From: hildegard8@excite.com   
      
   March 8th - Saint John of God, Founder, Visionary   
   (1495-1550)   
      
   Nothing in the early life of John Ciudad, born of a poor couple in a town of   
   Portugal, foreshadowed his future sanctity. Following a traveler whose   
   description of Madrid had captivated his imagination, this only son of his   
   parents ran away from his home. Soon regret and misery overtook him, but he   
   was ashamed to return to his abandoned parents. In effect his mother, struck   
   with a fever, but advised by an Angel that John would have to undergo long   
   trials which would strengthen his virtue, departed this life only a few days   
   after his adventure began.   
      
   For several years the renegade was engaged in tending sheep and cattle in   
   Spain; his employer eventually offered him his only daughter in marriage and   
   thereby a rich heritage, but John was interiorly advised that such was not   
   his vocation. He left in secret the next day, joined the army of Spain   
   against the French, later against the Turks. When he was about forty years   
   of age, feeling profound remorse for his life which lacked order and   
   purpose, he returned to his home village, only to learn of the death of both   
   his parents. "I am not worthy to see the light of day!" exclaimed the   
   grief-stricken voyager. He visited the cemetery, suffocated by his sobs, and   
   cried out, "Pardon, pardon! O mother! Eternal penance!"   
      
   He resolved to devote himself to the ransom of Christian slaves in Africa,   
   and on his way served the sick in a hospital. Meeting an aged nobleman at   
   Gibralter, unjustly exiled and on his way to Africa, John offered to go   
   there as his servant, to remain with him and his family and support them by   
   his labor. Count DaSilva fell ill in the new climate and soon died, thanking   
   John for his unfailing aid, and predicting he would some day be one of   
   Spain's greatest apostles. His family received amnesty and returned to   
   Spain.   
      
   John, too, returned there by the advice of his confessor, and sought to do   
   good by selling holy pictures and books at low prices. Finally the hour of   
   grace struck. At Granada a sermon by the celebrated John of Avila shook his   
   soul to its depths, and his expressions of self-abhorrence were so   
   extraordinary that he was taken to the asylum as one insane. For a time he   
   acted this role purposely, in order to be whipped daily as a remedial   
   measure. His confessor was John of Avila, who when he learned of this told   
   him to cease his pretense and do something useful. Thereafter he employed   
   himself in ministering to the sick.   
      
   He began to collect homeless poor, and to support them by his work and by   
   begging. One night Saint John found in the streets a poor man who seemed   
   near death, and, as was his wont, he carried him to the hospital, laid him   
   on a bed, and went to fetch water to wash his feet. When he had washed them,   
   he knelt to kiss them, but was awestruck: the feet were pierced, and the   
   print of the nails shone with an unearthly radiance. He raised his eyes, and   
   heard the words, "John, it is to Me that you do all that you do for the poor   
   in My name. It is I who reach forth My hand for the alms you give; you   
   clothe Me; Mine are the feet that you wash." And then the gracious vision   
   disappeared, leaving Saint John filled at once with confusion and   
   consolation.   
      
   The bishop became the Saint's patron and gave him the name of John of God.   
   When his hospital was on fire, John was seen rushing about uninjured amid   
   the flames until he had rescued all his poor. After ten years spent in the   
   service of the suffering, the Saint's life was fitly closed when he plunged   
   into a river to save a drowning boy, and died in 1550 of an illness brought   
   on by the attempt. He was fifty-five years old.   
      
   Reflection. God often rewards men for works that are pleasing in His sight,   
   by giving them grace and opportunity to do other works higher still. Saint   
   John of God often attributed his conversion, and the graces which enabled   
   him to do his works of love, to his self-denying charity in Africa.   
      
   Sources: 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); Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des   
   Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 3.   
      
      
   Saint Quotes:   
   I tell you, that of every idle word men speak, they shall give account on   
   the day of judgment. St. Matthew 12:36   
   -Saint John of God   
      
   If we look forward to receiving God's mercy, we can never fail to do good so   
   long as we have the strength. For if we share with the poor, out of love for   
   God, whatever he has given to us, we shall receive according to his promise   
   a hundredfold in eternal happiness. What a fine profit, what a blessed   
   reward! With outstretched arms he begs us to turn toward him, to weep for   
   our sins, and to become the servants of love, first for ourselves, then for   
   our neighbors. Just as water extinguishes a fire, so love wipes away sin.   
      
   So many poor people come here that I very often wonder how we can care for   
   them all, but Jesus Christ provides all things and nourishes everyone. Many   
   of them come to the house of God, because the city of Granada is large and   
   very cold, especially now in winter. More than a hundred and ten are now   
   living here, sick and healthy, servants and pilgrims. Since this house is   
   open to everyone, it receives the sick of every type and condition: the   
   crippled, the disabled, lepers, mutes, the insane, paralytics, those   
   suffering from scurvy and those bearing the afflictions of old age, many   
   children, and above all countless pilgrims and travelers, who come here, and   
   for whom we furnish the fire, water, and salt, as well as the utensils to   
   cook their food. And for all of this no payment is requested, yet Christ   
   provides.   
      
   I work here on borrowed money, a prisoner for the sake of Jesus Christ. And   
   often my debts are so pressing that I dare not go out of the house for fear   
   of being seized by my creditors. Whenever I see so many poor brothers and   
   neighbors of mine suffering beyond their strength and overwhelmed with so   
   many physical or mental ills which I cannot alleviate, then I become   
   exceedingly sorrowful; but I trust in Christ, who knows my heart. And so I   
   say, "Woe to the man who trusts in men rather than in Christ."   
   -from a letter written by Saint John of God   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   12. This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.   
   13. Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his   
   friends. 14. You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you.   
   (John 15:12-14)   
      
      
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   In this Lenten season, the following is one of the principal   
   prayers used in the Stations of the Cross, though it can be   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)