From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   - John 15:15-17 -   
      
       I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his   
   master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I   
   learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but   
   I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruitÑfruit that will last.   
   Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my   
   command: Love each other.   
   ______________________________________________________________   
      
   Because Jesus Christ is Lord and Master, he should call us servants; instead   
   he calls us friends. How comforting and reassuring to be chosen as Christ's   
   friends. Because he is Lord and Master, we owe him our unqualified   
   obedience, but most of all, Jesus asks us to obey him because we love him.   
      
      
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   March 30th - St. Peter Regaldo   
      
   (1390-1456)   
      
    Peter lived at a very busy time. The Great Western Schism (1378-1417) was   
   settled at the Council of Constance (1414-1418). France and England were   
   fighting the Hundred Years' War, and in 1453 the Byzantine Empire was   
   completely wiped out by the loss of Constantinople to the Turks. At Peter's   
   death the age of printing had just begun in Germany, and Columbus's arrival   
   in the New World was less than 40 years away.   
      
   Peter came from a wealthy and pious family in Vallodolid, Spain. At the age   
   of 13, he was allowed to enter the Conventual Franciscans. Shortly after his   
   ordination, he was made superior of the friary in Aguilar. He became part of   
   a group of friars who wanted to lead a life of greater poverty and penance.   
   In 1442 he was appointed head of all the Spanish Franciscans in his reform   
   group.   
      
   Peter led the friars by his example. A special love of the poor and the sick   
   characterized Peter. Miraculous stories are told about his charity to the   
   poor. For example, the bread never seemed to run out as long as Peter had   
   hungry people to feed. Throughout most of his life, Peter went hungry; he   
   lived only on bread and water.   
      
   Immediately after his death on March 31, 1456, his grave became a place of   
   pilgrimage. Peter was canonized in 1746.   
      
   Comment:   
      
   Peter was an effective leader of the friars because he did not become   
   ensnared in anger over the sins of others. Peter helped sinning friars   
   rearrange the priorities in their lives and dedicate themselves to living   
   the gospel of Jesus Christ as they had vowed. This patient correction is an   
   act of charity available to all Franciscans, not just to superiors.   
      
   Quote: "And let all the brothers, both the ministers and servants as well as   
   the others, take care not to be disturbed or angered at the sin or the evil   
   of another, because the devil wishes to destroy many through the fault of   
   one; but they should spiritually help [the brother] who has sinned as best   
   they can, because it is not the healthy who are in need of the physician,   
   but whose who are sick (cf. Mt 9:12; Mk 2:17)" (Rule of 1221, Chapter 5).   
      
      
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   Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself.  (Matthew 16:24)   
      
   "Everyone has opinions of his own, nor is this opposed to virtue. It is only   
   the love and attachment we have to our own opinions, and the high value we   
   set on them, which is infinitely contrary to our perfection. This is the   
   last thing to be abandoned, and the cause why so few are perfect"   
    -St. Francis de Sales   
      
   This Saint succeeded in abandoning this last thing, so that he was once able   
   to write to a friend that he had no such attachment to his own opinion as to   
   wish anyone ill who did not follow it, and that he did not claim that his   
   sentiments should serve as a rule to anyone.   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints".  March - Mortification)   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Jesus answered them, and said: My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent   
   me. 17 If any man do the will of him; he shall know of the doctrine, whether   
   it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. 18 He that speaketh of himself,   
   seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him,   
   he is true, and there is no injustice in him. (John 7:16-18)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   An offering to the Holy Ghost:   
      
   On my knees, before the multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer myself,   
   soul and body, to Thee, Eternal Spirit of God!  I adore Thee, great God, and   
   acknowledge Thy dominion over me.   
      
   Thou art the light and the strength of my soul.  In Thee I live and move and   
   have my being.  I desire never to grieve Thee by unfaithfulness to grace,   
   and I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against Thee.   
   Make me faithful in every thought, and grant that I may always listen to Thy   
   voice, watch for Thy light, and follow Thy gracious inspirations.  I cling   
   to Thee, and give myself to Thee, and ask Thee, by Thy compassion, to watch   
   over me in my weakness.  Holding the pierced feet of Jesus, and looking at   
   His five wounds, trusting in His precious Blood, and adoring His Sacred   
   Heart, lacerated for love of me, I implore Thee, Holy Spirit, Helper of my   
   infirmity, so as to keep me in Thy grace that I may never sin against Thee   
   with the sin which Thou canst not forgive.  Give me grace, O Holy Ghost,   
   Spirit of the Father and the Son, to say to Thee, always and everywhere,   
   "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth."   
      
   Imprimatur:  + John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York, Sept 19, 1908.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)