From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Are there any blind-spots in your life   
      
    Are there any blind-spots in your life that keep you from recognizing   
   God's power and mercy? When two blind men heard that Jesus was passing   
   their way, they followed him and begged for his mercy. The word mercy   
   literally means "sorrowful at heart". But mercy is something more than   
   compassion, or heartfelt sorrow at another person's misfortune.   
   Compassion empathizes with the sufferer. But mercy goes further; it   
   removes suffering. A merciful person shares in another person's   
   misfortune and suffering as if it were their own.  [Matthew 9:27-31]   
      
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   March 30th - ST ZOSIMUS, BISHOP OF SYRACUSE   
   d. 660   
      
   THE parents of St Zosimus were Sicilian landowners, who dedicated   
   their little boy to the service of St Lucy and placed him, when he was   
   7 years old, in the monastery that bore her name near Syracuse, not   
   far from their home. There his main occupation seems to have been to   
   watch near the relics of the saint. The duty was not altogether   
   congenial to the little lad, accustomed as he was to a free open-air   
   life on a farm, and once, when the abbot Faustus had set him a   
   particularly distasteful task, he ran away and went home. He was   
   brought back in disgrace, and the enormity of his offence impressed   
   upon him. That night, in his dreams, he saw St Lucy rise from her   
   shrine and stand over him with a menacing countenance. As he lay in   
   terror, there appeared beside her the gracious figure of our Lady   
   interceding for him, and promising in his name that he would never do   
   such a thing again. As time went by, Zosimus became more reconciled to   
   the life of the cloister, his visits home became fewer and shorter,   
   and he settled down to the regular round of prayer, praise and   
   contemplation with the other monks.   
      
   For thirty years he lived almost forgotten. Then the abbot of Santa   
   Lucia died, and there was great uncertainty and discussion over the   
   choice of a successor. Finally the monks went in a body to the bishop   
   of Syracuse and begged him to make the appointment for them. The   
   prelate, after scrutinizing them all, asked if there was no other monk   
   belonging to the convent. Thereupon they remembered Brother Zosimus,   
   whom they had left to mind the shrine and to answer the door. He was   
   sent for, and no sooner had the bishop set eyes upon him than he   
   exclaimed, “Behold him whom the Lord hath chosen”. So Zosimus was   
   appointed abbot, and a few days later the bishop ordained him a   
   priest. His biographer says that he ruled the monastery of Santa Lucia   
   with such wisdom, love and prudence that he surpassed all his   
   predecessors and all his successors. When the see of Syracuse fell   
   vacant in 649, the people elected Zosimus, who, however, did not wish   
   to be raised to the dignity, whilst the clergy chose a priest called   
   Vanerius, a vain and ambitious man. Appeal was made to Pope Theodore,   
   who decided for Zosimus and consecrated him. In his episcopate the   
   holy man was remarkable for his zeal in teaching the people and for   
   his liberality to the poor; but it is difficult to judge of the   
   historical value of the anecdotes which purport to have been recorded   
   by a contemporary biographer. At the age of nearly ninety St Zosimus   
   died, about the year 660.   
      
   There is a short and fragmentary Latin life printed in the Acta   
   Sanctorum, March, vol. iii. See also Cajetan, Vitae Sanctorum Sicul.,   
   vol. i, pp. 226-231, and animad. 181-183. Gams describes him as a   
   Benedictine, but he is not noticed by Mabillon; he was perhaps a   
   “Basilian”.   
      
      
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   "Thou oughtest not to let a day pass in which thou hast not trampled   
   upon thy will; and if such a thing should happen, consider that on   
   that day thou hast not been a religious"   
    --St. John Climacus   
      
   St Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi was extremely fond of not doing her own   
   will, and made a study of it, so that she regarded that day as utterly   
   lost in which she had not in some manner broken and denied it.   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints".  March - Mortification)   
      
      
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   Prayer.   
      
   We entreat you, O most holy martyrs, who cheerfully suffered   
   most cruel torments for God our Saviour and His love, on   
   which account you are now most intimately and familiarly   
   united to Him, that you pray to the Lord for us, poor sinners.   
   May He infuse into us the grace of God, to enlighten our   
   souls to love Christ as you loved Him!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)