From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Imitation of Christ   
      
      Tell me, where now are all the masters and teachers whom you knew   
   so well in life and who were famous for their learning? Others have   
   already taken their places and I know not whether they ever think of   
   their predecessors.   
      During life they seemed to be something; now they are seldom   
   remembered. How quickly the glory of the world passes away!   
      If only their lives had kept pace with their learning, then their   
   study and reading would have been worth while.   
   --Thomas à Kempis—book 1, chapter 3   
      
      
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   December 12th – St. Valery, Abbot   
      
   Saint Valery was born at Auvergne in the sixth century, where in his   
   childhood he kept his father’s sheep. He desired to study and begged a   
   teacher in a nearby school to trace the letters and teach them to him,   
   which the schoolmaster was happy to do. He soon knew how to read and   
   write, and the first use he made of his knowledge was to transcribe   
   the Psalter; he then learned it by heart. He began to frequent the   
   church, and love of his religion soon burnt strongly in his heart.   
      
   He was still young when he took the monastic habit in the neighboring   
   monastery of Saint Anthony. No persuasion could convince him to return   
   home when his father came to attempt  to negate that move, and the   
   Abbot, recognizing that his firmness was of divine origin, said to the   
   monks, “Let us not reject the gift of God.” His father eventually was   
   present when he received the tonsure, and shed tears of joy, having   
   accepted his son’s determination.   
      
   It was soon visible to all that God destined him for some high role in   
   the Church. He left for a more distant monastery in Auxerre, and there   
   he seemed to live a life more angelic than human. A rich lord of the   
   region, after talking with him one day, disposed of his entire fortune   
   without even returning home, to embrace religious poverty.   
      
   At that time Saint Columban was preaching in Gaul; Valery with some   
   fellow monks desired to hear him and went to Luxeuil, where they were   
   not disappointed. They asked to be received into that monastery in 594   
   and were accepted. A corner of the garden which Valery was assigned to   
   cultivate was entirely spared when insects devastated the rest. The   
   holy Abbot Columban allowed him to make his religious profession, and   
   he remained at Luxeuil for some 15 years. He was a witness when the   
   local king drove away Saint Columban from his foundation, as a   
   foreigner in the land. Soon afterward the monastery was invaded by   
   strangers, but finally Saint Valery and the new Abbot, Saint   
   Eustasius, succeeded in recovering it.   
      
   Some time afterwards Saint Valery with another monk left to carry the   
   faith elsewhere, and decided with the permission of King Clotaire to   
   remain as hermits in the region of Amiens. He raised to life a poor   
   condemned man after he had been hanged, and the word of the sanctity   
   of this monk soon spread. The wilderness of Leuconaus was transformed   
   into a community, where from the numerous monastic cells and church   
   the praises of the Lord rose up night and day. In 613, three years   
   after his arrival, this locality became a monastery where the   
   religious lived in common.   
      
   A man who had become unable to walk was cured by Saint Valery and   
   replaced him later as Abbot of this monastery; he is today Saint   
   Blitmond. Many more miracles illustrated his life of prayer and   
   sacrifice. Saint Valery died in 619, and his tomb became celebrated by   
   numerous miracles. A basilica was raised there in his honor, at the   
   site where one of his disciples had felled a tree, object of pagan   
   superstitions, at a word from the Saint.   
      
   Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin   
   (Bloud et Barral:, Vol. 4....   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   God be blessed; I’ll pray for all of you in heaven. What more could I   
   desire than to die for no other crime but that of being a religious   
   and for having made my contribution to the Christian education of   
   children. Dear father and family, I have been judged and condemned to   
   death. I accept the sentence with joy. No charges have been brought   
   against me. I have been condemned to death only because I am a   
   religious. Do not weep for me, I am not worthy of pity. I shall die   
   for God and for my country. Farewell, I shall be waiting for you in   
   heaven.   
   --Saint Jaime Hilario Barbal writing to his family after learning of   
   his death sentence   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Then Jesus took unto him the twelve, and said to them: Behold, we go   
   up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which were   
   written by the prophets concerning the Son of man. 32. For he shall be   
   delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and scourged, and spit   
   upon: 33. And after they have scourged him, they will put him to   
   death; and the third day he shall rise again.  (Luke 18:31-33)   
      
      
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   Novena Prayer   
      
   O sweet Jesus as you lived in Mary,   
   come and live in your servant   
   in the Spirit of your holiness,   
   in the fullness of your gifts,   
   in the perfection of your ways,   
   in the truth of your virtues,   
   in the communion of your mysteries,   
   by your Holy Spirit,   
   enable us to love you and love our fellow man   
   for the glory of God the Father.   
      
     Amen   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)