From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   May 14th - Saint Michael Garicoits, Founder   
   (1797-1863)   
      
   Saint Michael Garicoits was born in 1797 on a small farm in the south of   
   France,   
   near the town of Ibarre, not far from Lourdes and from Betharram, an ancient   
   pilgrimage site. Later the mother house of the Congregation which he   
   founded,   
   the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Betharram, was established at that site.   
      
   He was ordained a priest at Bayonne in 1823, and spent two years as   
   Assistant in   
   the parish of Cambo, where he established the devotion and confraternity of   
   the   
   Sacred Heart. He was summoned to the Major Seminary of Betharram to serve as   
   a   
   professor of philosophy and theology in 1825, and he became Superior there   
   in   
   1831.   
      
   In 1832 he made a retreat based on the Spiritual Exercises of Saint   
   Ignatius,   
   which strengthened in him his desire to found a new Society of Priests, a   
   desire   
   confirmed by his superiors' approbation. He had been greatly impressed by   
   the   
   poverty he had seen practiced by a holy Foundress of a Congregation of   
   Sisters,   
   herself compared to Saint Teresa of Avila, who during her lifetime saw 99   
   houses   
   of her Congregation established in several countries. Saint Michael desired   
   the   
   same practice of poverty for his priests, as he had seen instituted under   
   the   
   direction of Saint Elizabeth Bichier des Ages, who founded the Daughters of   
   the   
   Cross, or Sisters of Saint Andrew. Saint Elizabeth was, by a singular   
   disposition of Providence, later canonized the same day as Saint Michael.   
   Both   
   Saints taught the importance of the interior life as the unique and   
   irreplaceable source of any serious apostolate.   
      
   In his early efforts as founder, the fervent priest was faced with the   
   opposition of his bishop, who desired that the new Institute be placed more   
   specifically under diocesan authority than under that of its religious   
   Superiors. Saint Michael, devoted to the Will of God, the point of departure   
   to   
   attain sanctity, remained in submission for long years. In 1875, after a   
   wholly   
   supernatural intervention which occurred in the nearby Convent of Pau   
   through   
   the intermediary of the Arab Carmelite, Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified, the   
   Institute as he conceived it was approved in Rome under Leo XIII. This   
   occurred   
   after the holy Founder had already been called to his reward in 1863.   
      
     Miracles by the dozens had followed his death, and the Priests of the   
   Sacred   
   Heart of Betharram spread in the lands of South America, as well as in   
   France,   
   England and Italy, where they direct teaching activities.   
      
   At the canonization, Pius XII exhorted the religious of the Institute of the   
   Sacred Heart and the Daughters of the Cross, present at the canonization of   
   their respective Founders, to maintain the primitive spirit of their   
   Congregations, saying: "Be deaf to the temptation to sacrifice your   
   religious   
   life and personal sanctification to the apostolate. That would be similar to   
   gathering beautiful flowers from a tree to form a bouquet, and afterwards   
   wanting to find fruit on barren branches."   
      
   Sources: Nouvelle Revue théologique, Vol. 69, (December 1947; Un Saint   
   basque,   
   le bienheureux Michel Garicoïts, by Gaëtan Bernoville (J. de Gigord: Paris,   
   1936); Magnificat magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 6, June 1995 (Magnificat: St.   
   Jovite).   
      
      
   Quote:   
   [The Church] simply permits them [private revelations] to be published for   
   the   
   instruction and the edification of the faithful. The assent to be given to   
   them   
   is not therefore an act of Catholic Faith but of human faith, based upon the   
   fact that these revelations are probable and worthy of credence. St. John of   
   the   
   cross asserts that the desire for revelations deprives faith of its purity,   
   develops a dangerous curiosity that becomes a source of illusions, fills the   
   mind with vain fancies, and often proves the want of humility, and of   
   submission   
   to Our Lord, Who, through His public revelation, has given all that is   
   needed   
   for salvation. We must suspect those apparitions that lack dignity or proper   
   reserve, and above all, those that are ridiculous. This last characteristic   
   is a   
   mark of human or diabolical machination.   
   --Pope Benedict XIV   
      
   Bible Quote   
   It is good to give praise to the Lord: and to sing to thy name, O most High.   
   (Psalms 91:2)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A prayer to Mary, and an triple invocation:   
      
   O dearest Lady, Sweet Mother mine, watch the hour   
   when my departing soul shall lose its hold on all earthly   
   things, and stand unveiled in the presence of its Creator.   
   Show thyself as my tender Mother then, and offer to the   
   Eternal Father the precious Blood of thy Son Jesus for my   
   poor soul, that it may, thus purified, be pleasing in His   
   sight.  Plead for thy poor child at the moment of his (or   
   her) departure from this world, and say to the Heavenly   
   Father: Receive him (or her) this day into Thy Kingdom!   
   Amen.   
      
   Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul.   
   Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me in my last agony.   
   Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may I breathe forth my soul in   
   peace with you.   
      
   Imprimatur:  +John Farley, Archbishop of New York,   
   Sept 19, 1908.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   NOVENA TO SAINT LUCY FOR PERFECT VISION   
      
   Relying on Your goodness, O God, we humbly ask You,   
   through the intercession of Saint Lucy, virgin and martyr, to   
   give perfect vision to our eyes, that they may serve for Your   
   greater honor and glory. Saint Lucy, hear our prayers and   
   obtain our petitions. Amen   
      
   A Novena must be said every day for 9 days.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)