From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   There is a proper time for everything   
      
      There is a proper time for everything. I must learn not to do   
   things at the wrong time, that is, before I am ready or before   
   conditions are right. It is always a temptation to do something at   
   once, instead of waiting until the proper time. Timing is important. I   
   must learn, in the little daily situations of life, to delay action   
   until I am sure that I am doing the right thing at the right time. So   
   many lives lack balance and timing. In the momentous decisions and   
   crises of life, they may ask God's guidance, but into the small   
   situations of life, they rush alone.   
   --From Twenty-Four Hours a Day   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   1 December – Blessed John of Vercelli OP   
      
    Dominican Priest and Friar, Sixth Master General of the Order of   
   Preachers, Founder of the The Society of the Holy Name, Canon lawyer,   
   Professor – born in c 1205 at Mosso Santa Maria, Italy as Giovanni   
   Garbella and died in September 1283 at Montpelier, France of natural   
   causes.   
      
   John Garbella was born early in the 13th century, somewhere near   
   Vercelli. He studied at Paris and was ordained priest before 1229. He   
   taught canon law at the University of Paris. While he was professor   
   there, Blessed Jordan of Saxony (who was a friend of Saint Albert the   
   Great) came to Paris and John saw one after another of his best pupils   
   desert their careers to join the Dominicans. He seems to have   
   considered them quite objectively, without reference to himself, until   
   one day he had an interior voice that spoke to him that it was God’s   
   will for him to join the Dominicans. No one can say that John did not   
   respond with alacrity – he dropped everything and ran down the street.   
   “Let me go; I am on my way to God!” Jordan received him happily and   
   gave him the habit.   
      
   In 1232, John was sent to Vercelli to establish a convent there. He   
   built this and several other convents in Lombardy as houses of regular   
   observance. While provincial of Lombardy, he also became inquisitor.   
   It was a particularly difficult moment. His brother in religion, St   
   Peter of Verona, had just been killed by the heretics in Como. The   
   entire countryside was in a state of war, with roving bands of   
   heretics and robbers. It was the task of the new inquisitor to try to   
   bring order out of this chaos and what John did was remarkable,   
   considering the situation. In spite of his heavy labours, which   
   included the supervision of 600 friars in 28 different cities (he   
   reached them only by walking), John of Vercelli established the ideals   
   of study and regular observance in all of his houses.   
      
   But it was also the good fortune of John of Vercelli to live in an age   
   that was well peopled by saints. He formed a close friendship with   
   Saint Louis, the king of France. Several of his tasks in the order,   
   particularly the Commission on the Program of Studies, he shared with   
   Saint Albert the Great, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Peter of Tarentaise   
   (the future Pope Innocent V). In such company one would need to have a   
   superior set of talents – John did.   
      
   In 1264 the chapter of the order met at Paris. Blessed Humbert had   
   resigned as master general of the order. John went to the chapter   
   hoping that he could resign as provincial of Lombardy. Instead of   
   escaping one office, he fell heir to a still more difficult one. He   
   was elected master general in 1264 and served in that capacity until   
   1283. John was then a man in his sixties and was, moreover,   
   handicapped by a crippled leg. However, he accepted the office which   
   would require him to walk, not only all over Lombardy but all over   
   Europe. It took a brand of courage and obedience that was little short   
   of heroic.   
      
   During the generalate of John of Vercelli, the relics of Saint Dominic   
   were transferred to the new tomb that had been prepared for it by   
   Nicholas of Pisa. When the transfer was made, John of Vercelli fixed   
   his seal on the tomb, the seals were still intact on their examination   
   in 1946. During the translation of the relics, according to the   
   account in the Vitae Fratrum, when the body of Saint Dominic was   
   exposed to view, the head was seen to turn towards John of Vercelli.   
   John, embarrassed, moved to another part of the church and gave his   
   place to a cardinal.  Whereupon, the head of Saint Dominic was seen by   
   all to turn again in John’s direction!   
      
   On the death of Clement IV, John of Vercelli was very nearly elected   
   pope. Being warned of the possibility, he fled in fright. However, his   
   good friend Cardinal Visconti, was elected and took the name Gregory   
   X. He appointed John as legate on several different missions.   
      
   He was commissioned by the pope to draw up the Schema for the second   
   ecumenical council of Lyons in 1274–that council to which Saint Thomas   
   Aquinas was hurrying when death found him on the road. At the council   
   John distinguished himself for his assistance by offering to the   
   council the talents of his best men.  At the council, he accepted for   
   the Dominican Order the special commission of promoting reverence for   
   the Holy Name of Jesus and fighting blasphemy, which was, in that day   
   as in ours, a prevalent vice. He can thus be considered the founder of   
   the Holy Name Society, even though the Confraternity was not formed   
   until 1432.   
      
   Several precious relics were suitably enshrined by John of Vercelli.   
   These included several thorns from the Crown of Our Lord, which had   
   been given him by Saint Louis of France. The cord of Saint Thomas,   
   with which he had been guided by the angels and which he had worn   
   until death, was given into the care of the master general, who gave   
   it to the convent of Vercelli for safe keeping.   
      
   John’s career was rapidly reaching its end. In 1279, he presided over   
   the famous chapter of Paris at which the order made the doctrine of   
   Saint Thomas officially its own. The following year, he laid the   
   foundations of the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. One of his   
   last official acts was to provide for a work on the instruction of   
   novices (Benedictines, Dorcy).   
      
   He was buried at the Dominican convent at Montpelier but his tomb was   
   desecrated by Calvinists in 1562 and his body disappeared. He was   
   Beatified in 1903 by Pope Pius X (cultus confirmed), 1909 elevated him   
   to the honours of the altar.   
      
   https://anastpaul.com/2019/12/   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   When we have to reply to anyone who has insulted us, we should be   
   careful to do it always with meekness. A soft answer extinguishes the   
   fire of wrath. If we feel ourselves angry, it is better for us to be   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)