From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   October 9th - St. Louis Bertrand, Dominican Missionary and Preacher   
      
   Saint Louis Bertrand was born in the year 1526, the oldest of the eight   
   children   
   of his good Christian parents, at Valencia in Spain. He was in every way a   
   model   
   of modesty and obedience, and it was foreseen that God had some particular   
   role   
   for him. He devoted himself to the sick in the hospitals. He desired to   
   enter   
   the Order of Saint Dominic, but for some time could not obtain his parents'   
   permission. Finally, in 1545, he became professed in the Dominican Order,   
   then   
   was ordained a priest in 1547 when he was only 21 years old, according to   
   the   
   desire of his Superiors. In 1551, at the age of twenty-five, he was made   
   master   
   of novices, and in this post he formed many great servants of God. It is   
   said   
   that despite his strictness, he was so gentle that his chastisements were   
   more   
   agreeable to his novices than the favors of their best friends.   
      
   In 1560, when the plague broke out in Valencia, his Superiors, not wanting   
   to   
   lose him, sent him elsewhere for a time; he preached with great success and   
   was   
   endowed with the spirit of prophecy. He continued his preaching when   
   recalled to   
   Valencia. In 1562 he obtained leave to embark for Carthagena in the American   
   mission, and there converted vast multitudes to the Faith. He hoped to   
   obtain   
   the grace of martyrdom there, but God conserved his life. He was favored   
   with   
   the gift of miracles, and, after praying for the gift to be understood   
   without   
   an interpreter, since one of those had disappointed him seriously, he   
   preached   
   in his mother tongue, Spanish, but was understood by all the natives of   
   various   
   tribes.   
      
   In his mission at Tubera he himself baptized 10,500 Indians, without   
   counting   
   those his companions baptized, and obliged them to burn their idols and the   
   sites of their detestable sacrifices. Often his gentleness charmed his worst   
   enemies. He preached also at Capicoa and Paluato, having established   
   missions   
   there. He refused all remuneration; he brought down rain after a drought. He   
   was   
   poisoned by some pagans who had suffered a reproach, but the poison did not   
   harm   
   him, and the barbarians were converted by the miracle. He went to many other   
   places, preaching and healing the sick; again he was poisoned without   
   effect.   
   There was no one who did not consider him a Saint, sent for the benefit of   
   the   
   new continent.   
      
   After seven years he returned to Spain to plead the cause of the Indians,   
   oppressed and given bad example by his own countrymen. He was not permitted,   
   however, to return and labor among them. He spent his remaining days   
   preaching,   
   laboring for the conversion of different cities, and again forming the   
   novices   
   of the Order at Valencia. He was elected Prior of that convent, and never   
   had a   
   more charitable or more zealous Superior been seen there. At length, after   
   suffering from a long and painful illness, he was carried from the pulpit in   
   the   
   Cathedral at Valencia to the bed from which he never rose. He died on the   
   day he   
   had foretold, October 9, 1581, at the age of 55 years.   
      
   Reflection: The Saints fasted, toiled, and wept, not only for love of God,   
   but   
   in fear of damnation. How shall we, with our self-indulgent lives and   
   unexamined   
   consciences, face the judgment-seat of Christ?   
      
   Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin   
   (Bloud   
   et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 12; Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a   
   compilation based on Butler's Lives of the Saints and other sources by John   
   Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Envy is a sadness which we feel on account of the good that happens to our   
   neighbour.   
      
   Envy, my children, follows pride; whoever is envious is proud. See, envy   
   comes   
   to us from Hell; the devils having sinned through pride, sinned also through   
   envy, envying our glory, our happiness. Why do we envy the happiness and the   
   goods of others? Because we are proud; we should like to be the sole   
   possessors   
   of talents, riches, of the esteem and love of all the world! We hate our   
   equals,   
   because they are our equals; our inferiors, from the fear that they may   
   equal   
   us; our superiors, because they are above us. In the same way, my children,   
   that   
   the devil after his fall felt, and still feels, extreme anger at seeing us   
   the   
   heirs of the glory of the good God, so the envious man feels sadness at   
   seeing   
   the spiritual and temporal prosperity of his neighbour.   
      
   We walk, my children, in the footsteps of the devil; like him, we are vexed   
   at   
   good, and rejoice at evil. If our neighbour loses anything, if his affairs   
   go   
   wrong, if he is humbled, if he is unfortunate, we are joyful. . . we   
   triumph!   
   The devil, too, is full of joy and triumph when we fall, when he can make us   
   fall as low as himself. What does he gain by it? Nothing. Shall we be   
   richer,   
   because our neighbour is poorer? Shall we be greater, because he is less?   
   Shall   
   we be happier, because he is more unhappy? O my children! how much we are to   
   be   
   pitied for being like this! St. Cyprian said that other evils had limits,   
   but   
   that envy had none. In fact, my children, the envious man invents all sorts   
   of   
   wickedness; he has recourse to evil speaking, to calumny, to cunning, in   
   order   
   to blacken his neighbour; he repeats what he knows, and what he does not   
   know he   
   invents, he exaggerates. . . .   
      
   Through the envy of the devil, death entered into the world; and also   
   through   
   envy we kill our neighbour; by dint of malice, of falsehood, we make him   
   lose   
   his reputation, his place. . . . Good Christians, my children, do not do so;   
   they envy no one; they love their neighbour; they rejoice at the good that   
   happens to him, and they weep with him if any misfortune comes upon him. How   
   happy should we be if we were good Christians. Ah! my children, let us,   
   then, be   
   good Christians and we shall no more envy the good fortune of our neighbour;   
   we   
   shall never speak evil of him; we shall enjoy a sweet peace; our soul will   
   be   
   calm; we shall find paradise on earth.   
   -Saint John Vianney on Envy   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth. For   
   he   
   shall not speak of himself; but what things soever he shall hear, he shall   
   speak; and the things that are to come, he shall shew you.  (John 16:13)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   St. Brigit Prayers   
      
   This is the first prayer of the devotional of St. Bridget; there are   
   fourteen   
   prayers and a concluding prayer.  These will be listed one a day for the   
   next   
   fifteen days/Saints.  A special thanks to Fr. McDonald for providing an   
   older   
   and more beautiful translation of these prayers.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)