Bible Verse
- Psalm 25:20-21 -
Guard my life and rescue me;
let me not be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.
May integrity and uprightness protect me,
because my hope is in you.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
If ever we needed two powerful forces to pressure us along life's way,
they
are
integrity and uprightness. The psalmist asks for these to protect him step
by
step. Uprightness makes us learn God's requirements and strive to fulfill
them.
Integrity - being what we say we are - keeps us from claiming to be
upright
while living as if we do not know God. Uprightness says, "This is the
shepherd's
way," and integrity says, "I will walk in it."
<<>><<>><<>>
June 7th - St. Robert of Newminster, Abbot
(died 1159)
In 1132 Robert was a monk at Whitby, England, when news arrived that
thirteen
religious had been violently expelled from the Abbey of Saint Mary in
York,
for
having proposed to restore the strict Benedictine rule. He at once set out
to
join them, and found them on the banks of the Skeld near Ripon, living, in
the
midst of winter, in a hut made of woven branches and roofed with turf. In
the
spring they affiliated with Saint Bernard's reform at Clairvaux, and for
two
years struggled on in extreme poverty.
Eventually the fame of their sanctity brought another novice, Hugh, Dean
of
York, who endowed the community with all his wealth, and thus laid the
foundation of Fountains Abbey. In 1137 Raynulph, Baron of Morpeth, was so
edified by the example of the monks at Fountains that he built them a
monastery
in Northumberland, called Newminster, of which Saint Robert became Abbot.
The
holiness of his life and his instructions guided his brethren to
perfection,
and
within the next ten years three new communities migrated from this one
house, to
become centers of holiness in other parts.
The abstinence of Saint Robert at table sufficed to maintain the mortified
spirit of the community. One Easter Day his stomach, weakened by the fast
of
Lent, could take no food, but he finally consented to try to eat some
bread
sweetened with honey. Before it was brought, however, he felt this
relaxation
would be a dangerous example for his monks, and sent the food untouched to
the
poor at the gate. The plate was received by a young man of ****ning
countenance,
who straightway disappeared. What the Saint had sacrificed for his
brethren
had
been accepted by Christ.
At the moment of Saint Robert's death in 1159, Saint Godric, a hermit of
Finchale, saw his soul like a globe of fire, borne up by the Angels in a
pathway
of light, while the gates of heaven opened before them.
Reflection. Reason and authority prove that virtue ought to be practiced.
But
facts alone prove that it is practiced, and this is why our individual
actions
are of such grave im****tance for others as well as for ourselves.
Source: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on
Butler's
Lives of the Saints, and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger
Brothers:
New York, 1894).
Quote:
Obedience is, without doubt, more meritorious than any austerity. And what
greater austerity can be thought of than that of keeping one's will
constantly
submissive and obedient?
-St. Catherine of Bologna
Bible Quote
18 And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in
heaven
and in earth. 19 Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in
the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 20 Teaching
them
to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with
you
all
days, even to the consummation of the world. (Matthew 28:18-20)
<><><><>
NO TIME
I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do.
Must hurry off and get to work,
For bills would soon be due.
And so I said a hurried prayer,
Jumped, up from off my knees,
My Christian duty now was done.
My soul could be at ease.
All through the day I had not time
to speak a word of Christ to friends; they'd laugh at me I feared.
No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry.
No time to give to those in need.
At last t'was time to die.
And when before the Lord one night I stood with down cast eyes.
Within his hands he held a book.
It was the "Book of Life".
God looked into his book and said
Your name I cannot find.
I once was going to write it down
But never found the time.
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