From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Trusting in the Lord   
      
      "If you put your trust in money, you are paying futile regard to   
   vain things; if you put your trust in high office or some exalted rank   
   in human government, you are paying futile regard to vain things...   
   When you put your trust in all these, either you expire and leave them   
   all behind, or they will crumble while you are still alive, and what   
   you trusted will have let you down...  For my part, I do not put my   
   trust in empty things as they do or pay futile regard to them; I have   
   put my trust in the Lord."   
   --St. Augustine--(excerpt from Exposition on the Psalms 31,12))   
      
   ===========   
   18 April – Blessed James Oldo OFS   
   He is also known as James of Oldo, James D’Oldo, James of Lodi, Jakob,   
   Jacopo, Giacomo.   
      
   – Priest, widower, Apostle of Charity, Preacher, painter, musician   
   – born in 1364 in Lodi, near Milan, Italy and died on 18 April 1404 of   
   an unknown natural cause, though it is believed it was the plague.   
   His body is incorrupt.   
      
   Blessed James came from a wealthy family. He was a painter, a singer,   
   a musician and – it was said at the time – the best dancer in town.   
   James fell in love with Catherine in their home town and they found   
   each other equally in love with the amusements that made up so much of   
   their lives. All was directed towards the finer goods of this world.   
      
   The plague broke out in Lodi, however and the, by now, parents of   
   three young daughters, found themselves in danger. So they left their   
   city dwelling for Catherine’s father’s place in the country. Despite   
   those precautions, two of his daughters died from the plague. James   
   determined to use whatever time he had left to build up treasures in   
   heaven and to build God’s realm on earth. From then on he avoided the   
   luscious pleasures of this life. At that point he realised what a fool   
   he had been in chasing down all these passing things. He still painted   
   but now it was only religious art designed to point the soul to Christ   
   Jesus. He spent the rest of this time in prayer, study, penance and   
   in serving the poor and the sick, in doing all he could to make up for   
   lost time.   
      
   His wife too turned to God in her sorrow. She and her husband James,   
   took vows of continence and became Secular Franciscans. They converted   
   their home into a chapel where small groups of people, many of them   
   fellow Secular Franciscans, came for prayer and support. They tore up   
   all their fine clothing making vestments. They dismantled their   
   jewellery in order to decorate the sacred vessels.   
      
   There home became a place of succour for all who needed care, one was   
   a sick priest, who taught him Latin. Upon the death of his wife, James   
   himself became a priest. He worked diligently until his dying day for   
   the ill, the lonely, the imprisoned. Indeed, he contracted the illness   
   that killed him because he was so careless in embracing those who were   
   suffering from unknown diseases.   
      
   Blessed James was beatified on 26 March 1934 by Pope Pius XI (cultus   
   confirmed). When his relics were moved seven years after his death,   
   his body was found incorrupt and was then re-interred in the nearby   
   Church of Sant’Egidio in 1580 and again it was re-interred in the   
   Cathedral of Lodi in 1789, where his shrine now resides.   
      
   https://anastpaul.com/2019/04/18/   
      
      
   The Ladder of Divine Ascent; 30,6-9.21.16   
      
   God is love. (1Jn 4:8) So he who wishes to define this, tries with   
   bleary eyes to measure the sand in the ocean.   
      
     Love, by reason of its nature, is a resemblance to God, as far as   
   that is possible for mortals. In its activity it is inebriation of the   
   soul and by its distinctive property, it is a fountain of faith, an   
   abyss of patience, a sea of humility.   
     Love is essentially the banishment, of every kind of contrary, for   
   love thinks no evil.  Love, dispassion and adoption, are   
   distinguished, as sons from one another, by name and name only. Just   
   as light, fire and flame combine to form one power, it is the same   
   with love, dispassion and adoption.   
     He who has perfectly united his feeling to God is mystically led by   
   Him to an understanding of His words. But without this union, it is   
   difficult to speak about God.   
     If the face of a loved one, clearly and completely changes us and   
   makes us cheerful, joyous and carefree, what will the face of the Lord   
   not do, when He makes His presence felt, invisibly in a soul?   
   --St John Climacus (579-649)   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
   10 Thou therefore, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus you   
   have spoken, saying: Our iniquities, and our sins are upon us, and we   
   pine away in them: how then can we live?   
   [11] Say to them: As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the   
   death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live.   
   Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will you die, O house of   
   Israel?   
   [Ezechiel (Ezekiel) 33:10-11] DRV   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   O Lamb of God   
   By St Irenaeus (c130 – c202)   
   Bishop & Martyr,   
   Father of the Church   
      
   O Lamb of God,   
   who takes away the sin of the world,   
   look upon us   
   and have mercy upon us,   
   Thou who art Thyself,   
   both Victim and Priest,   
   Thyself, both Reward and Redeemer,   
   keep safe from all evil   
   those whom Thou hast redeemed,   
   O Saviour of the world!   
   Amen   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)