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   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   April 2nd – Bl. Leopold of Gaiche, Founder   
      
   d. 1815   
   BL. LEOPOLD was born at Gaiche in the diocese of Perugia, the son of   
   humble parents, and was christened John. A neighbouring priest helped   
   him with his education and in 1751, when he was eighteen, he received   
   the Franciscan habit in the friary at Cibotola, taking the name   
   Leopold. After he became a priest in 1757 he was sent to preach Lenten   
   courses of sermons which soon made him famous. As the result of his   
   eloquence and fervour, numerous conversions took place, enemies were   
   reconciled, and penitents besieged his confessional. For ten years,   
   from 1768 when he was made papal missioner in the States of the   
   Church, he held missions in several dioceses, and even after he had   
   become minister provincial he continued his apostolic labours. Fired   
   by the example of Bl. Thomas of Con and of St Leonard of Port Maurice   
   he was anxious to found a house to which missioners and preachers   
   could retire for their annual retreat and where other brethren and   
   friends of the order could come for spiritual refreshment. He had,   
   however, many difficulties to overcome and disappointments to meet   
   before he could realize his desire, on the lonely hill of Monte Luco,   
   near Spoleto.   
      
   When in 1808 Napoleon invaded Rome and imprisoned Pope Pius VII,   
   religious houses were suppressed and their occupants turned out. Bl.   
   Leopold, a venerable old man of seventy-seven, was obliged to abandon   
   his beloved convent, and with three of his brethren to live in a   
   miserable hut in Spoleto. While there he acted as assistant to a   
   parish priest, but afterwards he had charge of an entire parish whose   
   pastor had been driven out by the French. Then he was himself   
   imprisoned for refusing to take an oath which he considered unlawful.   
   His imprisonment, however, was of short duration, for we soon find him   
   giving missions once more. His fame was enhanced by his prophetical   
   powers and by strange phenomena which attended him: for example, when   
   he was preaching his head often appeared to his congregation as though   
   it were crowned with thorns.   
      
   With the fall of Napoleon, Bl. Leopold hurried back to Monte Luco,   
   where he set about trying to establish things as they had been before   
   but he only survived for a few months, dying on April 15, 1815, in his   
   eighty-third year. The numerous miracles reported to have taken place   
   at his grave caused the speedy introduction of the process of his   
   beatification, which reached a favourable conclusion in 1893.   
      
   Abundant information is provided by the documents printed for the   
   process of beatification and there is a life by Fr. M. Antonio da   
   Vicenza. See also Kempf, Holiness of the Church in the 19th Century,   
   pp. 95-96, and Seeböck, Die Herrlichkeit der Katholischen Kirche, pp.   
   212-213.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Be assured that he who shall always walk faithfully in God's presence,   
   always ready to give Him an account of all his actions, shall never be   
   separated from Him by consenting to sin.   
   -- St. Thomas Aquinas   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will   
   build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.   
   And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And   
   whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in   
   heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed   
   also in heaven.  [Matt. 16: 18-20]   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Christ's whole life was filled with insults   
      
   Scripture tells us that for the sake of the joy that lay ahead of   
   him Christ endured the cross, thinking nothing of the shame of it.   
   What exactly is meant by thinking nothing of the shame? The simple   
   fact, as Saint Paul says, that Christ chose an ignominious death, that   
   he chose it in full freedom because he was not subject to sin. By so   
   doing Christ taught us to face disgrace boldly and make light of it.   
   Let me remind you of the goal he achieved: He has taken his seat at   
   the right hand of God. You see the prize to be won in this conflict.   
   Even if there were no reward to be gained, Christ's example would be   
   enough to persuade us to endure all our trials willingly. In point of   
   fact, we are told that rewards do lie ahead of us, and these no   
   ordinary honors, but prizes of such magnitude that they cannot be   
   described.   
   Therefore, whenever we ourselves have to suffer some disgrace, let   
   us think of Christ, remembering that his whole life was filled with   
   insults. He was continuously hearing himself called a madman,   
   deceiver, and sorcerer, by the very people among whom he went about   
   doing good, for whom he performed miracles, and to whom he revealed   
   the works of God.   
   --St. John Chrysostom:   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)