From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Offering Ourselves wholly to God [V]   
      
   I offer Thee also all the holy aspirations of devout persons; the   
   needs of my parents, friends, brothers, sisters, and all who are dear   
   to me; and the needs of all who have desired or asked me to pray and   
   offer the Eucharist for them and theirs, whether living or departed. I   
   pray that all these may enjoy the assistance of Thy grace, the aid of   
   Thy comfort, protection from dangers, and deliverance from pains to   
   come; and that, freed from all evils, they may offer glad praise and   
   thanks to Thee.   
   --Thomas à Kempis--Imitation of Christ Book 4 Ch.9   
      
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   22 January – Blessed William Joseph Chaminade SM   
   Also known as Guillaume Joseph Chaminade   
      
    Priest and Founder of the Society of Mary, usually called the   
   Marianists, in 1817, Reformer, evangeliser, teacher, missionary. The   
   Marianist Family’s other three branches—the married and single men and   
   women of the Marianist Lay Communities, the consecrated laywomen of   
   the Alliance Mariale and the Religious Sisters known as the Daughters   
   of Mary Immaculate. Born on 8 April 1761 at Perigeux, France and died   
   on 22 January 1850 of natural causes in Bordeaux, France. Patronages –   
   the Marianists, Marian sodalities.   
      
   Bl. William Joseph Chaminade (he took the name Joseph as his   
   Confirmation name and preferred it) was born in Périgueux, France, in   
   1761. He was the 14th child of a deeply Christian family – besides   
   William Joseph, three of his brothers were priests. In 1771 he entered   
   the minor seminary of Mussidan and four years later made private vows   
   of poverty, chastity and obedience. He was ordained a priest in 1785.   
      
   In 1790 after the outbreak of the French Revolution, he moved to   
   Bordeaux, where he spent most of his life. In 1791 he refused to take   
   the oath of the so-called Civil Constitution of the Clergy and   
   clandestinely exercised his priestly ministry, putting his life in   
   constant danger. At this time he came to know the Ven. Marie-Thérèse   
   Charlotte de Lamourous (1754-1836), who was one of his closest   
   collaborators and whom he later helped to found the Miséricorde in   
   Bordeaux to aid fallen women. In 1795 he was given the delicate task   
   of receiving back into the Diocese, priests who, having taken the   
   constitutional oath, wanted to make their peace with the Church. He   
   facilitated the reconciliation of some 50 priests.   
      
   In 1797, during the reign of the Directorate, he was forced to   
   emigrate to Zaragoza, Spain, where he lived for three years. Near the   
   Shrine of Our Lady of the Pillar, he forged his Marian-apostolic   
   convictions and was inspired to found a family of religious and laity   
   dedicated to Mary. In November 1800 he returned to Bordeaux and   
   re-founded the old Marian Sodality on a new basis.   
      
   He made every effort to give his sodalists solid religious formation   
   and directed them towards precise apostolic objectives, encouraging   
   them to offer, to an indifferent and de-Christianised society, “the   
   spectacle of a people of saints.”  This sodality would be the basis of   
   his untiring evangelising activity, aimed at the re-Christianisation   
   of France.   
      
   During these years he was named Apostolic Administrator for the   
   reorganisation of the Diocese of Bazas. In 1801 he received the title   
   of Missionary Apostolic from the Holy See. It was the official   
   confirmation of his insights into the Church in this new era. Fr   
   Chaminade viewed his own ministry and that of the Marian Sodalities as   
   a permanent mission directed towards formation in the faith, using new   
   methods and working in close alliance with Mary.   
      
   The Sodality of Bordeaux spread to other cities of the region and   
   throughout France through groups that asked for affiliation because   
   they wished to follow Fr Chaminade’s inspiration and methods. He   
   fostered some groups of young men and women who, desiring greater   
   dedication, made private vows and dedicated themselves to the   
   apostolate of the Sodality without leaving their secular work.   
      
   In 1816, together with the Ven. Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon   
   (1789-1828), he founded at Agen the Institute of the Daughters of Mary   
   Immaculate and the following year, at Bordeaux, the Society of Mary.   
   His first members, who would later be called Marianists, were members   
   of the Marian Sodalities, men and women who wished to respond to the   
   Lord with a more radical commitment, an extension of their baptismal   
   consecration and of their devotion to the Virgin Mary.   
      
   The two institutes developed rapidly in France and in 1839 received   
   the decretum laudis from Pope Gregory XVI. Since teaching was a   
   primary need at that time, both institutes of Marianists, dedicated   
   themselves to primary and secondary schools and to trade schools. They   
   taught in order to educate and form their pupils in the faith. Fr   
   Chaminade also conceived an ambitious project to establish a network   
   of teachers’ schools for Christian education. Some of these schools   
   were founded by sisters and brothers but the 1830 Revolution made   
   their continuation impossible.   
      
   During these years Fr Chaminade gave priority to drafting the   
   Constitutions and wrote important circulars on consecration-covenant   
   with Mary and on Marianist religious life. The Society of Mary   
   continued to grow in France, then in Switzerland (1839) and the United   
   States of America (1849). After 1836 the Daughters of Mary established   
   a number of rural schools in south-western France for the education   
   and advancement of women.   
      
   The last 10 years of his life were a time of severe trial – health   
   problems, financial difficulties, the departure of some disciples,   
   misunderstandings and distrust, obstacles to the exercise of his   
   mission as founder. He faced these difficulties with great confidence   
   in Mary, faithful to his conscience and to the Church, filled with   
   faith and charity. He died peacefully in Bordeaux, surrounded by many   
   of his sons, on 22 January 1850. … Vatican.va   
      
   Since his death, his orders and apostolates have spread throughout the   
   world and have consistently been sources of evangelisation and   
   conformity to the Catholic Faith.  Blessed William was Beatified by St   
   Pope John Paul II on 3 September 2000, after the confirmation of   
   miracles due to his intercession.   
      
   https://anastpaul.com/2020/01/   
      
      
      
   Saint Quotes:   
   “The deposit of the Faith   
   is entirely in Mary.   
   At the foot of the Cross   
   she held the place of the Church. “   
      
   “…We are, so to say,   
   conceived of the Holy Spirit   
   but we must,   
   like the Saviour,   
   be born of the Virgin Mary.”   
      
   “Do not neglect prayer,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)