From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Choice Is God's   
      
       "Even if God's choice in this matter should be perceptible to   
   some, I must admit that I am incapable of knowing it. I just cannot   
   find what criterion to apply in deciding which persons should be   
   chosen to be saved by grace.   
       I would instinctively choose those with better intelligence or   
   less sins, or both; I should add, I suppose, a sound and proper   
   education. And as soon as I decide on that, he will laugh me to   
   scorn."   
   --St. Augustine--To Simplicianus 1, 2   
      
   Prayer: Lord, you value us, caring for us so much and thinking so much   
   of us. You set us in order and know where to place us in the hierarchy   
   of being.   
   --St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 143, 10   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   June 21st - St. Aloysius, Hurrying to Heaven   
   (1568-1591)   
      
   In 1729 Pope Benedict XIII named St. Aloysius Gonzaga patron saint of   
   youth. An apt choice, for Aloysius won his crown as a teen, dying when   
   only 23.   
      
   He signed himself Aluigi or Luigi (Louis), this firstborn son of   
   Ferrante Gonzaga, Marchese of Castiglione. His was a major noble   
   Italian family, in an age of war, intrigue and corruption. The boy   
   learned piety from his mother, the Marchesa. Ferrante, however, a   
   worldly man, thought only of preparing Louis to succeed him as a   
   soldier and ruler. On his fourth birthday he gave him a set of   
   miniature guns and cannons. When he was only five he took him to live   
   four months in a military camp. Here he innocently picked up a coarse   
   macho vocabulary. When, on his return home, his tutor told him these   
   expressions were improper, the gently lad was much chagrined.   
      
   Aloysius was only 7 when he had a strong religious experience, and   
   began to double his prayer-time and penances.  At age 8, he was sent   
   to Florence for schooling. Florentine courtiers lived splendid but   
   violent and sensual lives. Exposed to their obvious sexual excesses,   
   Louis learned to fight valiantly to maintain purity of heart. Later   
   on, St. Robert Bellarmine, one of his confessors, would say that he   
   believed young Gonzaga never committed a mortal sin.   
      
   Ferrante next placed Aloysius and his brother Ridolfo in the court of   
   the Duke of Mantua. A sickness there gave him an excuse to lead a more   
   private life, visiting churches and teaching catechism to poor boys.   
   He was already set on joining the Jesuits. That would mean forsaking   
   the title of marquis, bit he figured he could resign in favor of   
   Ridolfo.   
      
   In 1581 Don Ferrante was requested by the Empress Maria of Austria to   
   accompany her on a visit to Spain. When there, Aloysius, now 13, was   
   named, with Ridolfo, to be a page to the Spanish crown prince. He   
   fulfilled his court duties, but also kept up his devotions and acts of   
   self-denial. Now he told his mother of his desire to become a Jesuit.   
   When the Marchesa told her husband, he was furious, and threatened to   
   flog the boy. He did not, but the battle continued when they returned   
   to Castiglione in 1584, Ferrante trying every method of dissuasion.   
      
   Only when the imperial commission arrived to process the transfer of   
   title to Ridolfo did the old marquis give up his efforts.   
      
   The contest won, Aloysius set out joyfully for Rome, and at the age of   
   19 entered the Jesuit novitiate on November 25, 1585, taking his first   
   vows in 1587. He passed through his philosophy studies with flying   
   colors at the Roman College and began theology. The Jesuit rule fitted   
   him like a glove, and he advanced from strength to strength in his   
   prayer-life and acts of humility. In stability of character he was   
   mature beyond his years.   
      
   Only once after leaving Castiglione did he return home. By then his   
   father had long since died, much changed for the better. Back in Rome   
   in 1591, when the plague struck the city, Aloysius devoted his full   
   strength to the care of its victims. He himself caught the disease,   
   and although he seemed to have recovered from it, it left him with a   
   persistent low fever that gradually wore him down. On June 21, 1591, a   
   day that God had revealed to him as his last, Aloysius Gonzaga, Jesuit   
   scholastic not yet a priest, breathed his last. He was happy to die:   
   “We are going gladly, gladly,” he had said. He knew that he had   
   accomplished all that God wanted him to do. As the Book of Wisdom   
   says, “Having become perfect in a short while, he reached the fullness   
   of a long career” (4:13).   
      
   St. Louis Gonzaga remains a model of purity of soul that we hope all   
   young people will struggle to maintain. But for those who fail, young   
   and old alike, there is this touching prayer in his Mass: “By the help   
   of his prayers, may we who have not followed his innocence follow his   
   example of penance.”   
      
   Quote:   
   Love is a mighty power, a great and complete good; Love alone lightens   
   every burden, and makes the rough places smooth. It bears every   
   hardship as thought it were nothing, and renders all bitterness sweet   
   and acceptable. The love of Jesus is noble, and inspires us to great   
   deeds; it moves us always to desire perfection.   
   --Thomas a Kempis   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The Saints   
      
   A tone of pride or petulance repressed,   
   A selfish inclination firmly fought,   
   A shadow of annoyance set at naught,   
   A murmur of disquietude suppressed.   
      
   A peace in pressure possessed,   
   A reconcilement generously sought,   
   A purpose put aside—a banished thought,   
   A word of self-explaining unexpressed.   
      
   Trifles they seem, these petty soul restraints,   
   Yet they who prove them such must need possess,   
   A constancy and courage grand and bold.   
      
   They are the trifles that have made the Saints;   
   Give me to practice them in humbleness,   
   And nobler power than mine doth no one hold.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)