From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   November 13th - Saint Didacus, Franciscan Confessor   
   (Also known as Diego)   
   (d. 1463)   
      
   Saint Didacus was born in Andalusia in Spain, towards the beginning of the   
   fifteenth century. He was remarkable from childhood for his love of   
   solitude, and for conversations concerning holy things. When still young he   
   retired to live with a hermit not far from his village, where he spent   
   several years in vigils, fasting, and manual work. Like the Fathers of the   
   desert, he made baskets and other objects with willow branches and gave them   
   to those who brought alms to the two hermits.   
      
   God inspired him to enter into the Order of the seraphic Saint Francis; he   
   did so at the convent of Arrizafa, not far from Cordova. He did not aspire   
   to ecclesiastical honors, but to the perfection and inviolable observance of   
   his Rule - an admirable ideal, the practice of which, according to Saint   
   Thomas Aquinas, is equivalent to martyrdom in merit. He made himself the   
   servant of all his brethren. Any occupation was his choice. All his   
   possessions were a tunic, a crucifix, a rosary, a prayer book and a book of   
   meditations; and these he did not consider as his own and wanted them to be   
   the most worn of all that were in the house. He found ways to nourish the   
   poor who came to the convent, depriving himself of bread and other food   
   given him, and if unable to do so consoled them with such gentle words that   
   they left with profit nonetheless.   
      
   At one time he was sent by his superiors to the Canary Islands, and went   
   there joyfully, hoping to win the crown of martyrdom. Such, however, was not   
   God's Will. After making many conversions by his example and holy words, he   
   was recalled to Spain. He was assigned to the care of the sick and when he   
   went to Rome for the Jubilee year of 1450, with 3,800 other religious of his   
   Order, most of whom fell ill there, he undertook to care for them,   
   succeeding in procuring for them all they needed even in that time of   
   scarcity.   
      
   Saint Didacus one day heard a poor woman lamenting, and learned that she had   
   not known that her seven-year-old son had gone to sleep in her large oven;   
   she had lighted a fire, and lost her senses when she heard his cries. He   
   sent her to the altar of the Blessed Virgin to pray and went with a large   
   group of persons to the oven; although all the wood was burnt, the child was   
   taken from it without so much as a trace of burns. The miracle was so   
   evident that the neighbors took the child in triumph to the church where his   
   mother was praying, and the Canons of the Church dressed him in white in   
   honor of the Blessed Virgin. Since then, many afflicted persons have invoked   
   the Mother of Heaven there.   
      
   After a long and painful illness, Saint Didacus ended his days in 1463,   
   embracing the cross which he had so dearly loved during his entire life. He   
   died having on his lips the words of the hymn, Dulce lignum [Sweet wood - a   
   chant of Good Friday]. His body remained incorrupt for several months,   
   exposed to the devotion of the faithful, ever exhaling a marvelous   
   fragrance. He was canonized in 1588; Philip II, king of Spain, had labored   
   to obtain that grace after his own son was miraculously cured in 1562 by the   
   relics of the Saint, when he had fallen from a ladder and incurred a mortal   
   wound on his head.   
      
   Reflection: If God be in your heart, He will be also on your lips; for   
   Christ has said, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."   
      
   Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin   
   (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 13; 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:   
   Dear brothers and sisters, I pray God may open your eyes and let you see   
   what hidden treasures he bestows on us in the trials from which the world   
   thinks only to flee. Shame turns into honor when we seek God's glory.   
   Present affliction become the source of heavenly glory. To those who suffer   
   wounds in fighting his battles God opens his arms in loving, tender   
   friendship. That is why he (Christ) tells us that if we want to join him, we   
   shall travel the way he took. It is surely not right that the Son of God   
   should go his way on the path of shame while the sons of men walk the way of   
   worldly honor: "The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the servant   
   greater than his master."   
   --from a letter by Saint John of Avila   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   In all things give thanks; for this is the Will of God. I Thess. 5:18   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Canticle Ephesians 1   
      
   God the Saviour   
      
   Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,   
   who has blessed us, in Christ, with every spiritual blessing in heaven.   
      
   In love, he chose us before the creation of the world,   
   to be holy and spotless in his sight.   
      
   He predestined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ,   
   simply because it pleased him to do so.   
      
   This he did for the praise of the glory of his grace,   
   of his free gift of us in his Beloved,   
      
   in whose blood we have gained redemption,   
   and the forgiveness of our sins.   
      
   This he did according to the riches of his grace,   
   which he gave us in abundance,   
      
   with all wisdom and discernment,   
   revealing to us the mysteries of his will,   
   because it pleased him to do so.   
      
   In this action he has planned, in the fulfilment of time,   
   to bring all things together in Christ,   
   from the heavens and from the earth.   
      
   Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,   
    as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,   
    world without end.   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)