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Keep on Moving "On earth, we are wayfarers, always on the go. This means that we have to keep on moving forward. Therefore be always unhappy about what you are if you want to reach what you are not. If you are pleased with what you are, you ha
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Rich
Dec 11, 2022, 3:57:16 AM12/11/22
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Keep on Moving
"On earth, we are wayfarers, always on the go. This means that we
have to keep on moving forward. Therefore be always unhappy about what
you are if you want to reach what you are not.
If you are pleased with what you are, you have stopped already. If
you say; 'It is enough,' you are lost. Keep on walking, moving
forward, trying for the goal. Don't try to stop on the way, or to go
back, or to deviate from it."
--St. Augustine--Sermon 169, 18
Prayer: Lord, guard us from all danger and carry us to yourself. And
you will be our strong support from childhood to old age; for when our
strength is yours, we are strong.
--St. Augustine--Confessions 4, 16
<<>><<>><<>>
December 11th - Bl. Franco of Grotti
FRANCO Lippi was a native of Grotti, near Siena, and was born in 1211.
As a youth he was violent, insubordinate and lazy, and after the death
of his father he spent all his time and money in gambling and
debauchery. To avoid a prosecution for murder he joined a band of
condottieri wherein his evil propensities had full scope, and by
middle age his excesses had ruined his health and more than once
brought him nearly to death.
When he was fifty he lost his eyesight, and the shock of this sudden
deprivation occasioned a complete change in him. He made a general
confession and set out on a long and painful pilgrimage to the shrine
of St James at Compostela. There his blindness was healed, but his
spiritual sight remained and he made a further pilgrimage, barefooted,
from Compostela to Rome.
While praying in a Carmelite church Franco had a vision of our Lady
in which he was told he must make public reparation for the endless
scandals he had caused in Siena. He accordingly went about the streets
clothed in sackcloth and beating himself with a whip, and eventually
asked to be admitted into the Carmelite Order. But his age--he was now
sixty-five-- and his appalling reputation made the friars dubious of
such a postulant, and they told him to try again in five years’ time.
Franco persisted, and at last he was allowed to join as a lay-brother.
He lived for ten years in Carmel, and not only his brethren but the
whole city was amazed and edified by his fervour and the austerity of
his penance. Visions and miracles were accorded him, and after his
death on December 11, 1291, there was a spontaneous recognition of him
as a very holy penitent. His cultus was confirmed in 1670.
No early separate biography seems to be known, but G. Lombardelli
published in 1590, La vita del b. Franco Sanese da Grotti, and another
account by S. Grassi appeared in 1680. For a more modern setting see
Il Monte Carmelo (1917), pp. 300
Saint Quote:
Thou knowest well how to excuse and color thine own deeds; but thou
art not willing to receive the excuses of others. It were more just
that thou shouldest accuse thyself, and excuse thy brother.
--Thomas à Kempis
Bible Quote:
And there are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. (1 John 4:7)
<><><><>
Angels--Their Sorrows
Can real sorrow ever invade the ranks of the Holy Angels? Never. Not a
single pang of disappointment, or regret, or anxiety, or sadness, or
self-reproach can ever enter into their sinless souls. They were fixed
in unalterable joy, when they were confirmed in grace and admitted to
the Beatific Vision. Their perfect union with the Divine will prevents
them from regretting anything that God permits. One day there will be,
through God's mercy, no more sorrow for me.
But how is it that we speak of our Guardian Angels as shedding tears
over our sins and turning away his face in sorrow and disgust, and
lamenting over our ingratitude? These phrases are intended to express
what would be the effect of our misdoings upon the Angels if they were
capable of suffering. Alas! how many of our actions are of a nature to
cause sorrow to those who love us best! How many caused the most
poignant grief to the Sacred Heart of Jesus when He was on earth! How
many times, moreover, have we grieved our parents and friends, the
guides of our youth, and those who have watched over us!
