catholics had fled to Italy at this time because of the persecutions under Queen Elizabeth. He gave important pastoral attention to English Catholics who fled to Italy to escape the new laws against the Catholic faith.[10] Saint Edmund Campion, a Jesuit, visited Borromeo at Milan in 1580 on his way to England. Campion visited with Borromeo for eight days, when they would talk at length every night after dinner. A Welshman, Dr. Griffith Roberts, served as Borromeo's canon theologian, and an Englishman, Thomas Goldwell, as vicar-general. The Archbishop carried on his person a small picture of St. John Fisher, who, with St. Thomas More, had been martyred for the faith during the reign of Henry VIII, and for whom he held a great veneration.
Suppression of witchcraft and heresy
Painting by Francesco Caccianiga showing an angel tending to Charles Borromeo

Though the Diet of Ilanz of 1524 and 1526 had proclaimed freedom of worship in the Republic of the Three Leagues, Saint Carlo repressed Protestantism in the Swiss valleys. The Catholic Encyclopedia relates: “In November [1583] he began a visitation as Apostolic visitor of all the cantons of Switzerland and the Grisons, leaving the affairs of his diocese in the hands of Monsignor Owen Lewis, his vicar-general. He began in the Mesoleina Valley; here not only was there heresy to be fought, but also witchcraft and sorcery, and at Roveredo it was discovered that the provost, or rector, was the foremost in sorceries.”[11] During his pastoral visit to the region, the Cardinal had about a hundred people arrested for practising witchcraft. Ten women and the provost were condemned to "the flaming death". They were put to death by being placed head-first in the fire.[12]

Reacting to the pressure of the Protestant Reformation, Borromeo encouraged Ludwig Pfyffer in his development of the Golden League, but did not live to see its formation in 1586. Based in Lucerne, the organization (also called the Borromean League) linked activities of several Swiss Catholic cantons of Switzerland, which became the centre of Catholic Counter-Reformation efforts. This organization was determined to expel heretics and burned some people at the stake. It created severe strains in the civil administration of the confederation, and caused the break-up of Appenzell canton along religious lines.[citation needed]

Controversy and last days
Crypt of Charles Borromeo, in the Duomo di Milano.

“An austere, dedicated, humorless and uncompromising personality” is the way that a biographer—an admiring biographer—describes Carlo Borromeo. Charged with implementing the reforms dictated by the Council of Trent, Borromeo had to be tough, and his toughness brought him into conflict with secular leaders, priests, and even the pope himself.[8] Borromeo met with much opposition to his reforms. The governor of the province, and many of the senators, addressed complaints to the courts of Rome and Madrid. They were apprehensive that the cardinal's ordinances would encroach upon the civil jurisdiction.

He successfully attacked his Jesuit confessor, Giovanni Battista Ribera, who, with other members of the college of Milan, was found to be guilty of unnatural offenses. This action increased Borromeo's enemies within the church.

Borromeo's manifold labors and austerities appear to have shortened his life. Travels in his diocese, especially in the difficult Alpine country, had weakened the bishop's constitution. In 1584, during his annual retreat at Monte Varallo, he was stricken with an intermittent fever and ague, and on returning to Milan grew rapidly worse. After receiving the Last Sacraments, the beloved bishop died quietly on November 4, at the age of forty-six.[2]
Veneration

People's devotion to Borromeo as a saint arose quickly and continued to grow. The Milanese celebrated his anniversary as though he were already canonized. Supporters collected documentation for his canonization. They began the process at Milan, Pavia, Bologna and other places. In 1602 Pope Paul V beatified Borromeo. In 1604 his case was sent on to the Congregation of Rites. On 1 November 1610, Paul V canonized Carlo Borromeo. Three years later, the church added Borromeo's feast to the Roman Catholic calendar of saints for celebration on 4 November. Along with Anselm of Lucca, he is one of only two cardinal-nephews to have been canonized. He was canonized in 1610, and his feast is celebrated on 4 November each year in the Roman Catholic Rite.
Iconography

Borromeo's emblem is the Latin word humilitas (humility), which is a portion of the Borromeo shield. He is usually represented in art in his robes, barefoot, carrying the cross as archbishop; a rope round his neck, one hand raised in blessing, thus recalling his work during the plague.

The position which Carlo Borromeo held in Europe was remarkable. He is venerated as a saint of learning and the arts. The mass of correspondence both to and by him testifies to how often his opinion was sought. The popes under whom he served sought his advice. The Catholic sovereigns of Europe – Henry III of France, Philip II of Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots – and others showed how they valued his influence. His brother cardinals wrote in praise of his virtues. Cardinal Valerio of Verona said of him that Borromeo was "to the well-born a pattern of virtue, to his brother cardinals an example of true nobility." Cardinal Baronius styled him "a second Ambrose, whose early death, lamented by all good men, inflicted great loss on the Church."

Late in the sixteenth or at the beginning of the seventeenth century, Catholics in England circulated among themselves a "Life of St. Charles".[13]

    Besides the Noctes Vaticanae, to which he appeared to have contributed, Borromeo's written legacy consisted only of some homilies, discourses and sermons, with a collection of letters. Borromeo's sermons have been translated into many languages.

    Contrary to Borromeo's last wishes, the Duomo di Milano created a memorial crypt to honor him at the church.

    His nephew, Federico Borromeo (1564–1631), was archbishop of Milan from 1595 and, furthering Carlo's support for Catholic learning, in 1609 founded the Ambrosian Library in that city. He donated a tremendous collection of art and literature to the library.

