• To Avoid Dissensions

    From Weedy@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jun 6 23:33:23 2021
    To Avoid Dissensions

    To avoid dissensions we should be ever on our guard, more especially
    with those who drive us to argue with them, with those who vex and
    irritate us, and who say things likely to excite us to anger. When we
    find ourselves in company with quarrelsome, eccentric individuals,
    people who openly and unblushingly say the most shocking things,
    difficult to put up with, we should take refuge in silence, and the
    wisest plan is not to reply to people whose behavior is so
    preposterous. Those who insult us and treat us contumeliously are
    anxious for a spiteful and sarcastic reply: the silence we then affect disheartens them, and they cannot avoid showing their vexation; they
    do all they can to provoke us and to elicit a reply, but the best way
    to baffle them is to say nothing, refuse to argue with them, and to
    leave them to chew the cud of their hasty anger. This method of
    bringing down their pride disarms them, and shows them plainly that we
    slight and despise them.
    -- Saint Ambrose of Milan

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    June 7th – St. Willibald (Willebald) of Eichstätt B (RM)

    Born in Wessex, October 21, c. 700; died on July 7, 786; canonized 938
    by Pope Leo VII; feast day formerly on July 7. The life of St.
    Willibald had been despaired of as a child and he had been cured, so
    it was believed, by being placed at the foot of a market cross where
    his royal parents had prayed and made a vow that if his life were
    spared it should be dedicated to the service of God. As a result, when
    five years old, he was placed for education in Waltham Monastery in
    Hampshire.

    In 721, he accompanied his father, King St. Richard of the West
    Saxons, and brother, St. Winebald, to Rome and the Holy Land. Richard
    died at Lucca in Italy. At some point Willibald was arrested at Emessa
    as a spy and imprisoned at Constantinople for two years. After an
    absence of six years, during which he visited many lauras,
    monasteries, and hermitages, Willibald settled in the great monastery
    of Monte Cassino, where he assisted St. Petronax in its restoration.
    During his ten years there, Willibald was appointed sacristan, dean
    and, for eight years, porter.

    While on a visit to Rome in 740, he met Pope St. Gregory III, who sent
    him to Germany to join his uncle (or cousin) St. Boniface in his
    missionary labors. Soon after his arrival, Boniface ordained him
    priest (741) and then consecrated him bishop of Eichstätt in Franconia
    (742). It was a hard and rough task in a barbarous land, for it was
    pioneering work demanding great qualities of energy and evangelism.

    During that period he lived in the Heidenheim Abbey ruled by his
    brother, St. Winebald, and afterwards by his sister, St. Walburga.
    There he found a welcome retreat from the cares of his work, but was
    no less diligent in his pastoral oversight. "The field which had been
    so arid and barren soon flourished as a very vineyard of the Lord."

    For over 50 years he labored for God in a foreign land and no story of missionary enterprise is more exhilarating than that of this faithful
    prince, who, whether as porter of a monastery or bishop of a diocese,
    served the needs of men and to the glory of God. And thus these three
    children of the good Saxon King Richard came to be numbered among the
    saints.

    Willibald was the first known Englishman to visit the Holy Land. The
    account of his wanderings, Hodoeporicon, is the earliest known English travelogue. It was dictated from his memories and recorded by a nun at Heidesheim (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Gill).

    St. Willibald is depicted in art holding two arrows. Sometimes he may
    be shown (1) with a crown at his feet as he talks to a woodsman who
    fells a tree; (2) in infancy as he is dedicated by his parents at the
    foot of the cross; (3) as a pilgrim with his father and brother; (4)
    receiving the mitre from the pope; (5) with the words fides, spes,
    charitas on his cloak or arm; (6) with a broken glass; or (7)
    directing the building of a church (Roeder).


    Saint Quote:
    When I am in Heaven, where everything is possible, I will cling to the
    mantle of the Mother of God and I will not turn my eyes from you. But
    do not forget what this poor old man has said to you.
    --St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo from his deathbed

    Bible Quote:
     When you are invited, go and take the last place.  (Luke 14:10)


    <><><><>
    To Christ in His Passion

    Let us all with one voice cry, Lord, have mercy.
    Thou who wert led as a sheep to be crucified, Lord, have mercy.
    Thou who from the Cross didst look down upon Thy Mother and Thy disciple,
    look with pity from heaven upon us, Lord, have mercy.
    Thou who by shedding Thy blood hast redeemed the world, Lord, have mercy.
    Thou who didst commend Thy spirit to the Father, Lord, have mercy.
    Make us by Thy Cross to obtain forgiveness, Lord, have mercy.

    Christ, the only-begotten Son of the unbegotten Father, who this day west
    slain for us, the innocent for the ungodly, remember the price of Thy Blood
    And blot out the sins of all Thy people; and as Thou west pleased to endure
    for us reproaches, spitting, bonds, blows, the scourge, the Cross, the
    nails, the bitter cup, death, the spear, and lastly burial, vouchsafe to us wretched ones, for whom Thou didst suffer this, the infinite blessedness of
    the heavenly kingdom, that we who bow down in reverence for Thy Passion may
    be raised up to things heavenly in the joys of Thy resurrection. Amen.

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