From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Gratitude for God's Grace (V)   
      
   Be thankful for the smallest blessing, and you will deserve to receive   
   greater. Value the least gifts no less than the greatest and simple   
   graces as especial favors. If you remember the dignity of the Giver,   
   no gift will seem small or mean, for nothing can be valueless that is   
   given by the most high God. Even if He awards punishment and pain,   
   accept them gladly, for whatever He allows to befall us is always for   
   our salvation. Let whoever desires to retain the grace of God be   
   thankful for the grace given him, and be patient when it is withdrawn.   
   Let him pray for its return, and let him be prudent and humble lest he   
   lose it once more.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 2 Ch 10   
      
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   October 22nd - St. Donatus (Donagh) of Fiesole, Bishop   
      
   Born in Ireland; died 874-876. Legend has it that Donatus was an   
   Irishman who decided to go on a pilgrimage to Rome with his friend   
   Andrew. On his return home about 829, he went to Florence, Italy, and   
   visited nearby Fiesole. Donatus, who was small and unaggressive by   
   nature, slipped into the cathedral just when the people had come   
   together to pray for enlightenment before electing a new bishop.   
   The moment Donatus entered the cathedral of Fiesole, the bells began   
   ringing. All the cathedral lamps and candles lit of their own accord,   
   without any human help. The Christians present could only conclude   
   that this was a divine sign, indicating that the stranger who had just   
   come in was destined to be their next bishop. Unanimously the puzzled   
   Irishman was elected, and Andrew became his deacon.   
      
   Fortunately, Donatus was a man of exemplary piety and cultivation. In   
   addition to many other works, Donatus authored two separate lives of   
   Saint Brigid of Kildare, one in prose and the other in verse. He also   
   wrote his own epitaph, which still survives and describes him as a   
   splendid teacher, specializing in grammar and fine writing. The   
   epitaph adds that the bishop loyally advised and served the Frankish   
   King Lothaire and the Emperor Louis. Almost certainly he taught them   
   and members of their household for he was ever willing to instruct the   
   young.   
      
   For 47 years Donatus shepherded the church of Fiesole. At times he   
   served as a military leader, raising armies and conducting expeditions   
   against the Saracens. Before he died he obtained from the king a   
   charter of independence for the bishops of Fiesole with the power to   
   impose taxes and administer their own laws.   
      
   He was also a generous supporter of monastic foundations. In 852, he   
   founded a church and a hospice of his beloved patron, Saint Brigid at   
   Piacenza and placed it under the protection of Saint Columban's   
   monastery at Bobbio. This church was declared a national monument in   
   1911.   
      
   Long after his death, a legend developed that Donatus had an Irish   
   traveling companion who became his archdeacon, St. Andrew of Fiesole,   
   but there is no satisfactory evidence for Andrew's existence   
   (Attwater, Bentley, Delaney, Montague).   
      
   In art he is a bishop with an Irish wolfhound at his feet. Sometimes   
   he is shown pointing out a church to his deacon, St. Andrew of Ireland   
   (August 22) (Roeder).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Chastity is the lily among virtues and makes men almost equal to angels.   
   --St. Francis de Sales   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And rising in the morning, they offered holocausts, and peace victims,   
   and the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.   
   And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Go, get thee down: thy people,   
   which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, hath sinned. And   
   when he came nigh to the camp, he saw the calf, and the dances: and   
   being very angry, he threw the tables out of his hand, and broke them   
   at the foot of the mount  (Exodus 32:6-7,19) DR   
      
      
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   Truly, O blessed Mother, a sword has pierced your heart. For only by   
   passing through your heart could the sword enter the flesh of your   
   Son. Indeed, after your Jesus -- who belongs to everyone, but is   
   especially yours -- gave up his life, the cruel spear, which was not   
   withheld from his lifeless body, tore open his side. Clearly it did   
   not touch his soul and could not harm him, but it did pierce your   
   heart. For surely his soul was no longer there, but yours could not be   
   torn away. Thus the violence of sorrow has cut through your heart, and   
   we rightly call you more than martyr, since the effect of compassion   
   in you has gone beyond the endurance of physical suffering.   
      
   Or were those words, Woman, behold your Son, not more than a word to   
   you, truly piercing your heart, cutting through to the division   
   between soul and spirit? What an exchange! John is given to you in   
   place of Jesus, the servant in place of the Lord, the disciple in   
   place of the master; the son of Zebedee replaces the Son of God, a   
   mere man replaces God himself. How could these words not pierce your   
   most loving heart, when the mere remembrance of them breaks ours,   
   hearts of iron and stone though they are!   
      
   Do not be surprised, brothers, that Mary is said to be a martyr in   
   spirit. Let him be surprised who does not remember the words of Paul,   
   that one of the greatest crimes of the Gentiles was that they were   
   without love. That was far from the heart of Mary; let it be far from   
   her servants.   
   -- Saint Bernard of Clairvaux from a sermon   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)