From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Let Us Ceaselessly Watch   
      
   We ourselves, however, have the means to avoid being deceived as long   
   as we are prepared to stay even slightly alert and on the watch, not   
   because we have such power of ourselves but because it is then we are   
   granted grace from on high as well. You see, whenever we give evidence   
   of what resources lie within us, what the Lord has to offer follows on   
   all sides. Let us therefore be on the alert, I beseech you, and, aware   
   of the evil one's wiles, let us ceaselessly watch and implore God to   
   join us in our combat against him.   
   –-St. John Chrysostom.   
      
      
   ============   
   November 12th - St. Renatus of Angers   
    (also known as René d'Anjou)   
      
   Died c. 422.   
      
   "O everlasting fire that never fails, O eternal love that never fades,   
   give me your warmth," wrote Saint René d'Anjou, prisoner in chains at   
   Dijon, captive and yet Duke of Anjou, Bar, and Lorraine, Count of   
   Provence, King of Sicily and Naples; whose shield was black with   
   silver tears as a sign of mortification for vain pleasures; who also   
   said, "Better to be happy than to be a king;" the shepherd prince who   
   handled both pen and palette; whose heart was always "in love with   
   love."   
      
   But the René whom we celebrate today is not the one who watched Van   
   Eyck at work, nor that other René, one of the fairest flowers of the   
   garden of France, René Cadou, the celt whose eyes were as blue as   
   forget-me-nots. Instead we must go to La Possonniere, a small village   
   under a slate-colored sky. There in the early days of Christianity, a   
   son was born to the sterile Bononia, thanks to the fervent prayers of   
   Saint Maurille. But when the child was born its breath was as weak as   
   the flame of a dying candle.   
      
   Weeping, Bononia begged Maurille to give strength and life to her   
   little child and accord him the grace of baptism. But Maurille was   
   celebrating the divine Mass and could not leave until the sacred   
   tragedy had been brought to an end. When he came to the bedside of the   
   mother, her fair-haired child was cold with death. Stricken with grief   
   for having deprived the Lord of a soul, Maurille beat his breast and   
   went to hide in the depths of the forest where he lived as an   
   anchorite expiating his sin with fasting and prayer.   
      
   Seven years later, having come to the end of the term fixed by   
   Providence, Maurille heard a voice telling him to return to his   
   bishopric. Deaf to the acclamations of the crowds, advancing like a   
   sleepwalker, he went to press his forehead on the tombstone which   
   covered the virginal body.   
      
   With tender, ardent prayers he begged the Mother of God, who has pity   
   on grief, and the Son to give life and color to the lily-like face of   
   the dead child. Soon, a miracle! The child rose up out of the infinite   
   silence, his body formed in the shape of Adam, suffused with faith,   
   charity, and hope. Maurille sprinkled the baptismal waters upon his   
   innocent forehead and gave him the name of Renatus (born again),   
   signifying his double birth.   
      
   Thereafter René wrote upon the Book of Hours of his soul the suffering   
   face of Christ on the Cross. He was a most zealous priest, his heart   
   as white as snow, a friend to those afflicted with running sores, to   
   beggars, and to cripples.   
      
   Full of virtue and loaded with honors, he succeeded Saint Maurille.   
   But one day, laying on the altar his amethyst ring that glittered like   
   a cluster of stars, he covered himself with the hermit's sackcloth and   
   retired to a cave near Sorrento, where the blue waves lap murmurously;   
   and there, in that distant century, the fifth of our Christian era, he   
   heard the first measures of the eternal symphony which the elect   
   reveal to the children on earth who are most humbly devoted to God.   
      
   It is likely that there has been a confusion between two different   
   saints: one of whom was bishop of Angers, France, and the second of   
   Sorrento, Italy (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "When you think of going to mass on working days, it is an impulse of   
   the grace that God willed to grant you. FOLLOW IT." He did not say   
   ignore it! He also said: "A saint has told us that one day at Mass he   
   saw Jesus Christ with His hands full of gifts, looking for souls to   
   whom He might give them." But no one was there.   
   --St. John Vianney   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Sow for yourselves justice, reap the fruit of piety; break up for   
   yourselves a new field, for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come   
   and rain down justice upon you."  (Hos 10:1-3, 7-8, 12)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer for the Intercession of Saint James the Confessor.   
      
     O God, through the Intercession of your Immaculate Mother, The   
   Blessed Virgin Mary, and through the Intercession of Saint Joseph,   
   your Beloved Joseph, and through the Intercession of all of Church   
   Triumphant, grant me now my prayer to your Dear James, your Saint   
   James the Confessor.   
      
     Through the Intercession of Saint James the Confessor convert me now   
   from all my sins of pride, from all my sins of lust, from all my sins   
   of envy, from all my sins of anger, from all my sins of greed, from   
   all my sins of gluttony, from all my sins of sloth.   
      
     Through the Intercession of your Dear James, your Saint James the   
   Confessor, convert me from all my sins and give me a new heart.   
   Through the Intercession of your Dear James, your Saint James the   
   Confessor, convert from sin your human creatures in your World on   
   Earth and give them new hearts.   
      
     Through the Intercession of The Mediatrix of Grace and Co-Redemptrix   
   and through the Intercession of your Beloved Joseph, Saint Joseph.   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)