From: hildegard8@excite.com   
      
   January 22nd - St. Vincent Pallotti   
      
   Born in Rome, Italy, April 21, 1795; died January 22, 1850; canonized in   
   1963 by   
   Pope John XXIII during Vatican Council II; feast day formerly on January 23.   
      
   Vincent was the son of a prosperous grocer. His schoolmaster Don Ferri said   
   of   
   him, "He's a little saint but a bit thick-headed." He grew more proficient   
   at   
   his studies as he matured, however, and he was ordained at 23 (1817). He   
   took a   
   doctorate in theology and became an assistant professor at the Spaienza in   
   Rome.   
      
   He was encouraged by his friendship with Saint Caspar del Bufalo to resign   
   his   
   post and pursue pastoral work. He was popular as a confessor, and acted in   
   this   
   capacity at several Roman colleges, including the Scots, the Irish, and the   
   English. Unfortunately, he was disliked by the other clergy at the   
   Neapolitan   
   church to which he was appointed, and their malicious treatment of him   
   inexplicably passed without comment from the authorities for ten years, and   
   without complaint on his part.   
      
   In 1835, Vincent gathered together a group of clergy, nuns and other laymen,   
   committed to conversion and social justice, in order to organize vocational   
   schools with evening classes for poor boys, and an institute to teach better   
   agricultural methods. The schools were intended to teach young people   
   marketable   
   skills such as shoe-making, tailoring, joining, and agriculture, and to   
   instill   
   in them a pride in their work. He worked from the premise that holiness is   
   to be   
   found not only in a religious life of prayer and silence, but also by   
   filling   
   any need in any part of life wherever one sees it. These policies resembled   
   those of Saint John Bosco, who worked in northern Italy (Turin).   
      
   From this group would evolve the Pallotines, or the Society of Catholic   
   Apostolate (called for a time the Pious Society of Missions and later the   
   Society of Catholic Action), which had only a dozen members during his   
   lifetime   
   but has since grown and a corresponding society of women, the Pallottini   
   Sisters, was established in 1843. The congregation has flourished in Italy,   
   Brazil, Australia, and the United States, where it has specialized in care   
   for   
   the immigrants and, like their founder, in promoting ecumenical contacts   
   with   
   Eastern Orthodox Christians.   
      
   He wrote to a young professor, "You are not cut out for the silence and   
   austerities of Trappists and hermits. Be holy in the world, in your social   
   relationships, in your work and your leisure, in your teaching duties and   
   your   
   contacts with publicans and sinners. Holiness is simply to do God's will,   
   always   
   and everywhere."   
      
   Vincent's apostolic labors were matched only by his austerities, and in   
   1837,   
   during an epidemic of cholera, he cared for others despite the danger to   
   himself. He went to great lengths to fulfill the spiritual needs of the   
   people,   
   once even impersonating an old woman in order to approach a bedridden man   
   who   
   had warned he would shoot any priest who came near him. Vincent also   
   performed   
   exorcisms.   
      
   In 1836, he started the special observance of the Octave of Epiphany for the   
   reunion of the Eastern Orthodox Church with Rome. Each day he would   
   celebrate   
   the Mysteries with a different rite; since 1847, this custom has been   
   observed   
   in the church of Sant'Andrea delle Valle.   
      
   In 1844, don Pallotti sent one of his most trusted priests to minister to   
   the   
   Italians in London, and since then his society has spread throughout the   
   world.   
   He was also especially interested in the English mission and had numerous   
   English, Irish, and American friends. One of them, Walter Tempest, was with   
   him   
   when he was given shelter at the Irish College in Rome in 1849.   
      
   The people of Rome saw don Vincent as a 19th century version of Saint Philip   
   Neri. Often he came home half-naked because he had given his clothes away.   
   He   
   would go to great lengths to reconcile sinners. Once he dressed up as an old   
   woman in order to get to the bedside of a man who seriously threatened to   
   shoot   
   the first priest to come near him. Pallotti was in demand as an exorcist.   
   God   
   also granted him the gifts of supernatural knowledge and healing. Father   
   Pallotti died of pleurisy at the age of 55.   
      
   It is interesting to note that when evidence was given during his   
   beatification   
   process, the vice rector of the Neapolitan church in Rome, who had been one   
   of   
   his severest persecutors, said: "Don Pallotti never gave the least grounds   
   for   
   the ill-treatment to which he was subjected. He always treated me with the   
   greatest respect; he bared his head when he spoke to me, he even several   
   times   
   tried to kiss my hand." (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer, Walsh,   
   White).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Fasts and vigils, the study of Scripture, renouncing possessions and   
   everything worldly are not in themselves perfection, as we have said;   
   they are its tools. For perfection is not to be found in them; it is   
   acquired through them. It is useless, therefore, to boast of our   
   fasting, vigils, poverty, and reading of Scripture when we have not   
   achieved the love of God and our fellow men. Whoever has achieved love   
   has God within himself and his intellect is always with God.   
   -St. John Cassian   
      
   Bible Quote   
   And then shall many be scandalized: and shall betray one another: and shall   
   hate   
   one another.   
   And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many. And because   
   iniquity   
   hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold. But he that shall   
   persevere   
   to the end, he shall be saved.  (Matt 24:10-13)   
      
      
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   Prayers in honor of St. Vincent Pallotti   
      
   L. Lord, teach us to pray.   
   R. In the name of the Father   
   and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.   
   Amen.   
      
   Praise of the Lord   
   L. Lord, Father of heaven,   
   we honour and praise your Name.   
   You are the morning and the evening,   
   the beginning and the end of all time,   
   origin and source of all that was made.   
   We thank you for the night's rest   
   and for the light of this new day.   
      
   R. Lord Jesus Christ, Light of the world,   
   we honour and praise your Name.   
   You are the Way that we follow today.   
   You are the Truth that guides us.   
   You are the Life that we seek.   
   We thank you for your redeeming Word   
   by which you enlighten and guide us.   
      
   L. Lord, Creator Spirit,   
   we honour and praise your Name.   
   You awaken our senses and thoughts.   
   You give us the power to perceive ideas,   
   the power to think clearly   
   and to have a sensitive conscience.   
   We thank you for the love you kindle in our hearts.   
      
   R. Holy and eternal God,   
   we honour and praise your Name.   
   We implore you this morning to be with us today   
   in joy and in sorrow, in success and in failure.   
   We thank you for this new day.   Amen.   
      
   Reflection   
      
   A.  The Preamble states about Saint Vincent Pallotti:   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)