    His relative Federico Borromeo and admirers commissioned a statue 20 m high that was erected on the hill above Arona, as they regarded him an important leader of the Counter-Reformation.

    The famous church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome was dedicated in his honor.

    Borromeo is one of only four people mentioned at the beginning of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, citing them as responsible for the Council of Trent, which gave way to the modern day catechism. The others mentioned are St. Peter Canisius, St. Turibius of Mongrovejo and St. Roberto Bellarmine.

    The city and county of St. Charles, Missouri are named for Borromeo. Also, a Brazilian city was named after him, named in Portuguese São Carlos.

    The Parish of St. Charles, Louisiana is named for Borromeo.


Published: 12/09/10-6:06AM

SAINT COLETTE

WAY THAT LEADS TO HEAVEN

If there be a true way that leads to the Everlasting Kingdom, it is most certainly that of suffering, patiently endured.  -- St Colette

Nicole Boellet 

Saint Colette

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saint Colette (13 January 1381 – 6 March 1447), born Nicole Boellet (or Boylet), was a French abbess and the foundress of the Colettine Poor Clares, a reform branch of the Order of Saint Clare, better known as the Poor Clares. Due to a number of miraculous events claimed during her life, she is venerated as the patron saint of women seeking to conceive, expectant mothers and sick children.
Nicolette Boilet was born in Corbie in the Picardy region of France, in January 1381, to Robert Boellet, a poor carpenter at the noted Benedictine Abbey of Corbie, and to his wife, Marguerite Moyon. Her contemporary biographers say that her parents had grown old without having children, before praying to Saint Nicholas for help in having a child. Their prayers were answered when, at the age of 60, Marguerite gave birth to a daughter. Out of gratitude, they named the baby after the saint to whom they credited the miracle of her birth.[1]

After her parents died in 1399, Nicole--henceforth known as Colette--joined the Beguines but found their manner of life unchallenging. She received the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis in 1402,[2] and became a hermit under the direction of the Abbot of Corbie, living near the abbey church. After four years of following this ascetic way of life (1402–1406), through several dreams and visions she came to believe that she was being called to reform the Franciscan Second Order, and to return it to its original Franciscan ideals of absolute poverty and austerity.
Foundress

In October 1406, she turned to the Antipope Benedict XIII of Avignon who was recognized in France as the rightful pope. Benedict received her in Nice, in southern France, and allowed her to transfer to the Order of Poor Clares. Additionally, he empowered her through several papal bulls, issued between 1406 and 1412, to found new monasteries and to complete the reform of the Order.[2]

With the approval of the Countess of Geneva and the aid of the Franciscan itinerant preacher, Henry of Beaume (her confessor and spiritual director), Colette began her work at Beaune, in the diocese of Geneva. She remained there only a short time. In 1410, she opened her first monastery at Besançon, in an almost-abandoned house of Urbanist Poor Clares. From there, her reform spread to Auxonne (1412), to Poligny (1415), to Ghent (1412), to Heidelberg (1444), to Amiens, to Pont-à-Mousson in Lorraine and to other communities of Poor Clares. During her lifetime 18 monasteries of her reform were founded. For the monasteries which followed her reform, she prescribed extreme poverty, going barefoot, and the observance of perpetual fasting and abstinence.[3]

In addition to the strict rules of the Poor Clares, the Colettines follow their special Constitutions, sanctioned in 1434 by the then-Minister General of the friars, William of Casale, and approved in 1448 by Pope Nicholas V, again in 1458 by Pope Pius II, and in 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV.

She was beatified 23 January 1740, by Pope Clement XII (just a few weeks before his death) and was canonized 24 May 1807 by Pope Pius VII.[4]

Currently (2011) outside of France, the Colettine nuns are found in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Norway, the Philippines, Spain and throughout the United Kingdom and the United States.[5]

Together with friar Henry of Beaume, Colette also inaugurated a reform among the Franciscan friars (who were known as the Coletans), not to be confounded with the Observants. These friars formed a unique branch of the Order of Friars Minor under Henry's authority, but remained obedient to the authority of the Minister Provincial of the Observant Franciscan friaries in France, and never attained much importance, even there. In 1448 they had only thirteen friaries, all attached to monasteries of the Colettine nuns. Together with other small branches of the Order of Friars Minor, they were merged into the wider Observant branch in 1517 by Pope Leo X.

Miracles
Helping a mother in childbirth

While traveling to Nice to meet the Pope, Colette stayed at the home of a friend. His wife was in labor at that time with their third child, and was having major difficulties in the childbirth, leaving her in danger of death. Colette immediately went to the local church to pray for her.

The mother gave birth successfully, and survived the ordeal. She credited Colette's prayers for this. The child born, a girl named Pierinne, later entered a monastery founded by Colette. She would become Colette's secretary and biographer.
Saving a sick child

After the Pope had authorized Colette to establish a regimen of strict poverty in the Poor Clare monasteries of France, she started with that of Besançon. The local populace was suspicious of her reform, with its total reliance on them for the sustenance of the monastery. One incident helped turn this around.

According to legend, a local peasant woman gave birth to a stillborn child. In desperation, out of fear for the child's soul, the father took the baby to the local parish priest for baptism. Seeing that the child was already dead, the priest refused to baptize the body. When the man became insistent, out of frustration, the priest told him to go to the nuns, which he did immediately. When he arrived at the monastery, Mother Colette was made aware of his situation by the portress. Her response was to take off the veil given to her by the Pope, when he gave her the habit of the Second Order, and told the portress to have the father wrap the child's body in it and for him to return to the priest. By the time he arrived at the parish church with his small bundle, the child was conscious and crying. The priest immediately baptized the baby.[6]

SAINT JOHN VIANNEY

PRAYER

Devote yourselves to prayer, 

keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.  

