From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Of the Good, Peaceable Man  (3)   
      
      It is no great thing to associate with the good and gentle, for   
   such association is naturally pleasing.  Everyone enjoys a peaceful   
   life and prefers persons of congenial habits. But to be able to live   
   at peace with harsh and perverse men, or with the undisciplined and   
   those who irritate us, is a great grace, a praiseworthy and manly   
   thing.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 2, Chapter 3   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   August 2nd – St. Peter Julian Eymard, Founder   
   (Also known as Pierre-Julien Eymard )   
      
   Saint Peter Julian Eymard was born in the Alpine mountains of eastern   
   France in the year 1811, son of a poor olive-presser. His mother   
   inspired in him horror of sin and love for the Blessed Sacrament and   
   the Blessed Virgin. He solemnly promised Our Lord, on the day of his   
   First Communion, that he would become a priest. This plan was not   
   approved by his father, as Peter was his only son and destined to   
   inherit his little industry. The young boy studied Latin on his own,   
   in spare moments, encouraged by an Oblate missionary priest.   
      
   After the death of his father he entered the Oblate novitiate at   
   Marseille and received the habit in 1829. It was not long, however,   
   before he was sent home for poor health. Reduced to agony and having   
   received the Last Sacraments, he was cured after praying to have the   
   grace to say only one Mass before he died. Monsignor de Mazenod,   
   bishop of Marseille and founder of the Oblates, helped him to enter   
   the diocesan seminary, and there he was ordained in 1834. He was named   
   to a country parish, backward at his arrival but fervent like himself   
   at his departure five years later. His health had improved, and he   
   felt a very strong call to enter the Marist Society of Lyons, recently   
   founded.   
      
   The Founder and Superior General, Venerable Father Colin, soon   
   perceived his great merits and named him successively to three   
   important posts in the administration of the new Society of   
   missionaries. It was as spiritual Director of the college of Belley   
   that he became an experienced master in the direction of souls, both   
   religious and lay. The families of the students, in addition to the   
   professors and students themselves, found their piety flourishing   
   miraculously, and almost unawares, under his gentle influence.   
      
   But God wanted yet more of this heroic priest, and Saint Peter Julian   
   again recognized a divine call to go farther on the path of sacrifice.   
   Certain that he must found a Congregation dedicated uniquely to   
   promoting the glory and reign of Jesus in His Sacrament of Love, he   
   met strong resistance in his Superior, who desired to keep him among   
   the Marists. He loved that Community as he was loved by them, but   
   eventually the Will of God became evident to all concerned. He was   
   free to depart and to found with one associate, a priest who was a   
   former military man, his new Society in Paris. He had already made his   
   decisive retreat there under the authority of the archbishop, Msgr.   
   Sibour, who had encouraged him, as had also Pope Pius IX on hearing of   
   his intention.   
      
   The little Congregation, which grew slowly but surely, was obliged   
   twice to abandon its first two headquarters, but not before they had   
   done a remarkable work in Paris to prepare adults for First Communion.   
   How many there were in those days of tottering faith, who had never   
   made that Communion, the Lord knew well. This proposed labor had been   
   the decisive factor for the Archbishop, when the retreatant,   
   determined to obey him, confronted him with the question: “Is it or   
   not the Will of God for me to leave the Marist Fathers?” It was in an   
   old and miserable quarter of Paris that this labor for the poor began   
   and continued, after 1857, for a short eleven years before its   
   Founder’s early death in 1868. During these years of constant   
   opposition, demolitions, shock and unrelenting trials, Saint Peter   
   Julian was exhausted by the difficulties of founding not one, but two   
   Communities--a second one for Sister-Servants of the Blessed   
   Sacrament, as well as an Association of Priest-adorers. He was   
   destined to be the fertilizer at the base of the tree, as he had said;   
   his prophetic word was fulfilled. After his death all his works   
   expanded prodigiously; and less than one hundred years later, its   
   heroic Founder was canonized by Pope John XXIII in 1962.   
      
   Reflection: Saint Peter Julian said one day to his priests: “I have   
   shown you the purpose and organization of our little Society: As for   
   the means of success, that is not our affair, it is God’s!” God who   
   gives success also grants failure to His chosen souls. As Saint Peter   
   understood, crosses are His gifts of predilection. No one may enter   
   heaven who has not been humiliated and formed to the likeness of the   
   Eternal Son of God.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Those who attend to the regulation of their own consciences are not   
   much given to form rash judgments; far from wasting their reflections   
   in dissecting the actions and intentions of their neighbors, whose   
   conduct may appear cloudy and obscure, they enter into themselves, and   
   use their utmost endeavors to reform and perfect their own lives, like   
   bees which, in misty and cloudy weather, return to their hive to   
   pursue their home labors. Rash judgment produces detraction, which is   
   the bane of conversation. Were detraction banished from the world,   
   numberless other sins would be banished together with it.   
   -- St. Francis de Sales   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love.  (John 15:10)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   For this day, a reflection of Saint Eymard on Holy   
   Communion:   
      
   Having received Jesus into your heart at Holy Communion,   
   spend some time in simple reflection, without vocal prayers.   
   Adore Him in silence; sit like Magdalen in humble, adoring   
   love at His feet; gaze upon Him like Zaccheus, love Him in   
   mute worship, like Mary, His Mother.   
      
   Call Him your King, the Spouse of you soul.  Say to Him;   
   "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth."  Offer yourself to Him   
   as His servant, ready to execute His will.  Bind your heart to   
   His footstool, that it may wander no more, or rather, put it   
   under His feet, that He may crush out its self-love and pride.   
      
   While your soul remains in recollection, in the hushed calm of   
   His holy presence, do not seek to disturb it.  It is the sleep of   
   the soul upon the breast of Jesus, and this grace, which   
   strengthens and unites it to Our Lord, will be more profitable   
   that any other exercise.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)