From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Harvest of Righteousness   
      
   And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make   
   peace.  [James 3:18]   
      
   The Venerable Bede in commenting on this passage urges Christians to   
   sow the earth with the best seed to yield a fruitful harvest:   
   "Everything we do in this life contains within it the seed of future   
   regard.  Paul says the same thing when he writes: 'Whatever a man   
   sows, that will he also reap.' Therefore it is rightly said that the   
   fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.  For   
   the fruit of righteousness is eternal life, which is the reward for   
   good works, so that those who desire peace and implement it sow the   
   earth with the best of seed there is, and by their daily actions gain   
   an increase which entitles them to inherit the fruits of life in   
   heaven.  The reprobates also reap what they sow, because they will   
   also receive their just reward at the judgment.  But that reward will   
   not be the fruits of eternal life, but corruption, because they will   
   reap the eternal punishment due to the corruption in which they passed   
   their lives on earth."   
   --The Venerable Bede, quoting St. Paul from Gal. 6:7; Concerning the   
   Epistle of St. James, ch. 3.   
      
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   March 10th - Bl. John of Vallombrosa   
   d. 1380   
      
   JOHN OF VALLOMBROSA was a Florentine who entered the monastery of the   
   Holy Trinity in his native city. He was a clever man and spent hours   
   of the day and night poring over books. In the course of his studies   
   he became interested in necromancy and began to practise the black   
   arts in secret. He had become thoroughly vicious and depraved when   
   reports of his proceedings reached the ears of the abbot of   
   Vallombrosa, who summoned him before a commission of monks and   
   formally accused him. At first John lied and denied that he had had   
   any dealings with magic, but when incontrovertible evidence was   
   brought against him he acknowledged his guilt. His punishment was a   
   lengthy imprisonment in a pestilential prison where he lost his health   
   and was reduced to a skeleton.   
      
   When at last he was liberated John could scarcely walk, but he was   
   sincerely penitent. Although the abbot and the monks would fain have   
   restored him to their fellowship he asked to be allowed to continue   
   voluntarily the life he had been compelled to lead. “I have learnt”,   
   he said, “in this dark and long imprisonment, that there is nothing   
   better, nothing more holy, than solitude in solitude I intend to go on   
   learning divine things and to try to rise higher. Now that I am free   
   from temporal fetters I am resolved, with the help of Christ, to waste   
   no more time.” With the consent of the abbot he embraced the life of a   
   hermit and soon became known as the foremost amongst the solitaries of   
   the countryside for his sanctity and great learning. His letters and   
   treatises, some written in Latin and some in the vernacular, were   
   handed about from one to another and were prized for their   
   subject-matter as well as for the elegance of their diction. He seemed   
   as though divinely inspired to touch the hardest hearts and to expound   
   the most abstruse points of Holy Scripture.   
      
   The “hermit of the cells”, as he came to be called, lived to extreme   
   old age and enjoyed the friendship and esteem of St. Catherine of   
   Siena. Writing to Barduccio of Florence after her death, John says   
   that whilst he was mourning over her loss she came to him in a vision,   
   and gave him the consolation of witnessing her celestial glory.   
      
   There is a short life printed in the Acta Sanctorum under Andrew of   
   Strumi, March, vol. ii, 3rd ed., pp. 49-50. Cf. Zambrini, Opera   
   volgari a stampa dei sec. 13 e 14, pp. 238, 263-264, etc.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "The night was not made to be spent entirely in sleep. Why did Jesus   
   Christ pass so many nights amid the mountains, if not to instruct us   
   by His example? It is during the night that all the plants respire,   
   and it is then also that the soul of man is more penetrated with the   
   dews falling from Heaven; and everything that has been scorched and   
   burned during the day by the sun's fierce heat is refreshed and   
   renewed during the night; and the tears we shed at night extinguish   
   the fires of passion and quieten our guilty desires. Night heals the   
   wounds of our soul and calms out griefs."   
   --St. John Chrysostom.   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   And yet ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried.   
   But we, we thought of him as someone punished, struck by God, and   
   brought low. Yet he was pierced through for our faults, crushed for   
   our sins. On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through   
   his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5 )   
      
      
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   The One Thing Necessary   
      
   O my God, help me to remember that time is short, eternity long.   
   What good is all the greatness of this world at the hour of death?   
   To love You, my God   
   and save my soul is the one thing necessary.   
   Without You, there is no peace of mind or soul.   
   My God, I need fear only sin and nothing else in this life,   
   for to lose You, my God, is to lose all.   
   O my God, help me to remember   
   that I came into this world with nothing,   
   and shall take nothing from it when I die.   
   To gain You, I must leave all.   
   But in loving You,   
   I already have all good things,   
   the infinite riches of Christ and His Church in life,   
   Mary’s motherly protection and perpetual help,   
   and the eternal dwelling place Jesus has prepared for me.   
   Eternal Father, Jesus has promised   
   that whatever we ask in His Name will be granted us.   
   In His Name, I pray:   
   give me a burning faith,   
   a joyful hope,   
   a holy love for You.   
   Grant me perseverance in doing Your will   
   and never let me be separated from You.   
   My God and my All,   
   make me a saint.   
   Amen.   
   By St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)