Colossians 4:2

Prayer is to our soul what rain is to the soil. Fertilize the soil ever so richly, it will remain barren unless fed by frequent rains. -- St John Vianney

The most astonishing thing was that there were actually saints there, even ones who were beatified, who were passing through Purgatory.

St. Severinus, Archbishop of Cologne, appeared to one of his friends a long time after his death and told him that he had been in Purgatory for having deferred to the evening the prayers he should have said in the morning.

Oh! What years of Purgatory will there be for those Christians who have no difficulty at all in deferring their prayers to another time on the excuse of having to do some pressing work!

If we really desired the happiness of possessing God, we should avoid the little faults as well as the big ones, since separation from God is so frightful a torment to all these poor souls! -- Sermon on Purgatory by Saint John Vianney

Have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You today. (1 Kings 8:28)
 


Published: 11/7/10-6:09AM

Conversion of a Sinner

For the Lord is gracious and merciful and prefers the conversion of a sinner rather than his death. Patient and generous in his mercy, he does not give in to human impatience but is willing to wait a long time for our repentance.

-- St. Jerome

SAINT GREGORY NAZIANZEN

VIRTUE UNITES US TO GOD

You are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. -- 1 Peter 2:9
 
Let us not esteem worldly prosperity or adversity as things real or of any moment, but let us live elsewhere, and raise all our attention to Heaven; esteeming sin as the only true evil, and nothing truly good, but virtue which unites us to God. -- St Gregory Nazianzen
 

BE MERCIFUL

 "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful." -- Luke 6:36


All day the just man is merciful and lends. Let us lay hold of this blessing, let us earn the name of being considerate, let us be generous. Not even night should interrupt you in your duty of mercy. Do not say "Come back and I will give you something tomorrow." There should be no delay between your intention and your good deed. Generosity is the one thing that cannot admit of delay. -- Saint Gregory Nazianzen

I prayed to the LORD, my God, and confessed, "Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you and observe your commandments!  We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws. We have not obeyed your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name (Dn. 9:4-6). Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for thy name's sake (Ps. 79:9)!

Gregory of Nazianzus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gregory of Nazianzus, also known as Gregory the Theologian or Gregory Nazianzen, was a 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople. He is widely considered the most accomplished rhetorical stylist of the patristic age.  As a classically trained orator and philosopher he infused Hellenism into the early church, establishing the paradigm of Byzantine theologians and church officials. He made a significant impact on the shape of Trinitarian theology among both Greek- and Latin-speaking theologians, and he is remembered as the "Trinitarian Theologian". Much of his theological work continues to influence modern theologians, especially in regard to the relationship among the three Persons of the Trinity. Along with the brothers Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, he is known as one of the Cappadocian Fathers.

In 379, the Antioch synod and its archbishop, Meletios, asked Gregory to go to Constantinople to lead a theological campaign to win over that city to Nicene orthodoxy. He immediately transformed much of it into a church, naming it Anastasia, "a scene for the resurrection of the faith". From this little chapel he delivered five powerful discourses on Nicene doctrine, explaining the nature of the Trinity and the unity of the Godhead. Refuting the Eunomion denial of the Holy Spirit's divinity, Gregory offered this argument:

    Look at these facts: Christ is born, the Holy Spirit is His Forerunner. Christ is baptized, the Spirit bears witness to this ... Christ works miracles, the Spirit accompanies them. Christ ascends, the Spirit takes His place. What great things are there in the idea of God which are not in His power? What titles appertaining to God do not apply also to Him, except for Unbegotten and Begotten? I tremble when I think of such an abundance of titles, and how many Names they blaspheme, those who revolt against the Spirit!

Gregory's homilies were well received and attracted ever-growing crowds to Anastasia. Fearing his popularity, his opponents decided to strike. On the vigil of Easter in 379, an Arian mob burst into his church during worship services, wounding Gregory and killing another bishop. Escaping the mob, Gregory next found himself betrayed by his erstwhile friend, the philosopher Maximus the Cynic. Maximus, who was in secret alliance with Peter, bishop of Alexandria, attempted to seize Gregory's position and have himself ordained bishop of Constantinople. Shocked, Gregory decided to resign his office, but the faction faithful to him induced him to stay and ejected Maximus. However, the episode left him embarrassed and exposed him to criticism as a provincial simpleton unable to cope with intrigues of the imperial city.

Affairs in Constantinople remained confused as Gregory's position was still unofficial and Arian priests occupied many important churches. The arrival of the emperor Theodosius in 380 settled matters in Gregory's favor. The emperor, determined to eliminate Arianism, expelled Bishop Demophilus. Gregory was subsequently enthroned as bishop of Constantinople at the Basilica of the Apostles, replacing Demophilus.

Throughout his life Gregory faced stark choices. Should he pursue studies as a rhetor or philosopher? Would a monastic life be more appropriate than public ministry? Was it better to blaze his own path or follow the course mapped for him by his father and Basil?

Gregory's most significant theological contributions arose from his defense of the doctrine of the Trinity. He is especially noted for his contributions to the field of pneumatology—that is, theology concerning the nature of the Holy Spirit. In this regard, Gregory is the first to use the idea of procession to describe the relationship between the Spirit and the Godhead: "The Holy Spirit is truly Spirit, coming forth from the Father indeed but not after the manner of the Son, for it is not by generation but by procession, since I must coin a word for the sake of clearness." Although Gregory does not fully develop the concept, the idea of procession would shape most later thought about the Holy Spirit.

