From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Dig Deep   
      
   "Look, if you do not want to fear, probe your inmost self. Examine it   
   with care. Does not a poisoned vein of the wasting love of the world   
   still pulse there? Are you not moved by some physical desires or   
   caught in some law of the senses? Are you never elated with empty   
   boasting? Only when you have sifted everything in the deepest recesses   
   of your inner being can you dare to announce that you are pure and   
   crystal clear."   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 348, 2   
      
   Prayer: Behold my heart, O Lord, my God. Look deep inside it and   
   cleanse it of all disordered affection by directing my eyes to you and   
   lifting my feet out of the snare.   
   --St. Augustine--Confessions 4, 6   
      
   ===============   
   October 26th – Bl. Bonaventure of Potenza   
   d. 1711   
      
   Bonaventure was born of poor but virtuous parents in Potenza in the   
   kingdom of Naples. A pious priest gave the boy instructions in Latin.   
   At the age of 15, Bonaventure received the Franciscan habit among the   
   Conventuals. After his profession, he resumed his studies with great   
   ardor, but his zeal for perfection was less ardent.   
      
   His superiors sent him to Amalfi, where he lived eight years under the   
   guidance of an eminent director of souls. This spiritual director   
   trained his pupil above all in humility, self abnegation, and   
   obedience, and Bonaventure achieved a high degree of perfection in   
   these virtues.   
      
   One day Bonaventure told his master that the key to the sacristy was   
   lost. "Well," said his master with a smile, "then you will have to   
   look for it in the well; get a rod and fish it out." Promptly   
   Bonaventure went to the well and with rod and line fished for the key.   
   It was not long before he actually drew it out. God rewarded him in a   
   miraculous manner for his blind obedience.   
      
   As a priest he labored with remarkable success. His words, conduct,   
   prayer, and mortification combined to produce blessed results. His   
   simple sermons made a deep impression on all hearts. At times a single   
   word of his was enough to move the most hardened sinner to contrition.   
      
   At various times he was appointed guardian of a convent, but his   
   humble pleas were always successful in changing the mind of his   
   superiors. Obedience at length compelled him to accept the position of   
   novice master. In this office he sought to inculcate in his pupils   
   above all the practice of humility and obedience.   
      
   An epidemic broke out among the townsfolk, and Bonaventure at once   
   sacrificed himself. Fearless of contracting the disease, he hastened   
   from end to end of the town, rendering every possible service to the   
   stricken, even the lowliest, and administering the sacraments to them.   
   He cured many miraculously; he multiplied their insufficient   
   provisions by his blessing, and he foretold future events.   
      
   After Bonaventure had been a shining model of virtue among his   
   brethren for 45 years, he felt that his last hour was at hand. While   
   the community gathered about his bed during the administration of the   
   last sacraments, the dying man in touching words begged pardon of his   
   superior and the community for his many faults and infractions of the   
   rule, as he called them.   
      
   Deeply moved, the superior handed him the crucifix, and amid abundant   
   tears the servant of God kissed the feet of the Savior, and then died   
   peacefully on October 26, 1711. Pope Pius VI beatified him in 1775.   
      
   Bible Verse   
   As a father pities his children,   
       so the Lord pities those who fear him.   
   14 For he knows our frame;   
       he remembers that we are dust.  RSVCE   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   ON SPIRITUAL PRIDE   
       1. Consider in Blessed Bonaventure the example of a saint who   
   began with humility, advanced by humility, and reached the pinnacle of   
   sanctity by humility. So much is sanctity bound up with humility. It   
   rests on humility as its foundation, only by means of this virtue can   
   it increase, and humility alone makes it possible to persevere in   
   sanctity unto a blessed end. Learn from this how destructive spiritual   
   pride must be. Anybody who is leading a religious life or striving   
   after Christian perfection and proudly considers himself better than   
   others or presumes to think he amounts to anything in the sight of   
   God, has a worm gnawing interiorly at all the good and pious practices   
   he performs. He actually amounts to nothing before God, and if he   
   persists in being proud he will eventually be lost. When spiritual   
   pride had laid hold of the angels, they were cast into hell and became   
   devils. Then the devil seduced our first parents by making them   
   believe they would be like God.--Does he perhaps use the same ruse to   
   tempt you?   
       2. Consider how pride, like a smooth serpent, creeps in   
   unobserved. It is part of our fallen nature. "Nature," says Thomas a   
   Kempis (3:54), "labors for its own interests; it willingly receives   
   honor and respect, but is afraid of shame and contempt." Hence it   
   happens that we take pleasure in thinking of our good works and   
   advantages, always speaking about ourselves, and in setting ourselves   
   up as models for others. "Not he who commends himself, is approved,   
   but he whom God commends" (2 Cor 10:18). Recall the parable of the   
   proud Pharisee and the humble publican, which our Lord addressed to   
   those who trusted in their justice while they despised the rest of   
   men. "This man went down into his house justified, rather than the   
   other" (Luke 18:14).--Which of the two do you resemble?   
        3. Consider how we should struggle against pride and self-sufficiency.   
   We must often plead with God as did the Wise Man: "O Lord, Father and   
   God of my life, leave me not to their devices. Give me not haughtiness   
   of my eyes, and turn away from me all coveting" (Eccli 23:4-5). Then,   
   too, for our humiliation, we should reflect on our faults and our   
   sins. Just as the proud peacock, on spreading its brilliant feathers,   
   immediately drops his wings when he sees his ugly feet, so will a look   
   at our failures soon chase away pride. Finally, imitate Blessed   
   Bonaventure by exercising yourself in acts of obedience and humility.   
   Think of Mary, who called herself a handmaid of the Lord at a time   
   when an angel announced God's greatest prerogatives of grace to her.   
   Say to God: "O Lord I am Thy servant and the son of Thy handmaid" (Ps   
   115:7).   
      
   PRAYER OF THE CHURCH   
   O God, who didst propose Blessed Bonaventure, Thy confessor, to us as   
   an admirable example of obedience, grant, we beseech Thee, that like   
   him we may deny our will and adhere to Thy commandments. Through   
   Christ our Lord. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)