From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Love is sufficient of itself   
      
   Love is sufficient of itself; it gives pleasure by itself and because   
   of itself. It is its own merit, its own reward. Love looks for no   
   cause outside itself, no effect beyond itself. Its profit lies in the   
   practice. Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul,   
   love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator   
   and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be. For   
   when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return. The sole   
   purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who   
   love him are made happy by their love of him.   
   --from a sermon by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux   
      
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   March 21st – St. Benedict, Father of Western Monasticism   
      
   Saint Benedict, blessed by grace as his prophetic name seemed to   
   foretell, was born of a noble Italian family in Umbria, in the year   
   480. As a boy he showed great inclination for virtue, and maturity in   
   his actions. He was sent to Rome at the age of 7, to be placed in the   
   public schools. At the age of 14, alarmed by the licentiousness of the   
   Roman youth, he fled to the desert mountains of Subiaco, 40 miles from   
   Rome, and was directed by the Holy Spirit into a deep, craggy, and   
   almost inaccessible cave, since known as the Holy Grotto. He lived   
   there for 3 years, unknown to anyone save a holy monk named Romanus,   
   who clothed him with the monastic habit and brought him food.   
      
   He was eventually discovered, when, one Easter day, God advised a   
   priest who lived about four miles from there, to take food to His   
   servant, who was starving. The priest searched in the hills and   
   finally found the solitary, and they took their meal together. Some   
   shepherds also knew of his retreat, and soon the fame of this hermit’s   
   sanctity began to spread. The demon persecuted him, but to no avail;   
   when a temptation of the flesh assailed him, he rolled in a clump of   
   thorns and nettles, and came out of it covered with blood but sound in   
   spirit.   
      
   Disciples came to him, and under his direction, numerous monasteries   
   were founded. The rigor of the rule he drew up, however, brought upon   
   him the hatred of some of the monks, and one of them mixed poison with   
   the Abbot’s drink. When the Saint made the sign of the cross on the   
   poisoned bowl, it broke and fell in pieces to the ground.   
      
   Saint Benedict resurrected a boy whose father pleaded for that   
   miracle, saying “Give me back my son!” He replied, “Such miracles are   
   not for us to work, but for the blessed apostles! Why will you lay   
   upon me a burden which my weakness cannot bear?” But finally, moved by   
   compassion, he prostrated himself upon the body of the child, and   
   prayed: “Behold not, O Lord, my sins, but the faith of this man, and   
   restore the soul which Thou hast taken away!” And the child rose up,   
   and walked to the waiting arms of his father. When a monk lost the   
   iron head of his axe in a river, the Abbot told him to throw the   
   handle in after it, and it rose from the river bed to resume its   
   former place.   
      
   Six days before his death, Saint Benedict ordered his grave to be   
   prepared, then fell ill of a fever. On the sixth day he asked to be   
   carried to the chapel, and, having received the sacred Body and Blood   
   of Christ, with hands uplifted and leaning on one of his disciples, he   
   calmly expired in prayer, on the 21st of March, 543.   
      
   Reflection. The Saints never feared to undertake any work for God,   
   however arduous, because distrusting self they relied for assistance   
   and support wholly upon prayer.   
      
   Sources: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on   
   Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   If you want God to hear your prayers, hear the voice of the poor. If   
   you wish God to anticipate your wants, provide those of the needy   
   without waiting for them to ask you. Especially anticipate the needs   
   of those who are ashamed to beg. To make them ask for alms is to make   
   them buy it.   
   --St. Thomas of Villanova   
      
      
   Bible Quote   
   And it came to pass afterwards, that he went into a city that is   
   called Naim; and there went with him his disciples, and a great   
   multitude. 12 And when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold a   
   dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a   
   widow: and a great multitude of the city was with her. 13 Whom when   
   the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy towards her, he said to her:   
   Weep not. 14 And he came near and touched the bier. And they that   
   carried it, stood still. And he said: Young man, I say to thee, arise.   
   15 And he that was dead, sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him   
   to his mother. 16 And there came a fear on them all: and they   
   glorified God, saying: A great prophet is risen up among us: and, God   
   hath visited his people.  (Luke 7:11-16)   
      
      
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   O Jesus King Most Wonderful:   
   From The Raccolta   
      
   O Jesus, King most wonderful,   
   Thou Conqueror renowned!   
   Thou Sweetness most ineffable,   
   In Whom all joys are found!   
      
   When once Thou visitest the heart,   
   Then truth begins to shine;   
   The earthly vanities depart;   
   Then kindles love Divine.   
      
   O Jesus, Light of all below!   
   Thou Fount of life and fire,   
   Surpassing all the joys we know,   
   And all we can desire!   
      
   May every heart confess Thy Name,   
   And ever Thee adore;   
   And seeking Thee, itself inflame   
   To seek Thee more and more.   
      
   Thee may our tongues forever bless;   
   Thee may we love alone;   
   And ever in our lives express   
   The image of Thine Own. Amen.    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)