Everything becomes Light with Love

[Rich]

Everything becomes Light with Love

"Even those fasts and night watches that seem burdensome and are taken
on so as not to disturb one's health are turned into spiritual
pleasure provided they are accepted with prayer, psalmody, and reading
and meditation on the law of God.
The labor of those who love is in no way burdensome; in fact, it
even gives pleasure. What matters is what is loved. When we do what we
love, either we do not notice the work or the work itself is loved."
--St. Augustine--Holy Widowhood, 21, 26

Prayer: Come, Lord, into my soul, which you have prepared for your own
reception by inspiring in me a longing for your goodness.
--St. Augustine--Confessions 13, 1

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19 September – St Alonso de Orozco Mena O.S.A.

Religious Priest, Preacher, Writer, Apostle of Charity, Spiritual
Director, Marian Devotee, Ascetic – born on 17 October 1500 at
Oropesa, Toledo, Spain and died on 19 September 1591 in the College of
the Incarnation, Madrid, Spain of natural causes.

Alphonsus de Orozco was born in Oropesa, Province of Toledo, Spain, on
the 17th of October 1500, where his father was governor of the local
castle. He began his studies in the nearby Talavera de la Reina and
for three years he was a choir boy in the Cathedral of Toledo, where
he made progress in the study of music. At the age of fourteen his
parents sent him to the University of Salamanca, where an elder
brother was already studying.

During the Lenten sermons preached by Thomas of Villanova in 1520, on
the psalm “In exitu Israel de GYPTO”, his vocation to the religious
life was brought to maturity and a little later, attracted by the
religious atmosphere of the Friary of Saint Augustine, he entered that
community and there made his profession of vows at the hands of Saint
Thomas of Villanova (1486-1555).

When ordained a priest in 1527 his superiors detected in him such deep
spirituality and a capacity for proclaiming the Word of God, that very
soon they appointed him to the ministry of preaching. From the age of
thirty he held many offices but in spite of his own austere life, his
style of governing always showed him to be full of understanding.
Inspired by a desire for martyrdom, he set off for Mexico as a
missionary in 1549 but on his way, in the Canary Islands, he suffered
a severe bout of arthritis and the doctors, fearing for his life,
forbade him to continue his journey.

In 1554, when he was Prior of the Convent in Valladolid, a city which
was for many decades the seat of the royal court, Alphonsus was
appointed “royal preacher” to the court of the emperor Charles V. When
the court was moved to Madrid in 1561, Alphonsus also had to move to
the new capital of the Kingdom and he took up his residence in the
convent of Saint Philip the Royal.

In spite of the fact that he was now exercising an office which was
outside the jurisdiction of his superiors and which also carried a
stipend, he renounced all privileges and only wished to live as a
humble friar in obedience to his superiors. He lived in austere
poverty. He took only one daily meal at midday, he slept no more than
three hours, because he said that was enough for the tasks of the new
day. A table was his bed; cut vines his pillow. His room had just one
chair, a candle, a broom and some books. By choice, the room was near
the door so that he could better attend to the poor who used to come
there to ask his help. Without neglecting his daily attendance in
choir for prayer, he used to visit the sick in hospitals, the
prisoners in the goals and the poor in the streets and in their homes.
He spent the day in prayer, in writing his books and preparing his
sermons. He was very popular with members of every social class.
Personages of society and culture were witnesses in his process for
Canonisation, such as the Princess Isabel Clara Eugenia, the Dukes of
Alba and of Lerma, the writer Lope de Vega, Francisco de Quevedo and
González Dávila. Association with the upper classes did not divert him
from his simple lifestyle. His fame spread throughout Madrid. The
people who used to call him, much to his displeasure, the “saint of
Saint Philip’s”, loved him for his gentle sensitivity in getting close
to everyone without distinction.

He wrote many works, both in Latin as well as in Spanish. The
simplicity of the titles indicate that they were written with a view
to pastoral ministry: Rule for a Christian life (1542), Garden of
prayer and the mount of contemplation (1544), Memorial of holy love
(1576), Spiritual treasury (1551), The art of loving God and neighbour
(1567), The book of the gentleness of God (1576), Tract on the crown
of Our Lady (1588). Like his own life, these writings sprung from a
spirit of contemplation and a study of sacred scripture. Such was his
great devotion to the Virgin Mary, that he was convinced that he was
writing in obedience to her command.

He was also fervently attached to the love of his own religious Order,
writing about its history and spirituality, in the hope of encouraging
good men to imitate the Augustinian way of life. Along these lines,
led by a desire of internal reform, which would later develop into a
movement of recollection in the Order, he was responsible for the
foundation of Augustinian monasteries, both of friars and of
contemplative nuns.

In August 1591, Friar Alphonsus fell ill of a fever but this did not
prevent him from celebrating his daily Mass, as he never, in spite of
any illness, failed to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice, saying with a
certain humour, “God does no harm to anybody”. During his illness, he
was visited by the king, Philip II, by the heir to the throne and
Princess Isabel and by the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, Gaspar de
Quiroga, who personally fed him and then asked for his blessing.

News of his death, which occurred on the 19th of September 1591 in the
College of the Incarnation, which he had founded two years before and
which today is the seat of the Spanish Senate, brought sadness to the
whole city. The people of Madrid, as testified by Quevedo, filed past
the chapel of rest and rushed the doors of the church of the college,
knocking down the doors seeking some relic, a splinter of the bed, or
a fragment of his clothes, his shoes or of his hair shirt. For many
years the Cardinal Archbishop kept for himself the wooden cross which
the “saint of Saint Philip’s” used to carry with him. He was beatified
by Pope Leo XIII on the 15th January of 1882 and Canonised on 19 May
2002 by Pope John Paul II.

https://anastpaul.com/2019/09/19/


“If you elevate yourself,
God distances Himself from you.
If you humble yourself,
He leans towards you.”

“Habits support the intelligence
just as a way of living
leads to a way of life.”
--St Augustine (354-430) (In Io. Ev. XVIII, 7)

Bible Quote:
Thus saith the Lord: Stand ye on the ways, and see, and ask for the
old paths, which is the good way, and walk ye in it: and you shall
find refreshment for your souls. And they said: We will not walk. (Jer
6:16) DRB


Almighty God, Open Thou My Heart
A Prayer for Guidance
By St Bede the Venerable (673-735)
Father and Doctor of the Church

ALMIGHTY God,
open Thou my heart
and enlighten me with the grace of the Holy Spirit,
to see those things which are well-pleasing to Thy will.
Direct my thoughts and understanding
to those things which it is proper to meditate upon
and to take in hand;
in such fashion, as by fitting character
and deeds, I might be found worthy
of the eternal joy of heavenly life.
Direct my acts to Thy commandments,
that I might, by labour
so unbrokenly, study to bring them to fulfilment,
as to attain to an everlasting reward.
Amen