From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Zeal in Amending our Lives  (9)   
      
    If there were nothing else to do but praise the Lord God with all   
   your heart and voice, if you had never to eat, or drink, or sleep, but   
   could praise God always and occupy yourself solely with spiritual   
   pursuits, how much happier you would be than you are now, a slave to   
   every necessity of the body! Would that there were no such needs, but   
   only the spiritual refreshments of the soul which, sad to say, we   
   taste too seldom!   
   Thomas a Kempis--Imitation of Christ--Bk 1, Ch 25   
      
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   June 21st – St. Leutfridus, Abbot   
      
   This was an extraordinary saint who is not well known, but an   
   outstanding example to our tepid epoch. He was born in the mid-7th   
   century near Evreux, France, of a good family, which he left to be a   
   priest. After many trials, he founded La Croix-Saint Qu’en Abbey [Holy   
   Cross Abbey], latter called Saint Leufroy Abbey in his honor. Because   
   of his rigor, he suffered persecutions from the lax Bishops of the   
   time. He had the gifts of miracles and prophecy.   
      
   He was very severe. One day a woman mocked him because he was bald. He   
   told her, “Why do you mock me for a defect of nature? You will be   
   punished for this action. It will happen that you – and all your   
   posterity – will have no more hair on the back of your head than I   
   have on the top of mine.” The curse was fulfilled to the letter.   
      
   One day he came across some peasants working on Sunday. He raised his   
   eyes to Heaven and said, “Let this land be sterile and never a grain   
   sprout here again.” From that day forward, the ground produced only   
   weeds and thorns.   
      
   St. Leutfridus had an ardent zeal for justice, only surpassed by his   
   zeal for mercy, expressed by his love for the poor. While he was abbot   
   of La Croix-Saint-Qu’en, a monk died and three coins were found on his   
   person in violation of the vow of poverty. Leutfridus ordered the monk   
   to be buried in profane land, not in the abbey cemetery. Afterward, he   
   made a 40-day fast, praying and weeping for the soul of that monk who   
   was apparently lost. After this penance, the Lord revealed to him that   
   the soul of the monk had been freed from Purgatory.   
      
   He had a terrible fury against the Devil. Once when he was in his   
   cell, a monk came to tell him that the Devil had taken the shape of a   
   monstrous animal and was in the chapel causing havoc. St. Leutfridus   
   hurried to the chapel, but before facing the Devil, he went to each   
   door and window and made the Sign of the Cross over them to close the   
   exits. Then he advanced, and bit the animal furiously. The Devil tried   
   to flee, but was prevented from leaving by the normal exits because of   
   the Sign of the Cross the Saint had made over them. He tried to   
   release himself from the animal body he had taken on, but God did not   
   allow him to do so. St. Leutfridus continued to exorcise and bite him,   
   until the monster found a way to escape through the top of the bell   
   tower and disappeared.   
      
   Comments of Prof. Plinio:   
      
   These splendid facts from the life of St. Leutfridus suggest several   
   different thoughts.   
      
   First, the episode of the saint cursing a woman who mocked him for   
   being bald in a certain way replicates what happened to the Prophet   
   Eliseus, who ordered a bear to devour some boys who had mocked him for   
   the same reason, because he had no hair. It was a lack of respect for   
   a man of God that deserved punishment, even though today the actions   
   of St. Leutfridus and the Prophet Eliseus certainly clash with the   
   liberal mentality of many people. It is good for us to examine our   
   reaction in face of these two facts. We should observe how shocked we   
   are over these punishments to determine the degree of liberalism with   
   which our souls are contaminated.   
      
   Second, the incident with the peasants shows the zeal of St.   
   Leutfridus for the glorification of God on Sunday. It should make us   
   consider how seriously the commandment not to work or make money on   
   Sunday must be taken. In the wake of the many greater errors of   
   Progressivism, today we see the complete relaxation of the Third   
   Commandment. Who actually respects the command to rest on Sunday as we   
   should? I believe very few. It has become common to open stores and   
   shop on Sundays and to work as on any other day. Before the Council,   
   the ones doing these things were the enemies of the Church – the   
   pagans and Masons. Catholics would never open their businesses on   
   Sunday or shop on this day. Here we have St. Leutfridus reminding us   
   that to work on Sunday deserves punishment, a punishment that will   
   come in this life, as for those peasants, or in the next.   
      
   Third, the episode of the monk who died having some coins in his   
   possession demonstrates well the balance between the Saint’s justice   
   and mercy. On the one hand, he forbade the body of the monk to be   
   buried in sacred ground – again, a very anti-liberal decision. On the   
   other hand, he had so great a pity for the state of that poor soul   
   that he took it upon himself to pay for his fault, doing penance and   
   fasting for 40 days. It is a splendid example of the equilibrium of   
   the Catholic spirit. The harmonic presence of justice and mercy in the   
   soul of St. Leutfridus is a shining mirror of the harmony between   
   these two virtues that exists in the Catholic Church.   
      
   The practice of a Catholic virtue always reflects one aspect of God.   
   But when we have opposed virtues together - justice and mercy - such   
   as we see here, they reflect God more perfectly, because we understand   
   God in the harmony of the apparently opposed virtues, which allows us   
   to better understand God as a synthesis of all virtues.   
      
   Fourth, St. Leutfridus’ hatred of the Devil teaches us different   
   things. I have seen many people who flee the Devil moved by fear. But   
   I have seen fewer people who hate the Devil. This latter attitude   
   should be much more common than it is. Indeed, if we really love Our   
   Lord and Our Lady, we should normally hate their enemies.   
      
   Now then, there is no greater enemy of Our Lord than the Devil. We   
   should hate the Devil, therefore, with a hatred similar to that of St.   
   Michael the Archangel, who drew his sword against him in the first   
   celestial battle and drove the Devil and his cohorts from Heaven to   
   Hell, indignant at his revolt against God. His battle cry, Quis ut   
   Deus? [Who is like unto God?] expresses well his position of soul....   
      
   http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j244sd_Leutfridus_06_21.html   
      
    Quote:   
   "Every man naturally desires knowledge; but what good is knowledge   
   without fear of God? Indeed a humble rustic who serves God is better   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)