From: hildegard8@excite.com   
      
   August 8th - Bl. Peter Faber   
      
   Born 13 April, 1506, at Villaret, Savoy; died 1 Aug., 1546, in Rome. As a   
   child   
   he tended his father's sheep during the week, and on Sunday he taught   
   catechism   
   to other children. The instinctive knowledge of his vocation as an apostle   
   inspired him with a desire to study. At first he was entrusted to the care   
   of a   
   priest at Thônes, and then to a neighbouring school. Although without any   
   definite plans for the future, he resolved to go to Paris. His parents   
   consented   
   to the separation, and in 1525 Peter arrived in Paris. Here he acquired the   
   learning he desired, and found quite unexpectedly his real vocation. He was   
   admitted gratuitously to the college of Sainte-Barbe, and shared the lodging   
   of   
   a student from Navarre, Francis Xavier, the future saint, in a tower which   
   still   
   existed in 1850. They became intimately attached to each other, receiving on   
   the   
   same day in 1530 the degree of master of arts. At the university he also met   
   St.   
   Ignatius of Loyola and became one of his associates. He was ordained in   
   1834,   
   and received at Montmartre, on 15 August of the same year, the vows of   
   Ignatius   
   and his five companions. To these first six volunteers, three others were to   
   attach themselves. Ignatius appointed them all to meet at Venice, and   
   charged   
   Faber to conduct them there. Leaving Paris 15 Nov., 1536, Faber and his   
   companions rejoined Ignatius at Venice in Jan., 1537. Ignatius then thought   
   of   
   going to evangelize the Holy Land, but God had destined him for a vaster   
   field   
   of action.   
      
   After Ignatius, Faber was the one whom Xavier and his companions esteemed   
   the   
   most eminent. He merited this esteem by his profound knowledge, his gentle   
   sanctity, and his influence over souls. Faber now repaired to Rome, and   
   after   
   some months of preaching and teaching, the pope sent him to Parma and   
   Piacenza,   
   where he brought about a revival of Christian piety. Recalled to Rome, Faber   
   was   
   sent to Germany to uphold Catholicism at the Diet of Worms. In reality the   
   diets   
   which the Protestants were enabled to hold through the weakness of Charles   
   accomplished no good. From the Diet of Worms, convoked in 1540, he was   
   called to   
   that of Ratisbon in 1541. Faber was startled by the ruin which Protestantism   
   had   
   caused in Germany, and by the state of decadence presented by Catholicism;   
   and   
   he saw that the remedy did not lie in discussions with the heretics, but in   
   the   
   reform of the faithful - above all, of the clergy. For ten months, at   
   Speyer, at   
   Ratisbon, and at Mainz, he conducted himself with gentleness and success. It   
   was   
   above all by the Spiritual Exercises that he accomplished most of his   
   conversions. Princes, prelates, and priests revealed their consciences to   
   him,   
   and people were astounded by the efficacy of an apostolate accomplished so   
   rapidly.   
      
   Recalled to Spain by St. Ignatius, Faber tore himself away from the field   
   where   
   he had already gathered such a harvest, and won Savoy, which has never   
   ceased to   
   venerate him as a saint; but he had hardly been in Spain six months when by   
   order of the pope he was again sent to Germany. This time for nineteen   
   months   
   Faber was to work for the reform of Speyer, Mainz, and Cologne - a thankless   
   task. However, he gained the ecclesiastics little by little, changed their   
   hearts, and discovered in the young many vocations. That he decided the   
   vocation   
   of Bl. Peter Canisius is in itself sufficient to justify his being called   
   the   
   Apostle of Germany. The Archbishop of Cologne, Herman of Wied, was already   
   won   
   over by the heresy which he was later publicly to embrace. It was also at   
   Cologne that Faber especially exercised his zeal. After spending some months   
   at   
   Louvain, in 1543, where he implanted the seeds of numerous vocations among   
   the   
   young, he returned to Cologne, and there it may be said that he extirpated   
   all   
   heresy. But he was forced by obedience to leave Germany in August, 1544,   
   going   
   at first to Portugal, later to Spain. At the court of Lisbon and that of   
   Valladolid, Faber was an angel of God. He was called to the principal cities   
   of   
   Spain, and everywhere inculcated fervour and fostered vocations.   
      
   Let it suffice to mention that of Francis Borgia, which he, more than anyone   
   else, was the means of strengthening. Faber, at forty, was wasted by his   
   incessant labours and his unceasing journeys always made on foot. The pope,   
   however, thought of sending him to the Council of Trent as theologian of the   
   Holy See; John III wanted him to be made Patriarch of Ethiopia. Called to   
   Rome,   
   Faber, weakened by fever, arrived there 17 July, 1546, to die in the arms of   
   St.   
   Ignatius, the first of the following August. Those who had known him already   
   invoked him as a saint. Saint Francis de Sales, whose character recalled   
   that of   
   Faber's, never spoke of him except as a saint. He was beatified, 5   
   September,   
   1872; his feast is kept on 8 August.   
      
      
   Quote:   
   Humility is necessary not only for the acquisition of virtues, but even for   
   salvation.  For the gate of Heaven, as Christ Himself testifies, is so   
   narrow   
   that it admits only little ones.   
   -St. Bernard   
      
   Bible Quote   
   10. He hath not dealt with us according to our sins: nor rewarded us   
   according   
   to our iniquities.  11. For  according to the height of the heaven above the   
   earth: he hath strengthened his mercy towards them that fear him.  (Psalms   
   102:10-11)   
      
      
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   Indulgenced Prayers   
      
   O saving Victim, opening wide   
   The gate of heaven to man below,   
   Our foes press on from every side;   
   Thine aid supply, Thy strength bestow.   
      
   To Thy great Name be endless praise,   
   Immortal Godhead, one in three;   
   Oh, grant us endless length of days   
   In our true native land with Thee.   
   Amen.   
      
      
   Blessed is He Who cometh in the Name of the Lord:   
    Hosanna in the highest.   
      
      
   Jesu, bread of life, protect us;   
   Shepherd kind, do not reject us;   
   In Thy happy fold collect us,   
   And partakers of the bliss elect us,   
   Which shall never see an end.   
      
   Thou, the wisest and the mightiest,   
   Who us here with food delightest,   
   Seat us at Thy banquet brightest   
   With the blessed Thou invitest   
   An eternal feast to spend.   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)