From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Love of Solitude and Silence (III)   
      
   Those who stand highest in the esteem of men are most exposed to   
   grievous peril, since they often have too great a confidence in   
   themselves. It is therefore, more profitable to many that they should   
   not altogether escape temptations, but be often assailed lest they   
   become too secure and exalted in their pride, or turn too readily to   
   worldly consolations. How good a conscience would he keep if a man   
   never sought after passing pleasures nor became preoccupied with   
   worldly affairs! If only a man could cast aside all useless anxiety   
   and think only on divine and salutary things, how great would be his   
   peace and tranquillity!   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 1, Ch 20   
      
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   May 16th - Saint John Nepomucene, Martyr   
   (1330-1383)   
      
   Saint John Nepomucene was born in 1330, in answer to the prayer of his   
   parents, who were poor folk of Nepomuc in Bohemia. In gratitude they   
   consecrated him to God. His holy life as a priest led to his   
   appointment as chaplain to the court of the Emperor Wenceslaus, where   
   he converted many by his preaching and example.   
      
   Among those who sought his advice was the virtuous empress, who   
   suffered much from her husband’s unfounded jealousy. Saint John taught   
   her to bear her cross with joy; but her piety only incensed the   
   emperor, and he tried to extort an account of her confessions from the   
   Saint. He threw Saint John into a dungeon but gained nothing; then,   
   inviting him to his palace, he promised him riches if he would yield,   
   and threatened death if he refused. The Saint was silent. He was   
   racked and burnt with torches; but no words except the holy names of   
   Jesus and Mary fell from his lips. At last set free, he spent time in   
   preaching and preparing for the death he knew to be near.   
      
   On Ascension Eve, May 16th, Wenceslaus, after a final and fruitless   
   attempt to alter the constancy of the faithful priest, ordered him to   
   be cast into the river. That night the martyr’s hands and feet were   
   bound, and he was thrown from the bridge of Prague into the Moldau   
   River. Heavenly lights shining on the water and from under it,   
   revealed the whereabouts of the body, which was soon buried with the   
   honors due to a Saint.   
      
   A few years later, Wenceslaus was deposed by his own subjects, and   
   died an impenitent and miserable death. In 1618 the Calvinist and   
   Hussite soldiers of the Elector Frederick tried repeatedly to demolish   
   the shrine of Saint John in Prague. Each attempt was miraculously   
   frustrated, and once the persons engaged in the sacrilege died   
   suddenly on the spot. During a battle in 1620 the imperial troops   
   recovered the city by a victory which was ascribed to the Saint’s   
   intercession, since he was seen on the eve of the conflict, radiant   
   with glory, guarding the cathedral. When his shrine was opened three   
   hundred and thirty years after his decease, the flesh had disappeared,   
   and one member alone remained incorrupt, the tongue, which thus, still   
   in silence, gave glory to God.   
      
   Reflection. Saint John Nepomucene, who by his invincible sacramental   
   silence won his crown, teaches us to prefer torture and death to   
   offending the Creator with our tongue. How many times each day do we   
   forfeit grace and strength by sins of speech!   
      
   Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul   
   Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 5; Little Pictorial Lives   
   of the Saints   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Every day the church here (in Antioch] feeds 3000 people. Besides   
   this, the church daily helps provide food and clothes for prisoners,   
   the hospitalized, pilgrims, cripples, churchmen, and others. If only   
   ten [other groups of] people were willing to do this, there wouldn't   
   be a single poor man left in town.   
   --St. John Chrysostom   
      
   Bible Quote   
   And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all   
   together in one place: [2] And suddenly there came a sound from   
   heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house   
   where they were sitting. [3] And there appeared to them parted tongues   
   as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: [Acts of   
   Apostles 2:1-3] DRV   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A prayer to Our Lord's Sacred Heart, for His Church:   
      
   Most sacred Heart of Jesus, shower copiously blessings on Thy holy   
   Church, on the Supreme Pontiff, and on all the clergy; grant   
   perseverance to the just, convert sinners, enlighten infidels, bless   
   our parents, friends, and benefactors, assist the dying, liberate the   
   souls of purgatory, and extend over all hearts the sweet empire of Thy   
   love.  Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)