How Surrender of Self Brings Freedom of Heart [I]

[Rich]

How Surrender of Self Brings Freedom of Heart [I]

CHRIST.
My son, renounce self and you shall find me. (Matt. 16:24) Retain no
private choice or personal interest and you will always be the gainer.
As soon as you yield yourself unreservedly into My hands, I will grant
you even richer graces.

THE DISCIPLE.
How often shall I yield myself and in what way forsake myself, Lord?

CHRIST.
Always and at all times, in small things as well as in great. I make
no exceptions, for I desire to have you wholly divested of self:
otherwise, unless you are wholly stripped of self-will, how can you be
Mine, or I yours? The sooner you do this the better it will be with
you and the more completely and sincerely you do it, the better you
will please Me and the greater will be your gain.
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 37

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May 19th - Blessed Alcuin of York, OSB Abbot (PC)
(also known as Flaccus Albinus)

Born in York, England, c. 735; died at Saint Martin's in Tours,
France, May 19, 804. Alcuin studied under Saint Edbert at the York
cathedral school, was ordained a deacon there, and, in 767, became its
head. Under his direction it became a well-known center of learning.
Alcuin travelled to Rome to obtain the pallium for his bishop and at
Parma met Charlemagne who immediately enlisted his services in the
cause of education. He was invited by Charlemagne to set up a school
at his court in Aachen, Germany, in 781, where Charlemagne himself
became a pupil. Alcuin also became Charlemagne's adviser.

Alcuin was appointed abbot of Saint Martin's Abbey at Tours in 796 by
Charlemagne. At Tours he restored the monastic observance with the
help of Saint Benedict of Aniane. Later he was abbot of monasteries at
Ferrières, Troyes, and Cormery. It is not certain if Alcuin was ever
ordained beyond the diaconate, though some scholars believed he did
become a priest in his later years.

Under his direction the school at Aachen became one of the greatest
centers of learning in Europe. He was the moving force and spirit of
Carolingian renaissance and made the Frankish court the center of
European culture and scholarship. He fought illiteracy throughout the
kingdom, instituted a system of elementary education, and established
a higher educational system based on the study of the seven liberal
arts, the trivium and the quadrivium, which was the basis of the
curriculum for medieval Europe.
;
He encouraged the use of ancient texts, was an outstanding theologian
and exegete. Using his skills he fought the heresy of Adoptionism,
which was condemned at the Synod of Frankfurt in 794, and exerted an
influence on the Roman liturgy that endured for centuries. He wrote
biblical commentaries and verse and was the author of hundreds of
letters, many still extant, and a widely used rhetoric text,
Compendia.

He died at Saint Martin's in Tours, where he had developed one of his
most famous schools. Though his cult has never been formally
confirmed, many martyrologies list his name as beatus. He may also
have been a Benedictine (Attwater2, Benedictines, Delaney).


Saint Quote:
In the morning, at the height of my powers, I sowed the seed in
Britain, now in the evening when my blood is growing cold I am still
sowing in France, hoping both will grow, by the grace of God, giving
some the honey of the holy scriptures, making others drunk on the old
wine of ancient learning.
--Blessed Alcuin in a letter written late in life looking back on his career

Bible Quote:
For the spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world: and that,
which containeth all things, hath knowledge of the voice. (Wisdom
1:7)


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Glory, Honour and Praise,
To Our Lord Jesus Christ!
A devout Prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ,
to be said both Morning and Evening
By St Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621)
(From His “A Brief Christian Doctrine”)

Glory, Honour and Praise Be,
May all the world adore Thee,
blessed be Thy Holy Name,
Who for us sinners,
vouchsafest to be born of a humble Virgin
and blessed be Thine infinite goodness,
Who died upon the Cross for our Redemption.
O Jesu, Son of God
and Saviour of mankind,
have mercy upon us
and so dispose our lives here,
by Thy Grace
that we may, hereafter,
rejoice with Thee forever
in Thy Heavenly Kingdom,
Amen.