From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Grace Must Be Hidden Under the Mantle of Humility (2)   
      
      The Voice of Christ:   
   There are many, indeed, who immediately become impatient and lazy when   
   things do not go well with them. The way of man, however, does not   
   always lie in his own power. It is God’s prerogative to give grace and   
   to console when He wishes, as much as He wishes, and whom He wishes,   
   as it shall please Him and no more.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 3, Chapter 7   
      
   =================   
   October 21st - Saint Hilarion   
   Patriarch of the Solitaries of Palestine   
   (d. 372)   
      
   Saint Hilarion was born of pagan parents near Gaza, and was converted   
   while studying grammar in Alexandria. He renounced games, the theater   
   and all the vain amusements of young people, to attend the reunions of   
   his fellow Christians. He desired to see the great Saint Anthony in   
   the desert and went to Egypt, where he remained near him for two   
   months. He carefully observed everything in his life and conduct his   
   affability, his gentleness towards others and his severity towards   
   himself, then returned to Palestine with a few solitaries to settle   
   his affairs. His father and mother had both died, and he kept nothing   
   of his heritage for himself. At this time he was only 15 years old.   
      
   Despite his youth and delicate health, he retired to a desert; he   
   practiced severe mortification, tempted continually by the demons   
   expending all their efforts to make him abandon this life of total   
   renouncement. He redoubled his austerities, tilled the ground and,   
   following the example of the Egyptian monks, made baskets of reeds and   
   willow branches. He lived first in a cabin of reeds, then in one of   
   clay, so low and narrow that it seemed more like a tomb than a lodging   
   for a young man. He learned all of Holy Scripture by heart and   
   repeated it with admirable devotion. When thieves approached him one   
   day he told them he did not fear them, because he had nothing to lose,   
   and death did not alarm him since he was ready to die. They were so   
   touched by his answers they promised him to abandon their life of   
   pillage.   
      
   He soon began to work miracles by his prayers, and visitors made their   
   way to his former solitude. Several remained nearby to become his   
   disciples, and thus gave rise to the monastic life in Palestine, of   
   which Hilarion is regarded as the founder. Saint Anthony esteemed him   
   highly, sometimes wrote him letters, and sent to him the sick persons   
   who came to him from Syria, telling them they had no need to make so   
   long a journey. Saint Hilarion was a master exorcist and healer of all   
   illnesses, but he refused all remuneration for his assistance, saying   
   to his visitors from the city that they were better placed than he to   
   distribute in alms the money they were offering him. Frequently the   
   scattered solitaries of Palestine came to him to listen to his   
   instructions, and he also visited them. The pagans too gathered around   
   him. His exhortations to abandon idolatry were so powerful that on one   
   occasion a group of Saracens promised to convert, asking him to send   
   them a priest to baptize them and establish a church. One day,   
   accompanied by 3000 persons who were following him, he blessed the   
   vine of a solitary who received him. The vine furnished a triple   
   harvest and all in the crowd were well nourished.   
      
   Saint Hilarion found his solitude transformed into a city, and decided   
   at the age of sixty-five to go elsewhere. His Palestinian disciples   
   attempted to change his mind without success, and taking with him only   
   forty monks, he set out for Egypt on foot. Saint Anthony had recently   
   died, and he wished to visit the places where he had dwelt. After   
   spending some time in Egypt, he went with only two religious to a   
   village a few days’ distance from Babylon. He remained only a short   
   time there also, afterwards going elsewhere, and everywhere assisting   
   those who had recourse to his prayers. In Sicily he delivered a   
   demoniac, and then a crowd came to surround him once again. In   
   Dalmatia he worked still more miracles, and saved a city from being   
   engulfed by tidal waves raised by an earthquake. These traditions are   
   still alive in the regions where he passed. He tried many times to   
   live unknown but never could succeed.   
      
   Saint Hilarion died in 372 on the island of Cyprus, at the age of   
   seventy years. His last words were: “Go forth, my soul; why dost thou   
   doubt? Nigh seventy years hast thou served God, and dost thou fear   
   death?” His body was found incorrupt some time afterwards, and was   
   transported to Palestine to his original monastery. Saint Jerome was   
   his original biographer.   
      
   Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin   
   (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 12.   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole   
   heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. 38 This is   
   the greatest and the first commandment. 39 And the second is like to   
   this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  (Matthew 22:37-39)   
   DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A Year with the Saints--October: Confidence   
      
   2. God certainly desires our greatest good more than we ourselves   
   desire it. He knows better than we by what way it can come to us; and   
   the choice of ways is wholly in His hands, as it is He who governs and   
   regulates all that occurs in the world. It is, then, most certain that   
   in all chances that can befall, whatever may happen will always be   
   best for us.   
   --St. Augustine   
      
   St. Francis de Sales, knowing that all events succeed one another   
   according to the disposal of Divine Providence, rested upon it more   
   tranquilly than an infant upon its mother's bosom. He said that the   
   Lord had taught him this lesson even from his youth, and that if he   
   were to begin life again, he would despise worldly prudence more than   
   ever, and allow himself to be governed entirely by Divine Providence.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)