[continued from previous message]   
      
   > the confessional. The number of conversions of which he was the   
   > instrument is known only to Him who by His grace was the author of   
   > them. Raymund was employed frequently in important commissions, both   
   > by the Holy See and by the king. In 1238, however, he was   
   > thunderstruck by the arrival of deputies from the general chapter of   
   > his order at Bologna with the news that he had been chosen third   
   > master general, Bl. Jordan of Saxony having lately died. He wept and   
   > entreated, but at length acquiesced in obedience. He made the   
   > visitation of his order on foot without discontinuing any of his   
   > austerities or religious exercises. He instilled into his spiritual   
   > children a love of regularity, solitude, studies and the work of the   
   > ministry, and reduced the constitutions of his order into a clearer   
   > method, with notes on the doubtful passages. The code which he drew up   
   > was approved in 3 general chapters. In one held at Paris in 1239 he   
   > procured the establishment of this regulation, that the voluntary   
   > resignation of a superior, founded upon just reasons, should be   
   > accepted. This he contrived in his own favour, for in the year   
   > following he resigned the generalship which he had held only two   
   > years. He grounded his action on the fact that he was now 65 years   
   > old.   
   >   
   > But St. Raymund still had 34 years to live, and he spent them in the   
   > main opposing heresy and working for the conversion of the Moors in   
   > Spain. With this end in view, he engaged St. Thomas to write his work   
   > “Against the Gentiles”; he contrived to have Arabic and Hebrew taught   
   > in several convents of his order; and he established friaries, one at   
   > Tunis, and another at Murcia, among the Moors. In 1256 he wrote to his   
   > general that ten thousand Saracens had received baptism. He was active   
   > in getting the Inquisition established in Catalonia; and on one   
   > occasion he was accused--it is to be feared not without some   
   > reason--of compromising a Jewish rabbi by a trick.   
   >   
   > A famous incident in St. Raymund’s life is said to have taken place   
   > when he accompanied King James to the island of Majorca. The king,   
   > very loose in his relations with women, promised amendment, but failed   
   > to implement his promise; whereupon Raymund asked leave to go back to   
   > Barcelona. The king not only refused, but threatened to punish with   
   > death any person who attempted to convey him out of the island. Full   
   > of confidence in God, Raymund said to his companion, “An earthly king   
   > withholds the means of flight, but the King of Heaven will supply   
   > them.” He then walked to the sea and, we are told, spread his cloak   
   > upon the water, tied up one corner of it to a staff for a sail, and   
   > having made the sign of the cross, stepped upon it without fear whilst   
   > his companion stood trembling on the shore. On this new kind of vessel   
   > the saint was wafted with such rapidity that in six hours he reached   
   > the harbour of Barcelona, sixty leagues distant from Majorca. Those   
   > who saw him arrive in this manner met him with acclamations. But he,   
   > gathering up his cloak dry, put it on, stole through the crowd and   
   > entered his monastery. A chapel and a tower, built on the place where   
   > he is supposed to have landed, transmitted the memory of this miracle   
   > to posterity. During the saint’s last illness, Alphonsus, King of   
   > Castile, and James of Aragon visited him, and received his final   
   > blessing. St. Raymund gave up his soul to God on January 6 in the year   
   > 1275, the hundredth of his age. The two kings, with all the princes   
   > and princesses of their royal families, honoured his funeral with   
   > their presence but his tomb was rendered far more illustrious by   
   > miracles. Several (including the one related above) are recorded in   
   > the bull of his canonization, published in 1601.   
   >   
   >   
   > Reflection.   
   >   Ask Saint Raymond to protect you from the fearful servitude, worse   
   > than any bodily slavery, which even one sinful habit tends to form.   
   >   
   > Saint Quote:   
   > Look then on Jesus, the author and preserver of faith: in complete   
   > sinlessness he suffered, and at the hands of those who were his own,   
   > and was numbered among the wicked. As you drink the cup of the Lord   
   > Jesus (how glorious it is!), give thanks to the Lord, the giver of all   
   > blessings.   
   >   
   > May the God of love and peace set your hearts at rest and speed you on   
   > your journey; may he meanwhile shelter you from disturbance by others   
   > in the hidden recesses of his love, until he brings you at last into   
   > that place of complete plenitude where you will repose for ever in the   
   > vision of peace, in the security of trust, and in the restful   
   > enjoyment of his riches.   
   > --from a letter by Saint Raymond   
   >   
   >   
   > <><><><>   
   > The following was written by St. Augustine, to conclude several of his   
   > sermons.  It is completely suitable as an opening prayer for a group, such   
   > as the Rosary:   
   >   
   > Let us turn towards the Lord God and Father Almighty, and with a pure heart   
   > let us give Him sincere thanks as well as our littleness will allow: Let us   
   > with our whole hearts beseech His extraordinary clemency, that He may   
   > vouchsafe to hear our prayers according to His good pleasure. May He by   
   > His power drive our enemies far from us, lest we fall under the sway of the   
   > evil one in act or thought. May He increase our faith, rule our mind, give   
   > us spiritual thoughts, and at last lead us to His blessedness, through   
   > Jesus Christ His Son.  Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)