From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Royal Road of the Holy Cross: (15)   
      
   No man is fit to enjoy heaven unless he has resigned himself to suffer   
   hardship for Christ. Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more   
   helpful for you on this earth than to suffer willingly for Christ. If   
   you had to make a choice, you ought to wish rather to suffer for   
   Christ than to enjoy many consolations, for thus you would be more   
   like Christ and more like all the saints. Our merit and progress   
   consist not in many pleasures and comforts but rather in enduring   
   great afflictions and sufferings.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 2, Chapter 12   
      
      
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   February 18: Saint Giovanni of Fiesole (Fra Angelico)   
    (1387-1455)   
      
   Today marks the feast day of the saint of Christian artists, Blessed   
   John of Fiesole or Fra Angelico as he came to be known.   
      
   Guido di Pietro was born in Tuscany, in a small village outside   
   Florence in 1387. Early in his life, his parents recognized their   
   son’s artistic talent and capabilities. He, along with his brother,   
   was sent to the Dominican monastery at Fiesole to study painting.   
   While there, he joined the Dominican Order in 1407, taking the name   
   John (Giovanni). He worked tirelessly, illustrating illuminated   
   manuscripts, with John explaining his painting as a way in which he   
   could “preach the Love of God.” Throughout his artistic career—one   
   which art historians have labeled “perfect”—he never painted a picture   
   that didn’t address Christian themes. It is further said that he never   
   picked up a paintbrush without having first prayed.   
      
   As his gifts became more and more apparent, John was commissioned to   
   do paintings and frescoes in Florence and Rome, including the Chapel   
   of the Holy Sacrament at Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican (later   
   destroyed). His brother, also having joined the Dominican Order, often   
   acted as his assistant. Able to capture the adoration and sublime love   
   for Christ on the faces of those he painted, John of Fiesole became   
   known Fra Giovanni Angelico (Brother John, the Angelic One). His life   
   and work were recognized to be pure, inspired, and from God. He is   
   remembered for a pious, but simple, heart and is credited with saying:   
   “He who does Christ’s work must stay with Christ always.”   
      
   Many of Saint John of Fiesole’s most famous works are painted in the   
   cells of the former monastery of Saint Marco in Florence. He and his   
   brother painted approximately fifty frescos that are at once the   
   expression of and a guide to the spiritual life of the community.   
   “Many of the frescos are in the friars' cells and were intended as   
   aids to devotion; with their immaculate coloring, their economy in   
   drawing and composition, and their freedom from the accidents of time   
   and place, they attain a sense of blissful serenity” (from WebMuseum,   
   Paris).   
      
   Fra Angelico died while staying at a Dominican convent in Rome, having   
   painted that day. His epitaph (translated) reads:   
      
   When singing my praise, don't liken my talents to those of Apelles.   
   Say, rather, that, in the name of Christ, I gave all I had to the poor.   
   The deeds that count on Earth are not the ones that count in Heaven.   
   I, Giovanni, am the flower of Tuscany.   
      
   John Paul II said of Fra Angelico at his beatification in 1982, that   
   his work was “the fruit of that highest harmony which flowed from the   
   combination of a holy life and creative power.”   
      
   Fra Giovanni Angelico painted incredibly beautiful and poignant   
   pictures from the lives of Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and the saints   
   (some of which are pictured below). His every brushstroke, and indeed,   
   his every breath, came from God and glorified God. He used his   
   talents—art—to bring the message of salvation to the world. In   
   contemplating the life of this talented artist, we are called to look   
   inward to our own gifts. However small they may seem to us, they are   
   precious gifts and abilities given to us from the Lord. When we choose   
   to use them, we do so in honor of our Maker, and through their   
   display, glorify the magnificence of creation. How might we use our   
   gifts to glorify the Lord and serve each other during Lent?   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   My daughter, I see more Pharisees among Christians than there were   
   around Pilate.   
   -- St. Margaret of Cortona   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be   
   partakers of the lot of the saints in light:  (Col. 1:12) DRB   
      
      
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   Three prayers for the faithful departed.   
      
   We commend to Thee, O Lord, the soul of Thy servant, N.,    
   and we beg Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of the world,   
    that Thou wouldst not refuse the welcoming embrace of   
    the patriarchs to this soul for whose sake Thou   
   didst, in Thy mercy, come down upon earth.   
   --Roman Ritual, Commendation of the Departing Soul.   
   (Gelasian, 5th to 7th cent.)   
      
   O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful,    
   grant to the souls of Thy servants departed the remission   
   of all their sins, that, by our devout prayers, they may obtain   
   pardon for their sins which they have always desired.   
   --Roman Missal, All Souls (Nov. 2), Collect for First Mass.   
    (Gelasian, 5th to 7th cent.)   
      
   Almighty and everlasting God, Who hast been pleased to breathe   
   into man a soul according to Thy likeness, do Thou, while at    
   Thy bidding dust returns to dust, command Thine image to be   
   associated with Thy saints and elect in everlasting home.   
   --Gelasian Sacramentary, Prayer for Dead. (5th to 7th cent.)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)