From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Obedience is a short cut to perfection   
      
   Obedience is a short cut to perfection. They who are living under   
   obedience, if they really wish to advance in the ways of God, must   
   give themselves up always and in all things into the hands of their   
   superiors; and they who are not living under obedience must subject   
   themselves to some learned and discreet confessor, whom they may obey   
   in the place of God, disclosing to him, with perfect candor and   
   simplicity, the affairs of their soul; and they should never come to   
   any resolution without his advice. Nothing gives greater security to   
   our actions, or more effectually cuts the snares the devil lays for   
   us, than to follow another person's will, rather than our own, in   
   doing good.   
   --St. Philip   
      
      
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   May 18th - Bl. William of Toulouse   
   d. 1369   
      
   AT a very early age Bl. William de Naurose joined the Hermits of St.   
   Augustine in his native city of Toulouse. Young though he was, he had   
   already begun to tread the path of perfection, and with the triple   
   promise he made at his profession he dedicated himself to the Holy   
   Trinity. With the vow of obedience he offered himself to the Father   
   under whom all things are in subjection, with the vow of poverty to   
   the Son who for our sake became poor, and with the vow of chastity to   
   the Holy Ghost, the spouse of our Lady and all pure souls.   
      
   After his ordination he was sent to pursue higher studies at the   
   University of Paris, then the educational centre of Christendom. His   
   course completed, he was entrusted with mission work and soon became   
   celebrated as a preacher and as a director of souls. A great promoter   
   of prayer for the holy souls in Purgatory, he was once visited by a   
   wealthy woman who gave him gold, requesting his prayers for her   
   deceased relations. Bl. William at once said aloud, “Eternal rest give   
   to them, 0 Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they   
   rest in peace,” and stopped short--much to the disappointment of his   
   visitor, who plainly intimated that she expected more prayers for her   
   money. The holy priest replied by bidding her write down his prayer   
   and weigh it in a balance with her bag of gold. She did so, and lo! it   
   was the money which kicked the beam, while down came the scale with   
   the prayer. Bl. William had a reputation for delivering those   
   possessed by devils, but was himself said to be troubled by evil   
   spirits, who sometimes appeared to him in visible form and tried to do   
   him bodily harm. He died on May 18, 1369, and his cult was confirmed   
   in 1893.   
      
   The short life by Nicholas Bertrand which is printed in the Acta   
   Sanctorum, May, vol. iv, was written a century and a half after the   
   death of Bl. William. There is also a brief historical summary in the   
   decree approving the cult and a compendious account of the beatus by   
   N. Mattioli, in Italian, was published in 1894.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Mary seeks for those who approach her devoutly and with reverence, for   
   such she loves, nourishes, and adopts as her children.   
   --Saint Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church   
      
   Bible Quote:   
    What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but   
   hath not works? Shall faith be able to save him? And if a brother or   
   sister be naked and want daily food:  And one of you say to them: Go   
   in peace, be ye warmed and filled; yet give them not those things that   
   are necessary for the body, what shall it profit? So faith also, if it   
   have not works, is dead in itself.  [James 2:14-17] DRB   
      
      
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   May God's Holy Will Be Done O Lord, do to me whatever shall seem good   
   in Thy sight. If Thou willest that I should be in darkness, blessed be   
   Thou! If Thou willest that I should be in light, still blessed be   
   Thou! If Thou deignest to comfort me, blessed be Thou! And if Thou   
   willest that I should be afflicted, equally blessed be Thou forever! I   
   will willingly suffer for Thee, O Lord, whatever Thou willest should   
   come upon me. I am ready to receive alike from Thy hand good and evil,   
   sweet and bitter, joy and sadness, and to give thanks for everything   
   that befalls me. Keep me only from all sin and I will fear neither   
   death nor Hell. Cast me not off forever, nor blot me out of the Book   
   of Life, and whatsoever tribulation befalleth me shall not hurt me.   
   --Imitation of Christ, Bk. III, Ch. 17   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)