From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Let us bind ourselves to Christ   
      
   It is right that we follow the example of John the Baptist and listen   
   to the outstanding works Christ has done, even when we are bound by   
   the chains of our sins. So powerful is the word of God that we shall   
   be set free by its efficacy and sing triumphantly with the prophet:   
   Lord, you have broken my bonds; I will offer you  the sacrifice of   
   praise. Let us bind ourselves to Christ as his disciples and with   
   ardent  desire and constant prayer humbly beg him to be our teacher,   
   so that, taught by him, we may believe in him as true Messiah and, as   
   believers, may love him with pure hearts as we ought. Finally, let us   
   in every place keep our hearts focused on our king as a powerful   
   example. By word and deed he makes it clear that he is Messiah and   
   true Christ; let us  likewise show ourselves complete Christians in   
   his image by our faith that works through love, for the Lord says:   
   Behold, I am coming quickly, to render each according to his works. If   
    these works are holy, they will not leave their doers until they have   
   led them into heaven and everlasting glory, by the power of our Lord   
   Jesus Christ, who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit through   
   all ages. Amen.   
   --Alonso de Orozco, O.S.A.   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   August 20th - St. Bernard Tolomeo, Italian monk   
      
   Founder of Congregation of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Olivet   
      
   THIS holy founder was born at Siena in 1272 and was baptized John.  He   
   was educated by his uncle, a Dominican friar, and at the local   
   university; after receiving his doctorate in law he took up public   
   work in Siena and fulfilled several municipal offices.  He was always   
   a devout man; but he seems to have undergone some sort of sudden   
   "conversion", for in 1312 instead of a lecture on philosophy he gave a   
   sermon on contempt of the world, resigned his position and withdrew to   
   a place ten miles from the city and lived there in solitude.  He was   
   joined by two other Sienese, Ambrose Piccolomini and Patrick Patrizi,   
   and the three lived together in the desert land between Siena and the   
   woods of Mont Amiata, where all was ash-coloured, sterile and   
   desolate.  The reputation of the sanctity of their lives was marred by   
   malicious or mistaken rumours (some thought them mad, others   
   subversive), which caused them to be summoned before Pope John XXII at   
   Avignon to give an account of themselves.  They were able to   
   demonstrate their orthodoxy to the pope's satisfaction, but he   
   instructed them to put themselves under one or other of the approved   
   monastic rules. They thereupon consulted Guy, Bishop of Arezzo, who   
   gave them the Rule of St Benedict and instructed a Camaldolese monk to   
   clothe them in the monastic habit-but white instead of the usual   
   black.   
      
   John Tolomei, who was recognized as their leader, took the name of   
   Bernard, their hermitage at Chiusuri was called Monte Oliveto, and the   
   Benedictine congregation of our Lady of Monte Oliveto came into   
   existence in 1319. It professed a primitive observance of the rule, to   
   which a number of austerities (including, at first, total abstinence   
   from wine) were added, and its success was instantaneous.  Within a   
   few years Bl. Bernard had founded a second monastery at Siena, and   
   others followed elsewhere; their penitential life continued to attract   
   disciples and in 1344 the new congregation was confirmed by Pope   
   Clement VI.   
      
   Some time afterwards a bad epidemic of plague broke out around Siena,   
   and the Olivetan monks gave themselves up entirely to the care of the   
   suffering and the burial of the dead; it seemed as if they were   
   miraculously preserved from contagion, but in August 1348 the first of   
   them was struck down: it was their founder himself.  He died at Monte   
   Oliveto on the 20th, the feast of his patron, St Bernard of Clairvaux.   
   In 1644 the cultus of Bl. Bernard Tolomei was confirmed, and his name   
   appears in the Roman Martyrology with the title "Blessed" ; but he is   
   venerated by the Olivetans, who still exist as a small independent   
   congregation of Benedictines, as "Saint", in accordance with the   
   declaration of the Congregation of Sacred Rites that "he was worthy of   
   veneration among the saints".   
      
   The Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. iv, give a long   
   account of Bl. Bernard, though there is no formal biography of early   
   date.  The most valuable contribution to the history of the founder of   
   the Olivetani is that of Dom Placid Lugano, Origine e  primordi dell'   
   Ordine di MontolivetoOrden and Kongregationen des Kath. Kirche, vol.   
   i, pp. 281-283.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   God knows that the scope of all of my works is only to do His will. My   
   only interest is God's glory and the good of souls. I am always an   
   obedient son of Holy Mother Church and am ready to shed my blood and   
   give my life for Her.   
   --Blessed Mark of Aviano   
      
   Trivia Note: Legend has it that when the Ottomans fled before the   
   European army, they left behind a lot of their strong, bitter coffee.   
   The Christian soldiers, to make this liberated coffee more palatable,   
   mixed it with honey and milk; they named the drink after Mark's Order,   
   the Capuchins, and thus cappuccino was born.   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves,   
   and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will   
   I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their   
   land."  (2 Chronicles 7:14)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Woe to him!   
      
   ....But there is another angle. St. Paul told the Corinthians (1 Cor   
   12:26): "If one member [of Christ] suffers, all the members suffer.   
   For we are naturally bound together, we form one body in Christ. An   
   old Rabbis said it well, Simeon ben Eleazar: "Someone has committed a   
   transgression. Woe to him! He has tipped the scale to the side of debt   
   for himself and for the world. For any sin of someone harms all. There   
   is no such a thing as a victimless crime.   
      
   So the Holiness of God wants the scales rebalanced because He loves   
   what is right in itself. He also wants it rebalanced because the   
   imbalance is harmful to all the other members of Christ.   
      
   But one member can make up for another. So St. Paul said (Col 1:24):   
   "I fill up the things that are lacking to the tribulations of Christ   
   in my flesh for His body, which is the Church." Of course, Christ   
   lacked no suffering. His suffering was beyond telling. But the whole   
   Christ, that is, Christ with His members, can lack something. For we   
   are not saved as individuals. We are saved in as much as we are   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)