From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Wedding Garment   
      
   "Now what precisely is meant by the words, "My friend, how did you get   
   in here without a wedding garment?" Listen to the Apostle: "If I give   
   away all I have to the poor, if I hand over my body to be burnt, but   
   have no love, it will avail me nothing."   
      
   So this is what the wedding garment is. Examine yourselves to see   
   whether you possess it. If you do, your place at the Lord's table is   
   secure."   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 90, 1-6   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   March 21st - Saint Nicholas of Flüe   
   Also known as Brother Klaus, Bruder Klaus, Niklaus von Flüe   
      
   Memorial 21 March   
   25 September (Switzerland and Germany)   
      
   (1417-1487)   
   More than one nation venerates a saint as its national hero. Ireland   
   has St. Patrick, Hungary has King St. Stephen, Wales has St. David.   
   And Switzerland has its St. Nicholas of Flüe.   
      
   Klaus was the son of a respected farmer and public official of the   
   Swiss canton of Unterwalden. His parents were devout members of a lay   
   religious confraternity called the Friends of God; and they brought up   
   their two sons in that society’s intense devotional traditions.   
   Nicholas in particular grew up to be a pious and sensible young man   
   and a lover of peace.   
      
   Between 1291 and 1648, the freedom-loving Swiss mountaineers were   
   battling for their political independence of neighboring powers. St.   
   Klaus was to become an actor in that drama. Though peace-loving, he   
   felt obliged, on two occasions, to soldier for the defense of his   
   Alpine fatherland. After that, he was chosen to be a magistrate and   
   judge because of his sound political judgment. He was even offered the   
   position of “landamman” or governor; but this he declined. He and his   
   wife Dorothea raised a creditable family of ten children.   
      
   All along, however, Klaus felt called by God to a more contemplative   
   life. His wife, who shared his devotional ideas, gave her consent. So   
   in 1467 Nicholas set forth in hermit’s garb and migrated to the wild   
   countryside near the town of Ranft. Here the admiring local people   
   built him a little cell with an attached chapel. There he was to spend   
   the rest of his life--19 years. The hours from midnight to noon were   
   devoted to prayer. During the day he was ready to receive callers--and   
   their number rapidly grew--who came to ask his advice on spiritual or   
   secular matters. Through what seems to have been a supernatural grace,   
   he was able to live without eating or drinking. (Government officials   
   checked on this for a month, and found that nobody had brought him any   
   food.) Gifts from the faithful enabled him to engage a priest to offer   
   Mass in his chapel. Klaus himself always remained a layman.   
      
   The Swiss were finally able to throw off the political yoke of Charles   
   the bold, Duke of Burgundy. Unfortunately, what the various Swiss   
   cantons had achieved through united arms, they were close to losing   
   because of bickering among themselves. At length, the separate cantons   
   hammered out an agreement at the Council of Stans; but it still left   
   two major problems unsolved. When the cantonal delegates were almost   
   ready to come to blows over the matter, one of them said, “Let’s ask   
   Bruder Klaus!” Bruder Klaus gave such wise advice to their embassy   
   that when it was reported to the conference, the delegates were able   
   to come to an agreement within one hour. That was December 22, 1481.   
   The government authorities thanked Nicholas profusely for his   
   assistance. The edict confirmed the boundaries of the Republic of   
   Switzerland.   
      
   This experienced, weatherbeaten but otherworldly recluse died six   
   years after the Edict of Stans. He left with his fellow Swiss both a   
   counsel and a pattern of national peace. A contemporary churchman who   
   once visited him reported Bruder Klaus’s constant admonition: “He   
   praises and recommends obedience and peace. As he exhorted the (Swiss)   
   Confederates to maintain peace, so does he exhort all who come to him   
   to do the same.”   
      
   How easy it is for nations to rattle sabres (or missiles) at each   
   other rather than to dialogue over differences! They could still learn   
   a thing or two about peaceful reconciliation from the statesman-hermit   
   of Ranft.   
   –Father Robert   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "...all knowledge, strength and virtue are the grace of God, as are   
   all other things. And through grace He has given all men the power to   
   become sons of God (cf. John 1:12) by keeping the divine commandments.   
   Or, rather, these commandments keep us, and are the grace of God,   
   since without His grace we cannot keep them. We have nothing to offer   
   Him except our faith, our resolution and, in brief, all the true   
   dogmas that we hold with firm faith through the teaching we have heard   
   (cf. Rom. 10:17)."   
   --St. Peter of Damaskos.   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   3 More than that, we[a] rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that   
   suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and   
   character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because   
   God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who   
   has been given to us.  (Rom 5:3-5)  RSVCE   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The Millennium Prayer   
      
   God of love and mercy,   
   you call us to be your people,   
   you gift us with your abundant grace.   
      
   Make us a holy people,   
   radiating the fullness of your love.   
      
   Form us into a community,   
   a people who care,   
   expressing your compassion.   
      
   Remind us day after day of our baptismal call to serve,   
   with joy and courage.   
      
   Teach us how to grow in wisdom and grace   
   and joy in your presence.   
      
   Through Jesus and in your Spirit,   
   we make this prayer. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)