From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   March 21st - St. Benedict of Nursia, Abbot   
      
   This feast is celebrated in nearly every country of the world. St. Gregory   
   the   
   Great's Dialogues provide us with the only biographical details of the   
   Patriarch   
   of Western Monasticism.   
      
   Benedict was born at Nursia (Norcia) in central Italy about the year 480. He   
   had   
   a sister, Scholastica, who may have been his twin and was dedicated to God   
   from   
   her birth. As a young man he went to Rome to study and was accompanied by   
   his   
   nurse. She was probably sent to be his housekeeper.   
      
   In Rome he was repulsed by the wickedness of his companions and fellow   
   students.   
   He determined to leave, took his nurse and traveled to Enfide, a mountain   
   village about thirty miles north of Rome. He led a very quiet, prayerful and   
   virtuous life there. Not long there, Benedict quietly left without even his   
   nurse knowing about it.   
      
   He next went to a cave in the rocky mountain area of Subiaco some fifty   
   miles   
   from Rome. Befriended by a local elderly monk, Romanus, Benedict received   
   the   
   sheepskin habit of a hermit and lived a life of silence and solitude, prayer   
   and   
   asceticism in his lonely cave. He was fed by the kindness of Romanus who   
   would   
   let down his bread on a rope, so inaccessible was Benedict's cave.   
      
   He lived this life for the next three years. Attracted by his holiness,   
   monks   
   from a nearby monastery at Vicovaro prevailed upon him to become their   
   abbot.   
   Benedict's holy and austere life proved unpalatable to them and to be rid of   
   him, they tried twice to poison him. Not wanting them to have the sin of   
   murder   
   on their souls, Benedict left this unruly band and returned to the   
   eremitical or   
   hermit life.   
      
   News of his holiness brought many to seek Benedict and his way of life.   
   Eventually several small monasteries of twelve monks each, with a superior,   
   were   
   built. Again the devil tried to destroy the work of God. St Gregory tells us   
   that a jealous priest sent St. Benedict a poisoned loaf of bread as a gift.   
   However, God intervened and a raven flew in, took the bread and flew off to   
   dispose of it. This is why in sacred art St. Benedict is often pictured with   
   a   
   raven. When this was unsuccessful the priest sent in naked dancers to lure   
   the   
   monks out of their monasteries. Benedict decided to leave in order to end   
   the   
   persecution.   
      
   He went to Monte Cassino in the Campana area halfway between Rome and   
   Naples.   
   Here he built two chapels on the site of a pagan ruin and dedicated them to   
   St.   
   John the Baptist and St. Martin of Tours. Thus was the beginnings of the now   
   famous Benedictine Monastery at Monte Casino. Here Benedict changed from   
   small   
   monasteries of 12 each with a superior, to one monastery governed by a prior   
   and   
   deans under an Abbot's supervision. It is believed that it was at this time   
   that   
   his now famous Rule was written.   
      
   Benedict did not concern himself only with his monks. He had guest quarters   
   built for the many who came to seek his counsel. He was also available to   
   the   
   people in the surrounding areas. Through his prayers the sick were cured. He   
   distributed food and necessities to the poor and he did what he could to   
   help   
   any in need who sought his aid. He often foretold coming events including   
   his   
   own death which occurred about the year 547. His sister Scholastica died   
   before   
   him, but both are buried at Monte Cassino.   
      
   Pope St. Gregory the Great wrote about Benedict's life and miracles in the   
   2nd   
   and 3rd Dialogues. Many books have been written about him, both fact and   
   historical fiction. The greatest book however, which reveals the true spirit   
   of   
   Benedict is his "Little Rule...for monks."   
      
   Perhaps the best way to characterize St. Benedict would be to say that he   
   was a   
   man of peace and moderation or balance. He believed that the only really   
   important thing in life was to live the best we are able according to God's   
   Greatest commandment, "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole   
   heart,   
   your whole mind, your whole soul and your whole strength and...love your   
   neighbor as yourself..." His rule is filled with the "how to" of doing this.   
   The   
   virtues of humility, obedience and charity shine through all the chapters of   
   his   
   rule.   
      
   His only question of any prospective member of the community was, "What do   
   you   
   seek?" And, the only answer our hearts can give must be, "I seek God."   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   If you want God to hear your prayers, hear the voice of the poor. If you   
   wish   
   God to   
   anticipate your wants, provide those of the needy without waiting for them   
   to   
   ask you.   
   Especially anticipate the needs of those who are ashamed to beg. To make   
   them   
   ask   
   for alms is to make them buy it.   
   -St. Thomas of Villanova   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.   
   (Matthew   
   10:28)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   PRAYER TO SHARE THE LIFE OF JESUS   
      
   Loving Father,   
   faith in Your Word is the way to wisdom.   
   Help me to think about Your Divine Plan   
   that I may grow in the truth.   
   Open my eyes to Your deeds,   
   my ears to the sound of Your call,   
   so that my every act may help me share   
   in the life of Jesus.   
   Give me the grace to live the example of the love of Jesus,   
   which I celebrate in the Heart   
   and see in the Gospel.   
   Form in me the likeness of Your Son   
   and deepen His Life within me.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The third sorrowful mystery prayer of the Eucharistic Rosary, to be offered   
   before the Blessed Sacrament:   
      
   The Crowning with Thorns, offered for moral courage and love of   
   humiliations:   
      
   O King of glory! crowned with thorns and proclaimed in derision king of the   
   Jews by brutal soldiers who ignominiously spit upon Thy adorable face, Thou   
   fallest a victim to the sins committed by pride; in the Blessed Sacrament   
   also Thou bearest a crown of ignominy made up of the many acts of   
   irreverence, contempt, hypocrisy, and vanity committed by Christians in Thy   
   sanctuary.   
      
   O loving King! overwhelmed with insults both in Thy passion and in the   
   Sacred Host, we adore Thee and we beg of Thee, through the intercession of   
   Thy holy Mother, the grace of mortifying our self-love.   
      
   Imprimatur: + John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York, Sept 19, 1908.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)