From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   God created us for a purpose and a mission   
      
   We also must take up our cross and follow the Lord Jesus wherever he   
   may call us. He will give us the strength and power of the Holy Spirit   
   to live as his disciples. John Henry Newman (1801-1890) wrote: "God   
   has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some   
   work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission -   
   I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.   
   I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has   
   not created me for nothing. Therefore, I will trust him. Whatever,   
   wherever I am. I cannot be thrown away." Do you trust in God and in   
   his call and purpose for your life?   
      
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   June 22nd - St. Paulinus of Nola, Bishop, Confessor   
      
   Paulinus was of a family which boasted a long line of senators,   
   prefects and consuls of Rome, and he was educated with great care. His   
   genius and eloquence in oratory, prose and verse were the admiration   
   of all the brilliant Christian minds of his time, including Saint   
   Gregory the Great, Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine, and   
   Saint Martin of Tours. It is believed that Saint Ambrose would have   
   chosen him to replace him as bishop of Milan, but Saint Paulinus was   
   far from Milan when Saint Ambrose died. He said of him that Christians   
   should follow and imitate Saint Paulinus, and that the greatest good   
   fortune of the century in which they were living was to be witness to   
   the life of so rare and admirable a man.   
      
   Saint Paulinus, at first Roman Consul and then Prefect or Governor of   
   Rome, had more than doubled his wealth by his marriage with a virtuous   
   Spanish noblewoman; he was one of the wealthiest and most honored men   
   of his time, possessing domains in several nations of Europe. Though   
   he was the chosen friend of Saints, he was still only a catechumen,   
   and trying to serve two masters. But God drew him to Himself along the   
   way of sorrows and trials. The first and only child of Paulinus and   
   Theresia died shortly after birth. Saint Paulinus received baptism   
   soon afterwards, at the age of 38, from the bishop of Bordeaux, Saint   
   Delphin; then he withdrew into Spain to be at liberty to pray in   
   solitude.   
      
   He was ordained a priest in Barcelona, and afterwards retired to Nola   
   in Campania. And then, in consort with his holy wife, he liberated all   
   his slaves, sold all his vast estates in various parts of the empire,   
   distributing their proceeds so widely and generously that Saint Jerome   
   says both East and West were filled with his alms. In Nola he built   
   the magnificent Church of Saint Felix and served it night and day,   
   living a life of extreme abstinence and toil. He and his wife agreed   
   to live as brother and sister; they exchanged their silver utensils   
   for those of wood and pottery, and wore robes of rude cloth,   
   practicing from that time on a genuine poverty. Certain highly-placed   
   worldly persons were very much offended by this abrupt change in the   
   way of life of these persons of such great dignity.   
      
   Nonetheless, in 409 Saint Paulinus was chosen Bishop of Nola, and for   
   more than thirty years so ruled as to be conspicuous, in an age   
   blessed with many great and wise bishops. Saint Gregory the Great   
   tells us that when the Vandals of Africa made a descent on Campania,   
   Paulinus spent all he had in relieving the distress of his people and   
   redeeming them from slavery. Finally, when all had been disposed of,   
   there came to him a poor widow, whose only son had been taken away by   
   the son-in-law of the Vandal king. “What I have I give you, said the   
   Saint to her; “we will go to Africa and you will offer me to the   
   prince, saying I am one of your slaves, in exchange for the prisoner.”   
   Her resistance once overcome, they went, and Paulinus was accepted in   
   place of the widow’s son and employed as gardener. After a time the   
   king discovered, by divine interposition, that this valuable slave of   
   his son-in-law was the renowned Bishop of Nola. He at once set him   
   free, granting him also the freedom of all the townsmen of Nola who   
   were in slavery.   
      
   One who knew Saint Paulinus well says he was “meek as Moses, as   
   priestly as Aaron, innocent as Samuel, tender as David, wise as   
   Solomon, apostolic as Peter, loving as John, cautious as Thomas,   
   brilliant as Stephen, fervent as Apollos.” Saint Paulinus died in 431.   
   His holy remains were transferred several times but restored to the   
   cathedral of Nola in 1908.   
      
   Reflection. “Go to Campania,” writes Saint Augustine; “there study   
   Paulinus, that choice servant of God. With what generosity, with what   
   even greater humility, has he flung from him the burden of the world’s   
   grandeurs to take on the yoke of Christ!”   
      
   Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul   
   Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol.    
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "A trumpet only renders the sound and does not produce it unless   
   another breathes into it in order to bring forth the sound."   
   --Hildegard of Bingen in a letter to Elizabeth of Schonau   
      
   Bible quote:   
   Things that are impossible with men are possible with God. For all   
   things are possible with God.  (Mark 10:27)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   PRAYER TO OBTAIN THE GRACE OF ALL THE   
   WORLD'S MASSES   
      
   Eternal Father we humbly offer Thee our poor presence   
   and that of the whole of humanity from the beginning to   
   the end of the world at all the Masses that ever have or   
   ever will be prayed. We offer Thee all the pains, suffering,   
   prayers, sacrifices, joys and relaxations of our lives, in   
   union with those of our dear Lord Jesus here on earth.   
   May the Most Precious Blood of Christ, all His blood and   
   wounds and agony save us, through the sorrowful and   
   Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Amen!   
      
   (This prayer should be prayed daily, and Made known.)   
      
   Dear St. Philomena pray for us for that purity of mind and   
   heart which lead to the Perfect Love of God!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)