He emphasized that Jesus did not cease to be God when he became a man, nor did he lose any of his divine attributes when he took on human nature. Furthermore, Gregory asserted that Christ was fully human, including a full human soul. He also proclaimed the eternality of the Holy Spirit, saying that the Holy Spirit's actions were somewhat hidden in the Old Testament but much clearer since the ascension of Jesus into Heaven and the descent of the Holy Spirit at the feast of Pentecost.

In contrast to the Neo-Arian belief that the Son is ahomoios, or "unlike" the Father, and with the Semi-Arian assertion that the Son is homoiousios, or "like" the Father, Gregory and his fellow Cappadocians maintained the Nicaean doctrine of homoousia, or consubstantiality of the Son with the Father.[15]:9,10 The Cappadocian Fathers asserted that God's nature is unknowable to man; helped to develop the framework of hypostases, or three persons united in a single Godhead; illustrated how Jesus is the eikon of the Father; and explained the concept of theosis, the belief that all Christians can be assimilated with God in "imitation of the incarnate Son as the divine model."[15]:10

Some of Gregory's theological writings suggest that, like his friend Gregory of Nyssa, he may have supported some form of the doctrine of apocatastasis, the belief that God will bring all of creation into harmony with the Kingdom of Heaven.[16] This led some late-nineteenth century Christian universalists, notably J. W. Hanson and Philip Schaff, to describe Gregory's theology as universalist.[17] This view of Gregory is also held by some modern theologians, such as John Sachs who said that Gregory had "leanings" toward apocatastasis, but in a "cautious, undogmatic" way.[18] However, it is not clear or universally accepted that Gregory held to the doctrine of apocatastasis.[19]

Apart from the several theological discourses, Gregory was also one of the most important early Christian men of letters, a very accomplished orator, perhaps one of the greatest of his time,[15]:21 and also a very prolific poet, writing several poems with theological and moral matter and some with biographical content, about himself and about his friends (one short poem, "Eis ta Emmetra", actually lays down some rules for the composition of poetry).
Influence

Gregory's great nephew Nichobulos served as his literary executor, preserving and editing many of his writings. A cousin, Eulalios, published several of Gregory's more noteworthy works in 391.[2]:xi By 400, Rufinius began translating his orations into Latin. As Gregory's works circulated throughout the empire they influenced theological thought. His orations were cited as authoritative by the First Council of Ephesus in 431. By 451 he was designated Theologus, or Theologian by the Council of Chalcedon[2]:xi — a title held by no others save John the Apostle[4] and Symeon the New Theologian. He is widely quoted by Eastern Orthodox theologians and highly regarded as a defender of the Christian faith. His contributions to Trinitarian theology are also influential and often cited in the Western churches.[20] Paul Tillich credits Gregory of Nazianzus for having "created the definitive formulae for the doctrine of the trinity".[21] Additionally, the Liturgy of St Gregory the Theologian in use by the Coptic Church is named after him.[22]
Relics

Following his death, Saint Gregory was buried at Nazianzus. His relics were transferred to Constantinople in 950, into the Church of the Holy Apostles. Part of the relics were taken from Constantinople by Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade, in 1204, and ended up in Rome. On November 27, 2004, those relics, along with those of John Chrysostom, were returned to Istanbul (Constantinople) by Pope John Paul II, with the Vatican retaining a small portion of both. The relics are now enshrined in the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George in the Fanar.[23]
Feast day

In the Western churches Gregory's feast day is on January 2.[24] The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches celebrate two feast days in honor of Gregory: January 25 as his primary feast and January 30, known as the feast of the Three Great Hierarchs, which commemorates him along with John Chrysostom and Basil of Caesarea.[25][26]

Published: 10/26/10-6:08AM

SAINT ROSE OF VITERBO

PRAYER

Devote yourselves to prayer, 

keeping alert in it 

with an attitude of thanksgiving.

Colossians 4:2

Prayer reveals to souls the vanity of earthly goods and pleasures. It fills them with light, strength and consolation; and gives them a foretaste of the calm bliss of our heavenly home. -- St Rose of Viterbo

When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple (Jonah 2:7).

Rose of Viterbo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rose of Viterbo, T.O.S.F. (c. 1233 – March 6, 1251), was a young woman born in Viterbo, then a contested commune of the Papal States. She spent her brief life as a recluse, who was outspoken in her support of the papacy. Otherwise leading an unremarkable life, she later became known for her mystical gifts of foretelling the future and having miraculous powers. She is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church.

The chronology of her life remains uncertain, as the acts of her canonization, the chief historical sources, record no dates.[1] Most scholars agree she was probably born around the year 1233.[2]

Born of poor and pious parents, even as a child Rose had a great desire to pray and to aid the poor.[3] When but three years old, she allegedly raised to life her maternal aunt.[4] At the age of seven, she had already lived the life of a recluse, devoting herself to penances. She prayed much for the conversion of sinners.[4] Rose was not yet 10 years old when the Blessed Virgin Mary is reputed to have instructed her to enroll herself in the Third Order of St. Francis and to preach penance to Viterbo, at that time held by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.[1]

Rose was soon admitted to the Franciscan Third Order and adopted its religious habit, a simple tunic with a cord around her waist. While walking the streets with a crucifix in her hand, she would exhort others to be faithful to the Catholic Church.[2]

Rose attempted at age 15 to found a monastery. The effort failed and she returned to a life of prayer, penance and solitude in her father's home.

