From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
    The Light of Truth   
      
   The Lord has already called his disciples the "salt of the earth"   
   because they seasoned with divine wisdom the hearts of the human race   
   which had been made tasteless by the devil. Now he also calls them the   
   "light of the world." For, illumined by his very own self who is the   
   true and eternal light, they too become light within the darkness. For   
   since he himself is the sun of righteousness, he rightly also calls   
   his disciples "light of the world." Through them, as if through   
   shining rays, he poured the light of his knowledge on the entire   
   world. For by showing the light of truth, the Lord's disciples made   
   the darkness of error flee from people's hearts.   
    by Chromatius (died 406 AD) (excerpt from TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 19.1.1-2)   
      
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   June 30th – St. Theobald of Provins, OSB, Hermit   
   Also known as   
   Teobaldo   
   Theobaldus   
   Thibaud   
   Thibaut   
   Thibault   
      
   THIS Theobald was of the family of the counts of Champagne, son of   
   Count Arnoul, and was born at Provins in Brie in 1017. In his youth he   
   read the lives of the fathers of the desert, and was much struck by   
   the examples of self-denial, contemplation and Christian perfection   
   which were set before him: the lives of St. John the Baptist, of St.   
   Paul the Hermit, St. Antony and St. Arsenius in their wildernesses,   
   charmed him, and he greatly desired to imitate them. And when he was   
   ordered to lead a body of troops in the field, he represented so   
   respectfully to Count Arnoul the obligation of a vow by which he had   
   bound himself to quit the world, that he at length obtained his   
   consent.   
      
   With another young nobleman, called Walter, he went to the abbey of   
   St. Remi at Rheims, and thence they set out in the clothes of beggars.   
   First to Suxy in Ardenne, and then in the forest of Pettingen in   
   Luxembourg they found a convenient solitude for their purpose, and   
   built themselves there two little cells. Manual labour is a necessary   
   duty of an ascetic or penitential life, and not being skilled in the   
   making of mats or baskets or similar work, they went into the   
   neighbouring villages, and there hired themselves by the day to serve   
   the masons, or to work in the fields, to carry stones and mortar, to   
   load and unload wagons, to muck out the stables of the farmers, or to   
   blow the bellows and make charcoal for the forges. With their wages   
   they bought coarse bread, which was their whole subsistence. Whilst   
   they worked with their hands, their hearts were employed in prayer;   
   and at night they watched long, singing together the divine praises.   
   The reputation of their sanctity became a nuisance to them, so they   
   resolved to leave a place where they were no longer able to live in   
   obscurity. They went on pilgrimage, first to Compostela and then to   
   Rome, and after they had visited all the holy places in Italy, they   
   chose for their retirement a woody place called Salanigo, near   
   Vicenza. Here, after two years, God called Walter to Himself. Theobald   
   looked upon this loss as a warning that he had not long to live, and   
   he redoubled his austerities. A number of disciples gathered round   
   him, and the bishop of Vicenza promoted him to priest's orders, so   
   that they might the more profit by his direction.   
      
   His lineage and quality being discovered, his parents were informed   
   that their son was alive, and that the hermit of Salanigo, of whom   
   such stories of sanctity, prophecies and miracles were told, was he   
   whose absence had been the cause of so long a mourning; and, aged as   
   they were, they journeyed into Italy to see him. Gisela, the saint's   
   mother, obtained her husband's consent to finish her life near her   
   son, who made her a little hut at some distance from his own. St.   
   Theobald was shortly after stricken with his last sickness: a painful   
   and repulsive disease which he bore with great patience. A little   
   before his death he sent for an abbot of the Camaldolese hermits from   
   whose hands he had already received the religious habit. To him he   
   made his profession, recommended his mother and his disciples, and,   
   having received viaticum, died in peace on the last day of June, 1066.   
   He was canonized within less than seven years by Pope Alexander II.   
      
   A full contemporary biography by Peter, abbot of Vangadizza, has been   
   printed by Mabillon, and by the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum,   
   June, vol. vii. By some curious confusion Theobald has been   
   erroneously honoured as founder of the church and town of Thann in   
   Alsace. See the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxiv (1905), p. 159; and R.   
   Thompson, Two Old French Poems on St. Thibaut (1936). The saint is   
   patron of charcoal-burners, and is sometimes called “le Charbonnier."   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   If you wish to arrive speedily at the summit of perfection, animate   
   yourself to the true love of shame, insults, and calumny.   
   --St. Ignatius   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And then shall many be scandalized: and shall betray one another: and   
   shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall   
   seduce many. And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many   
   shall grow cold.  But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be   
   saved.  (Matt 24:10-13)   
      
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   Aspirations   
      
   Omnipotence of the Father, help my frailty, and rescue me   
   from the depths of misery.   
      
   Wisdom of the Son, direct all my thoughts, words, and   
   actions.   
      
   Love of the Holy Spirit, be the source of all the operations of   
   my soul, so that they may be entirely conformed to Thy   
   Divine Will.   
      
   Eternal Father, by the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ,   
   glorify His most holy Name according to the desires of His   
   adorable Heart.   
      
   We give Thee thanks, Almighty God, for all Thy benefits.   
   Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)