Never Tire of Trying

[Weedy]

Never Tire of Trying

"Be assured that you can never be perfect in this world unless you
realize that it is impossible for you to be perfect here. Therefore,
your aim in life should be as follows.
Always try your best in doing what you have to do, so that you may
reach perfection. Never get tired of trying, because there is always
room for improvement."
--St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 33, 14

Prayer: How do I seek you, O Lord? For when I seek you, it is
happiness I seek. Let me seek you that my soul may live; as my body
lives by my soul, so my soul lives by you.
--St. Augustine--Confessions 10, 2

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26 September – Saint Nilus the Younger
also known as Nilus of Calabria, Nilus of Rossano, Nilo….

Monk, Abbot, Confessor and Founder of Italo-Greek Monasticism in
southern Italy. St Nilus was a charismatic leader and leading
spiritual personality of his time. Born in 910 at Rossano, Calabria,
Italy and died on 27 December 1005 at Grottaferrata, Frascati, Italy
of natural causes. Patronages – Grottaferrata, Italy, Rossano, Italy.

Some miles from Rome stands an Abbey that has a far greater
significance than, as a sight for admiring tourists or a treasure for
antiquarians. The Exarchic Greek Abbey of Grottaferrata, with its
Basilian Monks, is the centre of an important revival of studies of
Byzantine Catholicism and of the Oriental apostolate.

The Abbey owes its origin to Saint Nilus. He was born circa 910 in
Rossano, to one of the foremost Greek families of Calabria, a southern
province of Italy. This area was in ancient times founded as a Greek
colony and was afterwards part of the Byzantine Empire until 1059.

The child was Baptised Nicholas, was given a good education and grew
up a fervent young man. The monastic life had some attraction for him
but he married and it was only after afterwards he seriously turned to
God, in the year 940. It was a sombre age, disturbed by internal war
between Byzantines and Lombards and suffering frequent Saracen raids
on the coasts. After fleeing his own town of Rossano he became a Monk
and settled at a Monastery near Palma on the Tyrrhenian Sea. A Moslem
attack caused the community to flee but Nilus became a Hermit in a
nearby forest. Later, at Rossano, he ruled a convent and gained fame
for his wisdom and prudence. Here, he interceded with the authorities
for mutineers condemned to death and with the Jewish community for a
young man who had killed a Jew and once, he succeeded in ransoming a
number of enslaved Christians. The position of Archbishop was offered
to him but Nilus refused.

When a Byzantine Prince asked the Benedictine Monks at Monte Cassino
to give Nilus and his fellow Monks a Monastery, the Abbot sent them an
invitation to come to Monte Cassino. Their Eastern liturgy was a
strange sight to the Benedictines but they provided a Monastery at
Valleluce, where the community remained for fifteen years and then
moved to Serperi, near Gaeta. Emperor Otto III offered him a Monastery
richly endowed but Nilus asked the Emperor only for his promise of
repentance and a good life, saying “You are a good emperor, you are
mortal and must die. You must render an account of your deeds, good or
evil.” Otto bent his crowned head for the old man’s blessing.

Sometime in 1004, Nilus set out on a visit to a Monastery and fell ill
near Tusculum. A vision of the Mother of God showed him that this was
to be the permanent home of his Basilian monks. This promise was
fulfilled when the count of Tusculum offered land on the slopes of
Mount Cavo and the community – of about 60 monks – was sent for. But
Nilus died before the monastic buildings could be begun.

The Grottaferrata Abbey with it’s Basilian Monks today is a shining
symbol of the Byzantine Catholics who never separated themselves from
the unity of the Church under the Holy See. The monks of this ancient
Abbey are Catholics of the Byzantine-Greek Rite and represent the
Italian Congregation of Basilian Monks, an institution created in the
Catholic Church to bring together the Monasteries of the Byzantine
Rite present in southern Italy.

Currently the Greek Abbey of Grottaferrata (see below) is the last of
the numerous Byzantine Monasteries that were widespread throughout
southern Italy and in Rome itself in the Middle Ages. It is also
unique in that, founded fifty years before the Schism that led to the
separation of the Churches of Rome and Constantinople, it has always
been in communion with the Bishop of Rome, while preserving the
Byzantine-Greek Rite and the oriental monastic tradition of the
origins.

https://anastpaul.com/2020/09/26


Saint Quote:
God does not command us to live in hair shirts and chains, or to
chastise our flesh with scourges, but to love Him above all things and
our neighbor as ourselves.
-- Saint Charles of Sezze

Bible Quote:
For unto you it is given for Christ, not only to believe in him, but
also to suffer for him: Having the same conflict as that which you
have seen in me and now have heard of me. [Philippians 1:29-30] DRB

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Repose in God, O my soul

"Repose in God, O my soul. He is the eternal repose of the saints.
Beloved Jesus, let me find repose in Thee, not in creatures: not in
health, in beauty, in honors, in glory. Not in power and dignity. Not
in riches, honors, and knowledge. Not in merit and aspiration. Not
even in Thy own gifts and rewards. Not even in the transports of
spiritual gladness; not in the angels and archangels and the whole
host of heaven: not in anything visible or invisible, not in anything
which is not Thyself, O my God. All Thou canst give me outside of
Thyself, all that Thou dost discover of Thyself to me, is too little.
It does not suffice me if I do not see Thee, if I do not possess Thee
fully, if I do not rest in Thee alone."
--Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Ch 21