From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   November 26th - St. Leonard of Port Maurice   
    (also known as Leonard Casanuova)   
      
   Born at Porto Maurizio, Liguria, Italy, December 20, 1676; died in Rome, on   
   November 26, 1751; beatified in 1796; canonized in 1867.   
   Captain Dominic Casanuova had his son baptized Paul Jerome Casanuova.   
   Throughout   
   his life, the future Saint Leonard thanked God for giving him such an   
   excellent   
   father. At the age of 13, Paul Jerome was sent to the Jesuit Roman College.   
   His   
   uncle Augustine, with whom he was living, wanted him to become a physician.   
   Paul   
   studied medicine, but when he refused his uncle's wish that he become a   
   doctor   
   and announced he had other plans, Augustine disowned him.   
      
   He joined the Franciscans of the Strict Observance at Ponticelli in 1697,   
   taking   
   the name Leonard, continued his studies at the Observant Saint Bonaventure's   
   on   
   the Palatine in Rome, and was ordained there in 1703. For five years,   
   Leonard   
   had to stop preaching because he was spitting blood. When healing continued   
   to   
   elude him even in the mild climate of Liguria, he vowed that he would devote   
   his   
   entire life to the conversion of sinners, if God would make him well again.   
      
   He recovered and, in 1709, he went to the San Francesco del Monte monastery   
   in   
   Florence and from there preached all over Tuscany with tremendous effect for   
   the   
   next 44 years. He became guardian of San Francesco, founded a retreat for   
   religious at nearby Incontro, where the friars retired twice a year to   
   practice   
   the eremitical life.   
      
   In 1730, Leonard was appoint guardian of Saint Bonaventure's in Rome. He   
   spent   
   the next six years conducting missions around Rome, preaching to soldiers,   
   sailors, convicts, and galley-slaves in addition to conducting parochial   
   missions. His contemporary, Saint Alphonsus Liguori, said Leonard was the   
   finest   
   missioner of his day. In 1736, he was released from this position to   
   continue   
   his evangelization in Umbria, Genoa, and the Marches of Ancona. His missions   
   now   
   attracted such huge crowds that they were often held in the open air.   
      
   Leonard is primarily responsible for the popularity of the Stations of the   
   Cross   
   devotion, of which he was an ardent promoter (reputedly setting up almost   
   six   
   hundred Stations throughout Italy, even in the Colosseum in Rome), and   
   devotion   
   to the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Conception.   
      
   Leonard served for a time as spiritual director of Clementina Sobieska, wife   
   of   
   the "Old Pretender" to the English throne, King James III, whose son   
   Cardinal   
   Henry of York promoted the friar's canonization.   
      
   In 1744, Leonard was sent to Corsica by Pope Benedict XIV to preach and to   
   restore peace there but he was unsuccessful, because the Corsicans felt he   
   was   
   more a political tool of the Genoese who ruled the island than a missionary.   
   (Schamoni says that he helped to reconcile the Corsicans to one another, and   
   Attwater notes that his success was ephemeral-as soon as he left the island,   
   the   
   people fell back into discord.) This mission lasted only six months before   
   the   
   Genoese government sent a ship to rescue Leonard.   
      
   He returned to Rome from the discouraging missionary tour in 1749 to prepare   
   the   
   Romans for the holy year. For two weeks Leonard preached in the Piazza   
   Navona,   
   which ironically had once been the hippodrome of Emperor Domitian. He had to   
   promise Pope Benedict XIV, who held him in high esteem and himself attended   
   his   
   sermons, that he would die in Rome.   
      
   When he was preaching a mission in the holy father's native city of Bologna   
   in   
   1751, Leonard had a premonition that he would soon die. Completely exhausted   
   from his arduous work and severer mortifications, he returned to Rome and   
   died   
   at Saint Bonaventure the night he arrived.   
      
   In addition to his oral evangelization, Leonard was a prolific ascetical   
   writer.   
   His printed works-mostly letters and sermons-fill thirteen volumes. His most   
   famous work is "Resolutions". He is the patron of parish missions and   
   popular   
   missionaries (Attwater, Attwater 2, Benedictines, Coulson, Delaney,   
   Encyclopedia, Farmer, Schamoni, White).   
      
      
   Quote:   
   St. Leonard once said, "If the Lord at the moment of my death reproves me   
   for   
   being too kind to sinners, I will answer, 'My dear Jesus, if it is a fault   
   to be   
   too kind to sinners, it is a fault I learned from you, for you never scolded   
   anyone who came to you seeking mercy'"   
   - (Leonard Foley, O.F. M., St. Leonard of Port Maurice, p. 9).   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And I will shew wonders in the heaven above, and signs on the earth beneath:   
   blood and fire, and vapour of smoke. 20 The sun shall be turned into   
   darkness,   
   and the moon into blood, before the great and manifest day of the Lord come.   
   21   
   And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the   
   Lord,   
   shall be saved.   (Acts 2:19-21   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   Hymn to the Holy Ghost   
      
   Come, Holy Ghost, Creator come, From Thy bright heavenly   
   throne; Come take possession of our souls, And make them   
   all Thine own.   
      
   Thou who art called the Paraclete, Best gift of God above;   
   The living spring, the living fire, Sweet unction and true love.   
      
   Thou who art sevenfold in Thy grace, Finger of God's right   
   hand; His promise, teaching little ones To speak and   
   understand.   
      
   O guide our minds with Thy blest light With love our hearts   
   inflame; And with Thy strength which ne'er decays Confirm   
   our mortal frame.   
      
   Far from us drive our hellish foe, True peace unto us bring;   
   And through all perils lead us safe, Beneath Thy sacred wing.   
      
   Through Thee may we the Father know; Through Thee the   
   eternal Son, And Thee the Spirit of them both; Thrice blessed   
   three in one.   
      
   Now to the Father and the Son, Who rose from death, be   
   glory given, With Thee O holy Comforter, Henceforth by all in   
   earth and heaven. Amen.   
      
   V. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created   
   R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.   
      
   LET US PRAY:   
      
   O GOD, who didst teach the hearts of Thy faithful by the light   
   of Thy Holy Spirit, grant us by the same Spirit, to have a right   
   judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy   
   comfort, through Jesus Christ our Lord.   
      
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)