Every now and then she would emerge from her solitude to entreat the people to do penance.[4] Her mission seems to have lasted for about two years. In January 1250, Viterbo, her native city, was then in revolt against the pope. When Rose took the pope’s side against the emperor, she and her family were exiled from the city and took refuge in Soriano nel Cimino. When the pope’s side won in Viterbo, Rose was allowed to return.[3]

On December 5, 1250, Rose allegedly foretold the speedy death of the emperor, a prophecy realized on December 13. Soon afterwards she went to Vitorchiano, whose inhabitants, according to surviving reports, were affected by a supposed sorceress. Rose secured the conversion of all, even of the sorceress, reportedly by standing unscathed for three hours in the flames of a burning pyre.[1]

Rose wished to enter the Poor Clare Monastery of St. Mary in the city, but was refused because of her poverty, as she was not able to provide the dowry required for admission. She accepted her rejection, nonetheless foretelling her admission to the monastery after her death.

Rose died on March 6, 1251, in her father’s home.[3] It was long believed that Rose had died of tuberculosis. In 2010, however, researchers examining her remains concluded that she had died of a heart condition called Cantrell's syndrome.[5]

The process of Rose's canonization was opened in the year of her death by Pope Innocent IV, but was not definitively undertaken until 1457. Originally buried at the parish church of Santa Maria in Poggio, in 1257 Pope Alexander IV ordered it moved to the monastery she had desired to enter, at which time it was renamed in her honor.[6]

When the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church was reformed after the Second Vatican Council, her feast day was transferred to the date of her death. September 4 is the date of the translation of her relics to the Monastery of St. Damian. It is this latter date on which her feast is celebrated in Viterbo and by the Franciscans.

On September 3, the eve of the feast of St. Rose, the people of Viterbo follow the transportation of La Macchina (the Machine of St. Rose” ) a massive 28 metre high tower, illuminated with 3,000 tiny electric lights and 880 candles, and topped off with a statue of her, which is carried for 1,200 metres through the darkened streets of the old medieval town on the backs of around 100 volunteers called “facchini.” The tradition goes all the way back to September 4, 1258, when the body of the saint was exhumed and transported to the Monastery of Saint Damian; but it was not until 1664, following seven years of plague in the city, that a “machine” first appeared. In gratitude for having survived such a terrible pestilence the citizens voted to renew the veneration of their saint every year.

SAINT LUCY

TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
 
Those whose hearts are pure are temples of the Holy Spirit. -- St Lucy

ST LUCY, VIRGIN, MARTYR—A.D. 304

Feast: December 13

[Abridged from her Acts, older than St. Aldehelm, who quoted them in the seventh century,]

The glorious virgin and martyr St. Lucy, one of the brightest ornaments of the church of Sicily, was born of honourable and wealthy parents in the city of Syracusa, and educated from her cradle in the faith of Christ. She lost her father in her infancy, but Eutychia, her mother, took singular care to furnish her with tender and sublime sentiments of piety and religion. By the early impressions which Lucy received and the strong influence of divine grace, Lucy discovered no disposition but toward virtue, and she was yet very young when she offered to God the flower of her virginity. This vow, however, she kept a secret, and her mother, who was a stranger to it, pressed her to marry a young gentleman who was a pagan. The saint sought occasions to hinder this design from taking effect, and her mother was visited with a long and troublesome flux of blood, under which she laboured four years without finding any remedy by recourse to physicians. At length she was persuaded by her daughter to go to Catana and offer up her prayers to God for relief at the tomb of St. Agatha. St. Lucy accompanied her thither, and their prayers were successful.

Hereupon our saint disclosed to her mother her desire of devoting herself to God in a state of perpetual virginity, and of bestowing her fortune on the poor: and Eutychia, in gratitude, left her at full liberty to pursue her pious inclinations. The young nobleman, with whom the mother had treated about marrying her, came to understand this by the sale of her jewels and goods, and the distribution of the price among the poor, and in his rage accused her before the governor Paschasius as a Christian, the persecution of Diocletian then raging with the utmost fury. The judge commanded the holy virgin to be exposed to prostitution in a brothel" house; but God rendered her immovable, so that the guards were not able to carry her thither. He also made her an over-match for the cruelty of the persecutors, in overcoming fire and other torments. After a long and glorious combat she died in prison of the wounds she had received,—about the year 304. She was honoured at Rome in the sixth century among the most illustrious virgins and martyrs, whose triumphs the church celebrates, as appears from the Sacramentary of St. Gregory, Bede, and others. Her festival was kept in England till the change of religion, as a holy day of the second rank, in which no work but tillage or the like was allowed. Her body remained at Syracusa for many years; but was at length translated into Italy, and thence by the authority of the Emperor Otho I to Metz, as Sigebert of Gemblours relates. It is there exposed to public veneration in a rich chapel of St. Vincent's Church. A portion of her relics was carried to Constantinople and brought thence to Venice, where it is kept with singular veneration. St. Lucy is often painted with the balls of her eyes laid in a dish: perhaps her eyes were defaced or plucked out, though her present acts make no mention of any such circumstance. In many places her intercession is particularly implored for distempers of the eyes.

It is a matter of the greatest consequence what ideas are stamped upon the ductile minds of children, what sentiments are impressed on their hearts, and to what habits they are first formed. Let them be inured to little denials both in their will and senses, and learn that pleasures which gratify the senses must be guarded against, and used with great fear and moderation: for by them the taste is debauched, and the constitution of the soul broken and spoiled much more fatally than that of the body can be by means contrary to its health.

There are few Lucys nowadays among Christian ladies, because sensuality, pride, and vanity are instilled into their minds by the false maxims and pernicious example of those with whom they first converse. Alas I unless a constant watchfulness and restraint both produce and strengthen good habits, the inclinations of our souls lean of their own accord toward corruption.

