From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On our own Weakness and the Trials of This Life  [IV]   
      
      How can we love life, when it holds so much bitterness, and is   
   subject to so many sorrows and calamities? How, indeed, can that be   
   called life, which breeds death and pain in such full measure? Yet it   
   is loved, and many find great delight in it. The world is often blamed   
   for its falseness and vanity, but it is not readily abandoned: the   
   desires of the body exercise too strong a hold. Some things cause us   
   to love the world, others to hate it. The desires of the body, the   
   desires of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16) all draw us   
   to love the world; but the pains and sorrows that justly ensue cause   
   us to hate and weary of it.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3, Ch 20   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   March 7th - St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church   
   (1225-1274)   
      
   The great Saint Thomas was born of noble parents at Aquino near Naples   
   in Italy, in 1225; his century was replete with great names and   
   Christian works, yet he dominates it by the power of his thought and   
   the perfection of his works. In his childhood he was the provider for   
   the poor of the neighborhood during a famine; his father, meeting him   
   in a corridor with the food he had succeeded in taking from the   
   kitchen, asked him what he had under his cloak; he opened it and fresh   
   roses fell on the ground. The nobleman embraced his son and amid his   
   tears, gave him permission to follow thereafter all inspirations of   
   his charity.   
      
   The young student, like the holy man Job, made a pact with his eyes   
   and forbade them to see anything which might favor in his heart any   
   desires for a life of ease. At the University of Naples he led a   
   retired life of study and prayer, and continued his charities, giving   
   all he had which was superfluous. He was recognized already by his   
   professors as a genius, but it was Saint Albert the Great who later   
   said of his disciple whom some called “the mute ox”, that “some day   
   the lowing of this ox will resound throughout the entire world.”   
      
   At the age of nineteen he received the Dominican habit at Naples. His   
   family opposed this choice, and he was set upon by his brothers on his   
   way to Paris. They attempted in vain to remove his holy habit, but he   
   was taken in custody and obliged to suffer a two years’ captivity in   
   their castle of Rocca Secca. Neither the caresses of his mother and   
   sisters, nor the threats and stratagems of his brothers, could shake   
   him in his vocation. His older sister was won over by him and   
   renounced a brilliant marriage to embrace religious life; later she   
   was Abbess of her convent in Capua.   
      
   While Saint Thomas was in confinement at Rocca Secca, his brothers   
   endeavored to entrap him into sin, but the attempt only ended in the   
   triumph of his purity. Snatching from the hearth a burning coal, the   
   Saint drove from his chamber the courtesan whom they had concealed   
   there. Then marking a cross upon the wall, he knelt down to pray.   
   Immediately, while he was rapt in ecstasy, an Angel girded him with a   
   cord, in token of the gift of perpetual chastity which God had given   
   him. The pain caused by the girdle was so sharp that Saint Thomas   
   uttered a piercing cry, which brought his guards into the room. But he   
   never related this grace to anyone save Father Raynald, his confessor,   
   a short time before his death. Thus originated the Confraternity of   
   the Angelic Warfare, for the preservation of the virtue of chastity.   
      
   Having at length escaped, Saint Thomas went to Cologne to study under   
   Blessed Albert the Great, and afterwards was sent with him to Paris,   
   where for several years he taught philosophy and theology. The Church   
   has ever venerated his numerous writings as a treasure of sacred   
   doctrine; in naming him the Angelic Doctor she has indicated that his   
   science is more divine than human. The rarest gifts of intellect were   
   combined in him with the most tender piety. Prayer, he said, had   
   taught him more than study. His singular devotion to the Blessed   
   Sacrament shines forth in the Office and hymns which he composed for   
   the feast of Corpus Christi. To the words miraculously uttered by a   
   crucifix at Naples, “Well hast thou written concerning Me, Thomas.   
   What shall I give thee as a reward?” he replied, “Naught save Thyself,   
   O Lord.” Saint Thomas was loved for his unfailing gentleness and his   
   readiness to lend his services or great lights to all who sought them.   
   He died at Fossa Nuova in 1274, on his way to the General Council of   
   Lyons, to which Pope Gregory X had summoned him.   
      
   Reflection. The knowledge of God is for all, but hidden treasures are   
   reserved for those who have ever followed the Lamb.   
      
   Source: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea   
   (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   He cannot have God for his Father who has not the Church for his Mother.   
   --St. Cyprian-3rd Century   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave   
   thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God,   
   the pillar and ground of the truth.  (1 Tim. 3:15)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Angels Hovering Near   
      
   In daylight or in darkness   
   I have no need to fear;   
   I know that I'm protected   
   By angels hovering near.   
   --Bertha Risely   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas, in hopes of attaining the grace for a   
   devout life:   
      
   Grant me, O merciful God, to desire eagerly, to investigate prudently,   
   to acknowledge sincerely, and to fulfill perfectly those things that   
   are pleasing to Thee, to the praise and glory of Thy holy Name.   
      
   Do Thou, my god, order my life; and grant that I may know what Thou   
   wilt have me to do; and give me to fulfill it as is fitting and   
   profitable to my soul.   
      
   Grant me, O Lord my God, the grace not to faint either in prosperity   
   or adversity, that I be not unduly lifted up by the one, nor unduly   
   cast down by the other.  Let me neither rejoice nor grieve at anytime,   
   save what wither leads to Thee or leads away from Thee.  Let me not   
   desire to please anyone, nor fear to displease anyone save only Thee.   
      
   Let all things that pass away seem vile in my eyes, and let all things   
   that are eternal be dear to me.  Let me tire of that joy which is   
   without Thee, neither permit me to desire anything that is outside   
   Thee.  Let me find joy in the labor that is for Thee; and let all   
   repose that is without Thee be tiresome to me.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)