From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   How to declare our needs to Christ, and ask his grace  [i]   
      
   THE DISCIPLE.   
   Most dear and loving Lord, whom I now desire to receive with all   
   devotion. Thou knoweth my weakness and my many needs, the countless   
   sins and vices that afflict me, and how often I am discouraged,   
   tempted, troubled, and defiled. I come to Thee for healing; I beg Thee   
   to comfort and relieve me. I make my prayer to Him who knows all   
   things, (Ps 119:2) to whom my inmost thoughts lie unconcealed, and who   
   alone can perfectly comfort and aid me. Thou knoweth the graces I most   
   need, and how lacking I am in all virtues.   
   --Thomas à Kempis--Imitation of Christ Book 4 Ch. 16   
      
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   June 16th – St. John Francis Regis, missionary   
      
   Saint John Francis Regis was born at Fontcouverte in Languedoc, in   
   January 1597, of a noble Catholic family. From his tenderest years he   
   showed evidence of uncommon sanctity by his innocence of life,   
   modesty, and love of prayer; when he was five years old he fainted   
   when he heard his mother speak of the terrible misfortune of being   
   eternally damned. After being educated by the Jesuits, when he was   
   nineteen years old he decided, with the approbation of his confessor,   
   to enter the Society of Jesus at Toulouse. There he was viewed as a   
   model of every virtue, and was called the Angel of the College. He was   
   sent in 1628 to study theology in Toulouse, and ordained a priest in   
   1630. His first ministry in Toulouse was for the victims of the   
   plague. His superiors feared to expose his youth to the contagion, but   
   he pleaded successfully to be allowed to do so, and God spared His   
   servant for future labors. He was sent to visit his family for a time,   
   and began in Fontcouverte to occupy himself first of all with the   
   poor. The numerous conversions effected there made his Superiors   
   decide to assign their young Saint to the mission lands of France.   
      
   He began his apostolic work in Montpellier, and spent himself in   
   preaching to the unlettered people of Languedoc and Auvergne; in these   
   regions where heresy had made serious inroads, he made many converts   
   among the Huguenots. He established an association of women to procure   
   aid for prisoners, and founded numerous confraternities of the Blessed   
   Sacrament. The winters he spent in the missions of the mountainous   
   districts, where the people were seen to travel long miles on foot   
   through the snows and across ice, to hear the servant of God and make   
   their confessions. Many of them accompanied him on his journeys from   
   one place to another, leaving all things to hear him. Some fragments   
   of his torn cloak, which a charitable lady repaired for him one day,   
   cured her two sick children. The reputation of the sanctity of the   
   missionary spread everywhere in the mountains.   
      
   During the summer he preached in Le Puy, which soon changed its aspect   
   by his catechisms. Up to 5000 listeners crowded in to hear   
   him at the church of the Benedictines of Saint-Pierre-le-Moustiers. He   
   visited hospitals and prisons, preached and instructed, and assisted   
   all who in any way stood in need of his services.   
      
   In November of 1637 the Saint set out for his second mission at   
   Marthes in the mountains. His road lay across valleys filled with snow   
   and over frozen and precipitous peaks. In climbing one of the highest,   
   a bush to which he was clinging gave way, and he broke his leg in the   
   fall; nonetheless, with the help of his companion and a staff, he   
   managed to continue his journey for the remaining six miles. Then,   
   instead of seeing a surgeon, he insisted on being taken straight to   
   the confessional. After several hours, the parish priest found him   
   still seated, and when his leg was finally examined the fracture was   
   found to be miraculously healed.   
      
   Saint John Francis was so inflamed with the love of God that he seemed   
   to breathe, think, and speak of Him alone. He offered up the Holy   
   Sacrifice with such attention and fervor that those who attended it   
   could not but experience with him something of the fire consuming him.   
   After twelve years of unceasing labor, having taken a wrong turn on a   
   strange road, and having remained for the night in a cabin open to the   
   wind, he contracted a severe pleurisy and rendered his pure and   
   innocent soul to his Creator at the age of forty-four. He was mourned,   
   invoked for assistance and then venerated as a miracle-working Saint;   
   his place of sepulcher at Louvesc in the mountains is still the site   
   of fervent pilgrimages. He was canonized by Pope Clement XII in 1737.   
      
   The Curé of Ars obtained a famous miracle with a medal of our Saint.   
   The orphanage of Ars had no more grain for bread, and the harvest had   
   been so scanty the people could not be asked for any more aid. The   
   Curé of Ars put a medal of Saint John Francis behind the door of the   
   empty storeroom, and the next day they could scarcely open that door,   
   so full had the room become overnight.   
      
   Reflection. When Saint John Francis was struck in the face by a sinner   
   he was reproving, he replied, “If you only knew me, you would give me   
   much more than that.” His gentleness converted the man. How much might   
   we do if we would forget our own wants to remember those of others,   
   and put our trust in God!   
      
   Sources: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler’s Lives of the Saints, and other sources    
      
      
   Saint Quote   
   When we pray, the voice of the heart must be heard more than that   
   proceeding from the mouth.   
   --St Bonaventure   
      
   Bible quote:   
   If you will be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the   
   poor... and come, follow Me. (Matthew 19:21)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A Prayer to Mary, the Star of the Sea   
      
   "She is the star, the sign of help and of joy."   
   --St. Ephrem   
      
   Ave Maria! thou Virgin and Mother,   
   Fondly thy children are calling on thee;   
   Thine are the graces, unclaimed by another,   
   Sinless and beautiful--Star of the Sea.   
      
   Ave Maria! thy children are kneeling--   
   Words of endearment are whispered to thee;   
   Softly thy spirit upon us is stealing,   
   Sinless and beautiful--Star of the Sea.   
   Ave Maria! the night shades are falling,   
   Softly our voices arise unto thee;   
   Earth's lonely exiles for succour are calling,   
   Sinless and beautiful--Star of the Sea.   
      
   Ave Maria! thy arms are extending,   
   Gladly within them for shelter we flee;   
   Are thy sweet eyes, on thy lonely ones bending?   
   Sinless and beautiful--Star of the Sea.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)