(Taken from Vol. III of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler.)

Published: 12/13/10-8:08AM

SAINT JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL

TASTE THE SWEETNESS OF DIVINE WILL

When shall it be that we shall taste the sweetness of the Divine Will in all that happens to us, considering in everything only His good pleasure, by whom it is certain that adversity is sent with as much love as prosperity, and as much for our good?

LEAVE TO GOD THE CARE OF YOURSELVES AND YOUR AFFAIRS

When shall we cast ourselves undeservedly into the arms of our most loving Father in Heaven, leaving to Him the care of ourselves and of our affairs, and reserving only the desire of pleasing Him, and of serving Him well in all that we can?

-- St Jane Frances de Chantal

Jane Frances de Chantal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot, Baronne de Chantal, 28 January 1572 – 13 December 1641) is a Roman Catholic Saint, who founded a religious order after the death of her husband.

She was the daughter of the royalist President of the Parliament of Burgundy. She married the Baron de Chantal when she was 20 and then lived in the feudal castle of Bourbilly. Baron de Chantal was accidentally killed by a harquebus while out shooting in 1601. Left a widow at twenty-eight, with four children, the broken-hearted baroness took a vow of chastity. Chantal gained a reputation as an excellent manager of the estates of her husband, as well as of her difficult father in law, while also providing alms and nursing care to needy neighbors.

During Lent in 1604, the pious baronness met Saint Francis de Sales, the bishop of Geneva who was preaching at the Sainte Chapelle in Dijon. They became close friends, and de Sales became her spiritual director. With his support, and that of her father and brother (the Archbishop of Bourges), and after providing for her children, Chantal left for Annecy, to start the Congregation of the Visitation. The Congregation of the Visitation was canonically established at Annecy on Trinity Sunday, 6 June, 1610.  The order accepted women who were rejected by other orders because of poor health or age. During its first eight years, the new order also was unusual in its public outreach, in contrast to most female religious who remained cloistered and adopted strict ascetic practices. When people criticized her, Chantal famously said, "What do you want me to do? I like sick people myself; I'm on their side."

Her reputation for sanctity and sound management resulted in many visits by (and donations from) aristocratic women. The order had 13 houses by the time de Sales died, and 86 before Chantal herself died at the Visitation Convent in Moulins, aged 69. St. Vincent de Paul served as her spiritual director after de Sales' death. Her favorite devotions involved the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary. Chantal was buried in the Annecy convent next to de Sales. The order had 164 houses by 1767, when she was canonized. Chantal outlived her son (who died fighting Huguenots and English on the Île de Ré during the century's religious wars) and two of her three daughters, but left extensive correspondence. Her granddaughter also became a famous writer, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné.

Seek to Do Good

We must above all show charity to our enemies. By this you may know that a man is a true Christian, if he seeks to do good to those who wish him evil.

-- St. Alphonsus Liguori

SAINT VINCENT FERRER

STUDY TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

Do you wish to study to your advantage? Let devotion accompany all your studies. Consult God more than your books. Ask Him to make you understand what you read. Never begin or end your study except by prayer. Science is a gift of God. Do not consider it merely the work of your own mind and effort. -- St Vincent Ferrer

The Lord said, "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but every one when he is fully taught will be like his teacher." (Luke 6:39-40)

Devotion is a feeling of strong love or loyalty and the use of time, money, energy, etc., for a particular purpose. When you love to study, it does not only sink deep into your mind but it penetrates your heart as well. What you have learned automatically becomes part of your growth and being.

This is why you must first consult God so that you may not be misguided on what you read. In prayer, seek and claim the wisdom of Christ in order to gain knowledge and understanding of the truth. He will teach you everything there is to know in accordance with God's will and purpose for your life.

Friend, pursue your studies with God. Do not allow others to influence you over false teachings and precepts. Only the Lord can bring to light the truth in all that you have to learn.

For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding (Prv 2:6). God gives knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom (Dn 1:17).

The Lord promises "I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be." (1 Kgs 3:12)

Lord, give your servant an understanding heart. And this I pray, that our love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment. We continually ask that you fill us with the knowledge of your will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives. All these we humbly ask and pray, in Jesus Name. Amen.

Vincent Ferrer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vincent Ferrer, O.P., was a Valencian Dominican friar, who gained acclaim as a missionary and a logician. He was a Religious, priest and confessor, called the Angel of the Last Judgment.

He is Patron Saint of builders, construction workers, plumbers, fishermen (Brittany) and orphanages (Spain). His attributes  are tongue of flame; pulpit; trumpet; prisoners; wings; Bible.

He would fast on Wednesdays and Fridays and he loved the Passion of Christ very much. He would help the poor and distribute many alms to them. He began his classical studies at the age of eight, his study of theology and philosophy at fourteen. At the age of eighteen, Ferrer entered the Order of Preachers, commonly called the Dominican Order.


For a period of three years, he read solely Sacred Scripture and eventually committed it to memory. He published a treatise on Dialectic Suppositions after his solemn profession, and in 1379 was ordained a Catholic priest at Barcelona. He eventually became a Master of Sacred Theology and was commissioned by the Order to deliver lectures on philosophy. He was then sent to Barcelona and eventually to the University of Lleida, where he earned his doctorate in theology.

The Western Schism divided Christianity first between two, then three, popes. Clement VII lived at Avignon in France, Urban VI in Rome. Vincent was convinced the election of Urban was invalid though Catherine of Siena was just as devoted a supporter of the Roman pope. In the service of Cardinal de Luna, Vincent worked to persuade Spaniards to follow Clement. When Clement died, Cardinal de Luna was elected at Avignon and became Benedict XIII.

