From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Trust in God in all Trouble  [III]   
      
   O righteous Father, ever to be praised, now is the hour of Thy   
   servant's trial. Father, worthy of all love, it is right that I should   
   now suffer something for Thy sake. 0 Father, ever to be honoured, the   
   hour has come (John 16:32) which has lain in Thy foreknowledge from   
   all eternity, when for a while Thy servant will seem utterly defeated;   
   yet let him inwardly feel Thy presence. He will be maligned and   
   humiliated, a failure in the eyes of men, broken by suffering and   
   sickness, that with Thee he may rise again in the light of a new dawn,   
   and receive glory in Heaven. This, most holy Father, is by Your   
   appointment, and all is done as Thou hast ordained.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 50   
      
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   April 10th - Bl. Mark Fantucci   
      
   AMONGST the Franciscan leaders of the 15th century a special place   
   must be assigned to Bl. Mark Fantucci of Bologna, to whom was mainly   
   due the preservation of the Observance as a separate body when it   
   seemed on the point of being compulsorily merged into the Conventual   
   branch. After having received an excellent education to fit him for   
   the good position and large fortune to which he was left sole heir, he   
   had given up all his worldly advantages at the age of 26 to receive   
   the habit of St. Francis. Three years after his profession, he was   
   chosen guardian of Monte Colombo, the spot where St. Francis had   
   received the rule of his order. So successful was he in converting   
   sinners that he was given permission to preach outside his province by   
   St. John Capistran, then vicar general of the Observants in Italy.   
      
   Having served twice as minister provincial, Bl. Mark was elected vicar   
   general in succession to Capistran, and showed himself zealous in   
   enforcing strict observance of the rule the various reforms he brought   
   about all tended to revive the spirit of the founder, After the taking   
   of Constantinople so many Franciscans had been enslaved by the Turks,   
   that Mark wrote to all his provincials urging them to appeal for alms   
   to ransom the captives but in answer to a request for instructions how   
   to act in the danger zone, he sent word to, Franciscan missionaries in   
   places threatened by victorious Islam bidding them remain boldly at   
   their posts and to face what might happen.   
      
   He was able to execute a long-cherished plan to form a convent of Poor   
   Clares in Bologna. St. Catherine of Bologna came with some of her nuns   
   from Ferrara to establish it, and found in Bl. Mark one who could give   
   her all the assistance she needed. He visited as commissary all the   
   friaries in Candia, Rhodes and Palestine, and on his return to Italy   
   he was elected vicar general for the second time. Never sparing   
   himself he undertook long and tiring expeditions to Bosnia, Dalmatia,   
   Austria and Poland, often travelling long distances on foot. Pope Paul   
   II wished to make him a cardinal, but he fled to Sicily to avoid being   
   forced to accept an honour from which he shrank.   
      
   The next pope, Sixtus IV, formed a project which was even less   
   acceptable, for he had set his heart upon uniting all Franciscans into   
   one body, without requiring any reform from the Conventuals. At a   
   meeting convened to settle the matter, Bl. Mark used all his eloquence   
   to defeat the proposal, but apparently in vain. At last, in tears,   
   throwing down the book of the rule at the pope’s feet, he exclaimed,   
   “Oh my Seraphic Father, defend your own rule, since I, miserable man   
   that I am, cannot defend it”; and thereupon left the hall. The gesture   
   accomplished what argument had failed to do; the assembly broke up   
   without arriving at a decision, and the scheme fell through. In 1479,   
   while delivering a Lenten mission in Piacenza, Bl. Mark was taken ill   
   and died at the convent of the Observance outside the city. His cultus   
   was confirmed in 1868.   
      
   Bl. Mark is very fully dealt with under different years in Wadding’s   
   Annales Ordinis Minorum; and a summary account may be found in   
   Mazzara, Leggendario Francescano, vol. i (1676), pp. 431-440. See also   
   Léon, Aureole Seraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. ii, pp. 1-13. Sundry   
   letters and other references have been published by Faloci Pulignani   
   in his Miscellanea Francescana, vol. xiv (1913), and also in the   
   Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, vol. xxi (1928). Fr Mark is said to   
   have been one of the founders of monti di pietà to combat oppression   
   of the poor by usury.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   If we look forward to receiving God's mercy, we can never fail to do   
   good so long as we have the strength. For if we share with the poor,   
   out of love for God, whatever he has given to us, we shall receive   
   according to his promise a hundredfold in eternal happiness. What a   
   fine profit, what a blessed reward! With outstretched arms he begs us   
   to turn toward him, to weep for our sins, and to become the servants   
   of love, first for ourselves, then for our neighbors. Just as water   
   extinguishes a fire, so love wipes away sin.   
   --Saint John of God   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   We have been ransomed with precious blood of Christ, as with the blood   
   of a lamb without blemish or spot.  (1 Peter 1:19 )   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Meditation for the Day   
      
     The rule of God's kingdom is perfect order, perfect harmony, perfect   
   supply, perfect love, perfect honesty, perfect obedience. There is no   
   discord in God's kingdom, only some things still unconquered in God's   
   children. The difficulties of life are caused by disharmony in the   
   individual man or woman. People lack power because they lack harmony   
   with God and with each other. They think that God fails because power   
   is not manifested in their lives. God does not fail. People fail   
   because they are out of harmony with Him.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)