From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Avoiding Distractions   
      
   CHRIST.   
    My son, you must needs be ignorant of many things: so consider   
   yourself as dead and crucified to the whole world. (Col.3:3; Gal.6:14)   
      
   THE DISCIPLE.   
    Lord, to what a pass have we come? We grieve over a worldly loss; we   
   labor and hustle to gain some small profit, forgetting the harm to our   
   souls and seldom recalling it. We attend to matters of little or no   
   value and neglect those of the greatest importance. For when a man   
   devotes all his energies to material affairs, he rapidly becomes   
   immersed in them, unless he quickly recovers his senses.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 44   
      
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   19 July – St Peter Crisci of Foligno TOSF   
      
   Franciscan Tertiary, Penitent, Hermit, Pilgrim, Beggar, Preacher –   
   called a “Fool for Christ” – born in c 1243 in Foligno and died on 19   
   July 1323 in the Cathedral of Foligno, Umbria, Italy of natural   
   causes.   
      
   Peter Crisci, who was born in c 1243 in Foligno of a good family, sold   
   his inheritance when he was about 30 and gave the proceeds to the   
   poor. From this point, he dressed in sacking and lived as a Hermit in   
   a cell in the campanile of the Cathedral (now the Cell of St Peter   
   Crisci). He regularly preached in the Cathedral and became highly   
   venerated.   
      
   He was regarded as a madman in some quarters. While saintly laymen   
   like St Francis had been acceptable in the 13th century, they were   
   generally only accepted in the 14th century when they had the   
   patronage of the mendicant orders. Peter therefore received the   
   attention of the Inquisition but he was judged to be orthodox. Not all   
   of his compatriots treated him kindly, for example, St Angela of   
   Foligno records that, before her conversion (in 1285), “I used to make   
   fun of a certain Petruccio but now I could not do otherwise than   
   follow his example.”   
      
   Peter died in his cell in 1323 and was buried in the Cathedral.   
      
   Bishop Giovanni Angeletti (1364-92) commissioned a life of the Blessed   
   Peter Crisci from the Dominican Brother Giovanni Gorini di San   
   Geminiano. The first indication that a cult dedicated to the Blessed   
   Peter Crisci emerged in Foligno dates to 1381, when the existence of a   
   fair held on the anniversary of his death was first documented.   
      
   The cult seems to have been encouraged by Ugolino III Trinci   
   (1386-1415) and it was probably at his instigation, that Pope Boniface   
   IX granted indulgences (in either 1391 or 1400, according to different   
   readings of the damaged document) to those praying before the relics   
   “in festo sancti Petri”. (Boniface IX granted similar indulgences in   
   respect of Blessed James of Bevagna, despite the fact that neither of   
   these men had been Canonised.)   
      
   It is likely that pilgrims attracted by these relics would also have   
   visited the Cell of St Peter in the campanile. The frescoes there are   
   dated on stylistic grounds to the decade in which the indulgences were   
   granted. The kneeling donor depicted in the fresco of the mystic   
   marriage of St Catherine at the back of the arch in which Peter Crisci   
   slept may well be Ugolino III Trinci. (The cell now forms part of the   
   Museo Diocesano).   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "If we fear to preach the truth because that causes us some   
   inconvenience, how, in our gatherings, can we chant the combats and   
   triumphs of our holy martyrs?"   
   --St. Cyril of Alexandria.   
      
   Bible Quote   
   But Jesus called them to him, and said: You know that the princes of   
   the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that are the greater,   
   exercise power upon them.  26. It shall not be so among you: but   
   whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister: 27.   
   And he that will be first among you, shall be your servant. 28. Even   
   as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister,   
   and to give his life a redemption for many.  (Matthew 20:25-28)   
      
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   St. Paul told the Corinthians   
      
   (1 Cor 12:26): "If one member [of Christ] suffers, all the members   
   suffer. For we are naturally bound together, we form one body in   
   Christ. An old Rabbis said it well, Simeon ben Eleazar: "Someone has   
   committed a transgression. Woe to him! He has tipped the scale to the   
   side of debt for himself and for the world. For any sin of someone   
   harms all. There is no such a thing as a victimless crime.   
      
   So the Holiness of God wants the scales rebalanced because He loves   
   what is right in itself. He also wants it rebalanced because the   
   imbalance is harmful to all the other members of Christ.   
      
   But one member can make up for another. So St. Paul said (Col 1:24):   
   "I fill up the things that are lacking to the tribulations of Christ   
   in my flesh for His body, which is the Church." Of course, Christ   
   lacked no suffering. His suffering was beyond telling. But the whole   
   Christ, that is, Christ with His members, can lack something. For we   
   are not saved as individuals. We are saved in as much as we are   
   members of Christ. And of course that means we must be like Him--like   
   Him in the matter of making rebalance for sin. St. Paul knew that many   
   members of Christ were not doing their part--but he, Paul, could make   
   up for them. So he did.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)