From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Contrition of Heart  (II)   
      
   Levity of heart and neglect of our faults make us insensible to the   
   proper sorrows of the soul, and we often engage in empty laughter when   
   we should rightly weep. There is no real liberty and true joy, save in   
   the fear of God with a quiet conscience. Happy is he who can set aside   
   every hindering distraction, and recall himself to the single purpose   
   of contrition. Happy is he who abjures whatever may stain or burden   
   his conscience. Fight manfully, for one habit overcomes another. If   
   you are content to let others alone, they will gladly leave you to   
   accomplish your purpose unhindered.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch. 21   
      
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   August 15th - St. Arnulf, or Arnoul, Bishop of Soissons   
      
   This Arnoul was born about 1040 in Flanders and in his youth   
   distinguished himself in the armies of Robert and Henry I of France.   
   He was called to a more noble warfare, resolving to employ for God the   
   labour which till then he had consecrated to the service of the world.   
   He became a monk in the great monastery of Saint-Médard at Soissons;   
   and after he had for some time made trial of his strength in the   
   cenobitic life, he shut himself up in a narrow cell and in the closest   
   solitude, almost without any intercourse with men, and devoted himself   
   to assiduous prayer and the most austere penance.  He led this manner   
   of life until he was called to be abbot of the monastery.   
      
   It was in 1081 that a council at the request of the clergy and people   
   of Soissons resolved to place him in that episcopal see.  To the   
   deputies who came to inform him Arnoul said, "Leave a sinner to offer   
   to God some fruits of penance; and do not compel such a fool as myself   
   to take up a charge which requires so much wisdom." He was, however,   
   obliged to shoulder the burden.  He set himself with great zeal to   
   fulfil every part of his ministry; but having been driven from his see   
   by a usurper, he obtained leave to resign his dignity.  He afterward   
   founded a monastery at Aldenburg in Flanders, where he died in 1087.   
      
     At a council at Beauvais in 1120 the then bishop of Soissons showed   
   a life of St. Arnoul to the assembly and demanded that his body should   
   be enshrined in the church.  "If the body of my predecessor were in my   
   diocese", he said, "it would have been brought in out of the   
   churchyard long ago."  The translation was accordingly made into the   
   abbey-church of Aldenburg in the following year.   
      
   The life by Hariulf has been printed by the Bollandists and Mabillon,   
   but has been more critically edited in MGH., Scriptores, vol. xv, Pt.   
   2, pp. 872-904.  See also E. de Moreau, Histoire de l'Église en   
   Belgique, t. ii (1945), pp. 433-437.   
      
      
   Reflection: “Compunction of heart,” says Saint Bernard, “is a treasure   
   infinitely to be desired, and an unspeakable gladness to the heart. It   
   is healing to the soul; it is remission of sins; it brings back the   
   Holy Spirit into the humble and loving heart.”   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   I have loved, because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer.   
   Because he hath inclined his ear unto me: and in my days I will call   
   upon him.  [Psa 116:1-2]  DRB   
      
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   O humility, love flower, I see how few souls possess you. Is it   
   because you are so beautiful, and at the same time, so difficult to   
   attain? O yes, it is both the one and the other. Even God takes great   
   pleasure in her. The floodgates of heaven are open to a humble soul,   
   and a sea of graces flows upon her. O how beautiful is a humble soul!   
   From her heart, as from a censer, rises a varied and most pleasing   
   fragrance which breaks through the skies and reaches God himself,   
   filling his Most Sacred Heart with joy. God refuses nothing to such a   
   soul; she is all-powerful and influences the destiny of the whole   
   world. God raises such a soul up to his very throne, and the more she   
   humbles herself, the more God stoops down to her, pursuing her with   
   his graces and accompanying her at every moment with his omnipotence.   
   Such a soul is most deeply united with God. O humility, strike deep   
   roots in my whole being. O Virgin most pure, but also most humble,   
   help me to attain deep humility. Now I understand why there are so few   
   saints; it is because so few souls are deeply humble.[5]   
   --Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)