Ferrer was loyal to the Avignon Benedict XIII, better known as "Papa Luna" in Castile and Aragon.[1] He worked for Benedict XIII as apostolic penitentiary and Master of the Sacred Palace. Nonetheless Vincent labored to have Benedict XIII end the schism. But Benedict XIII did not resign as all candidates in the conclave had sworn to do, despite losing the support of the French king and nearly all of the cardinals. After an extended period of receiving empty promises, Vincent encouraged King Ferdinand of Castile to withdraw his support from Benedict XIII. Vincent Ferrer later claimed that the Great Schism had such a depressing effect on his mind that it caused him to be seriously ill at the age of forty.

Many biographers believe that he could speak only Valencian, but was endowed with the gift of tongues.He preached to St. Colette of Corbie and to her nuns, and it was she who told him that he would die in France. Too ill to return to Spain, he did, indeed, die in Brittany. Breton fishermen still invoke his aid in storms. In Spain, he is also the patron of orphanages.

Conversion of Jews and controversy

Vincent is said to be responsible for the conversion of many Jews to Catholicism, often by questionable means; for instance, he is said to have made their lives difficult until they converted and to have "dedicated" synagogues as churches on the basis of his own authority. One of his converts, a former rabbi by the name of Solomon ha-Levi, went on to become the Bishop of Cartagena and later the Archbishop of Burgos. Vincent is noted to have contributed to anti-Semitism in Spain, as violence accompanied his visits to towns that had Jewish communities. He promulgated various anti-Jewish laws banning Jews from trading food with Christians, having Christian employees, changing their residence, or cutting either their hair or beards.

Sources are contradictory concerning Vincent's achievement in converting a synagogue in Toledo, Spain, into the Church of Santa María la Blanca; one source says he preached to the mobs whose riots led to the appropriation of the synagogue and its transformation into a church in 1391; a second source says he converted the Jews of the city who changed the synagogue to a church after they embraced the Faith, but hints at the year 1411; a third source identifies two distinct incidents, one in Valencia in 1391 and one in Toledo at a later date, but says he put down an uprising against Jews in one place and defused a persecution against them in the other.

Vincent intervened during a political crisis in his homeland, which resulted in the Compromise of Caspe, by which the Crown of Aragon was given to a Castilian prince, Ferdinand of Antequera.
Death and legacy

Vincent died on 5 April 1419 at Vannes in Brittany, at the age of sixty-nine,[3] and was buried in Vannes Cathedral. He was canonized by Pope Calixtus III on 3 June 1455. His feast day is celebrated on 5 April. The previously-schismatic Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer, a pontifical religious institute founded in 1979, is named after him.

SAINT CAJETAN

FEED UPON THIS SECRET MANNA

In this dark vale of tears, I wish solely to feed upon this secret manna, this delicious substance.

Saint Cajetan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gaetano dei Conti di Tiene (October 1, 1480 – August 7, 1547), was an Italian Catholic priest and religious reformer, who helped found the Theatines. He is recognised as a saint in the Catholic Church.

St. Cajetan was born in 1480, the son of Gaspar, lord of Thiene, and Mary Porta, persons of the first rank among the nobility of the territory of Vicenza, in Lombardy.[1]

Predisposed to piety by his mother, he studied law in Padua, receiving his degree as doctor utriusque juris (i.e., in civil and canon law) at age 24. In 1506 he worked as a diplomat for Pope Julius II, with whom he helped reconcile the Republic of Venice.[2] But he was not ordained a priest until the year 1516.

Recalled to Vicenza by the death of his mother, he founded in 1522 a hospital for incurables there.[3] His interests were as much or more devoted to spiritual healing than the physical kind, and he joined a confraternity in Rome called "The Oratory of Divine Love".[1] He intended to form a group that would combine the spirit of monasticism with the exercises of the active ministry.

The death of Pope Julius II in 1523 led him to withdraw from the Papal Court,[2] and returning once more to Vicenza, he entered the confraternity of St. Jerome, which was instituted upon the plan of that of the "Oratory of Divine Love" in Rome. However, there the confraternity consisted of men from the lowest stations of life. This caused embarrassment to his friends, who thought it beneath him. He persisted and sought out the sick and the poor over the whole town, and worked in the hospitals of the incurables, the revenues of which house he considerably augmented.[1]

A new congregation was canonically erected by Pope Clement VII in the year 1524. One of his four companions was Giovanni Pietro Carafa, the Bishop of Chieti, elected first superior of the order, who later became Pope as Paul IV. From the name of the city of Chieti (in Latin: Theate), arose the name by which the order is known, the "Theatines".[3] The order grew at a fairly slow pace: there were only twelve Theatines during the sack of Rome in 1527. They managed to escape to Venice after their house in Rome was wrecked when Emperor Charles V’s troops entered the city.[3]

There Cajetan met Jerome Emiliani, whom he assisted in the establishment of his Congregation of Clerks Regular. In 1533 he founded a house in Naples which aided those who wished to check the advances of Lutheranism. The year 1540 found him in Venice again and from there he extended his work to Verona.[2]

He founded a bank to help the poor and offer an alternative to usurers (loan sharks). It later became the Bank of Naples.

Despite successes, he died of grief in Naples[citation needed], in the Kingdom of Naples. His remains are in the church of San Paolo Maggiore in Naples; outside the church is Piazza San Gaetano, with a statue.

