From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Corruption of Nature and the Efficacy of Divine Grace [I]   
      
   THE DISCIPLE.   
    O Lord my God, Thou have created me in Thy own image and likeness.   
   Grant me this great grace, so necessary to my salvation, that I may   
   conquer the base elements of my nature, (Rom.7:23) that drag me down   
   into sin and perdition. Within my being I can feel the power of sin   
   contending against the rule of my mind, leading me away an obedient   
   slave to all kinds of sensuality. I cannot resist its onslaughts,   
   unless Thy most holy grace is poured glowing into my heart to help me.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 55   
      
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   March 4th - Bl. Giovanni Antonio Farina, Founder   
   (1803-1888)   
      
   He was born into a religious family in Gambellara, Italy, on 11   
   January 1803, as the second of five brothers. After the premature   
   death of his father, Fr Antonio, his uncle, took the family into his   
   home. This priest was his spiritual and intellectual mentor. When he   
   was 15 he entered the diocesan seminary of Vicenza where at 21 he was   
   asked to begin teaching. On 15 January 1827, he was ordained priest   
   and immediately afterwards earned an elementary school teacher's   
   diploma. On account of his pedagogical gifts, he was appointed as   
   teacher and spiritual director at the seminary where he served for 18   
   years. He was assistant pastor at St Peter's Parish for 10 years and   
   headmaster in elementary and secondary schools in Vicenza. In 1831 in   
   Vicenza he founded the first school for poor girls and in 1836, the   
   Institute of the Sisters Teachers of St. Dorothy, Daughters of the   
   Sacred Hearts, to supply suitable teachers. He wanted his religious   
   also to care for deaf-mutes, blind girls and the psychologically   
   handicapped. They nursed the sick and the elderly in hospital and at   
   home. There was no form of suffering that this farsighted founder   
   overlooked.   
      
   In 1850 Fr. Farina was appointed Bishop of Treviso. Here he undertook   
   a variety of pastoral initiatives, forming his priests and laity for   
   evangelization and catholic action. Throughout his ten-year term,   
   canonical problems with the Cathedral Chapter caused him constant   
   suffering and setbacks. Here he was able to follow the preparation of   
   Giuseppe Sarto (the future St Pius X) for the priesthood ordaining him   
   in 1858. In 1860 he was transferred to Vicenza.   
      
   Despite the turbulent period in Italian history, during his 28 years   
   as bishop he embarked on an ambitious pastoral programme that included   
   the spiritual and cultural formation of the priests and of the laity   
   for evangelization, the reform of studies and discipline in the   
   seminary, and the organization of associations for the care of the   
   poor. He was called the "Bishop of Charity". In 1889 he was able to   
   hold a diocesan synod. He was devoted to the pastoral visit and   
   visited every parish even those that had never seen a bishop. His   
   strength ebbed after a serious illness in 1886 and he died from a   
   stroke in Vicenza on 4 March 1888. His compassionate treatment of the   
   poor and his enlightened views on teachers and education make Bishop   
   Farina one of the more outstanding bishops of the 19th century. Today,   
   the institute he founded is involved in education as well as health   
   care and pastoral assistance in many countries.   
      
      
   Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself —Matt. 16:24   
      
   "The measure of our advancement in the spiritual life should be taken   
   from the progress we make in the virtue of mortification; for it   
   should be held as certain that the greater violence we shall do   
   ourselves in mortification, the greater advance we shall make in   
   perfection"   
   --St. Jerome   
      
    When St. Francis Borgia heard it said that anyone was a saint, he   
   used to answer, "He is, if he is mortified" In this way he himself   
   became so great a saint; for he exercised himself in mortification to   
   such a degree that only that day seemed to him truly wretched in which   
   he had not undergone some mortification, either bodily or spiritually.   
      
    When a young monk once asked an aged saint why, among so many who aim   
   at perfection, so few are found perfect, he replied, "Because in order   
   to be perfect it is necessary to die wholly to one’s own inclinations,   
   and there are few who arrive at this."   
      
    ("A Year with the Saints"  March - Mortification)   
      
      
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   Prayer to the Sacred Heart   
      
   May all the words that I speak be dipped   
   in the Blood of Thy Sacred Heart,   
   O Jesus, that they may be so many arrows   
   to pierce the hearts of all who hear   
   them with love for Thee.   
    - Amen.    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)