From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   True Superiors   
      
       "Superiors are designated for the purpose of looking out for the   
   good of their subjects. Hence, in the fulfillment of their office they   
   should seek not their own advantage but that of their subjects.   
       There are superiors who delight in being placed over others, seek   
   their own honor, and look out only for their own convenience. These   
   are fattening themselves, not their flocks!"   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 46, 1   
      
   Prayer: Lord, my own wrongdoing befouls me, and the offenses of others   
   afflict me. Free me from theirs, and pardon me for mine. Take evil   
   thoughts away from my heart, and keep me away from advisers of malice.   
   --St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 18 (2), 13   
      
      
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   April 18th - Bl. James of Lodi   
   (d. 1404)   
      
   How James of Lodi experienced a change of heart is one of the most   
   fascinating illustrations of God’s workings.   
      
   James was a native of Lodi, a city in northern Italy. His family was   
   wealthy and prominent, and leisure gave him plenty of time to   
   cultivate his talents. He learned to paint, became expert at playing   
   the lute, and danced divinely. When he married, James chose as a mate   
   Catherine, a socialite and, like him, a great party-goer.   
      
   Now, ever since the mid-1300s, bubonic plague had been recurring at   
   many places in Europe. James and Catherine had not been married long   
   before Lodi was stricken. Like many another well-to-do couples, they   
   took flight--to Catherine’s father’s country villa--in order to escape   
   infection.   
      
   It must have been boring for the couple to wait out the epidemic where   
   there was no round of entertainments available. Up to this time, James   
   had been more worldly than spiritual in his way of life. What happened   
   to him one day in a country church shows that he was even rather   
   flippant about spiritual things.   
      
   On this day when he and a companion were out for a walk, they dropped   
   into a neighborhood church to look around. There they found a shrine   
   that was a reproduction of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem--the tomb   
   of Christ. In this reproduction, there was a flat shelf like that in   
   Jerusalem on which the body of Christ had rested before His   
   resurrection. Observing the shelf, James suddenly lay down full length   
   upon the stone slab. “Let’s see,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye,   
   “which is the taller--Christ or I.”   
      
   He had lain there for only a moment, however, when his face suddenly   
   became serious and he arose and quickly got off the shelf. In that   
   brief moment, God had shown him that Christ was the taller--infinitely   
   so--for James’s own shortcomings were all too many.   
      
   This marked a turning point in the life of the Lodi socialite. From   
   that time on, James indulged no more in his round of pleasures. He   
   began, instead, to rigorously deny himself. He spent hours at prayer   
   in church. He used his paintbrush thenceforth to paint only sacred   
   pictures. Furthermore, he started to take care of a sick priest, and   
   to receive from him instructions in the Latin language.   
      
   Soon his two daughters were taken off by the plague. Catherine now   
   came to share her husband’s conversion. They vowed henceforth to live   
   lives of sexual continence, and they joined the Third Order of St.   
   Francis. Their home they turned into a church. Catherine cut up her   
   party-dresses to make vestments, and gave her jewels to adorn   
   liturgical vessels. James was eventually ordained a priest. There   
   gathered about the couple a band of devout men and women who imitated   
   them in their new austerity of life and practice of good works. Life   
   was not always easy for the couple thereafter. Many misunderstood   
   them. But James kept at his charities until the end of his life. As a   
   matter of fact, he died of a sickness that he had caught from a   
   patient whom he was nursing.   
      
   St. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, spoke of the role of the church   
   leaders as “building up the body of Christ,” until there was formed   
   “that perfect man who is Christ come to full stature.” Paul was, of   
   course, referring to Christ’s mystical body--the Church--as finally   
   reaching “full stature” by the uniting of all the faithful to Him as   
   his members. Still, the phrase “that perfect man who is Christ come to   
   full stature” automatically comes to mind when we read of Blessed   
   James’s instant maturity.   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   For the Lord is gracious and merciful and prefers the conversion of a   
   sinner rather than his death. Patient and generous in his mercy, he   
   does not give in to human impatience but is willing to wait a long   
   time for our repentance.   
   -- Saint Jerome   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   10 “And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you   
   said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we waste away   
   because of them; how then can we live?’ 11 Say to them, As I live,   
   says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but   
   that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from   
   your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel? [Ezekiel   
   33:10,11]  RSVCE   
      
      
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   Prayer   
      
   Grant us,   
   Lord Jesus,   
   always to follow the example of Your holy family,   
   that at the hour of our death   
   Your glorious Virgin Mother   
   with blessed Joseph   
   may come to meet us,   
   and so we may deserve to be received by You   
   into Your everlasting dwelling-place.   
      
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)