From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Doctrine of Truth {5}   
      
   Every perfection in this life has some imperfection mixed with it and   
   no learning of ours is without some darkness. Humble knowledge of self   
   is a surer path to God than the ardent pursuit of learning. Not that   
   learning is to be considered evil, or knowledge, which is good in   
   itself and so ordained by God; but a clean conscience and virtuous   
   life ought always to be preferred. Many often err and accomplish   
   little or nothing because they try to become learned rather than to   
   live well.   
   If men used as much care in uprooting vices and implanting virtues as   
   they do in discussing problems, there would not be so much evil and   
   scandal in the world, or such laxity in religious organizations. On   
   the day of judgment, surely, we shall not be asked what we have read   
   but what we have done; not how well we have spoken but how well we   
   have lived.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 3   
      
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   20 July - Blessed Luigi Novarese   
      
   (1914-1984)   
    Priest, co-Founder (alongside Sr Elvira Myriam Psorulla), Apostle of   
   the Sick – born on 29 July 1914 in Casale Monferrato, Alessandria,   
   Italy and died on 20 July 1984 in Rocca Priora, Rome, Italy of natural   
   causes, aged 70. Patronages – Apostolate of the Suffering, Silent   
   Workers of the Cross, Marian Priest League, Brothers and Sisters of   
   the Sick. Blessed Luigi with Sr Psorulla, founded the Apostolate of   
   the Suffering as well as the Silent Workers of the Cross. He also   
   established the Marian Priest League and the Brothers and Sisters of   
   the Sick. He built several homes for those who were ill and disabled.   
   He served in the Secretariat of State until leaving that position to   
   work alongside the Italian Episcopal Conference and to dedicate more   
   time to the ill and to the work of his orders.   
      
   Msgr Luigi Novarese, was born in Casale Monferrato, in Piedmont, on 29   
   July 1914, the last of nine children. His father died when Luigi was   
   just nine months old. His young mother Teresa, barely thirty, had to   
   take care of the large family alone.   
      
   He personally experienced suffering. In 1923, Luigi, age nine, was   
   diagnosed with a life-threatening disease – bone tuberculosis. The   
   doctors declared him incurable and his case a hopeless and terminal   
   one. His mother, Teresa was determined to save him and intensified her   
   work, using every penny to cure her dying son. She is also a very   
   devout Catholic and prayed to Our Lady asking for Luigi’s recovery but   
   the doctors told her to be resigned to Luigi’s terminal illness.  His   
   doctors will be proved wrong. Thus began the continuous pilgrimage   
   from one hospital to another but to no avail. At that time he   
   experienced the horror and suffering the chronically ill live with and   
   this marked him indelibly.   
      
   The thing that made him suffer the most was hearing the sick cursing   
   in anger and desperation, sometimes because they were not assisted by   
   the staff. Then, with considerable effort, he tried to help them   
   himself, to prevent them from cursing even more.   
      
   Luigi followed his mother’s footsteps in her devotion to Our Lady and   
   wrote a letter to Father Filippo Rinaldi, leader of the Salesians   
   Order, asking that he and his students pray for him.  Father Rinaldi   
   told Luigi that they will ask for the intercession of St John Bosco   
   and Our Lady Help of Christians. On 17 May 1931, aged 17, Luigi left   
   the hospital for the last time, miraculously recovered.   
      
   During his numerous hospital stays, Luigi decided that he would become   
   a doctor if he recovered. All of this changed in 1935 with his   
   mother’s death. He realised the great possibility of serving the Lord   
   by uniting the suffering of the sick with that of the Resurrected   
   Lord’s and so entered the Seminary of Casale Monferrato, Italy. He   
   would later complete his studies at the Capranica College in Rome and   
   was Ordained a Priest on 17 December 1938, at St John Latern Basilica   
   in the same city where he would spend most of his life. On 1 May 1942,   
   Msgr Giovanni Battista Montini, Vatican Under Secretary of State and   
   the future Pope Paul VI, asked Father Novarese to join his staff,   
   where he would remain until 12 May 1970, when he was appointed   
   exclusively to the Religious Hospital Assistance of Italy.   
      
   Msgr Novarese saw that many Priests had been wounded or were sick   
   because of World War II and he wanted to help them. He founded the   
   Marian Priest League on 17 May 1943. He extended his activities four   
   years later, by founding the Apostolate of the Suffering (CVS) with   
   the aid of Sr Elvira Myriam Psorulla, a young woman born in Haifa in   
   Palestine who had moved to Rome to aid her sick uncle. The aim of this   
   Association was completely new and innovative because the sick were no   
   longer seen as people to be helped but rather, as active participants   
   in society offering and uniting their suffering with that of Christ’s.   
      
   Due to his experience of illness and sanatorium, he wanted to dedicate   
   his life to a new apostolate: “the integral promotion of the suffering   
   person.” His aim was to enhance, recover the sick person “in full,”   
   starting from his soul and continuing in every area of his life – the   
   body, the work, the affections, etc.   
      
   Then in 1950, Msgr Novarese founded a third essential group, the   
   Silent Workers of the Cross composed of men and women, Priests and   
   laity, who consecrate themselves totally to the suffering by actively   
   aiding and educating the disabled on the Christian concept of pain. In   
   that same year, The Anchor magazine began it’s monthly Publication   
   focusing on the members’ spiritual growth. Finally, Msgr. Novarese   
   realised that strong arms are necessary to carry out all of the   
   Association’s numerous spiritual activities and meetings, so in 1952,   
   he founded the Brothers and Sisters of the Sick made up of healthy   
   persons willing to share their time aiding the disabled in all   
   apostolic endeavours.   
      
   From 9 to 15 September 1952 he held the first course of spiritual   
   exercises for the first group of Silent Workers of the Cross from   
   different parts of Italy. It was on that occasion that it was decided   
   to build a house to accommodate the sick and handicapped who wish to   
   live the experience of spiritual exercises annually. The first of   
   these houses was built and was dedicated to the “Immaculate Heart of   
   Mary.” A few years later, in 1957, the first Community of Silent   
   Workers of the Cross entered what would become the association’s   
   “Mother House,” at the Sanctuary of Valleluogo in Ariano Irpino. The   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)