-- Romans 2:1 --

[Weedy]

-- Romans 2:1 --

Wherefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that
judgest. For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself.
For thou dost the same things which thou judgest. [Romans 2:1] DRV
========================
Whenever we find ourselves feeling justifiably angry about someone's
sin, we should be careful. We need to speak out against sin, but we
must do so in a spirit of humility. Often the sins we notice most
clearly in others are the ones that have taken root in us. If we look
closely at ourselves, we may find that we are committing the same sins
in more socially acceptable forms. For example, a person who gossips
may be very critical of others who gossip about him or her.

<<>><<>><<>>
4 May – Blessed Tommaso da Olera OFM Cap

(1563-1631)
Lay Brother of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, Spiritual Advisor,
Confessor, Apostle of Charity, Writer, Mystic, Penitent and Ascetic.
He was born Tommaso Acerbis in 1563 in Olera, Bergamo, Milan and died
on 3 May 1631 in Innsbruck, Austria. Blessed Tommaso lived as a
Franciscan porter and alms-seeker and as a religious who provided
Spiritual advice and consolation to many nobility that included
Leopold V and his wife.

Of the time of his birth at the end 1563 in Olera, a small village at
the mouth of the Serio river and of his childhood, we do not know
much. The child of peasants and shepherds, until age 17 he was a
peasant and shepherd himself, helping his parents in their work.
Illiterate because the small village lacked schools, he wanted to
become a Capuchin Friar and was received on 12 September 1580 at the
friary of Santa Croce di Cittadella in Verona, becoming a lay friar of
the Province of Venice. There he sought and obtained, although a lay
friar, to learn to read and write. Living in the school and the choir
with great intensity, his remarkable qualities and above all his
virtues came to light during the three years of formation.

Tommaso flourished in his vocation and advanced quickly in the
spiritual life. He made his religious profession on 5 July 1584 and
was charged with the delicate and essential service of alms-seeking in
Verona. He carried this out until 1605 when he was transferred to
Vicenza with the same assignment. There he remained until 1612 before
being in Rovereto from 1613 to 1617. The humble friar’s daily tasks
included washing pots, collecting alms and visiting the sick but he
also joyfully shared the Gospel with everyone he met. His reputation
for holiness spread quickly and in 1619 Archduke Leopold V of Austria
requested Tommaso’s assistance in confronting the spread of
Lutheranism. Barely literate, Tommaso avoided disputation. Instead,
with great success, he simply witnessed to Christ’s impassioned love
for His Church. At the time Austria was the ‘bridgehead’ for the
Catholic reform and above all the ‘Catholic reconquest’ of the German
lands.

Obedience and humility made him the ‘begging brother’ for almost fifty
years, love for souls made him a ‘tireless apostle’ in proclaiming the
Gospel. With everyone, believer or not, he spoke of the love of God
revealed in Jesus Christ. He taught the faith to all, the little and
the great. He asked everyone, the great and the humble, to commit
themselves to love. A true apostle, many “were astounded and it seemed
humanly impossible that a simple lay friar should speak, as he spoke,
in such an elevated way about God.” His commitment was a fire of love.
“Everywhere he spoke of the things of God with such spirit and
devotion that everyone was put in awe and wonder.” At the same time,
he invited and urged peacemaking and forgiveness, he visited and
comforted the sick, he listened to and encouraged the poor; reading
consciences, he denounced evil and facilitated conversions. In order
to obtain from God what he envisaged for those he met, he stayed awake
at night in prayer, scourging his body, imposing fasts and austerities
on himself for the salvation of others.

Br Thomas was also a promoter of vocations to consecrated life. In
Vicenza he sponsored the erection of the Monastery of the Capuchin
Poor Clares, built at Porta Nuova in 1612-13. At Rovereto he sought
from the commissioners of the city a Poor Clare monastery, which was
then built in 1642. There he met and guided the thirteen-year old
Bernardina Floriani, who would become the mystic Venerable Giovanna
Maria della Croce.

