From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Joy of a Good Conscience (4)   
      
     It is characteristic of a humble soul always to do good and to think   
   little of itself. It is a mark of great purity and deep faith to look   
   for no consolation in created things. The man who desires no   
   justification from without has clearly entrusted himself to God: “For   
   not he who commendeth himself is approved,” says St. Paul, “but he   
   whom God commendeth.”  (2 Cor. 10:18.)   
      To walk with God interiorly, to be free from any external   
   affection--this is the state of the inward man.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 2, Chapter 6   
      
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   July 25th - St. Magnericus, Bishop of Trier   
      
   d. 596   
   This saint was born at the beginning of the sixth century and brought   
   up in the household of St. Nicetius, Bishop of Trier, who gave him the   
   priesthood and made him his confidant.   
      
   When Nicetius was expelled from his see by King Clotaire I because he   
   had excommunicated him for his profligacy, Magnericus accompanied him   
   into exile; they were recalled by Sigebert the following year, and six   
   years later Magnericus succeeded to the bishopric of Trier. A great   
   enthusiasm of St. Magnericus was devotion to St. Martin of Tours, and   
   he built several churches and founded the monastery dedicated in his   
   honour.  In the course of his pilgrimages to the shrine at Tours he   
   formed a close friendship with St. Gregory, bishop of that city, who   
   testified in his writings to the sanctity of Magnericus.  When   
   Theodore, Bishop of Marseilles, was in 585 exiled by Guntramnus of   
   Burgundy, he took refuge at Trier, and St. Magnericus took St. Gregory   
   with him to plead the cause of the oppressed bishop before King   
   Childebert II, who had a great regard for the bishop of Trier.  So too   
   had another saint who knew him well, Venantius Fortunatus, who was   
   impressed by his shining piety and sound learning and praises him as   
   an ornament of the Church; he attracted numerous fervent disciples,   
   among others St. Gaugeric (Géry), whom he made one of his deacons and   
   who became bishop of Cambrai.  St. Magnericus died at a great age in   
   596.   
      
   The relatively copious life of the saint, written by Eberwin, abbot of   
   Saint-Martin at Trier, is printed with introductory matter in the Acta   
   Sanctorum, July, vol. vi. The more historical portions have been   
   re-edited in MGH., and by H. V. Sauerland, Trierer Geschichtsquellen   
   (1889).  See also Fortunatus, in MGH.. Epistolae, vol. iii, p. 128 .   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   It is here, my daughters, that love is to be found--not hidden away in   
   corners but in the midst of occasions of sin. And believe me, although   
   we may more often fail and commit small lapses, our gain will be   
   incomparably the greater.   
   --St. Teresa of Avila   
      
      
   “And so we pray,   
   that, by the same grace,   
   which made the Church Christ’s Body,   
   all its members may remain firm   
   in the unity of that Body,   
   through the enduring bond of love.”   
   --St Fulgentius of Ruspe (c 462 – 533)   
      
      
   The Love of God   
   The One Thing Necessary!   
      
   God alone is in Himself and of Himself, supremely true, beautiful, good, wise   
   and holy.   
   Created things are only an invitation to love God, their Creator.   
   God alone, therefore, is supremely lovable in Himself.   
   In the apt words of St Bernard, “God Himself is the reason why we should   
   love God and, the measure of our love should be measureless.”   
   Let us not allow ourselves to become entangled in the empty passing things of   
   this world but, let us raise our minds and hearts to God alone.   
   There is only one thing necessary!”   
   Antonio Cardinal Bacci   
      
   Part One Here:   
   https://anastpaul.com/2020/02/10/thought-for-the-day-10-february   
   the-love-of-god/   
      
      
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   God Our Creator      
      
   Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power,   
   because Thou. hast created all things.--(Apoc. iv. 11.)   
      
   Why is it that God has such an absolute and all-embracing claim to   
   ourselves and to all that is ours? It is because we are made by Him,   
   and not only made, but created. We are His, not only as the statue is   
   the sculptor's and the picture the painter's, but He made out of   
   nothing the very materials of which we consist. There is therefore   
   nothing in us which is not God's. Every sort of excellence, strength,   
   virtue, talent, beauty, skill, energy, affection--all are God's not our   
   own.   
      
   God created every one with certain gifts of his own that He did not   
   give to another, and He gave him those gifts to do a special work that   
   God had for him to do. He created me with a certain object; from all   
   eternity He had been planning my soul and body, and providing me with   
   all that I needed, that both one and the other might serve Him. Have I   
   on the whole carried out God's plan? Shall I be able to say, when I   
   come to die: "I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do?"   
      
   What a serious thought this is, that God had a plan for my life! He   
   meant me to occupy a certain position in society and to have certain   
   employments; to influence certain persons for good; to overcome   
   certain temptations; to practise certain virtues beyond the rest to   
   attain a certain place in Heaven. Has my life been ordered by God's   
   holy inspirations; has not my own self-will too often had part in it?   
      
   Pray that you may not fail in fulfilling God's intentions concerning you.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)