From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Darkness, a barrier   
      
      Christ came to enlighten those who lived in darkness, overshadowed   
   by death, and to guide their feet into the way of peace. Do you ask   
   what darkness? Whatever is present in our intellect, in our will, or   
   in our memory that is not God, or which has not its source in God;   
   that is to say, whatever in us is not for God's sake, is a barrier   
   between God and the soul -- it is darkness.   
      In himself Christ brought us light which would enable us to see our   
   sins, and hate our darkness. His freely chosen poverty, when there was   
   no place for him in the inn, is for us a light by which we can now   
   learn that the poor in spirit, to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs,   
   are blessed.   
      The love with which Christ offered himself to instruct us, and to   
   endure for us injuries, ostracism, persecution, lashes, and death upon   
   a cross; the love finally which made him pray for those who crucified   
   him -- that love is for us a light by which we may learn to love our   
   enemies.   
   -- John Justus Landsberg   
      
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   August 21st - Pope St. Pius X   
      
   Baron von Pastor, the noted papal historian, said of St. Pius X:   
      
   "He was one of those chosen few men whose personality was   
   irresistible. Everyone was moved by his simplicity and his angelic   
   kindness. Yet it was something more that carried him into all hearts;   
   and that something was the feeling that all those admitted to his   
   presence had a deep conviction of coming face to face with a saint."   
      
   This future Pontiff was born Giuseppe Sarto, son of a messenger and   
   postman in the village of Riese in Venetia, in AD 1835. The second of   
   ten children, his family was poor, but he was able to obtain an   
   education in a local elementary school, a grammar school, bursary, and   
   then finally entered the seminary at Padua.   
      
   Giuseppe Sarto was Ordained at age 23, and spent 17 years in pastoral   
   ministry.  He went on to become Canon at Treviso, and in AD 1884 he   
   was consecrated Bishop of Mantua.  In AD 1892 Leo XIII promoted   
   Giuseppe as Cardinal-priest, and he was promoted to the See of Venice,   
   as patriarch. When Leo XIII passed in AD 1903, it was assumed that   
   Rampolla Cardinal del Tindaro would succeed him.  However, Emperor   
   Joseph of Austria "vetoed" the choice (the last time this would   
   happen).  Ballots processed, and four ballots later Sarto was elected.   
      
   Pope Pius' first action in 'Commissum Nobis' was to outlaw secular   
   interventions in papal elections.  He then had to deal with attempted   
   resecularization in France.  The Concordat of AD 1801 was condemned,   
   and a separation of Church and State imposed.  In a pair of dignified   
   but forceful encyclicals [Vehementer nos and Gravissimum], the Pope   
   condemned the separation as well as the Associations Cultuelles. This   
   was established to liquidate ecclesiastical properties in France. The   
   separation continued, but at last the Church had free-reign to   
   administer it's own affairs without secular intervention.   
      
   His first encyclical, 'Instuarare Omnia in Christo', dealt with   
   restoration of all things in Christ.  To this end he issued several   
   "wishes": daily communication of all the faithful is possible, reading   
   of the Bible, the age of 1st communion lowered to the age of reason   
   (7), and easing the process of administering communion to the sick.   
   He also issued decrees necessary to curb musical abuses and reinsert   
   the use of plainchant in the Mass for the laity, pushed to complete a   
   revision of canon law (1917), and reorganized tribunals,   
   congregations, and offices of the Curia.  In addition, he established   
   the necessity of revising and correcting Jerome's Vulgate Bible as   
   well as founding the Institute Biblique under the Jesuits to further   
   Biblical studies.   
      
   Public knowledge of Saint Pius X is strongest when dealing with his   
   condemnation of Modernism.  Abbes Loisy and Duchesne, and Fr. George   
   Terrill along with others in Western Europe had sought to "update"   
   Biblical scholarship in light of the new scientific and rational   
   methodologies present in post-enlightenment academia.  This attempt   
   was focused in a rebuttal of a certain book of the German Protestant   
   scholar Harnack, but in writing L'Evangelie et L'Eglise Loisy laid a   
   strong foundation for Modernism's Bible and Tradition destroying   
   philosophy.   
      
   Saint Pius X's 'Lamentabile Sane' and 'Paschendi Dominici Gregis' set   
   out the errors of Modernism and its secular underpinnings.  The moans   
   and cries of "Papal Oppression" of academic freedom and denunciations   
   of Clericalism lasted for sometime, but after Loisy's excommunication   
   in 1907 and the Oath Against Modernism required by St. Pius X until   
   1962, stemmed the tide of this heresy for decades.   
      
   Pope St. Pius X had to deal with many issues, and many liberal   
   governments, during his pontificate.  However, his devotion to   
   restoring all things in Christ endeared him to all the faithful.   
   Archduke Ferdinand was killed, and the proximate cause of the Great   
   War issued forth conflict.  Though he prayed desperately for peace,   
   the war came, and it killed him. On August 19th, 15 days after   
   the war began Pope Saint Pius X contracted bronchitis and died.   
      
   Pope Saint Pius X was canonized in 1954, the first pope so Canonized   
   since Pope St. Pius V in 1672.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   They want them [the Modernists] to be treated with oil, soap, and   
   caresses.  But they should be beaten with fists.  In a duel, you don't   
   count or measure the blows, you strike as you can.  War is not made   
   with charity:  it is a struggle, a duel.  If Our Lord were not   
   terrible, He would not have given an example in this too.  See how he   
   treated the Philistines, the sowers of error, the wolves in sheep's   
   clothing, the traders:  He scourged them with whips!   
   --Pope St. Pius X   
      
   Bible Quote   
   14 And he found in the temple them that sold oxen and sheep and doves,   
   and the changers of money sitting. 15 And when he had made, as it   
   were, a scourge of little cords, he drove them all out of the temple,   
   the sheep also and the oxen, and the money of the changers he poured   
   out, and the tables he overthrew.  (John 2:14-15)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Omnipotentia Patris   
      
   O Omnipotence of the Father,   
   help my frailty   
   and save me from the depths of misery.   
   O Wisdom of the Son,   
   direct all my thoughts,   
   my words and my deeds.   
   O Love of the Holy Spirit,   
   be the source of all the actions of my mind,   
   that they may always be conformed   
   to God’s good pleasure.   
   Amen   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)