From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Corruption of Nature and the Power of Grace  [VI]   
      
   Your grace is my strength, my counsel, and my help. It is more   
   powerful than all my enemies, and wiser than all the wise. It is the   
   teacher of truth, the instructor of doctrine, the light of the heart,   
   the consoler of affliction. It banishes sorrow, drives away fear,   
   fosters devotion, and moves to contrition. Without grace, I am nothing   
   but a dry tree, a barren stock (Ecclus.6:3) fit only for destruction.   
   Therefore, O Lord, let Your grace always lead and follow me,   
   (Collect,Trinity 17) and keep me ever intent on good works, through   
   Your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 55   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   September 18th - St. Joseph of Cupertino   
      
    1603-1663   
      
   St. Augustine says: "Do you wish to become great, then begin by being   
   small." God often deals in that way with His saints. He often permits   
   the most glorious saints to begin in the deepest lowliness. St. Joseph   
   of Cupertino in the old kingdom of Naples, is an example in point. His   
   father was a humble carpenter, who has contracted very heavy debts and   
   was in very straitened circumstances at the time Joseph was born. His   
   mother was very strict with him. He used to say in later life that he   
   made his novitiate while still a child. Nevertheless Joseph performed   
   additional penances and appeared to have been given a body merely for   
   the purpose of mortifying it. Even as a child he lived in close union   
   with God, so that he dwelt in heaven rather than on earth.   
      
   In time he was sent to learn a trade, but it was soon noticed that   
   this was not his vocation. He was eventually invested with the   
   Franciscan habit among the Capuchins, but was soon dismissed because   
   of his awkwardness. The result was that his own relatives turned him   
   out as a useless creature and a disgrace to his family. Finally, the   
   Conventuals took pity on the young man who so humbly pleaded for   
   admission and employed him to take care of the convent mule. In this   
   lowly service his virtues, especially his humility, obedience, and   
   piety, shone forth with such brilliance that his superiors received   
   him among the clerics, and within three years he was ordained a   
   priest.   
      
   Joseph's natural knowledge was of small account, for his efforts to   
   learn by study were never successful. But it was soon perceived that   
   he possessed much infused knowledge, so that even great theologians   
   marveled at it. His life was one of uninterrupted union with God.   
   Everything in nature lifted him up to heaven and to the supernatural.   
   Not only his spirit but also his body was so frequently raised above   
   the earth in holy rapture and remained in that position for so long a   
   time, that his biographer declares he spent more than half his   
   religious life above the earth. Sometime he flew to the objects of his   
   devotion in swiftest flight.   
      
   On an elevation near the convent three crosses had been erected.   
   Repeatedly when he looked at them, he would rise in the air with a cry   
   and fly to the cross in the center, embracing it and remaining in that   
   position until the end of the ecstasy. On another occasion, when he   
   visited the Basilica of St. Francis, he saw a painting of the Mother   
   of God high up in the vault of the church; at once his body rose into   
   the air, and he kissed the image with tender devotion. At holy Mass he   
   was usually lifted in the air and remained there swaying over the   
   altar for hours at a time. For that reason, he usually said Mass in   
   the convent chapel rather than in the church.   
      
   What impression these ecstasies made on witnesses may be deduced from   
   the story of Duke John Frederick of Brunswick. In 1649 he once   
   attended the Mass offered up by Father Joseph. He was so impressed by   
   the ecstasy that he was convinced of the truth of the Catholic faith   
   and two years later made his profession of faith before Father Joseph   
   himself.   
      
   Because these visions were so extraordinary, Father Joseph's virtue   
   was also tested. God Himself permitted Joseph to be severely tempted   
   by the devil. Added to this, he suffered for years from dryness of   
   heart, so that he felt completely forsaken by God. But all these   
   trials could not embitter his heart; he placed it within the wound of   
   our Savior's side and preserved peace of mind. He had no other wish   
   but to do the will of God.   
      
   After he had stood the test of many storms, he was again rewarded with   
   heavenly consolation. Desiring to be with Christ, he died in the   
   convent at Osimo on September 18, 1663. Numerous miracles occurred at   
   his grave, and Pope Clement XIII canonized him in 1753. Because of his   
   miraculous flights through the air, he is now honored as a patron of   
   those who travel by air.   
      
      
   ON THE WOUND IN THE SIDE OF CHRIST   
   1. Just as the heart of St. Francis was filled with ardent love for   
   his crucified Lord, so his son St. Joseph was attracted to the cross.   
   He soared to it in marvelous flight as though his body possessed the   
   lightness of glorified bodies, and there he rested at the open wound   
   in the side of his Lord, at the Sacred Heart Itself. Christ said: "If   
   I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to Myself" (Jn   
   12:32). How is it that we are not more attracted to Him, at least in   
   the depths of our heart? We lack the proper interior sentiments. "By   
   two wings," says Thomas a Kempis, "is man lifted up above earthly   
   things, namely by simplicity and purity. Simplicity must be in the   
   intention, purity in the affection." -- Examine yourself. In what are   
   you wanting?   
      
   2. Consider with what sentiments we should be inspired by the wound in   
   the side of Christ. We should have the sentiments of Christ's own   
   Heart. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil   
   2:5). From this Sacred Heart we should above all learn meekness and   
   humility, that marvelous compassion to which our Lord alluded when He   
   said: "Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall   
   be forgiven him" (Matt 12:32), and which He exercised when He hung   
   upon the cross praying for His executioners and blasphemers. In this   
   Sacred Heart St. Joseph placed all his trials and crosses before they   
   could touch his own heart. Act likewise, place your trials and   
   temptations there, so that the meekness of Christ may encompass you.   
      
   3. Consider with what spirit we should be imbued after contemplating   
   the wound in the side of Christ. We should be filled with zeal for the   
   cause of Christ and the desire to promote the honor and glory of God   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)