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Knowledge and love

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Rich

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Sep 27, 2022, 3:14:52 AM9/27/22
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Knowledge and love

Rather than engaging in futile disputation let us seek to have the
love of Christ burning within us. ... an old woman can be more expert
in the love of God, and less worldly as well, than a theologian whose
studies are useless because they are undertaken out of vanity in order
to win a reputation and obtain stipends and positions of honor. Such a
one should be reckoned not a doctor but a fool.
--Richard Rolle

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September 27th - Saint Vincent De Paul
Founder of the Lazarist Fathers and the Daughters of Charity

Saint Vincent was born in 1576 near Dax, south of Bordeaux, of a poor
family which survived by means of their labor. It seemed that “mercy
was born with him.” When sent by his father to the mill to procure
flour, if he met a poor man coming home, he would open the sack and
give him handfuls of flour when he had nothing else. His Christian
father was not angry; seeing his good dispositions, he was sure his
son should become a priest, and placed him as a boarding student with
a group of religious priests in Dax. Vincent made rapid progress, and
after seven years of studying theology at Toulouse and in Saragossa,
Spain, was ordained a priest in 1600. He always concealed his learning
and followed the counsel of Saint Paul who said, “I have wanted to
know nothing in your midst but Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ
crucified.”

Soon after his ordination, he was captured by corsairs and sold as a
slave in Tunisia. He converted his renegade master, and escaped with
him to France. Then, after a time of study in Rome, he returned to
Paris and took for his spiritual director Abbé de Berulle, a famous
director of souls. This servant of God saw in him a priest called to
render outstanding service to the Church, and to found a community of
priests who would labor for its benefit. He told Saint Vincent this,
that he might prepare himself insofar as was humanly possible. When
Saint Vincent was appointed chaplain-general of the galleys of France,
his tender charity brought hope into those prisons where hitherto
despair had reigned. When a mother mourned her imprisoned son, Vincent
put on his chains and took his place at the oar, and gave him to his
mother.

His charity embraced the poor, the young and the aged, the provinces
desolated by civil war, Christians enslaved by the infidels. The poor
man, ignorant and degraded, was to him the image of Him who became as
“a leper and no man.” “Turn the medal,” he said, “and you will see
Jesus Christ.” He went through the streets of Paris at night, seeking
the infants and children left there to die — three or four hundred
every year. Once robbers rushed upon him, thinking he carried a
treasure, but when he opened his cloak, they recognized him and his
burden, an abandoned infant, and fell at his feet. Not only was Saint
Vincent the providence of the poor, but also of the rich, for he
taught them to undertake works of mercy. When in 1648 the work of the
foundlings was in danger of failure for want of funds, he assembled
the ladies of the Association of Charity, and said, “Compassion and
charity have made you adopt these little creatures as your children.
You have been their mothers according to grace, when their own mothers
abandoned them. Will you now cease to be their mothers? Their life and
death are in your hands. I shall take your votes; it is time to
pronounce sentence.” The tears of the assembly were his only answer,
and the work was continued.

The Priests of the Mission or Lazarists, as they are called, and
thousands of the Daughters of Charity still comfort the afflicted with
the charity of their holy Founder. It has been said of him that no one
has ever verified more perfectly than Saint Vincent, the words of Our
Lord: “He who humbles himself shall be exalted...” The more he strove
to abase himself in the eyes of all, the more God took pleasure in
elevating him and bestowing His blessings on him and on all his works.
He died in 1660, in an old age made truly golden by his unceasing good
works.

Reflection: Most people who profess piety ask advice of directors
about their prayers and spiritual exercises. Few inquire whether they
are not in danger of damnation from neglect of works of charity. Let
us never forget the terrible foretold words of the Final Judge:
“Depart from me, workers of iniquity; I was hungry, and you did not
feed Me; I was without shelter, you did not take Me in...; I was sick,
and in prison, and you did not visit Me, etc.” (Cf. Matt. 26:31-46)

Sources: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul
Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 8; Little Pictorial Lives
of the Saints


Saint Quote:
You must ask God to give you power to fight against the sin of pride
which is your greatest enemy--the root of all that is evil, and the
failure of all that is good. For God resists the proud.
--St. Vincent de Paul

Bible Quote:
... and that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom
of God. . (Acts 14:21) DRB


<><><><>
We must always pray, and not faint.--Luke 18:1

5. A man of prayer is capable of everything; therefore, it is of great
importance that missionaries should give themselves to this exercise
with particular earnestness; and as without it they will gain little
or no fruit, so with its help they will become much more able to move
hearts and convert souls to their Creator, than by learning and
oratorical skill.
--St. Vincent de Paul

St. Francis Borgia was a man of much prayer, in which he would remain,
as if in ecstasy, sometimes for six hours in succession, which
appeared to him but a moment; and the mere sight of him in the pulpit
would rouse the people to compunction.

St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure and the Blessed Albertus Magnus confessed
that they gained their learning more by prayer than by study. We read
of St. Thomas, in particular, that not being able to understand a text
of Scripture, he had recourse to prayer, and while he was praying with
great fervor there appeared to him the holy Apostles Peter and Paul
and explained the difficulty in a voice so clear and distinct that it
was heard by his companion Brother Reginald.

(Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". September: Prayer)

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