From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Peace and Spiritual Progress (6)   
      
   It is hard to give up old habits, and harder still to conquer our own   
   wills. But if you cannot overcome in small and easy things, how will   
   you succeed in greater? Resist your evil inclinations in the   
   beginning, and break off evil habits, lest they gradually involve you   
   in greater difficulties. Oh, if you could only know how great a peace   
   for yourself and how great a joy for your fellows your good endeavour   
   would win, you would have greater care for your spiritual progress.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 11   
      
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   August 13th - Blessed Jakob Gapp   
      
   Jakob Gapp was the seventh child in the working class family of Martin   
   Gapp and Antonia Wach. He received a basic education in his native   
   town, then entered the Franciscan high school in Hall in 1910. He was   
   an Austrian soldier on the Italian front from May 1915 till he was   
   wounded in 1916 and received the silver medal of Courage Second Class.   
   On 4 November 1918 he became a prisoner of war in Riva del Garda and   
   released 18 August 1919.   
      
   Jakob entered the Marianist novitiate at Greisinghof, Upper Austria in   
   1921. He was assigned to the Marian Institute in Graz as a teacher and   
   sacristan for four years while preparing for the seminary. He made his   
   first profession at Antony, France on 27 August 1925. In September   
   1925 Jakob entered the International Marianist Seminary in Fribourg,   
   Switzerland. Jakob was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Marius   
   Besson at Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Fribourg on 5 April 1930.   
      
   He returned to Austria where he worked as a teacher, director of   
   religious education, and chaplain in Marianist schools until 1938. By   
   that time economic conditions had become impossible. Father Gapp began   
   collecting food and other necessities for the students, and gave his   
   own heating coal to the poor.   
      
   By 1938 Nazism was on the rise in Germany and Austria. Father Gapp saw   
   the incompatibility of Nazism and Christianity, and began preaching   
   about this dichotomy. When German troops arrived in Austria in March   
   1938, he left Graz. His superiors sent him home as they believed his   
   anti-Nazi preaching would bring on the wrath of the Reich.   
      
   In Tirol he enjoyed the last moments of peace in his life. He was an   
   assistant pastor in Breitenwang-Reutte for two months when the   
   Gestapo, in October 1938, ordered him not to teach religion. Father   
   Gapp taught uncompromising love for all men and women without   
   reference to nationality or religion, and that "God is your God, not   
   Adolf Hitler." In a sermon on 11 December 1938 he defended Pope Pius   
   XI against the attacks of the Nazis, and directed the faithful of the   
   parish to read Catholic literature instead of Nazi propaganda. He was   
   advised to leave the country.   
      
   Jakob escaped to Bordeaux, France, where he worked as a chaplain and   
   librarian. In May 1939 he went to Spain where he served in the   
   Marianist communities at San Sebastian, Cadiz and Valencia. The   
   Gestapo had followed him.   
      
   In 1942 Jakob received word about two people across the border in   
   France who claimed to be Jews fleeing from Nazis in Berlin who wanted   
   instruction in Catholicism. When Gapp crossed into France to minister   
   to them, the Gestapo abducted him.   
      
   Father Gapp was arrested on 9 November 1942 in Hendaye, France, and   
   brought to Berlin.   
      
   On 2 July 1943 Gapp was condemned to death for speaking against the   
   Reich. Burial of his remains were denied as the Nazis feared he would   
   be seen as a martyr. On the afternoon of 13 August 1943 he was advised   
   he would be executed that night. He wrote two moving farewell letters. He   
   was guillotined at 7.08 pm 13 August 1943 at Plotzensee Prison,   
   Berlin, Germany.   
      
   Jakob Gapp was declared Venerable on 6 April 1995 by Pope John Paul   
   II, and Beatified on 24 November 1996 by Pope John Paul II. On August   
   13, The Society of Mary celebrates a memorial mass (except when   
   pre-empted by a Sunday)for Jakob Gapp.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "Envy is a food of the mind, corrupting it with poisonous juices, and   
   ceasing not to torment it miserably with the thought of a neighbor's   
   happy success."   
   --St. John Cassian   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Now if Christ be preached, that he arose again from the dead, how do some   
   among you say, that there is no resurrection of the dead?   
   [1 Corinthians 15:12] DRV   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Meditation for troubled times:   
      
   Persevere in all that God's guidance moves you to do. The persistent   
   carrying out of what seems right and good will bring you to that place   
   where you would be. If you look back over God's guidance, you will see   
   that His leading has been very gradual and that only as you have   
   carried out His wishes, as far as you can understand them, has God   
   been able to give you more clear and definite leading. You are led by   
   God's touch on a quickened, responsive mind.   
   --From Twenty-Four Hours a Day   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)