He was beatified on October 8, 1629, by Pope Urban VIII. On April 12, 1671, Cajetan was canonized together with Rose of Lima, Luis Beltrán, Francis Borgia and Felipe Benicio. Saint Cajetan's feast day is celebrated on August 7. He is known as the patron saint of the unemployed, gamblers, document controllers, job seekers and good fortune.

SAINT PETER JULIAN EYMARD

WORK IN SILENCE AND SECLUSION

Silence and seclusion are the soul of great things. So long as a work stays hidden, unknown to the world it grows in security: but as soon as the devil discovers it and makes it known to the world, he inveighs against it and combats it with all his might. So it is with us, we must remain hidden from the world otherwise the demon of self-love will destroy us. (9/4/13-7:18AM)

BE FED WITH THE BREAD OF UNDERSTANDING

Before Communion you hear about Jesus Christ and you know Him; you are told of His Cross, of His suffering; doubtless you are affected, are even touched with compassion. But let these same truths be presented to you after Communion. Oh, how much more deeply your soul is moved! It cannot hear enough; it understands much more perfectly. Before Communion, you contemplate Jesus outside you; now you contemplate Him within you, with His own eyes! It is the mystery of Emmaus re-enacted. When Jesus taught the two disciples along the way, explaining the Scriptures to them, their faith still wavered, though they felt inwardly some mysterious emotion. But participating in the Fraction of the bread, immediately their eyes were opened, and their hearts were like to burst with joy. The voice of Jesus had not sufficed to reveal His presence to them; they had to feel His Heart, had to be fed with the Bread of understanding!" (10/11/10-6:51AM; 01/18/11-6:49AM)

LOVE OF JESUS

Love shows us what we have to do. It takes us out of ourselves, makes us emulate the virtues of our Lord, and withdraws us from this world into Him. The reason why so many Christians get no farther than the threshold of virtue is that they will not break the chains that hold them back and will not give themselves up confidently to our Lord's guidance. They feel that if they go to Communion they will be unable to resist the love of Jesus and will be forced to give themselves in return. So they content themselves with books, with words, and do not dare turn to the Master Himself. Oh, my brothers, I pray you to take Jesus Christ Himself for your Teacher! Receive Him within you and let Him direct all your actions. (9/14/11-7:47AM)

BLESSED SACRAMENT

We believe in the love of God for us. To believe in love is everything. It is not enough to believe in the Truth. We must believe in Love and Love is our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. That is the faith that makes our Lord loved. Ask for this pure and simple faith in the Eucharist. Men will teach you; but only Jesus will give you the grace to believe in Him. You have the Eucharist. What more do you want? (10/23/10-5:53AM; 1/30/11-4:49AM)

Belief in the Eucharist is a treasure we must seek by submissiveness, preserve by piety, and defend at any cost. Not to believe in the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest of misfortunes. (03/07/13-6:54AM, 04/07/13-6:26AM, 06/07/13-6:14AM)

Love cannot triumph unless it becomes the one passion of our life. Until we have a passionate love for Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament, we shall accomplish nothing. Certainly, Our Lord loves us passionately in the Eucharist ; He loves us blindly without a thought for Himself, devoting Himself entirely for our good. We should love Him as He loves us. (10/8/10-6:36AM; 11/15/11-6:34AM)

ONE WITH JESUS

When the communicant is free from venial sin, Jesus acts powerfully within him, unimpeded by any obstacle. He stays long. The soul acquires an astonishing refinement of feeling; it no longer accounts itself anything but is henceforth simply one with Jesus. It says to Him: " Take all, be King of all, and let us love each other always; I am Thine forever." (11/16/10-4:30AM)

BE LIKE JESUS

Jesus invited us to be like Him, humble of heart. But what is humility of the heart? It consists in receiving humiliations from God with a submissive love, in accepting one's state of life and one's duties whatever they are, and in not being ashamed of one's condition. (2/5/12-5:14AM)

If I love Jesus, I ought to resemble Him; If I love Jesus, I ought to love what He loves, what He does, what He prefers to all else: humility. How may we acquire this virtue? Neither logic or reflection will help us any; thinking nice thoughts about it or taking heroic resolutions would lead us to believe we had already acquired it, and we would content ourselves with that. We must examine our actions to see if we not sought our own interest in them. Let us repeat often, " Jesus, so humble of heart, make our hearts like unto thine." (11/20/10-6:18AM)

Let us adore His power, exhausting itself in this act of love. (01/14/13-6:31AM)

PRAYER

My God, do Thou strengthen and increase my faith in Thy divinity that I may adore it, and love it, and confess it even at the peril of my own life; let me be only too happy if I should be called to shed my blood in defense of it. (11/2/10; 02/09/11-5:34AM)

Peter Julian Eymard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

APOSTLE OF THE EUCHARIST

Saint Peter Julian Eymard (4 February 1811 – 1 August 1868) was a French Catholic priest, founder of two religious institutes, and a canonized saint.

In 1856, due to disputes with the Marists, Eymard left them and founded the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and, in 1858, together with Marguerite Guillot founded the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, a contemplative congregation for women.

The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament began working with children in Paris to prepare them to receive their First Communion. It also reached out to non-practicing Catholics, inviting them to repent and begin receiving Communion again. Eymard was a tireless proponent of frequent Holy Communion, an idea given more authoritative backing by Pope Pius X in 1905.

Eymard was a contemporary and a friend of other saints including Peter Chanel, John Vianney and Marcellin Champagnat.

Eymard died on 1 August 1868. He was declared venerable in 1908, beatified in 1925, and canonized by Pope John XXIII on 9 December 1962. His feast day is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church on 2 August. He was named Apostle of the Eucharist.