From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   How Sorrows are to be Borne Patiently: [III]   
      
   What boundless gratitude is Thy due, for revealing to me and to all   
   faithful people the true and holy way to Thine eternal Kingdom! Thy   
   life is our Way, and by holy patience we will journey onwards to Thee,   
   who are our crown and consummation. If Thou, Lord, had not gone before   
   us and showed the way, who could follow? How many would have stayed   
   behind and far distant had they not Thy glorious example for their   
   guide? Even now we are cold and careless, although we have heard Thy   
   teaching and mighty acts. What would happen to us had we not Thine   
   light as our guide? (John 8:12; 12:46)   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 18   
      
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   May 24th - Our Lady, Help of Christians   
   (1815)   
      
   Pope Pius VII, after he returned to Rome in 1815 from several years of   
   captivity imposed by the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, instituted this   
   feast day in honor of the assistance which the Blessed Virgin had   
   accorded the Church. The occasion of the Pope’s exile and captivity   
   was the emperor’s resistance to the authority of the Vicar of Christ,   
   superior before God to his own.   
      
   A decree of the emperor in 1809 had ordered that the papal States be   
   joined to the French empire; violence followed in Rome, when the   
   French tricolor flag was set up and the papal arms broken. The Pope’s   
   very courageous bull of excommunication of the emperor was made public   
   in the following month. Then, one morning, a group of armed men   
   entered the Quirinal Palace by breaking down the doors with axes, and   
   its leader announced that the pope must either renounce his   
   sovereignty over Rome or be taken by the troop to a French General,   
   who would communicate to him his next destination.   
      
   The sacrilegious seizure of his person was executed, and he spent five   
   years in exile in various places, finally at Fontainebleau, France.   
   After 1815 the clemency of the great Pope towards the Emperor and his   
   family are a matter of history; the latter were afforded a secure   
   refuge in Rome itself, when Napoleon was exiled. And for the Emperor   
   himself, relegated to the island of Saint Helena, the Pope pleaded for   
   clemency with the Prince-Regent of England. When Napoleon died, it was   
   with the assistance of chaplains sent to him by Pius VII.   
      
   Our Lady, Help of Christians, was made better known by Saint John   
   Bosco, who consecrated his Order of Salesian priests to Her. And in   
   Turin, beginning in 1865, he began to raise in Her honor a vast and   
   magnificent church. Without ever having a penny in advance, always the   
   needed sums of money arrived in time. About three-fourths of the gifts   
   offered were presented in thanksgiving for favors obtained through Her   
   intercession.   
      
   We will relate just one of those. A certain Senator of the Kingdom of   
   Italy was ill; Don Bosco went to visit him and found him very   
   discouraged and speaking of his imminent death. “What would you do,”   
   said Don Bosco, “if Our Lady Auxiliatrix obtained your cure from God?”   
   “My cure! Well, I would give two thousand francs a month for Her   
   church, for six months.” “Be of good courage,” said the Saint on   
   rising; “I will see that prayers are said for you.” Three days later,   
   Baron Gotta, perfectly cured, went to Don Bosco to make his first   
   payment, giving more than he had promised; and he did not cease to   
   outdo himself in generosity.   
      
   Sources: L’histoire ecclésiastique, by M. l’Abbé Darras (Louis Vivès:   
   Paris, 1888), Vol. 40; Les deux intendants de la Providence à Turin   
   (Joseph Cottolengo and Don Bosco) (Librairie St. Paul: Paris, 1904).   
      
      
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   Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth. --Matt. 5:4   
      
    "The only consideration of Superiors ought to be the love of God, and   
   the sanctification of the souls committed to their care. This cannot   
   be better attained than by humility, combined with a peaceable   
   disposition and good example"   
   --St. Vincent de Paul   
      
   ("A Year with the Saints".  May -- Meekness)   
      
   Bible Quote   
   And eating together with them, he commanded them, that they should   
   not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the   
   Father, which you have heard (saith he) by my mouth. 5 For John indeed   
   baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost,   
   not many days hence.  (Acts 1:4-5)   
      
      
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   The words of God are to be heard with humility, and many weigh them not   
      
   It is astonishing to witness how much men undertake, urged on by vain   
   and deceitful hope, to obtain temporal and perishable goods, and how   
   very little they do to obtain spiritual and eternal rewards, though   
   encouraged by a solid and certain hope founded upon the word of God,   
   which never fails. The prospect of interest, or the uncertain hope of   
   riches, animates every heart, enhances every pleasure, dries up every   
   tear, lightens every labor; and we think ourselves well repaid for our   
   trouble when we have acquired the honor, the pleasure, or the   
   advantage we had in view. The hope of Heaven alone, the prospect of   
   eternal happiness, which may be obtained by patience and good works,   
   animates us not, it neither supports nor consoles us: we are as much   
   cast down and discouraged at the thought of gaining Heaven by patient   
   suffering as though we esteemed it of no value. Whence comes this? It   
   is because we are too much attached to things present and too   
   indifferent about the things to come. Our hope is faint because our   
   faith is weak.   
      
   Prayer: What confusion for me, O Lord, that I should give myself so   
   much trouble to please the world and to gratify my passions, and take   
   so little pains to satisfy Thy justice by works of penance, or Thy   
   goodness by punctuality in the discharge of my duties! Alas! why do I   
   not undergo as much for Thee as for myself? Why is not my ardor to   
   please Thee as fervent as my eagerness to gratify myself? Change, O   
   Lord, change the object and inclinations of my heart. Take Thou the   
   place of self within me, and grant that my love for Thee may be as   
   ardent to please Thee as my own self-love is to satisfy myself. Give   
   me such a love for Thee as may be called a love of reparation, that   
   is, such as may, by its ardor and constancy, make amends for the   
   languor and inconstancy of mine. Amen.    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)