From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Only the service of God will console us   
      
   Listen to me for one moment and you will see that only the service of   
   God will console us and make us happy in the midst of all the miseries   
   of life. To accomplish it, you do not need to leave either your   
   belongings, or your parents, or even your friends, unless they are   
   leading you to sin. You have no need to go and spend the rest of your   
   lives in the desert to weep there for your sins. If that were   
   necessary for us, indeed, we should be very happy to have such a   
   remedy for our ills. But no, a father and a mother of a family can   
   serve God by living with their children and bringing them up in a   
   Christian way. A servant can very easily serve God and his master,   
   with nothing to stop him. No, my dear brethren, The way of life that   
   means serving God changes nothing in all that we have to do. On the   
   contrary, we simply do better all the things we must do!   
   --St. John Vianney   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   August 19th - St. Louis of Toulouse   
      
   (1274-1297)   
    He died at 23 already a Franciscan, a bishop and a saint!   
      
   Louis’s parents were Charles II of Naples and Sicily and Mary,   
   daughter of the King of Hungary. Louis was related to St. Louis IX on   
   his father’s side and to Elizabeth of Hungary on his mother’s side.   
      
   Louis showed early signs of attachment to prayer and to the corporal   
   works of mercy. As a child he used to take food from the castle to   
   feed the poor. When he was 14, Louis and two of his brothers were   
   taken as hostages to the king of Aragon’s court as part of a political   
   deal involving Louis’s father. At the court Louis was tutored by   
   Franciscan friars under whom he made great progress both in his   
   studies and in the spiritual life. Like St. Francis he developed a   
   special love for those afflicted with leprosy.   
      
   While he was still a hostage, Louis decided to renounce his royal   
   title and become a priest. When he was 20, he was allowed to leave the   
   king of Aragon’s court. He renounced his title in favor of his brother   
   Robert and was ordained the next year. Very shortly after, he was   
   appointed bishop of Toulouse, but the pope agreed to Louis’s request   
   to become a Franciscan first.   
      
   The Franciscan spirit pervaded Louis. "Jesus Christ is all my riches;   
   he alone is sufficient for me," Louis kept repeating. Even as a bishop   
   he wore the Franciscan habit and sometimes begged. He assigned a friar   
   to offer him correction -- in public if necessary -- and the friar did   
   his job.   
      
   Louis’s service to the Diocese of Toulouse was richly blessed. In no   
   time he was considered a saint. Louis set aside 75 percent of his   
   income as bishop to feed the poor and maintain churches. Each day he   
   fed 25 poor people at his table.   
      
   Louis was canonized in 1317 by Pope John XXII, one of his former teachers.   
      
   Comment: When Cardinal Hugolino, the future Pope Gregory IX, suggested   
   to Francis that some of the friars would make fine bishops, Francis   
   protested that they might lose some of their humility and simplicity   
   if appointed to those positions. Those two virtues are needed   
   everywhere in the Church, and Louis shows us how they can be lived out   
   by bishops. Quote: "All the faithful were edified by the fervor of his   
   devout celebration of Mass, the efficacy of his deep humility, his   
   tender compassion, his upright life, the harmonious congruity in all   
   his actions, words and bearing. Who without wonderment could look upon   
   a most charming young man, the son of so mighty a king, outstanding   
   for his generosity, raised to such dignity, renowned for his   
   influence, preeminent for humility, living a life of such   
   mortification, endowed with such wisdom, clothed in so poor a habit   
   yet renowned for the charm of his discourse and a shining example of   
   upright life?" (contemporary biography).   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in   
   ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his   
   desires, and his disposition live and reign there. All our religious   
   exercises should be directed to this end. It is the work which God has   
   given us to do unceasingly.   
   --Saint John Eudes   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Holy Father, keep in Thy Name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they   
   may be one even as We are.  (John 17:11)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   O most benevolent and most merciful   
   Heart of Jesus,   
   imprint in our hearts a perfect image   
   of your great mercy,   
   so that we may fulfil the commandment   
   You gave us:   
   "Be merciful as your Father is merciful".   
      
   Mother of mercy, look upon so much misery,   
   so many poor people,   
   so many captives, so many prisoners,   
   so many men and women   
   who suffer persecution at the hands of their brothers and sisters,   
   so many defenseless people   
   so many afflicted souls, so many troubled hearts.   
      
   Mother of mercy, open the eyes   
   of your clemency and see our desolation.   
   Open the ears of your goodness   
   and hear our supplication.   
      
   Most loving and most powerful advocate,   
   show that You are truly the Mother of Mercy. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)