From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Cross   
      
   The Cross was given to us as a sign on our forehead, just as the   
   circumcision was given to Israel for by it we believers are separated   
   and distinguished from unbelievers. This is the shield and weapon   
   against, and trophy over, the devil. 'This is the seal that the   
   destroyer may not touch you' (Ex. 12:23), as says the Scripture... The   
   tree of life which was planted by God in Paradise prefigured this   
   precious Cross. For since death was by a tree, it was fitting that   
   life and resurrection should be bestowed by a tree.   
   --St. John of Damascus.   
      
      
   ================   
   November 8th - Saint Godfrey, Bishop of Amiens   
   (Also known as Geoffroy)   
      
   (ca. 1066-1115)   
      
   Saint Godfrey was born about 1066 at Molincourt in France of a   
   distinguished Christian family. He arrived late in the lives of his   
   parents, who had begged the prayers of the holy abbot of Mount Saint   
   Quentin, desiring to have a child they could consecrate to God. Their   
   prayers and those of the religious of the monastery of Mount Saint   
   Quentin were answered in the same year. The child was baptized by the   
   Abbot and later confided to him to be educated. Eventually Godfrey’s   
   father entered a monastery of Our Lady which he had enriched by his   
   alms; and his mother spent her declining years in various good works.   
      
   Godfrey was given the charge of taking care of the sick, and exercised   
   it with such great charity that he was also named hospitaller, to   
   receive the poor at the gate. For assistance in that second duty he   
   had his older brother Odon, who after many years in the military   
   career had come to join him in the religious life. His brother would   
   later die a holy death in the same abbey of Mount Saint Quentin.   
      
   When Saint Godfrey was 25 years old his abbot told him to prepare for   
   the priesthood. He received the Sacrament of Holy Orders from the   
   bishop of Noyon, in which diocese the abbey of Mount Saint Quentin is   
   situated. Not long afterwards, the abbey of Our Lady of Nogent, whose   
   abbot was incapacitated by illness, voted to obtain Godfrey in that   
   office, and the abbot of Mount Saint Quentin consented to the   
   sacrifice of his dear spiritual son for that purpose. The pleas of the   
   disciple based on his youth and inexperience were not heeded, and in   
   1095 he became Abbot of Nogent, where the buildings were crumbling and   
   only six monks and two young novices remained. He renovated the   
   edifices and built a hostelry for pilgrims and the sick poor; and in   
   this hostelry he himself continued to labor on their behalf. Soon the   
   monastery filled up with vocations, drawing even two illustrious   
   abbots from elsewhere, who desired to serve under this master.   
      
   When a severe drought was devastating the fields and flocks of the   
   region, the bishop of Soissons, Hugh de Pierrefonds, went to Godfrey   
   to ask his counsel; the holy abbot prescribed a fast in the manner of   
   Ninevah — even the animals were to participate. On the first day of   
   the fast, when the abbot rose to preach in the vast Church of Saint   
   Steven, before the assembled people, the sky suddenly darkened, and so   
   heavy a rain fell that the people were not a little inconvenienced on   
   returning home.   
      
   When the aged bishop of Amiens died soon afterwards, its residents   
   chose Godfrey to be their bishop, and went to a legate of the Holy See   
   to ask him to intercede with the abbot to obtain his consent. When   
   this decision was related to Godfrey he would have fled, but the order   
   of the legate prevented his flight. Moreover, he had already had a   
   vision of Saint Firmin, first Bishop of Amiens and martyr, advising   
   him of this forthcoming new responsibility. He therefore submitted to   
   the clear designs of Providence. After Saint Godfrey obtained a   
   beautiful new reliquary for the relics of Amiens’ first bishop, the   
   confidence of the people in their patron Saint, Saint Firmin,   
   redoubled. A prayer to him by Saint Godfrey, asking for sunshine on   
   the day of the translation of the relics, was the occasion; a fog so   
   heavy one could scarcely see, lifted, and the sun at once shone   
   brilliantly in the sanctuary.   
      
   As bishop he did not cease to take care of the poor and the sick. When   
   some lepers came to him he commanded his cook to prepare food for   
   them; four hours later nothing had yet been done, and he himself went   
   to the kitchen and found a large, prepared salmon which he took to the   
   famished lepers. The cook remonstrated with him, and the Saint told   
   him that it was injustice to allow the poor to die of hunger while   
   unworthy bishops enjoyed food that was too succulent.   
      
   When troubles occasioned by the contemporary quarrel over investitures   
   devastated the city of Amiens, the holy bishop thought it well to   
   resign his office and retire to the Grand Chartreuse, and did so. The   
   archbishop of Rheims, however, could not approve such an action, and   
   reproached the residents of Amiens when they brought up the question   
   of a successor. The affair was referred to a Council to be held at   
   Soissons in January of 1115. A letter was sent by the Council to the   
   religious of Saint Bruno, begging them not to retain the bishop of   
   Amiens, but to send him back to his see; and Godfrey with tears   
   resigned himself to obeying the orders of the king and the Council.   
   His declining years were not exempt from sufferings; the city of   
   Amiens was decimated by a fire which spared only the church of Saint   
   Firmin, the episcopal palace and a few houses of the poor. The people   
   had not listened to the exhortations of their bishop when their   
   prevarications enkindled the wrath of God. He died on November 8,   
   1115, in perfect serenity, having given his farewell blessing to the   
   religious of the monastery of Soissons, where he had been taken, after   
   falling ill during a journey there. His tomb was illustrated by many   
   miracles.   
      
   Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin   
   (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 13.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
    Why are we so sad? Why do we blame God? Evils abound in the world so   
   that the world will fail to seduce us into loving it.   
   --Saint Augustine of Hippo   
      
   Bible Quote:   
    "Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil: neither shalt thou   
   yield in judgment, to the opinion of the most part, to stray from the   
   truth." (Exodus 23:2)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
    Saint Anthony, Guide of Pilgrims   
      
   Dear St. Anthony, we are all pilgrims. We came from God and we are   
   going to Him. He who created us will welcome us at journey's end. The   
   Lord Jesus is preparing a place for all His brothers and sisters. St.   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)