• St. Hugh (1132). (Historical) Bishop of Grenoble

IT was the happiness of this Saint to receive from his cradle the strongest impressions of piety by the example and care of his illustrious and holy parents. He was born at Chateauneuf, in the territory of Valence in Dauphine, in 1053. His father, Odilo, who served his country in an honorable post in the army, labored, by all the means in his power, to make his soldiers faithful servants of their Creator, and by severe punishments to restrain vice. By the advice of his son, St. Hugh, he afterwards became a Carthusian monk, and died at the age of a hundred, having received extreme unction and the viaticum from the hands of his son. Our Saint likewise assisted, in her last moments, his mother, who had for many years, under his direction, served God in her own house, by prayer, fasting, and plenteous alms-deeds. Hugh, from the cradle, appeared to be a child of benediction. He went through his studies with great applause, and having chosen to serve God in an ecclesiastical state, he accepted a canonry in the cathedral of Valence. His great sanctity and learning rendered him an ornament of that Church, and he was finally made bishop of Grenoble. He set himself at once to reprove vice and to reform abuses, and so plentiful was the benediction of heaven upon his labors that he had the comfort to see the face of his diocese in a short time exceedingly changed. After two years, he privately resigned his bishopric, presuming on the tacit consent of the Holy See, and, putting on the habit of St. Bennet, he entered upon a no. vitiate in the austere abbey of Casa-Dei, in Auvergne. There he lived a year a perfect model of all virtues to that house of Saints, till Pope Gregory VII. commanded him in virtue of holy obedience to resume his pastoral charge. He earnestly solicited Pope Innocent II for leave to resign his bishopric, that he might die in solitude; but was never able to obtain his request. God was pleased to purify his soul by a lingering illness before He called him to Himself. Some time before his death, he lost his memory for every thing but his prayers. He closed his penitential course on the 1st of April, in 1132, wanting only two months of being eighty years old, of which he had been fifty-two years bishop. Miracles attested the sanctity of his happy death, and he was canonized by Innocent II in 1134.

REFLECTION: Let us learn from the example of the Saints, to shun the tumult of the world as much as our circumstances will allow, and give ourselves up to the exercises of holy solitude, prayer, and pious reading.

WORD OF THE DAY

FALL OF ADAM. First sin of the father of the human race. As a result, he lost for himself and his posterity the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace and the preternatural gifts of integrity, bodily immortality, and impassibility. The fall is commonly referred only to Adam because he was appointed the juridical head of the human race, and his guilt was passed on to his progeny. However, Eve also shared in the fall of the human race because she tempted Adam after she yielded to the temptation of the devil. Adam and Eve, although specially gifted by grace, remained free to choose moral evil. They did not yet enjoy the beatific vision of God and consequently had only faith to tell them that what God forbade was truly wrong and what God threatened would really take place. It is uncertain what sin they committed. Most probably it was the disobedience of pride. They yielded to the devil’s suggestion that they would become like God.

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

HOLY WEEK MEDITATIONS

Special meditations focused on Holy Week: WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK

LENT MEDITATION DAY 43

Enjoy daily meditations this lent from Fr. Richard Clarke, SJ. Short and powerful, written in 1880 for busy lay people to reap rewards through lent. (includes audio): Lent Day 43: Wednesday in Holy Week — The Death of Jesus.