From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Meditation for troubled times:   
      
      Turn out all thoughts of doubt and fear and resentment. Never   
   tolerate them if you can help it. Bar the windows and doors of your   
   mind against them, as you would bar your home against a thief who   
   would steal in to take away your treasures. What greater treasures can   
   you have than faith and courage and love? All these are stolen from   
   you by doubt and fear and resentment. Face each day with peace and   
   hope. They are results of true faith in God. Faith gives you a feeling   
   of protection and safety that you can get in no other way.   
   -- From Twenty-Four Hours a Day   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   May 19th - Saint Peter Celestine, Hermit, Visionary   
      
   (1221-1296)   
      
   Saint Peter Celestine was the 11th of the 12 children of a poor   
   Italian farmer. As a child, Peter had visions of our Blessed Lady,   
   Angels and Saints. His heavenly visitors encouraged him in his prayers   
   and chided him when he fell into any fault. His mother, though only a   
   poor widow, sent him to school, feeling sure that he would one day be   
   a Saint.   
      
   At the age of twenty, he left his home in Apulia to live in a mountain   
   solitude. Here he passed three years, assaulted by the evil spirits   
   and beset with temptations of the flesh, but consoled by the visits of   
   Angels. After this his seclusion was invaded by disciples who refused   
   to be sent away; and the rule of life which he gave them formed the   
   foundation of the Celestines, a branch of the Order of Saint Benedict.   
   Angels assisted in the church which Peter built; unseen bells rang   
   peals of surpassing sweetness, and heavenly music filled the sanctuary   
   when he offered the Holy Sacrifice; he had consented to be ordained,   
   to find in the Holy Eucharist assistance against temptation.   
      
   Suddenly the poor anchorite found himself torn from his loved   
   solitude, having been named by acclamation to the Papal throne, which   
   had remained vacant for twenty-seven months. Resistance was of no   
   avail. He took the name of Celestine, to remind him of the heaven he   
   was leaving and for which he sighed. He was seventy-two years old.   
   After a reign of five months, Peter judged himself unfit for the   
   office, and summoning the cardinals to his presence, he solemnly   
   resigned his trust.   
      
   During the remaining three years of his life he worked many and great   
   miracles. On the day after his abdication, his blessing after Mass   
   healed a lame man. Saint Peter left the palace, desiring seclusion,   
   but was brought back by the papal guards, for his successor feared a   
   schism; crowds had followed Saint Peter. Lest he be prevailed upon to   
   take back his office, he was put under surveillance at Anagni.   
   Content, he remarked: “I desired nothing but a cell, and a cell they   
   have given me.” And there he enjoyed his former loving intimacy with   
   the Saints and Angels, and sang the Divine praises almost continually.   
      
   At length, on Pentecost Sunday he told his guards he would die within   
   the week, and immediately fell ill. He received the Last Sacraments,   
   and the following Saturday, as he finished the concluding verse of   
   Lauds, “Let every spirit bless the Lord!” he closed his eyes to this   
   world and opened them to the vision of God.   
      
      
   Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul   
   Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 6; Little Pictorial Lives   
   of the Saints....   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   A ship with a good navigator comes safely to port, God willing. A soul   
   with a good shepherd climbs easily heavenward, even if it has earlier   
   done much wrong.   
   -- Saint John Climacus   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   For the wisdom of the flesh is death: but the wisdom of the spirit is   
   life and peace. Because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God.   
   For it is not subject to the law of God: neither can it be. And they   
   who are in the flesh cannot please God.    [Romans 8:6-8] DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   An Act of Abandonment To Divine Providence   
      
   0 sovereign goodness of the sovereign Providence of my God!   
   I abandon myself forever to Thy arms.   
   Whether gentle or severe,   
   lead me henceforth whither Thou wilt;   
   I will not regard the way through which Thou wilt have me pass,   
   but keep my eyes fixed upon Thee,   
   my God, who guidest me.   
   My soul finds no rest without the arms   
   and the bosom of this heavenly Providence,   
   my true Mother, my strength and my rampart.   
      
   Therefore I resolve with Thy Divine assistance,   
   0 my Saviour,   
   to follow Thy desires and Thy ordinances,   
   without regarding or examining why Thou dost this rather than that;   
   but I will blindly follow Thee   
   according to Thy Divine will,   
   without seeking my own inclinations.   
      
   Hence I am determined to leave all to Thee,   
   taking no part therein save by keeping myself in peace in Thy arms,   
   desiring nothing except as Thou incitest me to desire,   
   to will, to wish.   
   I offer Thee this desire, 0 my God,   
   beseeching Thee to bless it;   
   I undertake all it includes,   
   relying on Thy goodness,   
   liberality, and mercy,   
   with entire confidence in Thee,   
   distrust of myself,   
   and knowledge of my infinite misery and infirmity.   
   Amen!   
   --By Saint Jane Frances De Chantal.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)