From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Excuses that hold us back from pursuing the things of God   
      
   Jesus probes the reasons why people make excuses to God's great   
   invitation to "eat bread" with him at his banquet table. The first   
   excuse allows the claims of one's personal business or work to take   
   precedence over God's claim. Do you allow any task or endeavor to   
   absorb you so much that it keeps you from the thought of God? The   
   second excuse allows our possessions to come before God. Do you allow   
   the media and other diversions to crowd out time for God in daily   
   prayer and worship? The third excuse puts home and family ahead of   
   God. God never meant for our home and relationships to be used   
   selfishly. We serve God best when we invite him into our work, our   
   homes, and our personal lives and when we share our possessions with   
   others.  (Luke 14:15-24)   
      
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   April 28th - Blessed Luchesio (Lucius)   
      
   Luchesio Modestini was a merchant in the little town of Poggibonzi in   
   Tuscany. More than most merchants, he was so entirely and solely   
   concerned with material success that he was generally reputed to be an   
   avaricious man. His wife, Buonadonna, was of a similar disposition.   
   Then the grace of God touched the husband. He realized how foolish it   
   is to strive only for worldly goods, of which he could take nothing   
   with him to eternity, meanwhile forgetting about his soul's salvation,   
   as he had, unfortunately, been doing until then. He began to practice   
   works of mercy and to perform his religious obligations with fidelity;   
   he succeeded in winning his wife over to a similar outlook on life.   
      
   Since they had no one to care for but themselves, and Luchesio feared   
   that in conducting his business he might relapse into covetousness, he   
   gave up his business entirely. He and his good wife divided everything   
   among the poor and retained for themselves only so much acreage as   
   would suffice for their support. Luchesio tilled this with his own   
   hands.   
      
   About this time St. Francis came to Tuscany. After his sermon on   
   penance, hosts of people desired to leave all and enter the convent.   
   But the saint admonished them calmly to persevere in their vocation,   
   for he had in mind soon to give them a special rule according to which   
   they could serve God perfectly even in the world.   
      
   At Poggibonzi Francis visited Luchesio, with whom he had become   
   acquainted through former business transactions. Francis greatly   
   rejoiced to find this avaricious man so altered, and Luchesio, who had   
   already heard about the blessed activities of Francis, asked for   
   special instructions for himself and his wife, so that they might lead   
   a life in the world that would be pleasing to God.   
      
   Francis then explained to them his plans for the establishment of an   
   order for lay people; and Luchesio and Buonadonna asked to be received   
   into it at once. This, according to tradition, they became the first   
   members of the Order of Penance, which later came to be called the   
   Third Order, (and then Secular Franciscan Order).   
      
   If Luchesio and Buonadonna were really the first Tertiaries, they must   
   have become such not long after St. Francis founded his First Order in   
   1209. The first simple rule of life, which St. Francis gave to the   
   first Tertiaries at that time, was supplanted in 1221 by one which   
   Cardinal Ugolino prepared in legal wording. And in the same year Pope   
   Honorius III approved this rule verbally. For this reason the year   
   1221 is often given as the date of the founding of the Third Order of   
   St. Francis.   
      
   After Luchesio had put on the gray garment of a Tertiary, he rapidly   
   advanced toward perfect holiness. He practiced penitential   
   austerities, often fasted on bread and water, slept on the hard floor,   
   and at his work bore God constantly in his heart. His generosity to   
   the poor knew no bounds, so that one day there was not even a loaf of   
   bread for his own household. When still another poor man came, he   
   asked his wife to look whether there was not something they could find   
   for him. That vexed her and she scolded him severely; his   
   mortifications, she said, had well nigh crazed him, he would keep   
   giving so long that they themselves would have to suffer hunger.   
   Luchesio asked her gently to please look in the pantry, for he trusted   
   in Him who had multiplied a few loaves for the benefit of thousands.   
   She did so, and the marvel of it! The whole pantry was filled with the   
   best kind of bread. From that time on Buonadonna vied with her husband   
   in doing good.   
      
   When a plague raged in Poggibonzi and the surrounding places, Luchesio   
   went out with his laden donkey, to bring the necessaries to the sick.   
   When he did not have enough to supply all, he begged for more from   
   others in behalf of the distressed.   
      
   Once he carried a sick cripple, whom he had found on the way, to his   
   home on his shoulders. A frivolous young man met him, and asked him   
   mockingly, "what poor devil is that you are carrying there on your   
   back?" Luchesio replied calmly. "I am carrying my Lord Jesus Christ."   
   At once the young man's face became distorted, he cried out fearfully,   
   and was dumb. Contritely he cast himself on his knees before Luchesio,   
   who restored his speech to him by means of the Sign of the Cross.   
      
   The time had come when the faithful servant of God was to receive the   
   reward for his good works. When he lay very ill, and there was no hope   
   for his recovery, his wife said to him, "Implore God, who gave us to   
   each other as companions in life, to permit us also to die together."   
   Luchesio prayed as requested. and Buonadonna fell ill with a fever,   
   from which she died even before her husband, after devoutly receiving   
   the holy sacraments. Luchesio passed away with holy longing for God on   
   April 28, 1260. At his grave in the Franciscan church at Poggibonzi   
   many miracles have occurred. His continuous veneration as Blessed was   
   approved by Pope Pius VI.   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Your heart is like to a ship. To have Jesus on board is to have Faith   
   in your heart. If your faith slumbers, Jesus slumbers also, and in   
   this case you are in danger of shipwreck.   
   --St. Augustine   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye   
   present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,   
   which is your reasonable service."  [Rom 12:1]   
      
      
   CONCERNING IMPERISHABLE TREASURES   
   1. Christ our Lord says in His Gospel: "The kingdom of heaven is like   
   to a merchant seeking good pearls. Who when he had found one pearl of   
   great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it"   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)