From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On the Love of Solitude and Silence  (V)   
      
   In silence and quietness the devout soul makes progress and learns the   
   hidden mysteries of the Scriptures (Ecclus.39:1-3). There she finds   
   floods of tears in which she may nightly wash and be cleansed   
   (Ps.6:6). For the further she withdraws from all the tumult of the   
   world, the nearer she draws to her Maker. For God with His holy angels   
   will draw near to him who withdraws himself from his friends and   
   acquaintances. It is better to live in obscurity and to seek the   
   salvation of his soul, than to neglect this even to work miracles. It   
   is commendable in a Religious, therefore, to go abroad but seldom, to   
   avoid being seen, and to have no desire to see men.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 20   
      
      
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   November 26th - St. John Berchmans   
   (1599-1621)   
      
   The Jesuit Order has produced three admirable young saints: Stanislaus   
   Kostka, Aloysius Gonzaga, and John Berchmans.   
      
   Unlike the other two, St. John Berchmans was not of noble rank. His   
   father was a master shoemaker, a prominent citizen of Dienst, Belgium.   
   John’s early schooling was in the hands of a layman and a   
   religious-order priest, and he proved a bright student, especially   
   gifted as an actor.   
      
   By the time he was 13, young Berchmans had already decided that he   
   wanted to be a priest. That year his father, faced with financial   
   problems, told him that he would have to leave school and learn a   
   trade to help support their family. It was then that he confided his   
   desire for the priesthood to his parents. They reached a compromise.   
   He was hired to be the house servant of a prominent priest at   
   Mechelen. This would give him a chance to attend the local seminary.   
      
   In 1615 the Jesuits opened a college at Mechelen. John was one of the   
   first to enroll. A year later he joined the Jesuit novitiate, intent   
   on becoming a member of the Society. This turn of events displeased   
   his sponsors, and was accepted only reluctantly by his parents. But he   
   lovingly assured them that they would simply be giving back to God the   
   son that God had given to them. (When his mother died not long   
   afterward, his father became a priest!)   
      
   Berchmans had clearly made the right choice. He was a perfect novice.   
   Holiness was his primary aim. (“If I do not become a saint when I am   
   young,” he once said, “I shall never become one.”) Yet his method of   
   growing in sanctity was beautifully balanced. He did not aim at great   
   deeds, but, like St. Therese of Lisieux in our times, he tried to do   
   the little things as well as possible. Well-rounded and good-humored,   
   he was admired and respected by all.   
      
   Because of his talents as a student, John was assigned to Rome in 1619   
   to begin his philosophical studies. He and one companion walked from   
   Belgium to Rome in ten weeks. At Rome, too, his Jesuit professors and   
   colleagues marveled at his diligence and his exemplary life. Because   
   of his proficiency as a student he was chosen in 1621 to defend a   
   thesis in an academic disputation. Unfortunately, soon afterward he   
   contracted an infectious disease that would prove mortal. Since he had   
   aspired to martyrdom anyhow, John accepted the trial with cheerful   
   grace. As he grew worse, the great Jesuit scripture scholar, Father   
   Cornelius a Lapide, in administering the last rites, asked him if he   
   had anything on his conscience. “Nothing at all,” he replied.   
      
   John Berchmans died peacefully on August 13, 1621. Miracles were   
   reported soon after his death, but he was declared “blessed” only in   
   1865. There was an American angle to his canonization in 1888. One of   
   the miracles accepted by the Holy See as verified took place in Grand   
   Coteau, Louisiana, at a girls’ academy founded in 1821 by the   
   Religious of the Sacred Heart.   
      
   In 1862, Mary Wilson, a 16-year-old Canadian Presbyterian, had become   
   attracted to Catholicism while visiting St. Louis, Missouri. Having   
   asked for instruction, she was received in the Church by the Jesuits.   
   Her family disowned her, but rejection did not keep her from joining   
   the Sacred Heart nuns in 1866.   
      
   That October, however, on the day before Mary was to receive the   
   habit, she was seized by a deathly ailment. After she had received the   
   last rites, she prayed to Blessed John Berchmans for either cure or   
   patience, as God willed. Then she placed on her tongue a holy card   
   bearing his image. At once she felt a finger on her tongue and heard   
   the words, “Sister, you will get the desired habit. Fear not.” Now she   
   saw beside her bed a luminous figure. She asked him if he were   
   Berchmans, and he said yes, he was sent by God’s order to tell her she   
   was cured. To the amazement of all, she had completely recovered. The   
   official report of the miracle was duly sent to Rome and filed in the   
   dossier on the canonization of this young Jesuit who had won heaven by   
   doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.   
   –Father Robert    
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   It is better not to allow anger, however just and reasonable, to enter   
   at all, than to admit it in ever so slight a degree; once admitted, it   
   will not be easily expelled, for, though at first but a small plant,   
   it will immediately grow into a large tree.   
   --Saint Augustine   
      
   Bible Quote:   
      
    But the prophet, who being corrupted with pride, shall speak in my   
   name things that I did not command him to say, or in the name of   
   strange gods, shall be slain.  [Deuteronomy 18:20]  DRB   
      
      
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   HYMN OF THE EVENING   
      
   O joyful Light! Light and Holy Glory of the Father immortal, the   
   heavenly, holy, the Blessed One; O Jesus Christ. Now that we have   
   reached the setting of the sun, and see the evening light, we sing to   
   God, Father + Son, and Holy Spirit. It is fitting at all times to   
   raise a song of praise in measured melody to You, O Son of God, the   
   giver of life. Behold the universe sings your glory.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)