From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Sharing our Talents   
      
   So, it is very important for us to spend some time in reflecting on   
   what are my unique ‘talents’ or gifts or abilities and then to ask how   
   and to what end I am using them? And the time to do that is today   
   because, as we have been amply warned, we do not know when our   
   ‘employer’ is coming back to check his accounts with us. The end of   
   today’s passage indicates that if we do not move forward, or are not   
   productive, then we go backwards. We cannot remain static or purely   
   passive in God’s service. To do nothing is not a possible option. The   
   more we give and share with others from the resources we have the more   
   we are personally enriched; on the other hand, to cling to our gifts   
   and keep them just for ourselves is to become smaller in every way.   
      
   =============   
   September 24th - St. Pacificus (Pacifico) of San Severino   
      
   A little Italian boy born in 1653 was named Charles Anthony. He was   
   just five years old when his loving parents died. He was sent to live   
   with his uncle. This uncle was a cross, mean man. He treated Charles   
   worse than a servant. Yet the boy took this hard treatment quietly and   
   patiently. When he was seventeen, Charles entered a monastery. He   
   chose the name Pacificus, which means "peaceful." After he became a   
   priest, he was made a teacher, but his great desire was to become a   
   preacher. How happy he was when his superior sent him on a preaching   
   mission to many little towns and villages.   
      
   St. Pacificus was very popular with people in the country because his   
   talks were simple and gentle. Besides that, he had the marvelous gift   
   of reading consciences. Once, he reminded a man in confession that he   
   had been unkind to his mother. He had also kept impure thoughts in his   
   mind. What Father Pacificus said was true. The man was very sorry for   
   his sins. Everywhere the priest went to preach and hear confessions,   
   he did much good.   
      
   But when he had been preaching only about six years, Pacificus had to   
   give it up because of ill health. He became blind, deaf and crippled.   
   He spent his time praying and doing penance in his monastery. He   
   helped others in any way he could. God was always very close to him.   
   He gave him the gift of prophecy. St. Pacificus foretold the great   
   victory of the Christian armies over the Turks at Belgrade. He also   
   said to a bishop, "Your Excellency-heaven! Heaven! And I will follow   
   you soon!" About two weeks later, the bishop died. Not long after,   
   just as he had said, St. Pacificus died, too. It was the year 1721.   
   Many miracles took place at his grave. Father Pacificus was proclaimed   
   a saint by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839. St. Pacificus had a sad   
   childhood. He could have let himself become an angry, frustrated   
   adult. Instead, he prayed to Jesus for a forgiving, patient heart. His   
   hard times were turned into moments of growing in his love for God and   
   people. Because he had suffered, he could sympathize with the hurts of   
   others and help them to find God in their lives.   
      
   Pacificus devoted his life to preaching, and to sharing the gifts he   
   had received from God. Each of us has been blessed by God in different   
   ways. How am I called to share my gifts with others?   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
    Not one of those who love her can perish; not one of those who try to   
   imitate her can fail to attain eternal salvation.   
   --St. John Eudes   
      
   Bible Quote:   
    But, as it is written: That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard: neither   
   hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared   
   for them that love him. (I Cor. 2:9) DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Curing Me-Firstism   
   . . . not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the   
   same condemnation as the devil. [1 Timothy 3:6]   
      
   The late theologian Francis Schaeffer wrote that when we violate one   
   of the Ten Commandments, we actually violate two. Violating every   
   other commandment means first violating the tenth: "You shall not   
   covet." To want another god, another day to work, to fail to honor our   
   parents, to steal from another person . . . all are expressions of   
   covetousness -- the desire to take for ourselves.   
      
   Pride is likely another type of "root" sin, since it appears from   
   Scripture that it was the first sin ever committed. Before the   
   creation of man, when Satan was God's "anointed cherub" and the "son   
   of the morning," he rose up in pride against God and declared he would   
   "be like the Most High" and "exalt [his] throne above the stars of   
   God" (Isaiah 14:13-14). Pride is that motivation that tempts us to put   
   ourselves at the center of the universe; to make ourselves more   
   important than anyone else. Pride leads to conflict and condemnation   
   with us, just as it did with Satan. When you encounter conflict in   
   your path, check first to see if pride is involved.  For it is pride   
   that is at the root of all other sins.   
      
   The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; They   
   just make the best of everything they have!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)