From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Bearing with the Faults of Others  (4)    
      
   If all were perfect, what should we have to suffer from others for   
   God’s sake? But God has so ordained, that we may learn to bear with   
   one another’s burdens, for there is no man without fault, no man   
   without burden, no man sufficient to himself nor wise enough. Hence we   
   must support one another, console one another, mutually help, counsel,   
   and advise, for the measure of every man’s virtue is best revealed in   
   time of adversity--adversity that does not weaken a man but rather   
   shows what he is.   
   --Thomas à Kempis, From the Imitation of Christ chapter 16   
      
      
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   April 23rd - Bl. Giles of Assisi   
   (1190?-1262)   
      
   Giles of Assisi was the third man to join St. Francis of Assisi when   
   he founded the Franciscan Order. Francis held Giles in high esteem,   
   and because of his purity of heart and single-mindedness he used to   
   call him “our Knight of the Round Table.”   
      
   St. Francis attracted people who resembled himself in simplicity of   
   faith, and their association with him strengthened their reflection of   
   his image. Giles, also an Assisian, was probably of peasant origin. He   
   long admired Francis from afar, but he dared approach him only when he   
   learned that his own friends Bernard and Peter had also become   
   disciples of Francisco, adopting his watchword holy poverty.   
      
   On April 22, 1208, he ventured to call on the saint at the Portiuncula   
   outside Assisi. The two had a good talk about the projected religious   
   order.   
      
   While they were in conversation, a beggar woman came up and asked them   
   for alms. Neither Francis nor Giles had any money to give, so Francis   
   said to Giles, “Give her your coat.” Giles obeyed at once. Thus he   
   passed St. Francis’ test for poverty. He was admitted to the new   
   community on the following day.   
      
   In 1209, Francis set our for Rome to ask Pope Innocent III to approve   
   the Franciscan foundation. Giles was one of his companions on the   
   journey. Brother Giles was untrained in book learning, but God   
   rewarded his devotion with great spiritual wisdom. He did not become   
   noted for his missionary work so much as for his example of   
   prayerfulness, poverty of spirit and love of silence. His only notable   
   missionary effort, the trip to Tunis, North Africa, to convert the   
   Saracens, met with no success. The Tunisian Christians urged him, on   
   his very arrival, to return at once to Italy. They feared that the   
   presence of the friar would cause the Moslems to turn against all   
   local Christians.   
      
   Apart from his pilgrimages to Santiago, Spain, and the Holy Land,   
   Brother Giles spent most of his life at various Franciscan houses in   
   Italy engaged in contemplation and manual labor. Often in ecstasy, he   
   won popular acclaim as a saint, and people high and low came to seek   
   his advice. For example, Pope Gregory IX and St. Bonaventure, who   
   venerated him, paid him visits in his final residence near Perugia.   
   His collected spiritual maxims, The Golden Savings, still remain a   
   spiritual “best seller.”   
      
   A firm champion of Franciscan poverty, ever quick to denounce its   
   nonobservance among his fellow friars, Giles would accept no gifts,   
   and insisted on always working for his keep. Thus, the Cardinal Bishop   
   of Tusculum once invited him to dinner. Giles said he would not accept   
   unless he could earn the meal. He came to Tusculum, but managed to go   
   first to the Cardinal’s kitchen, which he tidied up thoroughly before   
   he would sit down at table.   
      
   Giles’ reputation spread even to France. One day King St. Louis IX of   
   France, en route to the Holy Land, dropped in to see him in Umbria.   
   Louis and Giles embraced each other, knelt for a while to pray, and   
   then parted. During the whole visit neither had spoken a word. The   
   monarch respected the friar’s opposition to needless conversation.   
      
   Perhaps the most typical story about this fabulous Franciscan was his   
   encounter with his fellow friar, St. Bonaventure. Giles asked   
   Bonaventure, whom he respected for his scholarship, whether the   
   unlearned could ever equal the learned in love for God. Bonaventure   
   said they certainly could: “A poor, illiterate old woman can love Him   
   better than a learned doctor of the Church.” Delighted with this   
   answer, Giles rushed to the garden gate overlooking the city and cried   
   to all who might hear him, “Listen, all you good old women! You can   
   love God better than Brother Bonaventure!” Then, typically, Brother   
   Giles went into an ecstasy that lasted 3 hours.   
      
   Giles of Assisi is the only one of St. Francis’ first companions to   
   have been declared “blessed.” His life certainly exemplifies all that   
   is best in the Franciscan tradition of joyful self-denial.   
   –Father Robert   
      
      
   Reflection:   
   “A single Mass offered for oneself during life   
   may be worth more than a thousand celebrated   
   for the same intention after death.”   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Cease from anger, and leave rage; have no emulation to do evil. 9   
   (36-9) For evildoers shall be cut off: but they that wait upon the   
   Lord, they shall inherit the land.  [Psalm 37:8-9]  DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   O Lord, Enkindle Our Lamps   
      
   O Lord,   
   grant us that love   
   which can never die,   
   which will enkindle our lamps   
   but not extinguish them,   
   so that they may shine in us   
   and bring light to others.   
   Most dear Saviour,   
   enkindle our lamps   
   that they may shine   
   forever in Your temple.   
   May we receive   
   unquenchable light   
   from You,   
   so that our darkness   
   will be illuminated   
   and the darkness of the world   
   will be made less.   
   Amen   
   --St Columba of Ireland (521-597)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)