From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   June 6th - Saint Norbert, Bishop and Confessor   
      
    GOD awakens the saints to the reality of His presence in a variety of ways,   
   some of them quite dramatic: thunder and lightning was the way for Saint   
   Norbert.  A relative of the German emperor, Henry V, Norbert was born about   
   1080   
   at Xanten, on the Rhine, and spent the first thirty years of his life in   
   attendance at the royal court, where he was a great favorite.  It was a   
   pleasant, amusing, and purposeless existence, although he had already been   
   ordained a subdeacon.   
      
    In 1111 he accompanied the emperor to Rome, and although his conscience was   
   awakened when he saw Henry extorting from the imprisoned pope rights that   
   belonged to the Holy See, it was only little by little that he left the   
   court   
   life and broke with the excommunicated emperor.  The decisive moment came   
   for   
   the young man as he was riding a horse through the German countryside one   
   day;   
   when a violent storm occurred, punctuated by thunder and lightning, the   
   horse   
   bolted, throwing Norbert to the ground.  The fall nearly killed him like   
   Paul on   
   the road to Damascus. Norbert emerged from the experience a different man.   
   His   
   brush with death had revealed to him, in one sickening flash, the enormous   
   emptiness of his life, and he resolved to make amends to God.   
      
    He returned to Xanten, found a little hermitage, and gave himself up to   
   prayer   
   and mortification.  He left his solitude only to seek the advice and   
   direction   
   of Conrad of Ratisbon, the celebrated abbot of Siegburg.  Conrad advised   
   study   
   for the priesthood, and in 1115 Norbert was ordained at Cologne.  He   
   returned   
   again to Xanten to start his priestly career.  In his youth, Norbert's   
   family   
   had secured an appointment for him as a canon at the collegiate church in   
   Xanten; such positions were largely honorary, although usually given to   
   priests,   
   and people were accustomed to seeing the canons leading very worldly lives.   
   Remembering his own faults in this regard, Norbert began preaching to the   
   canons   
   on the need for more spirituality in their lives; his listeners, who had no   
   taste for such medicine, laughed in his face and in 1118 denounced Norbert   
   to   
   the Council of Fritzlar as an unorthodox, meddling troublemaker.   
      
    The council condemned him only for preaching without proper authorization,   
   but   
   Norbert was stunned by the cruelty of his fellow clerics.  Giving away the   
   remains of his family fortune, he set out for Languedoc in France, where   
   Pope   
   Gelasius II was temporarily residing.  It was winter, and Norbert walked   
   barefoot the entire way.  When he was admitted to the pope, he begged pardon   
   for   
   a sinful life and requested that a suitable penance be given him.  The pope   
   saw   
   the caliber of the man before him and rewarded the saint's act of humility   
   by   
   giving him permission to preach at will throughout Europe.   
      
    Thus vindicated, Norbert began a busy preaching career that took him   
   throughout   
   the French and Belgian dioceses.  In 1119, the bishop of Laon persuaded   
   Norbert   
   to go there, where the canons were no better than they had been at Xanten.   
   As   
   before, the saint had little success with the worldly clerics; as an   
   alternative   
   line of action, however, the bishop suggested that Norbert found his own   
   community of canons and gave him land for this purpose in the desolate   
   valley of   
   Premontre', near the city of Laon.  There, on Christmas day, 1121, a new   
   type of   
   religious order was born: the Order of Canons Regular of Premontre'.  The   
   order   
   was an austere one, based on the Rule of Saint Augustine, and Norbert had   
   the   
   satisfaction of seeing it attract canons from all over Europe, even many of   
   those who had earlier rejected his attempts at reform.  A branch for lay   
   people   
   was established at the request of Theobald, count of Champagne; Norbert gave   
   him   
   a small scapular he could wear under his clothes and a simple rule that   
   could be   
   followed in secular life.  This "third order," or secular tertianship, is   
   regarded as the first to be attached to any religious order.  After making   
   other   
   foundations (one was in Antwerp, where Norbert gained fame by putting to   
   rout a   
   celebrated heretic), the saint went to Rome in 1125 to have Pope Honorius II   
   give formal approval to the Premonstratensians.   
      
    There were no longer any doubts about the worth of this holy man.  When he   
   appeared in Germany on a visit in 1126 he was prevailed upon by the   
   hierarchy   
   there to accept the consecration as archbishop of Magdeburg.  Leaving his   
   order   
   under the direction of a capable disciple, Hugh of Fosses, Norbert took up   
   residence in Magdeburg, where he once more became a stumbling-block to   
   Christians who had forgotten the meaning of their faith.  Unchaste priests,   
   laymen who plundered the Church of its property, these and others were soon   
   influenced by Norbert's authority.  Despite opposition (a mob once attacked   
   him   
   in his own cathedral), the archbishop carried out his reforms and eventually   
   had   
   an improved diocese.   
      
    The last achievement in Norbert's full life was to join with Saint Bernard   
   and   
   the emperor Lothair to uphold Pope Innocent II in his struggle against the   
   antipope Anacletus II.  That fight took Norbert to Rome again, in 1133,   
   although   
   the outcome was successful, the effort proved too much for Norbert's health.   
   He   
   became ill on his return to Magdeburg and, shortly after his arrival there,   
   died   
   on June 6, 1134.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   If it were only a question of teaching human knowledge to the children,   
   there   
   would be no need for Brothers, since lay teachers can do this work. If we   
   are to   
   give only religious instruction, we would be content to be simply   
   catechists,   
   and to bring the children together for only one hour a day. But we want to   
   do   
   more than this - we want to educate the children, that is, to give them an   
   integrated education... To do this, we must be educators, we must live with   
   the   
   children, and they must spend a lot of time with us.   
   -Saint Marcelino Champagnat   
      
   Bible quote:   
   I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and what will I but that it be   
   kindled?   
   (Luke 12:49)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer to Saint Raphael   
      
   O Raphael, lead us toward those we are waiting for, those who are waiting   
   for   
   us: Raphael, Angel of happy meeting, lead us by the hand toward those we are   
   looking for. May all our movements be guided by your Light and transfigured   
   with your joy.   
      
   Angel, guide of Tobias, lay the request we now address to you at the feet of   
   Him on whose unveiled Face you are privileged to gaze. Lonely and tired,   
   crushed by the separations and sorrows of life, we feel the need of calling   
   you   
   and   
   of pleading for the protection of your wings, so that we may not be as   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)