From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Humility in the Sight of God [II]    
      
   It is Thy love that achieves this, freely guiding and supporting me in   
   my many needs, guarding me from grievous perils, and, as I may   
   truthfully confess, rescuing me from evils without number. And whereas   
   by perverse self-love I had lost myself, (John 12:25) now by lovingly   
   seeking Thee alone, I have found both myself and Thee; for by that   
   love I have humbled myself to utter nothingness. Dearest Lord, Thou   
   dealeth with me above my deserts, and above all I dare hope or pray   
   for.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3, Ch 8   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
    August 8th - St. Dominic   
   (1171?-1221 A.D.)   
      
   As founder of the Dominican order, the Spaniard St. Dominic ranks with   
   the Italian St. Francis of Assisi among the charismatic reformers of   
   the 13th century.   
      
   Dominic (surname de Guzman) was a native of Calaroga, Spain. His folks   
   were noted for their dedication to the Church. Dominic studied for the   
   priesthood and was named one of the official “chapter of canons” of   
   the cathedral of Osma. From the start, his was a life of constant   
   study, prayer, and priestly labor.   
      
   In 1204, Canon de Guzman went on an assignment that would broaden his   
   horizons. Alfonso IX of Castile sent Bishop Diego of Osma to Denmark   
   to arrange for a wedding between Alfonso’s son and a Danish princess.   
   Diego took Dominic with him. Passage through southern France brought   
   the pair into their first contact with the great number of Albigensian   
   heretics who lived there. These were Catholics who had lately become   
   infected with Manicheism. Manicheism was an ancient Mideast religion   
   that saw the world as a battleground between two opposing principles,   
   good and evil. They associated this evil with all material things, and   
   the good with spiritual things alone. Thus they denied the incarnation   
   and death of Christ, because they said God would never assume a   
   detestable human body. On the same basis, they rejected the Christian   
   sacraments. Salvation, they said, could be acquired only by fasting   
   from food and drink and abstaining from marriage, so as not to further   
   populate the world with fleshly human beings. Indeed, suicide was   
   commendable as a sign of disdain of the flesh.   
      
   How could Catholics have been taken in by this morbid error? Dominic   
   saw two main reasons: 1. They had never been properly educated in the   
   Catholic faith. 2. The heretical leaders, with their detachment and   
   poverty, seemed more “Christian” in their lives than the   
   self-indulgent Catholic clergy. Therefore Dominic gathered a team of   
   preachers and spent ten years preaching true doctrine in France, and   
   carefully setting the best possible Christian good example. Like   
   “hounds of God,” they pursued their campaign, winning many back to the   
   truth.   
      
   His success having proved his diagnosis, Dominic now founded a   
   religious order called the “Order of Preachers,” but popularly known   
   as the Dominicans. Its chief mission was to educate by preaching (and   
   for this his friars had to be constantly studying their theology).   
   Just as important was his stress on the poverty and humility of his   
   Dominicans. He had practically experienced what St. Jerome once wrote,   
   “Your deeds are more credible than your words.” (It was in connection   
   with founding this order that Dominic met and was inspired by St.   
   Francis of Assisi.)   
      
   Because of his insistence on scholarship, the Order of Preachers   
   spread rapidly to European learned centers, like the Universities of   
   Paris and Bologna. They soon produced such savants as St. Thomas   
   Aquinas and St. Albert the Great. By 1221 the Dominicans were   
   represented in Palestine, Poland, France, Spain, Hungary, Scandinavia,   
   and England. Eventually they would spread to the New World. Dominic   
   also founded a women’s Dominican branch and a third order that   
   welcomed laity. They established many charitable institutes and   
   influenced popular piety, especially by promoting the recitation of   
   the rosary. Today, the friars alone have 6800 members.   
      
   Dominic was clearly a genius as well as a saint, an organizer as well   
   as a mystic. Thrice offered a bishopric, he thrice declined. He felt   
   that his educational task was his true calling. Although barely 50   
   when he died, his movement still runs strong. One of his secrets of   
   success was an inborn sense of personal concern for others. “Nothing”,   
   wrote his biographer, “disturbed the even temper of his soul except   
   his quick sympathy for every sort of suffering, and as a man’s face   
   shows whether his heart is happy or not, it was easy to see from his   
   friendly and joyous countenance that he was at peace inwardly. With   
   his unfailing gentleness and readiness to help, no one could ever   
   despise his radiant nature, which won all who met him and made him   
   attract people from the first.”   
      
   When his friend Pope Gregory IX prepared to canonize him in 1234, he   
   declared that he was as sure of the holiness of Dominic as he was of   
   that of Ss. Peter and Paul!   
      
   Legend has it that Dominic saw the sinful world threatened by God's   
   anger but saved by the intercession of Our Lady, who pointed out to   
   her son two figures: One was Dominic himself, the other a stranger. In   
   church the next day he saw a ragged beggar enter--the man in the   
   vision. He went up to him, embraced him and said, "You are my   
   companion and must walk with me. If we hold together, no earthly power   
   can withstand us." The beggar was Francis of Assisi. The meeting of   
   the two founders is commemorated twice a year, when on their   
   respective feast days Dominicans and Franciscans celebrate Mass in   
   each other's churches, and afterwards sit at the same table "to eat   
   the bread which for seven centuries has never been wanting" (Butler's   
   Lives of the Saints).   
      
      
   Saint Quote   
   However great the work that God may achieve by an individual, he must   
   not indulge in self-satisfaction. He ought rather to be all the more   
   humbled, seeing himself merely as a tool which God has made use of.   
   -St Vincent de Paul   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Put ye on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, the bowels   
   of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience: Bearing with one   
   another and forgiving one another, if any have a complaint against   
   another. Even as the Lord hath forgiven you, so do you also.   
   (Colossians 3:12-13 ) DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Give Me Hope   
      
   When I am tempted, Lord, to despair in the face of ongoing evil, give me hope.   
   When I am tempted to judge others harshly for their failings, give me   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)