From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Love of Solitude and Silence  (VI)   
      
   Why do you long to see that which is not lawful for you to possess?   
   The world itself passes away, and all the desires of it (1 John 2:17).   
   The desires of the senses call you to roam abroad, but when their hour   
   is spent, what do you bring back but a burdened conscience and a   
   distracted heart? A cheerful going out often brings a sad home-coming,   
   and a merry evening brings a sorry morning. For every bodily pleasure   
   brings joy at first, but at length it bites and destroys. (Prov.   
   23:31,32)   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 20   
      
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   May 18th - St. Felix of Cantalice   
   d. 1587   
      
   ST FELIX was born at Cantalice, near Città Ducale in Apulia. His   
   parents were devout peasants and he himself early evinced such piety   
   that his little companions when they saw him approach would cry out,   
   “Here comes Felix the saint!” As a child he acted as cowherd and   
   often, after driving his cattle to some quiet pasturage, he would   
   spend much time praying at the foot of a tree in the bark of which he   
   had cut a cross. At the age of 12 he was hired out, first as a   
   shepherd and afterwards as a ploughman, to a well-to-do landowner of   
   Città Ducale, named Mark Tully Pichi or Picarelli.   
      
   When still quite young, Felix taught himself to meditate during his   
   work, and he soon attained to a high degree of contemplation. In God,   
   in himself, and in all creatures round him, he found a perpetual fund   
   of religious thoughts and affections. ...He was still in doubt as to   
   his future vocation when the question was decided for him through an   
   accident. He was ploughing one day with two fresh young bullocks when   
   his master unexpectedly entered the field. His sudden appearance or   
   something else scared the animals and they bolted, knocking down Felix   
   as he tried to hold them in. He was trampled upon; the plough passed   
   over his body, but in spite of this he arose unhurt. In gratitude for   
   this deliverance he promptly betook himself to the Capuchin monastery   
   of Città Ducale, where he asked to be received as a lay-brother. The   
   father guardian, after warning him of the austerity of the life, led   
   him before a crucifix, saying, “See what Jesus Christ has suffered for   
   us!” Felix burst into tears, and impressed the superior with the   
   conviction that a soul which felt so deeply must be drawn by God.   
      
   During the noviciate, which he passed at Anticoli, Felix appeared   
   already filled with the spirit of his order, with a love of poverty,   
   humiliations and crosses. Often he would beg the novice-master to   
   double his penances and mortifications and to treat him with greater   
   severity than the rest who, he declared, were more docile and   
   naturally more inclined to virtue. Although he thought everyone in the   
   house better than himself, his fellow religious, like the children of   
   Cantalice, spoke of him amongst themselves as “The saint”.   
      
   In 1545, when he was about 30, he made his solemn vows. Four years   
   later he was sent to Rome where for 40 years, practically until his   
   death, he filled the post of questor, with the daily duty to go round   
   begging for food and alms for the sustenance of the community. The   
   post was a trying one, but Felix delighted in it because it entailed   
   humiliations, fatigue, and discomforts, and his spirit of recollection   
   was never interrupted. With the sanction of his superiors, who placed   
   entire confidence in his discretion, he assisted the poor liberally   
   out of the alms he collected; and he loved to visit the sick, tending   
   them with his own hands, and consoling the dying.   
      
   St. Felix chastised himself with almost incredible severity and   
   invariably went barefoot, without sandals. He wore a shirt of iron   
   links and plates studded with iron spikes. When he could do so without   
   singularity, he fasted on bread and water, picking out of the basket   
   for his own dinner the crusts left by others. He tried to conceal from   
   notice the remarkable spiritual favours he received, but often when he   
   was serving Mass he was so transported in ecstasy that he could not   
   make the responses. For everything that he saw, for all that befell   
   him, he gave thanks to God, and the words “Deo gratias” were so   
   constantly on his lips that the Roman street-urchins called him   
   Brother Deogratias. When he was old and was suffering from a painful   
   complaint, their cardinal protector, who loved him greatly, told his   
   superiors that he ought to be relieved of his wearisome office. But   
   Felix asked to be allowed to continue his rounds, on the ground that   
   the soul grows sluggish if the body is pampered. He died at the age of   
   72, after being consoled on his death-bed by a vision of our Lady.   
   There is record of a great number of miracles worked after his death,   
   and he was canonized in 1709.   
      
   The Bollandists, in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iv, have published a   
   considerable selection of materials presented in the beatification   
   process, a process which was begun only a short time after Brother   
   Felix’s death, when witnesses were still available who had lived with   
   him and had been the spectators of his virtues. There is no lack of   
   other biographies...   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   God is more pleased to behold the lowest degree of obedience, for His   
   sake, than all other good works which you can possibly offer to Him.   
   --St. John of the Cross   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   For as the body is one and hath many members; and all the members of   
   the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body: So also is Christ.   
   For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or   
   Gentiles, whether bond or free: and in one Spirit we have all been   
   made to drink.  [1 Cor 12:12-13 DRB]   
      
      
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      Set free, O Lord, the souls of your servants from all restlessness and   
   anxiety. Give us that peace and power which flow from you. Keep us in all   
   perplexity and distress, that upheld by your strength and stayed on the rock   
   of your faithfulness we may abide in you now and evermore.   
   --Bishop Francis Pagel (1851-1911)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)