From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Love of Solitude and Silence  (III)   
      
   Those who stand highest in the esteem of men are most exposed to   
   grievous peril, since they often have too great a confidence in   
   themselves. It is therefore, more profitable to many that they should   
   not altogether escape temptations, but be often assailed lest they   
   become too secure and exalted in their pride, or turn too readily to   
   worldly consolations. How good a conscience would he keep if a man   
   never sought after passing pleasures nor became preoccupied with   
   worldly affairs! If only a man could cast aside all useless anxiety   
   and think only on divine and salutary things, how great would be his   
   peace and tranquillity!   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 1, Ch 20   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   May 16th - Saint John Nepomucen, Martyr   
   (by Fr. Prosper Gueranger 1870)   
      
   To the Martyrs who were slain because they refused to adore false   
   gods, to the Martyrs whose blood was shed by heretics, there is added,   
   today, another brave soldier of Christ, who won his crown in a very   
   different sort of combat. The Sacrament of Penance, whereby sinners   
   regain the heaven they had lost, claims John Nepomucen as its glorious   
   defender.   
      
   A holy secrecy shrouds the reconciliation made between God and the   
   Penitent. This Sacramental Secrecy deserved to have its Martyr. When   
   Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Penance, that 2nd Baptism, wherein   
   the Blood of our Redeemer washes away the sins of the Christian soul,   
   He willed that man should not be deterred from confessing his   
   humiliations to his spiritual physician, by the fear of their ever   
   being revealed. How many hidden martyrdoms have there not been, during   
   these eighteen hundred years, for the maintenance of this Secret,   
   which, whilst it gives security to the Penitent, exposes the Confessor   
   to obloquy, injustice, and even death! But the Martyr we honor today,   
   was not one of these hidden sufferers. His testimony to the   
   inviolability of the Sacramental Seal was public; he gave it amidst   
   cruel tortures; it cost him his life.   
      
   All praise, then, to the brave and faithful Priest! Right worthy was   
   he to hold in his hands the Keys that open or shut the gate of heaven!   
   In this great fact of the observance of the Seal of Confession, on   
   which depends the salvation of millions of souls, we have a permanent   
   miracle. But there was one thing wanting to it, the glory of   
   Martyrdom. The holy Priest of Prague gave it that glory; and he offers   
   the fair Palm to our Risen Jesus, Whom we have seen, during these days   
   between His Resurrection and Ascension, mercifully instituting the   
   Sacrament of Penance, wherein He communicates to men His own power of   
   forgiving sin.   
      
      
   We subjoin the Lessons approved of by the Holy See   
   for the feast of this great Martyr.   
      
   John was born at Nepomuk a town in Bohemia, (from which he took the   
   name of Nepomucen) and of parents who were advanced in years. His   
   future sanctity was foretold by the appearance of bright rays   
   miraculously shining over the house wherein he was born. When an   
   infant, he was seized with a dangerous illness; but was delivered from   
   death by the protection of the Blessed Virgin, to whom his parents   
   considered themselves indebted for his birth. He was blessed with an   
   excellent disposition, and received a pious training, in keeping with   
   the indications given from heaven. He spent his boyhood in the   
   practice of religious exercises; among which it was his delight to be   
   frequently at the Church, and serve the Priests when saying Mass. He   
   went through his humanities at Zatek, and the higher studies at   
   Prague, where he took his degrees in Philosophy, Theology, and Canon   
   law. He was ordained Priest; and being, by his proficiency in the   
   science of the Saints, well fitted for gaining souls, he devoted   
   himself entirely to preaching the word of God. In consideration of the   
   great fruits produced by his eloquence and piety, which extirpated   
   vice and brought sinners back to the way of salvation, he was made a   
   Canon of the Metropolitan Church of Prague. Being afterwards chosen as   
   Preacher to King Wenceslaus the Fourth, he so far succeeded, that the   
   King did many things through his advice, and had a great regard for   
   his virtue. He offered him several high dignities; but the Saint   
   peremptorily refused to accept them, fearing that they would interfere   
   with his preaching the divine word.   
      
   He was entrusted with the distribution of the royal alms to the poor,   
   and Queen Jane chose him as her own spiritual director. Wenceslaus   
   having given himself up to vices, which disgraced both his kingly and   
   Christian character, and being displeased at the entreaties and   
   counsels of his wife, he even dared to insist on John's revealing to   
   him the secrets, told to him as Priest, by the queen in the sacrament   
   of Penance. The minister of God courageously resisted the King's   
   impious request, and neither bribes, nor tortures, nor imprisonment,   
   could make him yield. Seeing that the King had got to such a pitch of   
   rage that the laws of neither man nor God made him relent, the soldier   
   of Christ plainly foretold in one of his sermons, his own approaching   
   death, and the calamities that were to befall the kingdom. He then set   
   out for Buntzel, where is kept an image of the Blessed Virgin that has   
   been venerated for centuries: he there, in fervent prayer, implored   
   heaven to grant him the assistance he needed, in order to fight the   
   good fight. As he was returning home, on the evening before the Vigil   
   of the Ascension, the King, who was standing at the palace window, saw   
   him, and sent him word that he was to repair to the King. The King was   
   more than ever urgent in his demand, and threatened John with   
   immediate drowning, if he continued to refuse compliance. The Saint   
   was not to be conquered, and showed the King that he was not afraid of   
   his threats. Wherefore, by the King's orders, he was thrown that same   
   night, into the river Moldaw, which flows through Prague; and John   
   obtained the glorious crown of martyrdom.   
      
   The sacrilegious crime, thus privately committed, was miraculously   
   revealed, as was also the Martyr's great glory. For as soon as life   
   was extinct, and the corpse began to float down the stream, flaming   
   torches were seen following on the surface of the water. The next   
   morning, the Canons went and took the body from the sand on which it   
   lay, and heedless of the King's displeasure, they had it carried, with   
   much solemnity, to the metropolitan Church, and gave it burial. The   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)