From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Examples of the Holy Fathers (II)   
      
   How countless and constant were the trials endured by the Apostles,   
   Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, and all those others who strove to   
   follow in the footsteps of Christ. These all hated their lives in this   
   world, that they might keep them to life eternal (John 12:35). How   
   strict and self-denying was the life of the holy Fathers in the   
   desert! How long and grievous the temptations they endured! How often   
   they were assaulted by the Devil! How frequent and fervent their   
   prayers to God! How strict their fasts! How great their zeal and ardor   
   for spiritual progress! How valiant the battles they fought to   
   overcome their vices! How pure and upright their intention towards   
   God!   
   --Thomas à Kempis ---Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 18   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   October 5th – Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos   
      
   Francis Xavier Seelos was born on January 11, 1819 in Fussen, Bavaria,   
   Germany. He was baptized on the same day in the parish church of St.   
   Mang. Having expressed a desire for the priesthood since childhood, he   
   entered the diocesan seminary in 1842 after having completed his   
   studies in philosophy. Soon after meeting the missionaries of the   
   Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists), founded for   
   the evangelization of the most abandoned, he decided to enter the   
   Congregation and to minister to the German speaking immigrants in the   
   United States. He was accepted by the Congregation on November 22,   
   1842, and sailed the following year from Le Havre, France arriving in   
   New York on April 20, 1843. On December 22, 1844, after having   
   completed his novitiate and theological studies, Seelos was ordained a   
   priest in the Redemptorist Church of St. James in Baltimore, Maryland,   
   U.S.A.   
      
   After being ordained, he worked for nine years in the parish of St.   
   Philomena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, first as assistant pastor with   
   St. John Neumann, the superior of the Religious Community, and later   
   as Superior himself and for the last three years as pastor. During   
   this time, he was also the Redemptorist Novice Master. With Neumann he   
   also dedicated himself to preaching missions. Regarding their   
   relationship, Seelos said: “He has introduced me to the active life”   
   and, “he has guided me as a spiritual director and confessor.”   
      
   His availability and innate kindness in understanding and responding   
   to the needs of the faithful, quickly made him well known as an expert   
   confessor and spiritual director, so much so that people came to him   
   even from neighboring towns. Faithful to the Redemptorist charism, he   
   practiced a simple lifestyle and a simple manner of expressing   
   himself. The themes of his preaching, rich in biblical content, were   
   always heard and understood even by everyone, regardless of education,   
   culture, or background. A constant endeavor in this pastoral activity   
   was instructing the little children in the faith. He not only favored   
   this ministry, he held it as fundamental for the growth of the   
   Christian community in the parish. In 1854, he was transferred from   
   Pittsburgh, to Baltimore, then Cumberland in 1857, and to Annapolis   
   (1862), all the while engaged in parish ministry and serving in the   
   formation of future Redemptorists as Prefect of Students. Even in this   
   post, he was true to his character remaining always the kind and happy   
   pastor, prudently attentive to the needs of his students and   
   conscientious of their doctrinal formation. Above all, he strove to   
   instill in these future Redemptorist missionaries the enthusiasm, the   
   spirit of sacrifice and apostolic zeal for the spiritual and temporal   
   welfare of the people.   
      
   In 1860 he was proposed as a candidate for the office of Bishop of   
   Pittsburgh. Having been excused from this responsibility by Pope Pius   
   IX, from 1863 until 1866 he dedicated himself to the life of an   
   itinerant missionary preaching in English and German in the states of   
   Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio,   
   Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.   
      
   After a brief period of parish ministry in Detroit, Michigan, he was   
   assigned in 1866 to the Redemptorist community in New Orleans,   
   Louisiana. Here also, as pastor of the Church of St. Mary of the   
   Assumption, he was known as a pastor who was joyously available to his   
   faithful and singularly concerned for the poorest and the most   
   abandoned. In God’s plan, however, his ministry in New Orleans was   
   destined to be brief. In the month of September, exhausted from   
   visiting and caring for the victims of yellow fever, he contracted the   
   dreaded disease. After several weeks of patiently enduring his   
   illness, he passed on to eternal life on October 4, 1867, at the age   
   of 48 years and 9 months.   
      
   His Holiness Pope John Paul II, proclaimed Father Seelos Blessed in   
   St. Peter's Square on April 9th of the Solemn Jubilee Year 2000.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Look at gold: the more you melt it, the better it becomes; you could   
   melt it until you had destroyed in it every imperfection. Thus does   
   fire work on material things. The soul cannot be destroyed in so far   
   as it is in God, but in so far as it is in itself it can be destroyed;   
   the more it is purified, the more is self destroyed within it, until   
   at last it is pure in God.   
   -- Saint Catherine of Genoa   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Which of you shall convince me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why   
   do you not believe me? 47 He that is of God, heareth the words of God.   
   Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God. (John   
   8:46-47)  DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Seelos' Top 10 Practical Guide to Holiness   
      
   1. Go to Mass with deepest devotion.   
   2. Spend a half hour to reflect upon your main failing & make   
   resolutions to avoid it.   
   3. Do daily spiritual reading for at least 15 minutes, if a half hour   
   is not possible.   
   4. Say the rosary every day.   
   5. Also daily, if at all possible, visit the Blessed Sacrament; and   
   toward evening, meditate on the Passion of Christ for a half hour.   
   6. Conclude the day with evening prayer & an examination of conscience   
   over all the faults & sins of the day.   
   7. Every month make a review of the month in confession.   
   8. Choose a special patron every month & imitate that patron in some   
   special virtue.   
   9. Precede every great feast with a novena, that is, nine days of devotion.   
   10. Try to begin & end every activity with a “Hail Mary.”   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)