From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Judgement and the Punishment of Sinners  (VII)   
      
   Then will he who kept his body in subjection (I Col.9:27) have greater   
   joy than he who lavished every pleasure upon it. Then will the rags of   
   the poor shine with splendour, and the gorgeous raiment become   
   tarnished.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 24   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   July 5th –  Bl. Peter of Luxemburg, Bishop of Metz and Cardinal   
      
   PETER was son to Guy of Luxemburg, Count of Ligny, and his wife Mahaut   
   de Châtillon, and was born in 1369. He was left an orphan when only   
   four years old; his piety and intelligence attracted notice, and at   
   ten he was sent to Paris to pursue his studies, where he was made a   
   canon of Notre Dame, in accordance with an abuse all too common in   
   those days. In 1380-81 he spent some months at Calais as hostage for   
   the payment of the ransom of his elder brother, who was a prisoner in   
   English hands.   
      
   In 1378 the “Great Schism of the West” began, destined to last 39   
   years. It was perhaps the most agonizing episode in the history of the   
   Church.   
      
   This division was no ordinary schism. Schism usually means a voluntary   
   breakaway from papal obedience by a group of Christians. In the Great   
   Schism, however, Christians did not disobey the pope. Their problem   
   was the true pope, for there were two – and later even three – whose   
   claims to be pope seemed impressive.   
      
   Here is the way the tangle began. In 1378 the cardinals gathered at   
   Rome to elect a new pope. But they couldn’t agree on a cardinal, for   
   the French party wanted a Frenchman and the Italian party wanted an   
   Italian. The reason why the two parties were so uptight was that since   
   1305 all the popes had been French, and they had lived not in Rome but   
   on a patch of papal land at Avignon in France. The Italians wanted the   
   pope back in Rome, which was, after all, his diocese.   
      
   Since the French and Italian cardinals could not agree on one of their   
   own number, they finally settled on a non-cardinal Italian, Bartolomeo   
   Prignano of Naples. But Prignano, who took the name Urban VI, was a   
   crotchety person who quickly antagonized the French cardinals who had   
   voted for him. So these cardinals left Rome for Fondi, Italy. At a   
   meeting held there, they declared that Urban VI had not been validly   
   elected. They proceeded to a new election and chose a Frenchman, who   
   took the name Clement VII and went to live at Avignon.   
      
   Who, then, was the real pope? Some nations, since they were no surer   
   than the cardinal electors were, accepted one claimant, some the   
   other. When these men died, their claimants elected successors. In   
   1409 some cardinals of both “obediences” gathered together at Pisa to   
   end the division by ousting both claimants and electing “Alexander V”   
   to replace them. But the two papal claimants refused to be ousted, so   
   now there were three heads of the Church. Only in 1417 did the   
   hierarchy take over, eliminate the three claimants, and pick Martin V   
   as sole pope.   
      
   Blessed Peter of Luxemburg, bishop of Metz, is a good illustration of   
   how Catholics dealt with this cruel dilemma. He was a very devout   
   young French nobleman. From childhood, he had shown a precocious zeal   
   to grow in holiness. In addition to being prayerful, he suffered   
   imprisonment in 1380-1381 as a hostage for his elder brother, a   
   prisoner of the English.   
      
   When the schism broke out in 1378, Peter, like all the French,   
   acknowledged “Clement VII” as the real pope. Peter had been early   
   admitted to the clerical state, although he had no ambition to become   
   a churchman. But Clement VII decided to use the talents of this young   
   nobleman to strengthen his own papal claim; so, although Peter was   
   only 15, he named him bishop of Metz in 1384 and then a cardinal.   
   (Choosing important juveniles for the episcopate and cardinalate was a   
   widespread abuse in those days.) Nevertheless, out of obedience to   
   “his” pope, young Peter did his best to rule his diocese and reform   
   it. Though not ordained a priest or a bishop, he delegated Mass and   
   the administration of the sacraments to his priests and auxiliary   
   bishop.   
      
   He was, in fact, so obedient to Clement that when the pope of Avignon   
   advised him to cut down on his austerities, he followed his advice,   
   replacing his program of fasting with an enlarged program of   
   almsgiving. His motto was “Contempt of the world, contempt of   
   yourself: rejoice in your own contempt, but despise no other person.”   
      
   In 1386, declining in health and weary of the problems generated by   
   the Schism, Peter resigned his bishopric and retired to a nearby   
   Carthusian monastery. There he died a few months later at the age of   
   18. Pope Clement VII, the valid pope of that name, beatified him in   
   1527.   
      
   The principal source of information is the process of beatification,   
   the greater part of which is printed in the Acta Sanctorum (July, vol.   
   i). This is of exceptional interest because very few such documents   
   containing the depositions of the witnesses are preserved to us from   
   the middle ages. Strange to say most of these are concerned with   
   youthful saints belonging to royal or very noble families, e.g. this   
   Peter of Luxemburg, St. Louis of Anjou who was consecrated archbishop   
   of Toulouse and died at the age of 23, and St. Margaret of Hungary who   
   was not 29. A brief account of Bl. Peter, based upon the process, was   
   published by H. Frantyois in 1927, Vie du B. Pierre de Luxembourg.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   There is no sin or wrong that gives a man a foretaste of hell in this   
   life as anger and impatience.   
   –- Saint Catherine of Sienna   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And when they shall lead you and deliver you up, be not thoughtful   
   beforehand what you shall speak: but whatsoever shall be given you in   
   that hour, that speak ye. For it is not you that speak, but the Holy   
   Ghost.  [Mark 13:11 ]   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Invocation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus   
      
   I need Thee, precious Jesus,   
   I need a friend like Thee;   
   A friend to soothe and sympathize,   
   A friend to care for me.   
   I need Thy Heart, sweet Jesus,   
   To feel each anxious care;   
   I long to tell my every want,   
   And all my sorrows share.   
   I need Thy Blood, sweet Jesus,   
   To wash each sinful stain;   
   To cleanse this sinful soul of mine,   
   And make it pure again.   
   I need Thy Wounds, sweet Jesus,   
   To fly from perils near,   
   To shelter in these hallowed clefts   
   From every doubt and fear.   
   I need Thee, sweetest Jesus,   
   In Thy Sacrament of Love,   
   To nourish this poor soul of mine   
   With the treasures of Thy love.   
   I'll need Thee, sweetest Jesus,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)