Yet we can in this sense cause them sorrow, in that when we disobey
God's holy inspirations. we deprive them of the additional joy they
would have taken in our obedience. We rob them of the happiness we
might have bestowed on them. This loss to them is but a shadow of the
loss we ourselves suffer by each willful act of disobedience to grace.
"On earth, we are wayfarers, always on the go. This means that we
have to keep on moving forward. Therefore be always unhappy about what
you are if you want to reach what you are not.
If you are pleased with what you are, you have stopped already. If
you say; 'It is enough,' you are lost. Keep on walking, moving
forward, trying for the goal. Don't try to stop on the way, or to go
back, or to deviate from it."
--St. Augustine--Sermon 169, 18
Prayer: Lord, guard us from all danger and carry us to yourself. And
you will be our strong support from childhood to old age; for when our
strength is yours, we are strong.
--St. Augustine--Confessions 4, 16
<<>><<>><<>>
December 11th - Bl. Franco of Grotti
FRANCO Lippi was a native of Grotti, near Siena, and was born in 1211.
As a youth he was violent, insubordinate and lazy, and after the death
of his father he spent all his time and money in gambling and
debauchery. To avoid a prosecution for murder he joined a band of
condottieri wherein his evil propensities had full scope, and by
middle age his excesses had ruined his health and more than once
brought him nearly to death.
When he was fifty he lost his eyesight, and the shock of this sudden
deprivation occasioned a complete change in him. He made a general
confession and set out on a long and painful pilgrimage to the shrine
of St James at Compostela. There his blindness was healed, but his
spiritual sight remained and he made a further pilgrimage, barefooted,
from Compostela to Rome.
While praying in a Carmelite church Franco had a vision of our Lady
in which he was told he must make public reparation for the endless
scandals he had caused in Siena. He accordingly went about the streets
clothed in sackcloth and beating himself with a whip, and eventually
asked to be admitted into the Carmelite Order. But his age--he was now
sixty-five-- and his appalling reputation made the friars dubious of
such a postulant, and they told him to try again in five years’ time.
Franco persisted, and at last he was allowed to join as a lay-brother.
He lived for ten years in Carmel, and not only his brethren but the
whole city was amazed and edified by his fervour and the austerity of
his penance. Visions and miracles were accorded him, and after his
death on December 11, 1291, there was a spontaneous recognition of him
as a very holy penitent. His cultus was confirmed in 1670.
No early separate biography seems to be known, but G. Lombardelli
published in 1590, La vita del b. Franco Sanese da Grotti, and another
account by S. Grassi appeared in 1680. For a more modern setting see
Il Monte Carmelo (1917), pp. 300
Saint Quote:
Thou knowest well how to excuse and color thine own deeds; but thou
art not willing to receive the excuses of others. It were more just
that thou shouldest accuse thyself, and excuse thy brother.
--Thomas à Kempis
Bible Quote:
And there are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. (1 John 4:7)
<><><><>
Angels--Their Sorrows
Can real sorrow ever invade the ranks of the Holy Angels? Never. Not a
single pang of disappointment, or regret, or anxiety, or sadness, or
self-reproach can ever enter into their sinless souls. They were fixed
in unalterable joy, when they were confirmed in grace and admitted to
the Beatific Vision. Their perfect union with the Divine will prevents
them from regretting anything that God permits. One day there will be,
through God's mercy, no more sorrow for me.
But how is it that we speak of our Guardian Angels as shedding tears
over our sins and turning away his face in sorrow and disgust, and
lamenting over our ingratitude? These phrases are intended to express
what would be the effect of our misdoings upon the Angels if they were
capable of suffering. Alas! how many of our actions are of a nature to
cause sorrow to those who love us best! How many caused the most
poignant grief to the Sacred Heart of Jesus when He was on earth! How
many times, moreover, have we grieved our parents and friends, the
guides of our youth, and those who have watched over us!
Yet we can in this sense cause them sorrow, in that when we disobey
God's holy inspirations. we deprive them of the additional joy they
would have taken in our obedience. We rob them of the happiness we
might have bestowed on them. This loss to them is but a shadow of the
loss we ourselves suffer by each willful act of disobedience to grace.
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