In Tyrol he was the spiritual guide of the poor of the Inn Valley,
catechist and promoter and defender of the Tridentine decrees for a
true Catholic reform. From 1617 he was friend and spiritual director
to the scientist Ippolito Guarinoni of Hall, Court Physician in
Innsbruck. There are also many letters written to the Archduchesses
Maria Cristina of Habsburg and Eleonora, sister of Leopold V, as there
were also many personal encounters with them. Br Thomas was Spiritual
Guide to Leopold and to his wife Claudia de’ Medici, with frequent
meetings at the palace and many letters.

To all he taught that “high wisdom of love” that “one learns from the
precious wounds of Christ,” urging them to take refuge in “happiness
in suffering.” He also counseled Archbishop Paris von Lodron, Prince
of Salzburg and Spiritual Director of Emperor Ferdinand II, staying at
his side during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48). During his stay in
Vienna (1620-1621), Br Thomas assisted the conversion to the Catholic
faith of Eva Maria Rettinger, widow of George Fleicher, count of
Lerchenberg, who then entered Nonnberg Abbey as a Benedictine nun and
became Abbess. Still at Vienna, in 1620, he drafted the “moral
concepts against the heretics,” published posthumously in Fire of
Love. Here the source from which his writing was drawn is revealed:
“I have never read a syllable of books but I strive to read the
suffering Christ.”

Despite the studies completed with fervour and diligence during the
years of the novitiate in Verona, his Italian remained elementary and
ungrammatical. And yet, his writings reveal a surprising spiritual
profundity and doctrinal exactness. A fellow friar, Ilarione from
Mantova, noted in this regard: “I saw him many times after communion
retire to his cell and write meditational pieces on the life and
passion of the Lord and, having sometimes read me these spiritual
works of his after having written them, he confidently affirmed [….]
that he could not himself understand how he could have put those
things on paper.” This book was among St Pope John XXIII’s favourite
spiritual works, speaking of Bl Tommaso as“a saint and a true master
of the spirit” and the Pontiff had portions of it read to him on his
deathbed. St Pope Paul VI also spoke of him with high esteem.

Love for Our Lady in his writings recognises, among other things, her
Immaculate Conception (Dogma 1854) and Assumption (Dogma 1950),
hundreds of years before these Dogmas were promulgated. He made
pilgrimage to the Holy House of Loreto three times (1623, 1625, 1629),
recalling that “arriving at the that Holy House, I seemed to be in
paradise.”

To his friend Ippolito Guarinoni, he pointed out a location near Hall,
at the Volders bridge on the Inn river, such that a church dedicated
to the Immaculate Conception should be built there. In 1620 the
foundations were laid and, many criticisms and difficulties having
been overcome, the church was completed in 1654. It was the first
church on German-speaking land dedicated to the Immaculate Conception
and St Charles Borromeo. Even today it is considered an Austrian
national monument.

Many who were present at his death, which came on 3 May 1631,
considered it a ‘death of love.’ He was buried on Sunday, 5 May in the
crypt of the chapel of Our Lady in the Capuchin church in Innsbruck.

It took another 356 years before St Pope John Paul II proclaimed the
friar Venerable in 1987. Pope Benedict XVI authorised Tommaso’s
Beatification in 2012 and the Beatification Mass was finally
celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Amato on behalf of Pope Francis in 2013.
Franciscans observe Bl Tommaso’s feast today too, 4 May.

https://anastpaul.com/2020/05/04/


Saint Quote:
He who wishes for anything but Christ does not know what he wishes; he
who asks for anything but Christ, does not know what he is asking; he
who works, and not for Christ, does not know what he is doing.
-- St. Philip

Bible Quote
Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and
humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. [Matthew
11:29] DRV


<><><><>
It is impossible in human terms to exaggerate the importance of being
in a church or chapel before the Blessed Sacrament as often and for as
long as our daily duties … allow. I very seldom repeat what I say. Let
me repeat this sentence. It is impossible in human language to
exaggerate the importance of being in a chapel or church before the
Blessed Sacrament as often and for as long as our … duties allow. That
sentence is the talisman of the highest sanctity.” —Father John Hardon