From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   To love and to praise   
      
       Now in adversity, now in prosperity, the martyrs vigilantly   
   practice patience and self-control, and in the calamities which   
   exhaust the earth and herald the final consummation at the end of the   
   world, they discern the fulfillment of prophecy and so look forward   
   with increased confidence to the eternal happiness of their heavenly   
   country. Although in all these events unbelieving and godless nations   
   continue to rage against the Church of Christ, the Church gains the   
   victory by its endurance and by the profession of a faith unshaken by   
   the cruelty of its adversaries.   
       For long ages the truth lay hidden behind mysterious prophecies,   
   but now it is revealed in the sacrifice of Christ, and those   
   sacrificial rites which foreshadowed it are abolished by the   
   destruction of the Jewish temple. By degrees the temples of the   
   heathen divinities are also being destroyed together with their images   
   and impious rites, as the prophets foretold. Under cover of Christ's   
   name heresies spring up against his very person. This too was   
   predicted, but by means of such errors the doctrines of our holy faith   
   are developed.   
   --St. Augustine of Hippo   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   August 31st - Blessed Juvenal Ancina   
      
   Of all the saints and beati of the Oratory, it is John Juvenal Ancina   
   who had the privilege of a personal acquaintance with our founder and   
   patron, St. Philip Neri. He was born in Fossano in late 1545, the   
   eldest of four children. His early years were devoted to study, and   
   especially study of medicine, which became his chosen profession after   
   the death of his father. Throughout his early life he, and his brother   
   John Matthew, who also became an Oratorian, were conspicuous for their   
   delight in religion – none of St. Philip’s reticence about ‘building   
   little altars’ here.   
      
   Youthful piety blossomed into religious vocation in an unusually   
   definite manner – he was attending a high Mass at which the Dies Irae   
   was sung: when he heard it, he determined to seek a greater perfection   
   of life, and went to Rome in search of this. Once there, he discovered   
   the Oratory, becoming friendly in particular with Baronius, later   
   Cardinal, Church historian, and St. Philip’s successor as superior in   
   the Oratory. St. Philip dissuaded him from joining a religious order,   
   and he entered the Oratory on 1st October 1578, being ordained priest   
   in June 1582.   
      
   His reputation for holiness of life was such that he was asked to go   
   to the Oratory in Naples in 1586, where he was regarded as something   
   of a ‘second St. Philip’. Such acclaim was not without its risks,   
   however, and his abilities came to the attention of the Holy See, who   
   wanted to make him a bishop. Appalled, Juvenal tried to evade the   
   summons to Rome, ironically further enhancing his reputation by his   
   notable preaching in the various places (Loreto, Cingoli, Fermo etc.)   
   which he visited while perpetrating this evasion.   
      
   In the end, obedience was stronger than personal taste: he bowed to   
   the wishes of the Pope, and became Bishop of Saluzzo on August 26th   
   1602, turning down a richer and more prominent See in favour of this   
   area where there were more opportunities for pastoral charity. As a   
   bishop, he showed a great zeal for souls, bringing something of that   
   renewal of the Church in which St. Philip played so important a part   
   in Rome to the Italian provinces.   
      
   It was his zeal which eventually led to his death – he was poisoned by   
   a man whom he had felt obliged to discipline for visiting a convent   
   with less than holy intent. Juvenal knew quite well who his poisoner   
   was, but refused to testify against him, and died on 31st August 1604,   
   aged 59.   
      
   Other beati, such as Antony Grassi, inspire us by a life marked by   
   faithful regularity, and humble search for Christ through decades of   
   outwardly unremarkable existence. In John Juvenal we find someone   
   whose life was more varied, but was, in all its stages, marked out by   
   a desire for virtue, a special awareness of the value and grace of the   
   confessional, and, in the end, by obedience. This obedience was not   
   won without struggle, but led to a fruitful ministry, as Oratorian and   
   bishop.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Let us stand fast in what is right, and prepare our souls for trial.   
   Let us wait upon God's strengthening aid and say to him: "O Lord, you   
   have been our refuge in all generations."   
   -- Saint Boniface   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "The hope of the wicked is as dust, which is blown away with the   
   winds, and as a thin froth which is dispersed by the storm; and a   
   smoke which is scattered abroad by the wind."  (Wis. 5:15).   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   August: Diligence--He did all things well.  [Mark 7:37 ]   
      
   6. Be not of those who think perfection consists in undertaking many   
   things, but of those who place it in doing well what little they do,   
   for it is much better to do little and do it well, than to undertake   
   much and do it ill. Yes, little and good, this is the best. Therefore,   
   if we wish to advance, or when we wish to give some special honor to   
   Our Lord, we have to redouble not our exercises, but the perfection   
   with which we perform them.   
   --St. Francis de Sales   
      
   A devout young nun recited every day the complete Rosary of fifteen   
   decades, but with little devotion, on account of its length. One day   
   the Blessed Virgin appeared to her and told her to recite only the   
   third part of it. "For," said she, "a few prayers said fervently are   
   more acceptable to my Son and to me, than many said negligently and   
   without devotion."   
   ( "A Year with the Saints".   August: Diligence)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)