From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   - 2 Timothy 2:15 -   
   Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does   
   not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.   
   __________________________   
      
   Whatever position we hold, we are all called to be witnesses of Christ. But   
   we cannot expect people to take stock in what we say about salvation unless   
   we have first established our credibility through striving to do our best in   
   the workplace. Today, begin building a reputation that will open the door   
   for a rock-solid testimony in the future. Every job is a self-portrait of   
   the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence.   
      
      
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   April 19th - Bl.  Bernard The Penitent   
      
   He passed through the streets on his errands of mercy, replying to all   
   greetings with the words, "God grant us all a good end"; Towards the end of   
   his life he was endowed with the gift of prophecy and many miracles were   
   attributed to him;   
      
   Nothing is known of the early years of this Bernard except that he was born   
   in the diocese of Maguelone in Provence, and even his contemporary   
   biographer could never ascertain of what crimes he had been guilty beyond   
   his participation in a rising which had resulted in the death of an   
   unpopular governor. We have, however, the exact wording of the certificate   
   which he obtained from his bishop before entering upon his penitential life.   
      
   John, by the grace of God Bishop of Maguelone, to all the pastors and faith   
   ful of the Catholic Church, eternal salvation in the Lord. Be it known to   
   you all that in expiation of the horrible crimes committed by him, we have   
   imposed upon Bernard, the bearer of this present letter, the following   
   penance. He is to go barefoot for seven years: he is not to wear a shirt for   
   the rest of his life:  he is to observe the forty days before the Birthday   
   of our Saviour like a Lenten fast: he is to abstain from meat and fat on   
   Wednesdays and from everything but bread and a little wine on Fridays. On   
   the Fridays of Lent and Embertide he shall drink nothing but water, and on   
   all Saturdays which are not great festivals he shall take no meat or fat   
   unless illness requires it. Therefore we ask you of your charity in Jesus   
   Christ, for the redemption of your souls and in a spirit of compassion, to   
   give to this very poor penitent the necessary food and clothing and to   
   shorten his penance so far as reason may allow. Given at Maguelone in the   
   year of the Incarnation of our Lord 1170 in the month of October. In force   
   for seven years only.   
      
   In the garb of a penitent and loaded with heavy iron fetters, Bernard   
   undertook a number of pilgrimages, during which he endured and even courted   
   hardships of all sorts. Three times, it is said, he visited Jerusalem, and   
   once went as far as India to implore the intercession of St. Thomas. At last   
   one day when he arrived at Saint-Omer, it was revealed to him that his   
   travels were now to cease. A generous citizen gave him a little house   
   abutting on the monastery of Saint-Bertin, and the monks allowed him access   
   at all hours to their church. He was always the first at the night offices   
   and he would stand barelegged and barefooted on the stone flags even in the   
   depth of winter when his flesh was cracked and frozen with the cold. He   
   loved to make himself useful by nursing the poor or by cleaning the   
   churches. Bernard came to be a familiar and popular figure as he passed   
   through the streets on his errands of mercy, replying to all greetings with   
   the words, "God grant us all a good end". The time came when he ventured to   
   ask the monks to give him the habit, and they welcomed him, for they   
   regarded him as a saint. Towards the end of his life he was endowed with the   
   gift of prophecy and many miracles were attributed to him; and after his   
   death the church was thronged by such crowds that the monks had the utmost   
   difficulty in proceeding with the funeral: everyone was begging for some   
   fragment of his garments or for something he had used. Bl. Bernard's   
   biographer testifies that he had been an eye-witness of many of the   
   wonderful cures which he relates.   
      
   This life printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. ii, purports to have   
   been written by one John, a monk of the abbey of Saint-Bertin.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   If we try to escape sadness by seeking our consolation in sleep, we will   
   fail to find what   
   we are seeking, for we will lose in sleep the consolation we might have   
   received from   
   God if we had stayed awake and prayed.   
   --St. Thomas More   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And yet ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried. But   
   we, we thought of him as someone punished, struck by God, and brought low.   
   Yet he was pierced through for our faults, crushed for our sins. On him lies   
   a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed.   
   (Isaiah 53:4-5 )   
      
      
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   Gospel Canticle   
      
   Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;   
   He has come to His people and set them free.   
   He has raised up for us a mighty savior,   
   born of the house of His servant David.   
   Through His holy prophets He promised of old   
   that He would save us from our enemies,   
   from the hands of all who hate us.   
   He promised to show mercy to our fathers   
   and to remember His holy covenant.   
   This was the oath He swore to our father Abraham:   
   to set us free from the hands of our enemies,   
   free to worship Him without fear,   
   holy and righteous in His sight   
   all the days of our life.   
   You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High;   
   for you will go before the Lord to prepare His way,   
   to give His people knowledge of salvation   
   by the forgiveness of their sins.   
   In the tender compassion of our God   
   the dawn from on high shall break upon us,   
   to shine on those who dwell in darkness   
   and the shadow of death,   
   and to guide our feet into the way of peace.   
   - Luke 1:68-79   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)