From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   March 4th - Bl. Giovanni Antonio Farina, Founder   
      
   (1803-1888)   
      
   He was born into a religious family in Gambellara, Italy, on 11 January   
   1803, as the second of five brothers. After the premature death of his   
   father, Fr Antonio, his uncle, took the family into his home. This priest   
   was his spiritual and intellectual mentor. When he was 15 he entered the   
   diocesan seminary of Vicenza where at 21 he was asked to begin teaching. On   
   15 January 1827, he was ordained priest and immediately afterwards earned an   
   elementary school teacher's diploma. On account of his pedagogical gifts, he   
   was appointed as teacher and spiritual director at the seminary where he   
   served for 18 years. He was assistant pastor at St Peter's Parish for 10   
   years and headmaster in elementary and secondary schools in Vicenza. In 1831   
   in Vicenza he founded the first school for poor girls and in 1836, the   
   Institute of the Sisters Teachers of St Dorothy, Daughters of the Sacred   
   Hearts, to supply suitable teachers. He wanted his religious also to care   
   for deafmutes, blind girls and the psychologically handicapped. They nursed   
   the sick and the elderly in hospital and at home. There was no form of   
   suffering that this farsighted founder overlooked.   
      
   In 1850 Fr Farina was appointed Bishop of Treviso. Here he undertook a   
   variety of pastoral initiatives, forming his priests and laity for   
   evangelization and catholic action. Throughout his ten-year term, canonical   
   problems with the Cathedral Chapter caused him constant suffering and   
   setbacks. Here he was able to follow the preparation of Giuseppe Sarto (the   
   future St Pius X) for the priesthood ordaining him in 1858. In 1860 he was   
   transferred to Vicenza.   
      
   Despite the turbulent period in Italian history, during his 28 years as   
   bishop he embarked on an ambitious pastoral programme that included the   
   spiritual and cultural formation of the priests and of the laity for   
   evangelization, the reform of studies and discipline in the seminary, and   
   the organization of associations for the care of the poor. He was called the   
   "Bishop of Charity". In 1889 he was able to hold a diocesan synod. He was   
   devoted to the pastoral visit and visited every parish even those that had   
   never seen a bishop. His strength ebbed after a serious illness in 1886 and   
   he died from a stroke in Vicenza on 4 March 1888. His compassionate   
   treatment of the poor and his enlightened views on teachers and education   
   make Bishop Farina one of the more outstanding bishops of the 19th century.   
   Today, the institute he founded is involved in education as well as health   
   care and pastoral assistance in many countries.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself -Matt. 16:24   
      
   "The measure of our advancement in the spiritual life should be taken from   
   the progress we make in the virtue of mortification; for it should be held   
   as certain that the greater violence we shall do ourselves in mortification,   
   the greater advance we shall make in perfection"   
   --St. Jerome   
      
    When St. Francis Borgia heard it said that anyone was a saint, he used to   
   answer, "He is, if he is mortified" In this way he himself became so great a   
   saint; for he exercised himself in mortification to such a degree that only   
   that day seemed to him truly wretched in which he had not undergone some   
   mortification, either bodily or spiritually.   
      
    When a young monk once asked an aged saint why, among so many who aim at   
   perfection, so few are found perfect, he replied, "Because in order to be   
   perfect it is necessary to die wholly to one's own inclinations, and there   
   are few who arrive at this."   
      
    (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints"  March - Mortification)   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
   10. Then Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan: for it is written, The Lord thy   
   God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve. (Matthew 4:10)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A short prayer for Lent, especially in preparation for the Mass of Good   
   Friday or Benediction of the Cross:   
      
   Adesto nobis, Domine Deus noster; et quos sanctae Crucis laetari facis   
   honore, eius quoque perpetuis defende subsidiis.  Per Christum Dominum   
   nostrum.  Amen.   
      
   Assist us, O Lord our God; and defend us evermore by the might of Thy holy   
   Cross, in whose honor Thou makest us to rejoice.  Through Christ our   
   Lord.  Amen.   
      
    Imprimatur:  Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbp of New York,   
   May 31, 1951.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer to St. Michael, the Archangel   
   [Promulgated by Pope Leo XIII]   
      
   Short Version:   
      
   St. Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our   
   defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May   
   God rebuke him, we humbly pray O Prince of the heavenly   
   host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and the other   
   evil spirits who prowl about the world for the ruin of souls.   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)