• St. Benedict (543). Abbot or Abbess, Founder or Foundress, Priest, Religious. Male against poisons. (Traditional) twin with St. Scholastica, and the “Father of Western Monasticism”, founded the Benedictines

ST. BENEDICT, blessed by grace and in name, was born of a noble Italian family about 48. When a boy he was sent to Rome, and there placed in the public schools. Scared by the licentiousness of the Roman youth, he fled to the desert mountains of Subiaco, and was directed by the Holy Spirit into a cave, deep, craggy, and almost inaccessible. He lived there for three years, unknown to any one save the holy monk Romanus, who clothed him with the monastic habit and brought him food. But the fame of his sanctity soon gathered disciples round him. The rigor of his rule, however, drew on him the hatred of some of the monks, and one of them mixed poison with the abbot’s drink. But when the Saint made the sign of the cross on the poisoned bowl, it broke and fell in pieces to the ground. After he had built twelve monasteries at Subiaco, he removed to Monte Cassino, where he founded an abbey, in which he wrote his rule, and lived until death. By prayer he did all things: wrought miracles, saw visions, and prophesied. A peasant, whose boy had just died, ran in anguish to St. Benedict, crying out, “Give me back my son!” The monks joined the poor man in his entreaties; but the Saint replied, “Such miracles are not for us to work, but for the blessed Apostles. Why will you lay upon me a burden which my weakness cannot bear?” Moved at length by compassion he knelt down, and prostrating himself upon the body of the child prayed earnestly. Then rising, he cried out, “Behold not, O Lord, my sins, but the faith of this man, who desireth the life of his son, and restore to the body that soul which Thou hast taken away.” Hardly had he spoken when the child’s body began to tremble, and taking it by the hand he restored it alive to its father. Six days before his death he ordered his grave to be opened, and fell ill of a fever. On the sixth day he requested to be borne into the chapel, and, having received the Body and Blood of Christ, with hands uplifted, and leaning on one of his disciples, he calmly expired in prayer on the 21st of March, 543.

REFLECTION: The Saints never feared to undertake any work, however arduous, for God, because distrusting self they relied for assistance and support wholly upon prayer.

WORD OF THE DAY

CHRISTIAN JUSTICE. The virtue of justice elevated to a higher plane on two counts: obligations are revealed to the mind that man’s intellect would not have recognized; and grace is given to the will to enable one to give others their due beyond what a person’s natural disposition inclines one to do. Moreover, Christian justice is integrated by the infused virtue of charity, which is more effective than equity in tempering what can become the harshness of justice or, as the ancient Romans used to say, the "inequity of the law."

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!)

LENT MEDITATION DAY 32

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 32: Saturday after the Fourth Sunday in Lent— The Condemnation to Death.

March is the Month of St. Joseph

Daily devotional meditations on Saint Joseph: March 21st — St. Joseph’s Seventh Joy.