From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   - Romans 5:8 -   
      
       But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still   
   sinners, Christ died for us.   
   _______________________________________________________________   
      
   God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.   
       - St. Augustine   
      
      
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   June 6th - Saint Norbert, Founder and Bishop   
      
   (1080-1134)   
      
   Born near Cologne in 1080, Saint Norbert, of noble rank and rare talents,   
   passed   
   a frivolous youth, abandoning himself to the pleasures and vanities of the   
   world. Though he was a canon of the church, he refused to receive   
   ecclesiastical   
   Orders so as to continue to live in his caprices. He went to the court of   
   the   
   Archbishop of Cologne, then to that of the Emperor Henry IV, the famous   
   adversary of Pope Saint Gregory VII, known also as Hildebrand. His conduct   
   then   
   became a scandal to his sacred calling, since at the court of the Emperor,   
   like   
   many clerics of those times, he was leading a life of dissipation and   
   luxury.   
      
   One day, when he was thirty-three years of age, he was thrown from his horse   
   in   
   the midst of a terrible storm, and on recovering his senses a half hour   
   later,   
   he resolved upon a new life. After a severe and searching preparation, he   
   went   
   to the Archbishop of Cologne and humbly asked to receive Holy Orders. He was   
   ordained a priest and began to preach against all the abuses and vices of   
   his   
   time. He encountered enemies and was silenced at first by a local council;   
   however, he obtained the Pope's sanction and preached penance to listening   
   crowds in France and the Netherlands. His example spoke still more   
   eloquently   
   than his words; he walked barefoot in the snows and wore a tunic which was a   
   hair shirt, fasting all year long. He was compared to John the Baptist by   
   his   
   austerity and by the fervor of his preaching.   
      
   A chaplain of the bishop of Cambrai, impressed by the extraordinary changes   
   in   
   the former nobleman of the Emperor's court, asked to join him; this good   
   priest,   
   by the name of Hugh, later would succeed him in the government of the new   
   religious Order which he was soon to found. In every place where Saint   
   Norbert   
   preached, those in attendance saw sinners converted, enemies reconciled and   
   usurers return extorted wealth.   
      
   The bishop of Cambrai desired that he found a monastery and a new Order in   
   his   
   diocese, and the holy monk recognized at once, in a wild vale later called   
   Premontre, the place he should choose. There he was favored, during a night   
   of   
   prayer, with a vision of many white-robed monks in procession with   
   crucifixes   
   and candles; the Blessed Virgin also appeared to him and showed him the   
   habit he   
   should give his religious. It was in 1120 that he gave to some trained   
   disciples   
   the rule of Saint Augustine, with the white habit he had been shown,   
   denoting   
   the angelic purity proper to the priesthood. The Canons Regular, or   
   Premonstratensians, as they were called, were to unite the active work of   
   the   
   country clergy with the obligations of the monastic life. The foundations   
   multiplied, and the fervor of these religious priests renewed the spirit of   
   the   
   priesthood, quickened the faith of the people, and overcame heresy.   
      
   In the time of Saint Norbert a pernicious heretic named Tankelin appeared at   
   Antwerp, denying the reality of the priesthood, and above all blaspheming   
   the   
   Holy Eucharist. The Saint was sent for, to quench the error and its source,   
   since three thousand persons had followed this man, who was allowing every   
   vice   
   to pass for legitimate. By Saint Norbert's burning words he exposed the   
   impostor, corrected the erring, and rekindled faith in the Blessed   
   Sacrament.   
   Many of the apostates had proved their contempt for the Blessed Sacrament by   
   burying it in walls and damp places; Norbert bade the converted ones search   
   for   
   the Sacred Hosts. They found them entire and uninjured, and the Saint bore   
   them   
   back in triumph to the tabernacle. Hence he is generally portrayed with the   
   monstrance in his hand.   
      
   In 1126, Norbert was appointed Bishop of Magdeburg; and there, at the risk   
   of   
   his life, he zealously carried on his work of reform until he died, worn out   
   with toil, at the age of fifty-three.   
      
   Reflection. Reparation for profanations and outrages to the Blessed   
   Sacrament   
   was the aim of Saint Norbert's great work of reform in himself, in the   
   clergy,   
   and in the faithful. How much do our present habits of worship repair for   
   our   
   own past irreverences and for the outrages offered by others to the Blessed   
   Eucharist?   
      
   Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin   
   (Bloud   
   et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 6; Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a   
   compilation based on Butler's Lives of the Saints, and other sources by John   
   Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   It behooves us unanimously and inviolably to observe the ecclesiastical   
   traditions, whether codified or simply retained by the customary practice of   
   the   
   Church.   
   -St. Peter Canisius   
      
   Bible Quotes:   
    And hope confoundeth not: because the charity of God is poured forth in our   
   hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us. (Romans 5:5)   
      
    Let my mouth be filled with praise, that I may sing thy glory; thy   
   greatness   
   all the day long.  (Psalms 70:8)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   From The Glories Of Mary, by Saint Alphonsus Liguori:   
      
   Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God, I am not worthy to be thy servant. But   
   moved by thy marvelous compassion and my own desire to serve thee, here and   
   now,   
   in the presence of my guardian angel and the whole court of Heaven, I choose   
   thee as my Lady, Advocate, and Mother. I firmly purpose to love and serve   
   thee   
   always, and to do all I can to inspire others to love and serve thee.   
      
   O Mother of God and my own most compassionate Mother, I beseech thee, by the   
   Blood which thy Son shed for me, to receive me into the number of thy   
   servants   
   as thy child and servant forever. Assist me in all my thoughts, words, and   
   actions in every moment of my life, so that every step I take, every breath   
   I   
   draw, may be directed to the greater glory of my God.   
      
   Through your powerful intercession, may I never again offend my beloved   
   Jesus.   
   Help me to love and glorify Him in this life. Help me to love thee also,   
   dear   
   and beloved Mother, and to go on loving thee forever in the happiness of   
   Heaven.   
      
   My Mother Mary, I commend my soul to thee now, and especially at the moment   
   of   
   death.   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)