From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   December 6th - Bl. Adolph Kolping   
      
   "Blessed Adolph Kolping, pray for us!" echoed through St. Peter's Square for   
   the first time on October 27, 1991. On that day, Pope John Paul 11 declared,   
   publicly, that the diocesan priest from Cologne, Germany, Father Adolph   
   Kolping, had shown outstanding virtue in his life and could be honoured by   
   Catholics throughout the world. Thus ended a process that first began about   
   the turn of the century but was twice delayed and set back by two World   
   Wars. Worldwide, the members of the Kolping Society are now beginning to   
   pray and work for the final mark of saintliness in the life of Blessed   
   Adolph Kolping, his canonization.   
      
   Adolph Kolping was born on December 8, 1813. He was the fourth child of   
   Peter and Anna Maria Kolping, a couple who lived in Kerpen, a small town   
   west of Cologne, Germany. The father worked as a shepherd and a small   
   farmer, but the family of five children plus parents remained at subsistence   
   level. Later in his writings, Father Kolping expressed it thus: "My parents   
   were quiet and honest people who found it difficult to maintain and provide   
   for their family. They wanted to make sure of one thing-a good education for   
   their children, so we were never allowed to absent ourselves from school." A   
   desire for study was one of the qualities that Kolping found easy to   
   develop. But, because of the family's poverty he could not continue studies   
   after a basic elementary education. At age thirteen, he was apprenticed in   
   Kerpen to a master shoemaker by the name of Meuser. After completing his   
   apprenticeship he worked in various workshops in the area to attain   
   experience as a cobbler. Finally he was taken on by one of the most famous   
   shoemakers in Cologne. Of those days he wrote, "I quake at the thought of   
   the terrible days 1 spent in that place in the midst of the depravity and   
   indifference of fellow journeymen of Germany in those days." Finally,   
   through the generosity of a well-to-do lady he was able to begin his   
   studies. Although older than his classmates, he went back to school,   
   beginning studies at the "Marzellen" gymnasium in 1837, in Cologne. After   
   only three and a half years of schooling, he passed the final exam in 1841.   
   He then had to convince his parish priest to let him study theology. He   
   persisted in this desire until Father Joecken, the parish priest, finally   
   gave in. After theological studies in Munich and Bonn, as well as at the   
   diocesan seminary in Cologne, Adolph Kolping was ordained a priest on the   
   thirteenth of April in 1845, in the church of the Minor Rite in Cologne, to   
   the happiness of that long awaited occasion was added a sadness -the death   
   of his father, Peter, on the eve of his ordination.   
      
   The strength of Father Kolping's program was that it recognized that   
   "history" was not enough. He offered the young men who had lost their family   
   roots and their spiritual moorings a new alternative. The boarding houses,   
   or "Kolping Houses" that he opened, enabled these young men to further their   
   schooling and self-education in a supportive, religious environment. His   
   genius lay in offering, not just a boarding house, but the support, the   
   sharing, and the values that formed a family. Even today, the Kolping   
   Societies are referred to as "Kolping Families".   
      
   Father Kolping, though of frail health, worked tirelessly with his young   
   working men. He travelled and made contact throughout Europe, which helped   
   the spread of his apostolate for the working person. By this time, he was   
   stationed at his beloved church, in which he had been ordained, the Minorite   
   Church in Cologne.   
      
   Pope John Paul 11, in an address at the beatification, singled out Father   
   Kolping's strength during the turbulent times of mid-1800 Europe.   
   "Christians", said the Pope, "apply for the healing of the world, therapy   
   quite different from that of materialistic's. They believe that a revolution   
   must begin with the person." In Kolping's day, Karl Max and others were   
   calling for a revolution to change the order of society, but not the person.   
   The Catholic social action that was accomplished by the journeymen's   
   societies provided an alternative to the godless philosophy of the   
   revolution minded.   
      
   Since the beatification, a new sarcophagus has been erected there to hold   
   his remains. Kolping Brothers and Sisters make it the centrepiece of their   
   visits to Cologne.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "Lay me not with sweet spices: for this honour avails me not; Nor yet   
   incense and perfumes: for the honour benefits me not. Burn sweet spices in   
   the Holy Place: and me, even me, conduct to the grave with prayer. Give ye   
   incense to God: and over me send up hymns. Instead of perfumes of spices: in   
   prayer make remembrance of me."   
   --Ephraem,His Testament   (A.D. 373)   
      
   Bible Quote   
   Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise   
   to him with psalms.  (Psalms 94:2)   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   A prayer to the Holy Ghost to be freed from evil habits:   
      
   Give to me, I beseech Thee O Holy Ghost, Giver of all good gifts, that   
   powerful grace which converts the stony hearts of mortals into burning   
   furnaces of Thy love. By Thy grace, free my captive soul from the thralldom   
   of every evil habit and concupiscence, to restore to it the Holy   
   liberty  of the children of God, Give me to taste how sweet it is to serve   
   the Lord and crucify the flesh with its vices and concupiscences. Enlarge   
   my heart that I may ever cheerfully run the way of Thy commandments until I   
   reach the goal of my aspirations: the joy and bliss of Thy habitation in   
   Heaven. Amen.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Saint Anthony, Example of Humility   
      
   Dear St. Anthony, after all these years in the school of Christ,   
   I still haven't learned the lesson of true humility. My feelings   
   are easily ruffled. Quick to take offense, I am slow to forgive.   
   St. Anthony, Example of Humility, teach me the importance   
   and necessity of this Christian virtue. In the presence of   
   Jesus, who humbled Himself and whom the Father exalted,   
   remember also these special intentions of mine.   
   (Name them.)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)