Whoever sees and believes

[Rich]

Whoever sees and believes

"He has said two things: 'This is the work of God that you should
believe in the one whom he has sent,' while here he added, 'whoever
sees and believes.' The Jews saw but did not believe; they had the one
condition, lacked the other. How could they attain to eternal life
without the other? The reason those who saw did not attain eternal
life was because they did not also believe. If so, what about us who
have believed but have not seen? If it is those two things that earn
eternal life, seeing and believing--and whoever is lacking one of them
cannot attain to the reward of eternal life--what are we to do? The
Jews [who saw him] lacked the one; we the other. They had seeing but
lacked believing. We have believing but lack seeing. Well, as regards
our having believing and lacking seeing, we have prophetically been
declared blessed by the Lord himself just as Thomas, one of the
Twelve, was blessed when he felt [Jesus'] scars by touching them."
--St. Augustine--(excerpt from HOLY VIRGINITY 3.1

<<>><<>><<>>
June 7th - St. Robert of Newminster, Abbot

(died 1159)
In 1132 Robert was a monk at Whitby, England, when news arrived that
13 religious had been violently expelled from the Abbey of Saint Mary
in York, for having proposed to restore the strict Benedictine rule.
He at once set out to join them, and found them on the banks of the
Skeld near Ripon, living, in the midst of winter, in a hut made of
woven branches and roofed with turf. In the spring they affiliated
with Saint Bernard’s reform at Clairvaux, and for two years struggled
on in extreme poverty.

Eventually the fame of their sanctity brought another novice, Hugh,
Dean of York, who endowed the community with all his wealth, and thus
laid the foundation of Fountains Abbey. In 1137 Raynulph, Baron of
Morpeth, was so edified by the example of the monks at Fountains that
he built them a monastery in Northumberland, called Newminster, of
which Saint Robert became Abbot. The holiness of his life and his
instructions guided his brethren to perfection, and within the next
ten years three new communities migrated from this one house, to
become centers of holiness in other parts.

The abstinence of Saint Robert at table sufficed to maintain the
mortified spirit of the community. One Easter Day his stomach,
weakened by the fast of Lent, could take no food, but he finally
consented to try to eat some bread sweetened with honey. Before it was
brought, however, he felt this relaxation would be a dangerous example
for his monks, and sent the food untouched to the poor at the gate.
The plate was received by a young man of shining countenance, who
straightway disappeared. What the Saint had sacrificed for his
brethren had been accepted by Christ.

At the moment of Saint Robert’s death in 1159, Saint Godric, a hermit
of Finchale, saw his soul like a globe of fire, borne up by the Angels
in a pathway of light, while the gates of heaven opened before them.

Reflection. Reason and authority prove that virtue ought to be
practiced. But facts alone prove that it is practiced, and this is why
our individual actions are of such grave importance for others as well
as for ourselves.

Source: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on
Butler’s Lives of the Saints, and other sources


Saint Quote
Those who are led by the Holy Spirit have true ideas. That's why so
many ignorant people are wiser than the learned.
-- St. John Vianney

Bible Quote:
But I have cried to God: and the Lord will save me. Evening and
morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and He shall hear my
voice: He shall redeem my soul in peace from them that draw near to
me... (Psalm liv, 17-19 )


<><><><>
Devotional Prayer:

"My Lord and My God, it is my unchangeable will to honor You in these
fifteen secret torments when You shed Your Precious Blood. As many
times as there are grains of sand around the seas, as grains of wheat
in the fields, as blades of grass in the meadows, as fruit in the
orchards, as leaves on the trees, as flowers in the gardens, as stars
in the sky, as angels in Heaven, as creatures on earth--so many
thousands of times may You be glorified, praised and honored, O most
love-worthy Lord Jesus Christ--Your Holiest Heart, Your Precious
Blood, Your Divine Sacrifice for mankind, the Holiest Sacrament of the
Altar, The Most Holy Virgin Mary, the nine glorious choirs of Angels
and the Blessed Phalanx of the Saints, from myself and everyone, now
and forever, and In the eternal ages."

(This devotion is approved and recommended by His Holiness Clement II,
1730-1740.)

Please make this Devotion to the Passion of Jesus a part of your daily
prayer life.

There is an Important prayer which is called the "Jesus Prayer." It should
be recited devoutly every day and is as follows:

"Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, a sinner."