The bread of life

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The bread of life

Jesus said to the people: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to
me shall never hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."
He did not say "the bread of bodily nourishment," but "the bread of
life." For when everything had been reduced to a condition of
spiritual death, the Lord gave us life through himself, who is bread
because, as we believe, the leaven in the dough of our humanity was
baked through and through by the fire of his divinity. He is the bread
not of this ordinary life, but of a very different kind of life which
death will never cut short.
Whoever believes in this bread will never hunger, will never be
famished for want of hearing the word of God; nor will such a person
be parched by spiritual thirst through lack of the waters of baptism
and the consecration imparted by the Spirit. The unbaptized, deprived
of the refreshment afforded by the sacred water, suffer thirst and
great aridity. The baptized, on the other hand, being possessed of the
Spirit, enjoy its continual consolation.
--Theophylact of Ochrida
(Theophylact (1050 - 1109), archbishop of Ochrida, theologian and
language scholar, taught rhetoric and was tutor to the imperial heir
presumptive. He wrote commentaries on many books of the bible.)

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May 8th - Saint Amatus Ronconi
Also known as Amato
Confessor, Third Order

Blessed Amatus was a 13th-century Tertiary who rose to great heights
of sanctity by serving God as a hermit, as a pilgrim and as a nurse.
Born at Sldezzo, near Rimini, about 1225, he lost his parents while
still very young, and was brought up by a relative. He was then urged
to get married, but he felt that God called him to a life of prayer
and penance. After joining the Third Order of St Francis, he fled to a
solitary place and began to live as a hermit. By many he was
considered a fool, but God showed how much He was pleased with the
virtuous life of Amatus by marvelous signs. A mysterious light was
seen shining over the hut which served as his shelter, and heavenly
songs were heard to issue from it.

 Amatus left his hermitage at times to make pilgrimages on foot to
Santiago de Compostela in Spain and other famous shrines, or to care
for the poor and the sick. He founded the Hospital of St Mary of Mount
Orciale, near Rimini, and there he spent the last years of his life as
a nurse.

Whereas saints and blessed like Blessed Amatus Ronconi eagerly desired
death and rejoiced when their hour came, many people are in terrible
fear of death. Why is that? In some cases it is because such people
have sought all their happiness in this world, eager to taste all its
pleasures without a thought of the will of God. They feel that their
comedy is about to end, to be followed by a long tragedy. The fear
that harries them is striking evidence that everything does not end
with death.

 “O Death, how bitter is the remembrance of Thee to the man who has
peace in his possessions!” Also mere attachment to material things
without their having enjoyed them may at times fill people with fear
at the thought of being separated from them by death. True Christian
are mindful of those other treasures which we cannot lose in death and
which constitute real comfort in that hour. “The just  man has hope in
his death” (Prov.14:320. – Shall this hope be yours?”

 Blessed Amatus Ronconi died in 1292 at Saludécio, Italy of natural
causes at the age of 67; He was interred in the chapel shelters he had
built. His relics were transferred to the Pieve di San Biagio in May
1330 after the chapel shelters were destroyed by fire.

Ever since then he has been venerated as a saint. So many miracles
were attributed to his intercession that on 17th April 1776 Pope Pius
VI approved his cult as Blessed.
Canonized 23 November 2014 by Pope Francis


Saint Quote::
The Lord sends us tribulations and infirmities to give us the means of
paying the immense debts we have contracted with Him. Therefore,
those who have good sense receive them joyfully, for they think more
of the good which they may derive from them than of the pain which
they experience on account of them.
--St. Vincent Ferrer

Bible Quote:
I give thanks to my God, always making a remembrance of thee in my
prayers. 5 Hearing of thy charity and faith, which thou hast in the
Lord Jesus, and towards all the saints: 6 That the communication of
thy faith may be made evident in the acknowledgment of every good
work, that is in you in Christ Jesus. (Philemon 1:4-6)

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Prayer by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori:

Oh, my God! “cast me not away from Thy face.” I know that Thou wilt
never abandon me, unless I first abandon Thee. Experience of my own
weakness makes me tremble lest I should again forsake Thee. Lord! it
is from Thee I must receive the strength necessary to conquer hell,
which labors to make me again its slave. This strength I ask of Thee
for the sake of Jesus Christ. O my Saviour! establish between Thee and
me a perpetual peace, which will never be broken for all eternity. For
this purpose I ask Thy love. “He who loves not is dead.” O God of my
soul, it is by Thee I must be saved from this unhappy death. I was
lost; Thou knowest it. It is Thy goodness alone that has brought me
into the state in which I am at present, in which I hope I am Thy
friend. Ah, my Jesus! through the painful death which Thou didst
suffer for my salvation, do not permit me ever more to lose Thee
voluntarily. I love Thee above all things, I hope to see myself always
bound with this holy love, and to die in the bonds of love, and to
live for eternity in the chains of Thy love. O Mary! thou art called
the mother of perseverance; through thee this great gift is dispensed.
Through thy intercession I ask and hope to obtain it.