From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Let us leave a little room for reflection   
      
   Let us leave a little room for reflection, room too for silence. Enter   
   into yourself, and leave behind all noise and confusion. Look within   
   yourself. See whether there be some delightful hidden place in your   
   consciousness, where you can be free of noise and argument, where you   
   need not be carrying on your disputes and planning to have your own   
   stubborn way. Hear the word in quietness, that you may understand it.   
   --St. Augustine-- Sermon 52, 22   
      
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   June 29th - Solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul   
      
   SS. Peter and Paul always listen to the prayers of their devotees.   
   Time has not diminished their power, and from Heaven--even more than   
   when they were on earth--they do not abandon the interests of the   
   Church or neglect the least of the inhabitants of this glorious   
   earthly City of God, of which they were and remain princes.   
      
   One of the triumphs of the Devil in our times is to have dulled the   
   faith of good people in this regard. It is necessary to insist that   
   man awake from this deathlike sleep that makes us forget that Our Lord   
   wanted these two saints to continue His work and represent Him visibly   
   on earth.   
      
   St. Ambrose extols the continuing, vibrant apostolic mission of the   
   Church, and expresses with profundity and delicacy the roles of SS.   
   Peter and Paul in the salvation of the elect. The Church, he says, is   
   the ship from which Peter fishes, and for this labor at times he   
   receives an order to use the hook, and at other times, the net. It is   
   a great mystery, for this fishing is entirely supernatural. While the   
   net does not harm the fish, the hook wounds it; the net takes in   
   multitudes, the hook catches a single fish. The good fish does not   
   resist the hook of Peter because it does not kill, but rather   
   converts. Fortunate the gash that permits one to profess the same   
   faith of Peter!   
      
   It is for this reason that Jesus told Peter: “"Put out into the deep   
   water, and let down the nets for a catch” (Luke 5:1) “Put out into the   
   deep water”--that is, go to the very depths of the hearts of men. ‘Put   
   out into the deep water”--go to Christ, the source of living waters of   
   wisdom and knowledge.   
      
   Peter continues to fish every day. Our Lord tells him: “Put out into   
   the deep water.” But one seems to hear Peter replying: “Master, we   
   have worked all night with no result.” Peter suffers when we are   
   hard-hearted. Paul is also fighting for our souls. Didn’t he tell us   
   that no one suffers without him also suffering? We should act in a way   
   that does not make the Apostles suffer.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   These are very beautiful words. Let us consider some of the thoughts in them.   
      
   First, the selection makes an interesting remark about how Divine   
   Providence permitted the faith of many good people to be dulled   
   regarding the roles that St. Peter and St. Paul exercise in Heaven.   
   This is true. Devotion to the Apostles has diminished a great deal,   
   except for devotion to St. Jude Thaddeus, who was an almost unknown   
   Apostle and for a time even raised some suspicion because people   
   thought that this Judas might be Judas Iscariot, also a member of the   
   College of Apostles. Except for the devotion to St. Jude, who became   
   the patron of the impossible, devotion to the other Apostles decreased   
   a great deal.   
      
   This diminishment is completely unreasonable since it is evident that   
   the mission of the Apostles did not diminish with time. On the   
   contrary, we know that their mission continues now and will continue   
   until the end of time. They were not Apostles for just one epoch. They   
   were not men who saved souls in the first days of the Church, and then   
   went to Heaven where they do nothing. They are there now with Our Lord   
   Jesus Christ watching and exercising a role over the entire Church.   
      
   The apostolate they made in their times was a seed they planted that   
   contained the apostolate of all epochs. From Heaven they continue to   
   nurture and develop it. Therefore, devotion to them is a necessary   
   thing, and this selection gives us an opportunity to recommend   
   ourselves to St. Peter and St. Paul, to pray to them, and to increase   
   our devotion to them.   
      
   Second, the selection seems to insinuate a difference between the   
   apostolate of St. Peter--made with a hook--and the one of St.   
   Paul--made with a net. The distinction between these two different   
   methods of apostolate is useful. The apostolate of the net is meant to   
   catch a large number of people; the apostolate of the hook is destined   
   to catch this or that particular person.   
      
   Third, the text speaks beautifully of the apostolate of hook, saying   
   that the hook wounds the mouth of the fish, but by means of this gash   
   he pays the price of his conversion. There are conversions that are   
   very difficult, that are only possible through great sacrifices and   
   sufferings. The blood exacted by the great effort is the price paid to   
   be a part of the Catholic Church. This is a normal characteristic of   
   the apostolate of the hook.   
      
   There are conversions, however, that are painless. In the Middle Age,   
   for example, we have the marvelous examples of the conversions of   
   Kings who brought entire nations with them: the kingdom of the Franks   
   came to the Church with Clovis, the Hungarians with St. Stephen, the   
   Polish with Boleslaus, the Ukrainians with St. Vladimir, and so on.   
   These were apostolates of the net that brought a multitude of souls   
   without any special suffering.   
      
   Fourth, another beautiful part of this selection speaks of the   
   apostolate when it is without fruit. St. Peter and St. Paul   
   experienced enormous difficulties in their apostolates, and also   
   enjoyed times of extraordinary successes. They were not easy labors   
   with “happy endings.” It was hard work along rocky paths that required   
   much prayer and supernatural help in order to go forward. Without this   
   help, the apostolate is fruitless.   
      
   We should remember this in our own mission. We should keep in mind   
   that St. Peter’s fished all night and was unsuccessful. But when he   
   asked Our Lord for help, the net was lifted from the water filled with   
   fish.   
      
      
   Saint Quote   
   If you wish for a method brief and compendious, one which contains in   
   itself all other methods and is most efficacious in conquering all   
   temptations and difficulties, and acquiring perfection, this is the   
   exercise of the presence of God.   
   --St. Basil   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   The just shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall hope in him: and all the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)