The Beauty of Singing
Indeed, Lord, the days were not long enough as I found wonderful
delight in meditating upon the depth of your design for the salvation of
the
human race. I wept
at the beauty of your hymns, and I was powerfully moved at the sweet sound
of
your Church's
singing.
Those sounds flowed into my ears, and the truth streamed into my heart. My
feeling of devotion
overflowed, and the tears ran from my eyes, and I was happy in them.
-Augustine - Confessions 9, 6
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February 10th - St. William of Maleval, Hermit, Prophet
(Also known as William of Malval or Malvalla)
Born in France; died at Maleval, Italy, February 10, 1157; canonized by
Innocent
III in 1202. After carefree years of licentious military life, William
experienced a conversion of heart of which we are told nothing. The first
real
piece of information we have is that the penitent Frenchman made a
pilgrimage to
the tombs of the apostles at Rome. Here he begged Pope Eugenius III for
pardon
and to set him on a course of penance for his sins. Eugenius enjoined him
to
make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1145. William followed his counsel
and
spent eight years on the journey, returning to Italy a changed man.
In 1153, William became a hermit on the isle of Lupocavio (near Pisa) in
Tuscany
for a time. So many joined him until he was prevailed upon to undertake
the
governance. He wasn't well suited to lead other men. First, he failed to
maintain discipline at the abbey. Unable to bear the tepidity and
irregularity
of his monks, he withdrew to Monte Bruno. But the same thing happened when
he
organized the disciples who had gathered around him into his own abbey on
Monte
Bruno.
Finally, in September 1155, he realized this was not God's plan for him
and he
embraced the eremitical life amid the solitude of Maleval (then called the
Stable of Rhodes) near Siena. At Maleval he lived in an underground cave
until
the lord of Buriano discovered him some months later and built him a cell.
For
the first four months, William had only the beasts for company and only
forage
for food.
The example of his life soon attracted another of like mind. On the Feast
of the
Epiphany 1156, he was joined by a companion named Albert, who lived with
him the
rest of his life-only 13 months-and recorded William's vita. Like most of
the
early hermits, William used extreme penances to atone for his earlier
sinful
life. He slept on the bare ground, ate sparingly of only the coarsest
fare, and
drank only limited amounts of water. Prayer, contemplation, and manual
labor
employed all his waking moments. William had the gift of working miracles
and of
prophecy.
Shortly before William's death, which he predicted, he and Albert were
joined by
a physician named Rinaldo. The two disciples buried William in his little
garden, and together studied to live according to William's maxims and
example.
Later their number increased and they built a chapel over their founder's
grave
with a hermitage; however his relics were dispersed in the wars between
Siena
and Grosseto.
This was the origin of the Gulielmites, or Hermits of Saint William, which
spread throughout Italy, France, Flanders, and Germany. Gregory IX,
mitigating
their austerities, gave the Rule of Saint Benedict to the group organized
as the
Order of Bare-Footed Friars, but they were eventually absorbed by the
Augustinian hermits except for 12 houses in the Low Countries.
William is honored in the new Paris Missal and Breviary, where his feast
is kept
at the Abbey of Blancs-Manteaux, founded in 1257 as a mendicant order,
called
the Servants of the Virgin Mary, but bestowed on the Gulielmites after the
second council of Lyons in 1297 (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer,
Husenbeth).
In art, William of Maleval is similar to William of Aquitaine but with no
ducal
coronet. He carries a pilgrim's staff and sometimes wears a monastic habit
over
armor. At times he may be shown (1) bearing a cross staff, one arm of
which ends
in a crescent, or (2) bearing a ****eld with four fleur-de-lys (Roeder). He
is
the patron of armorers and venerated in Siena, Italy (Roeder), and Paris
(Husenbeth).
This Version taken from:
http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/ss-index.htm
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"Persons who keep themselves low in their own estimation and love to be
considered of little account and despised by others please God in the
highest
degree; and, therefore, He willingly lowers Himself to them, pours upon
them the
treasures of His graces, reveals to them His secrets, invites and draws
them
sweetly to Himself. Thus, the more one lowers and abuses himself before
men, the
more he rises and becomes great in the sight of God, and the more clearly
he
will, one day, behold the Divine Essence" -St. Thomas a Kempis
St. Gertrude, one day hearing the little bell ring for Communion and
not
feeling as well prepared as she desired, said to the Lord: "I see that
Thou art
even now coming to me; but why hast Thou not first adorned my heart with
some
ornaments of devotion, with which I might be more suitably prepared to
come and
meet Thee?" But the Lord answered: "Know that sometimes I am more pleased
with
the virtue of humility than with exterior devotion"
A Religious, not being able to understand a passage of Holy
Scripture,
fasted for seven weeks, and not understanding it then resolved to go to
another
monk and inquire about it. But scarcely had he gone out of his cell when
there
appeared to him an angel sent expressly from God, who said to him: "Thy
fast has
not rendered thee pleasing to God, but rather this humiliation of thine";
and
then he solved for him the doubt.
After Tais was converted, she held herself always so low in her own
eyes,
on account of her past evil life, that she did not dare to utter the holy
name
of God even in invoking Him, but only said, "My Creator, have mercy on
me!" And
by this humility, she arrived at such a sublime degree of perfection that
when
Paul the Simple saw a most beautiful place in Paradise, which he supposed
to be
intended for St. Anthony, he was informed that it would be occupied by
Tais
within a fortnight.
St. Bonaventure said: "I know a thing to do which will please the
Lord. I
will consider myself as refuse, I will become intolerable to myself. And
when I
find myself shamed, degraded, trampled upon and loaded with insults by
others, I
will rejoice and exult, because of myself I cannot abuse or detest myself
as
much as I ought. I will call in help from all creatures, desiring to be
confounded and punished by them all, because I have despised their
Creator. This
shall be my dearest treasure-to solicit insults and slights upon myself,
to love
above all others those who will help me in this, and to abhor all the
consolation and honors of the present life. If I do this, I believe it
certain
that the treasury of Divine Mercy will open above me, miserable and
unworthy as
I am'
St. Francis of Assisi considered himself not only a mere nothing, the
greatest sinner in the world, and deserving of Hell, but unworthy even
that God
should give him a thought. One day while he was speaking in this manner to
one
of his companions, the latter saw, in spirit, that there was prepared for
him in
Heaven a seat among the Seraphim.
(Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". February - Humility)
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A Morning Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Christ
Dear Lord, I adore Your Sacred Heart, which I desire to enter
with acts of love, praise, adoration and thanksgiving. I offer
You my own heart as I sigh to You from its very depths,
asking that You will work through me in all that I do this day;
thus may I draw You closer to me each day. I offer You all the
crosses and sufferings of the world, in union with Your life on
earth, in expiation for sins. Please join my every action and
heartbeat to the pulsations of Your Heart. I unite all my works
of this day to those labors You performed while You were on
earth, bathing them in Your precious Blood, and I offer them
to the Heavenly Father so that many souls may be saved. - Amen.
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