From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   There are two sorts of prudence   
      
   There are two sorts of prudence, the one human, the other Christian.   
   Human, carnal, or worldly prudence is that which has only worldly   
   prosperity in view, and is indifferent about the means, provided it   
   attains its object. Christian prudence takes Eternal Incarnate Wisdom   
   for its guide in every thought, word, and work. It is regulated in   
   every emergency, not by fatuous, glimmering light of its own, or by   
   worldly judgment, but by the maxims of faith.   
   --St. Vincent of Paul   
      
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   January 28th - Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church   
   (1225-1274)   
      
   The great Saint Thomas was born of noble parents at Aquino near Naples   
   in Italy, in 1225; his century was replete with great names and   
   Christian works, yet he dominates it by the power of his thought and   
   the perfection of his works. In his childhood he was the provider for   
   the poor of the neighborhood during a famine; his father, meeting him   
   in a corridor with the food he had succeeded in taking from the   
   kitchen, asked him what he had under his cloak; he opened it and fresh   
   roses fell on the ground. The nobleman embraced his son and amid his   
   tears, gave him permission to follow thereafter all inspirations of   
   his charity.   
      
   The young student, like the holy man Job, made a pact with his eyes   
   and forbade them to see anything which might favor in his heart any   
   desires for a life of ease. At the University of Naples he led a   
   retired life of study and prayer, and continued his charities, giving   
   all he had which was superfluous. He was recognized already by his   
   professors as a genius, but it was Saint Albert the Great who later   
   said of his disciple whom some called “the mute ox”, that “some day   
   the lowing of this ox will resound throughout the entire world.”   
      
   At the age of 19 he received the Dominican habit at Naples. His family   
   opposed this choice, and he was set upon by his brothers on his way to   
   Paris. They attempted in vain to remove his holy habit, but he was   
   taken in custody and obliged to suffer a two years’ captivity in their   
   castle of Rocca Secca. Neither the caresses of his mother and sisters,   
   nor the threats and stratagems of his brothers, could shake him in his   
   vocation. His older sister was won over by him and renounced a   
   brilliant marriage to embrace religious life; later she was Abbess of   
   her convent in Capua.   
      
   While Saint Thomas was in confinement at Rocca Secca, his brothers   
   endeavored to entrap him into sin, but the attempt only ended in the   
   triumph of his purity. Snatching from the hearth a burning coal, the   
   Saint drove from his chamber the courtesan whom they had concealed   
   there. Then marking a cross upon the wall, he knelt down to pray.   
   Immediately, while he was rapt in ecstasy, an Angel girded him with a   
   cord, in token of the gift of perpetual chastity which God had given   
   him. The pain caused by the girdle was so sharp that Saint Thomas   
   uttered a piercing cry, which brought his guards into the room. But he   
   never related this grace to anyone save Father Raynald, his confessor,   
   a short time before his death. Thus originated the Confraternity of   
   the Angelic Warfare, for the preservation of the virtue of chastity.   
      
   Having at length escaped, Saint Thomas went to Cologne to study under   
   Blessed Albert the Great, and afterwards was sent with him to Paris,   
   where for several years he taught philosophy and theology. The Church   
   has ever venerated his numerous writings as a treasure of sacred   
   doctrine; in naming him the Angelic Doctor she has indicated that his   
   science is more divine than human. The rarest gifts of intellect were   
   combined in him with the most tender piety. Prayer, he said, had   
   taught him more than study. His singular devotion to the Blessed   
   Sacrament shines forth in the Office and hymns which he composed for   
   the feast of Corpus Christi. To the words miraculously uttered by a   
   crucifix at Naples, “Well hast thou written concerning Me, Thomas.   
   What shall I give thee as a reward?” he replied, “Naught save Thyself,   
   O Lord.” Saint Thomas was loved for his unfailing gentleness and his   
   readiness to lend his services or great lights to all who sought them.   
   He died at Fossa Nuova in 1274, on his way to the General Council of   
   Lyons, to which Pope Gregory X had summoned him.   
      
      
   Reflection.   
   The knowledge of God is for all, but hidden treasures are reserved for   
   those who have ever followed the Lamb.   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Be assured that he who shall always walk faithfully in God's presence,   
   always ready to give Him an account of all his actions, shall never be   
   separated from Him by consenting to sin.   
   -- Saint Thomas Aquinas   
      
      
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   THANK-YOU LORD   
      
   I thank you   
   O Lord   
   for bringing me to the light   
   of another day with all   
   its blessing and graces.   
   Grant that I may   
    yet attain to the height of   
   perfection to which   
   You would lead me.   
   Repair for me also, I entreat You,   
   the harm I have done   
    to the souls of others.   
   Through Christ, our Lord.    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)