From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On The Dimness of Their Perception:   
      
   Augustine, the great 5th century church father, reflects on the   
   dimness of their perception: “They were so disturbed when they saw him   
   hanging on the cross that they forgot his teaching, did not look for   
   his resurrection, and failed to keep his promises in mind” (Sermon   
   235.1).  “Their eyes were obstructed, that they should not recognize   
   him until the breaking of the bread.  And thus, in accordance with the   
   state of their minds, which was still ignorant of the truth "that the   
   Christ would die and rise again”, their eyes were similarly hindered.   
   It was not that the truth himself was misleading them, but rather that   
   they were themselves unable to perceive the truth.” (From The Harmony   
   of the Gospels, 3.25.72) How often do we fail to recognize the Lord   
   when he speaks to our hearts and opens his mind to us? The Risen Lord   
   is ever ready to speak his word to us and to give us understanding of   
   his ways.  Do you listen attentively to the Word of God and allow his   
   word to change and transform you?   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   April 6th - Bl. Notker Balbulus   
      
   In the days when Grimoald was abbot of Saint-Gall, the parents of Bl.   
   Notker placed their young son in its school. The boy was delicate,   
   with an impediment in his speech from which he derived his nickname of   
   Balbulus, and he seems to have been already what the monk Ekkehard   
   (IV) described him to have been in later life, “weakly in body but not   
   in mind, stammering of tongue but not of intellect, pressing forward   
   boldly in things divine--a vessel filled with the Holy Ghost without   
   equal in his time”. With his companions and lifelong friends, Tutilo   
   and Radpert, he studied music under Marcellus, the Irishman, and the   
   trio afterwards did much to develop the singing-school of Saint-Gall   
   which had hitherto mainly confined itself to trying to maintain north   
   of the Alps the form of ecclesiastical music as used in Rome. They   
   were all three professed, and afterwards taught in the schools; Notker   
   was also librarian and guest-master.   
      
    Charles the Fat, who was fond of visiting Saint-Gall, had a great   
   regard for Notker whom he often consulted in his spiritual and even in   
   his temporal difficulties, without, however, always following his   
   advice. One day a messenger arrived from the monarch while the holy   
   man was busy weeding his garden and planting and watering. “Tell the   
   emperor to do what I am now doing”, was the answer he sent back, and   
   Charles, who was no fool, was not at a loss to understand his meaning.   
   The court chaplain, a learned but conceited man, thought to confound   
   the monk whose influence with his master he resented. “Tell me, you   
   who are so learned, what God is now doing”, he asked him in the   
   presence of a large gathering. “He is doing now what He has done in   
   the past, He is putting down the proud and exalting the humble”, was   
   the ready reply : the chaplain beat a hasty retreat amid general   
   laughter.   
      
   It was thought at one time that Notker was the inventor of the   
   sequence or “prose” which fits into the music of the Alleluia jubilus   
   between the epistle and the gospel at Mass, but it is now established   
   that he composed his sequences on a model he found in an antiphonary   
   brought to Saint-Gall by a fugitive monk when Jumièges was burnt down.   
   To Notker belongs the credit of introducing sequences into Germany, of   
   developing them, and of composing some thirty-eight or more original   
   ones of his own. His other works comprise a martyrology, some hymns,   
   and the completion of Echambert’s Chronicle. A metrical biography of   
   St. Gall is also attributed to him as well as the Gesta Caroli Magni   
   by an anonymous monk of Saint-Gall, but, as there were several other   
   monks there of the name of Notker who also were writers, it is   
   extremely difficult to allocate the works which became connected with   
   their name.   
      
   So greatly was Bl. Notker loved that for a long time after his death   
   in 912 his brethren could not speak of him without tears. His cultus   
   was confirmed in 1512.   
      
   The life of Notker by Ekkehard V, who lived long after his time, is   
   printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. i, but the biographical   
   notice in Mabillon’s Acta Sanctorum O.S.B. is also valuable. On   
   Notker’s musical and literary work much has been written. P. von   
   Winterfeld in the Neues Archiv (1902) does not hesitate to call him   
   the greatest poet of the middle ages.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "The essence of perfection is to embrace the will of God in all   
   things, prosperous or adverse. In prosperity, even sinners find it   
   easy to unite themselves to the divine will; but it takes saints to   
   unite themselves to God's will when things go wrong and are painful to   
   self-love. Our conduct in such instances is the measure of our love of   
   God."   
   --St Alphonsus de Liguori   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   12 What shall I render to the LORD for all his bounty to me?   
   13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD,   
   14 I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.   
   15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.   
   16 O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your handmaid.   
     You have loosed my bonds.   
   17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the   
   name of the LORD.   
   18 I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people,   
   19 in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O Jerusalem.   
   [Psalm 116:12-19]   
      
   <><><><>   
   Gravitate to humility.   
      
   This signpost points in the exact opposite direction the world points   
   by pointing to the First Beatitude, the Beatitude from which all the   
   Beatitudes spring forth—blessed are the poor in spirit.   
      
   When society or the world talks about humility, if they even recognize   
   it, they refer primarily to a sense of proper self-esteem where one   
   does not elevate or demean ones self in relation to others. A good   
   self-esteem is very, very important, but Christian humility calls for   
   something else, something more.   
      
   Christian humility aims for the complete and total nothingness of   
   pride. We have nothing to boast of to God. We have no entitlements or   
   any thing to lay claim on God. Everything comes from God, and so we   
   are essentially nothing without God.   
      
   This can sound a bit disappointing, even depressing. In fact, the   
   world calls this humiliation, i.e. to loose ones pride. But the thing   
   is, it is not about degradation or loss of self-respect or disgrace.   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)