From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   October 16th - St Gerard Majella, Redemptorist   
      
   (1726-1755)   
      
   Saint Gerard Majella is known as a Thaumaturge, a Saint who works miracles   
   not just occasionally, but as a matter of course. It has been said that God   
   raises up not more than one every century. He was born in Italy at Muro   
   Lucano, south of Naples, in 1726. As a child of five, when he would go to   
   pray before a statue of the Virgin with her Child, the Infant Jesus   
   regularly descended to give him a little white bun. He took it home and   
   naively told his mother, when she asked him, where he obtained it. His   
   sister was sent to the church to observe in secret, and saw the miracle for   
   herself. He wanted very much to receive Holy Communion at the age of seven   
   and went to the Communion railing one day with the others; but the priest,   
   seeing his age, passed him up; and he went back to his place in tears. The   
   following night, Saint Michael the Archangel brought him the Communion he so   
   much desired.   
      
   As he grew older, when anyone spoke to him about marriage, he would answer:   
   "The Madonna has ravished my heart, and I have made Her a present of it." He   
   desired to enter religion, but his health was unstable as a result of the   
   mortifications he had constantly practiced as a young man. He had acquired a   
   reputation of sanctity, and finally, when he was 23 years old, he obtained   
   the aid of some missionaries to second his request, and was admitted as a   
   Coadjutor of the newly founded Congregation of Redemptorists, in 1749.   
      
   He showed himself to be a model of every virtue and he did the work of four,   
   still finding time to take on himself that of others. He would say: "Let me   
   do it, I am younger, take a rest." He made the heroic vow of always choosing   
   what appeared to him most perfect. He was perfectly obedient to his   
   superior's wishes, even when not expressed; and one day, to demonstrate this   
   to a visiting authority who required a proof, his immediate Superior sent   
   him out, saying: "I will tell him interiorly to return; he needs no other   
   command than this." Soon the Brother knocked on the door once more and said:   
   "You sent for me to come back?" He conducted a group of students on a   
   nine-day pilgrimage to Mount Gargano, where the Archangel Michael had   
   appeared. They had very little money for the trip, and when they arrived at   
   the site, there was none left. Gerard went before the tabernacle and told   
   Our Lord that it was His responsibility to take care of the little group. He   
   had been observed in the church by a religious, who invited the Saint and   
   his companions to lodge in his residence. When the party was ready to start   
   home again, Gerard prayed once more, and immediately someone appeared and   
   gave him a roll of bills.   
      
   The most famous of Saint Gerard's miracles occurred when a mason fell from a   
   scaffolding during the construction of a building. Gerard had been forbidden   
   by his Superior to work any more miracles without permission. He stopped the   
   man in mid-air, telling him to wait until he had obtained permission to save   
   him. He received it, and the man descended gently to the ground. When a   
   plague broke out, he had the gift of bilocation; he was seen in more than   
   one house at the same time, assisting the sick. Not a page of his life, it   
   is said, was without prodigies, all tending to the glory of God and   
   motivated by prodigious charity towards his neighbor. He was condemned   
   falsely at one time, as a result of a connivance between two individuals;   
   the Superior General, Saint Alphonsus Liguori himself, who did not know   
   Gerard personally, was induced to believe the black calumny. Later the   
   guilty ones wrote him a letter confessing their fault, and Gerard, who had   
   said nothing at all when relegated into solitude, was asked why he had not   
   said he was innocent. He replied that the Rule required that the religious   
   not defend themselves.   
      
   He died in 1755 at the age of 29 years, was beatified in 1893 by Pope Leo   
   XIII and canonized in 1904 by Saint Pius X.   
      
   Source: Biography of St. Gerard Majella, text by A. R. Levebvre, in Un Saint   
   pour chaque jour du mois (Paris: 1932), Vol. 10, October.   
      
   Saint Quote :   
   Whatever troubles may be before you, accept them bravely, remembering Whom   
   you are trying to follow. Do not be afraid. Love one another, bear with one   
   another, and let charity guide you all your life. God will reward you as   
   only He can.   
   --Blessed Mary MacKillop   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer for the souls in purgatory, from Father Lasance's My Prayer Book:   
      
   " St. Thomas declares that prayer for the dead is the most excellent kind   
   of intercessory prayer.   
      
   The Cure D'Ars once said: 'Oh my friends, let us pray much, and let obtain   
   many prayers from others, for the poor dead; the good God will render back   
   to us the good we do for them a hundred fold.  Ah! if everyone knew how   
   useful this devotion to the holy souls in purgatory is to those who   
   practice it, they would not be forgotten so often; the good God regards all   
   that we do for them as if it were done to Himself.' "   
      
   From the Raccolta, the Sequence for the Holy Souls:  Dies Irae, Dies Illa   
      
   Day of wrath and doom impending,   
   David's word with Sibyl's blending,   
   Heaven and earth in ashes ending!   
      
   O what fear man's bosom rendeth,   
   When from heaven the Judge descendeth,   
   On whose sentence all dependeth!   
      
   Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth,   
   Through earth's sepulchres it ringeth,   
   All before the throne it bringeth.   
      
   Death is struck, and nature quaking,   
   All creation is awaking,   
   To its Judge an answer making.   
      
   Lo! the book exactly worded,   
   Wherein all hath been recorded;   
   Thence shall judgement be awarded.   
      
   When the Judge His seat attaineth,   
   And each hidden deed arraigneth,   
   Nothing unavenged remaineth.   
      
   What shall I, frail (wo)man, be pleading?   
   Who for me be interceding,   
   When the just are mercy needing?   
      
   King of majesty tremendous,   
   Who dost free salvation send us,   
   Fount of pity, then befriend us!   
      
   Think kind Jesu! - my salvation   
   Caused Thy wondrous Incarnation;   
   Leave me not to reprobation.   
      
   Faint and weary thou hast sought me,   
   On the Cross of suffering bought me;   
   shall such grace be vainly brought me?   
      
   Righteous Judge! for sin's pollution   
   Grant Thy gift of absolution,   
   Ere that day of retribution.   
      
   Guilty now I pour my moaning,   
   All my shame with anguish owning;   
   Spare, O God, thy suppliant groaning!   
      
   Through the sinful woman shiven,   
   Through the dying thief forgiven,   
   Thou to me a hope hast given.   
      
   Worthless are my prayers and sighing,   
   Yet, good Lord, in grace complying,   
   Rescue me from fires undying.   
      
   With Thy sheep a place provide me,   
   From the goats afar divide me,   
   To Thy right hand do thou guide me.   
      
   When the wicked are confounded,   
   Doomed to shame and woe unbounded,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)