From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Appreciating God’s Grace (4)   
      
      Always take the lowest place and the highest will be given you, for   
   the highest cannot exist apart from the lowest. The saints who are   
   greatest before God are those who consider themselves the least, and   
   the more humble they are within themselves, so much the more glorious   
   they are. Since they do not desire vainglory, they are full of truth   
   and heavenly glory. Being established and strengthened in God, they   
   can by no means be proud. They attribute to God whatever good they   
   have received; they seek no glory from one another but only that which   
   comes from God alone. They desire above all things that He be praised   
   in themselves and in all His saints--this is their constant purpose.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 2, Chapter 10   
      
      
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   June 18th - St. Gregory Barbargio.   
      
   Born in Venice, Italy, 1625; died June 15, 1697; beatified in 1761;   
   canonized in 1960. When Saint Gregory was born into a noble family,   
   Protestants and Catholics in Europe had been waging a vicious war   
   against each other for 7 years--the start of the 30 Years War. He was   
   educated at Venice.   
      
   Gregory was in his early twenties when the Venetian government chose   
   him to go with their ambassador, Luigi Contarini, to Münster, Germany,   
   where in 1648 the Treaty of Westphalia was drawn up to establish   
   peace. At the conference was the papal representative, Fabio Chigi. He   
   found Gregory to be a quite exceptional young man, and they became   
   friends. Gregory was ordained priest in 1655 and worked heroically   
   during the plague of 1657.   
      
   When Fabio Chigi was consecrated Pope Alexander VII, he did not forget   
   the impression the Venetian had made at Münster: he consecrated   
   Gregory bishop of Bergamo. Three years later (1660) he named him   
   cardinal and then, in 1664, bishop of Padua--an office he held for 33   
   years.   
      
   Gregory was equally distinguished as a churchman and as a statesman.   
   He set about improving the training of the clergy, endowing an   
   excellent college and seminary for them, building its fine patristic   
   library, setting up its own printing press, appointing teachers who   
   knew the writings of the Church Fathers and who were devoted to sacred   
   Scripture. Some of the works published on his press were distributed   
   to Christians in Islamic countries. His charities were on a princely   
   scale (he is said to have given at least 8,000 crowns in charity), and   
   his benefactions to Padua numerous and lasting. He was an earnest   
   worker for the reconciliation of the dissident Greeks.   
      
   Gregory's pastoral commitment was comparable to that of Saint Charles   
   Borromeo. While very demanding of himself, he was kind to others,   
   treating those in trouble with great compassion. As a cardinal, he   
   participated in five conclaves and was himself considered a serious   
   candidate for the papacy. He was buried in Padua cathedral (Bentley,   
   Benedictines, Farmer, White).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "When the heart is occupied with worldly things, especially   
   superfluous ones, it forsakes the Lord--the Source of life and   
   peace--and is therefore deprived of life and tranquillity, of light   
   and strength; but when it repents of its care for vain things, and   
   wholly turns from corruptible things to the incorruptible God, then   
   the fountain of living water again begins to flow into it, and peace,   
   tranquillity, light, strength, and boldness before God and man one   
   more dwell within it. We must live wisely."   
   --St. John of Kronstadt.   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by   
   one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."  (Romans 5:19)   
      
      
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   A Mother's Plea    
      
   Oh, Mother of Perpetual Help,   
   To you I send my plea,   
   Look down upon my beloved son.   
   Take care of him for me.   
   And when he’s blue and sick at heart,   
   Discouraged and oppressed,   
   Give him the will to carry on,   
   In heaven’s grace to rest.   
   Show unto him a Mother’s love,   
   As you have shown to me.   
   Bringing comfort to his lonely heart   
   Is mine, his mother’s plea.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)