From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Preparation for Communion   
      
   THE DISCIPLE.   
    Lord, when I consider Thy dignity and my own lowliness, I am full of   
   fear and confusion. For if I do not receive Thee, I refuse life; and   
   if I intrude myself unworthily, I incur Thy displeasure. What, then,   
   shall I do, my God, my Helper, my Counsellor in need? Show me the   
   right way, and set before me some short exercise, suitable for Holy   
   Communion. I must learn to prepare my heart for Thee devoutly and   
   reverently, both for the fruitful receiving of Thy Sacrament, and for   
   the right offering of so august and divine a Sacrifice.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 4 Ch.6   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   January 6th - St. André Bessett, Miracle-Worker   
   Also known as,  Alfred, Alfredo, Andreas, Frère André   
      
   (1845-1937)   
      
   Little Alfred Bessette, born at St. Grégoire, Quebec on August 9,   
   1845, had his roots in our own soil. The future Saint Brother Andrew   
   of Mount Royal was a son of this land and of the French Canadian   
   family. The infant was baptized conditionally the day after his birth   
   in the village “church”, which at that time was a stone house serving   
   as the only sacred dwelling. He was so frail that his parents had   
   “undulated” him immediately after his birth.   
      
   Since the family was poor, they went four years later to Farnham,   
   where the father could earn his living more readily. One fatal day he   
   went with the lumberjacks to the forest and, as Brother Andrew would   
   say later, “the tree he was cutting became locked in the branches of   
   another, and my unfortunate father was crushed to death.” The child   
   was nine years old and remembered that his mother “remained as though   
   frozen”. A widow with ten children, she scarcely recovered from the   
   shock of the accident. She “faded away” and died three years later of   
   tuberculosis, at the age of 43. “I rarely prayed for my mother, but I   
   have often prayed to her,” Brother Andrew used to say.   
      
   Then the family was scattered. Alfred at the age of twelve had to face   
   life, using his initiative. For him began, then, thirteen years of a   
   wandering life which would take him even to the United States, looking   
   for work. An orphan without schooling, he had to search where he   
   should go and how to survive. Like many boys from large families, he   
   had to leave school at 13 or 14 years and earn his bread. And it was   
   also because of his uncertain health and lack of money that he could   
   never undertake prolonged studies. His mother had given him something   
   of her own knowledge, but it was only with great difficulty that he   
   finally learned to sign his name and to read a little. He had only his   
   two arms to offer an employer as guarantee, but despite his frail   
   health, he put his whole heart into his work. He himself said later:   
   “In spite of my weakness, I didn’t let myself be outdone by the others   
   at work.”   
      
   After he entered the Community of the Holy Cross as a lay Brother, he   
   spent forty years washing the floors and windows, cleaning the lamps,   
   entering the firewood, acting as porter and commissioner. Then, for   
   more than twenty-five years, he received visitors in his little   
   office--during six to eight hours a day, in all kinds of weather, and   
   this until the age of 91. One day he was asked how he had managed to   
   live so long with so little health. With humor he explained his recipe   
   for health: “By eating as little as possible and working as much as   
   possible...”   
      
   An immense work was being realized; crowds which became increasingly   
   dense were pressing to the Oratory of Saint Joseph, for which heaven   
   had chosen him as founder. The great skeleton of the largest sanctuary   
   in the world dedicated to Saint Joseph could already be seen rising on   
   the hilltop. And yet Brother Andrew never talked of “my work... my   
   project.” On the contrary: “I am nothing, only a tool in the hands of   
   Providence, a poor instrument of Saint Joseph.” “The good Lord took me   
   to humiliate the others. He took the most ignorant one to humiliate   
   the people and the Community of the Holy Cross. If there had been one   
   more ignorant than myself, God would have chosen him instead.”   
      
   What care he showed in receiving and meeting people! He spent long   
   hours in the office where thousands came to see him. And Brother   
   Andrew remarked one day: “It is astonishing! They often ask me for   
   cures, but rarely for humility and the spirit of faith. Yet these are   
   so important. If the soul is sick, we have to begin by caring for the   
   soul. Do you have faith? Do you believe the good Lord can do something   
   for you? Go and make your confession, go and receive Communion, then   
   come back to see me.” Such were the words that always returned to his   
   lips, when he was asked for favors and cures. If he suggested making a   
   novena to Saint Joseph, to use the oil or a medal of Saint Joseph, it   
   was because “those were as many acts of love and faith, confidence and   
   humility.” In general, he encouraged the people to see doctors;   
   sometimes he wept with those who were suffering. But he never ceased   
   to say, “How good the good Lord is! God loves you. God is love.” And   
   Brother Andrew knew how to bring forth sprouts of hope in the hearts   
   of those he met.   
      
   In the night of January 5-6, 1937, an old Brother 91 years old was   
   dying in a modest room of Saint Laurent Hospital, in a suburb of   
   Montreal. The few persons present at his bedside felt, however, that   
   from this little man came an impression of strength, humanity, and   
   moral power such as they had never known before. The dying man moved   
   his head a little: “The great Almighty One is coming...” Then he   
   raised his eyes to heaven... “O Mary, my sweet Mother and Mother of my   
   Jesus, deign to help me!” Finally, they heard a few words scarcely   
   intelligible, which were repeated again and again: “Saint Joseph,   
   Saint Joseph, Saint Joseph...” At 12:50 AM, Brother Andrew breathed   
   his last. The news of his decease was quickly relayed, and the   
   following morning, all of Quebec knew that Brother Andrew was dead.   
      
   “He spent his life talking to others about God and to God of others,”   
   a friend said. This testimony gives a just appreciation of what his   
   life was, filled with faith and love.   
      
   Reflection. In every age the Catholic Church is a missionary church.   
   She has received the world for her inheritance, and in our own days   
   many missionaries have watered with their blood the lands where they   
   labored. Help the propagation of the faith by both alms and by   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)