— Joshua 1:6-8 —
- From: Weedy <richarra@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:49:21 -0800 (PST)
- Joshua 1:6-8 -
Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to
inherit
the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very
courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you;
do not
turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful
wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your
mouth;
meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do
everything
written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."
__________________________
Many people think that prosperity and success come from having
powerful,
influential personal contacts, and a relentless desire to get ahead.
But the
strategy for gaining prosperity that God taught Joshua goes against
such
criteria. He said that to succeed Joshua must (1) be strong and
courageous
because the task ahead would not be easy; (2) obey God's law, and (3)
constantly read and study the Book of the Law - God's Word. To be
successful, follow God's words to Joshua. You may not succeed by the
worlds
standards, but you will be a success in God's eyes - and his opinion
lasts
forever.
<><><><><>
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 shield 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/0210.shtml
<><><><>
"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)
<><><><>
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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