SEPTEMBER 18 – ST. THOMAS OF VILLANOVA.
ST. THOMAS, the glory of the Spanish Church in the sixteenth century, was born A.D. 1488. A thirst for the science of the Saints led him to enter the house of the Austin Friars at Salamanca. Charles V. listened to him as an oracle, and appointed him Archbishop of Valencia. On being led to his throne in church, he pushed the silken cushions aside, and with tears kissed the ground. His first visit was to the prison; the sum with which the chapter presented him for his palace was devoted to the public hospital. As a child he had given his meal to the poor, and two thirds of his episcopal revenues were now annually spent in alms. He daily fed five hundred needy persons, brought up himself the orphans of the city, and sheltered the neglected foundlings with a mother’s care. During his eleven years’ episcopate nut one poor maiden was married without an alms from the Saint. Spurred by his example, the rich and the selfish became liberal and generous; and when, on the Nativity of our Lady, A.D. 1555, St Thomas came to die, he was well-nigh the only poor man in his see.
REFLECTION: “Answer me, O sinner!” St. Thomas would say, “what can you purchase with your money better or more necessary than the redemption of your sins?”
WORD OF THE DAY
NORMS OF ORTHODOXY. Also called “Rules for Thinking with the Church,” of St. Ignatius Loyola. They are sixteen norms that form part of the Spiritual Exercises and synthesize, in practical terms, the distinctive qualities of being a Catholic. The first norm is an epitome of the rest. It declares: “We must put aside all judgment of our own and keep the mind ever ready and prompt to obey in all things the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, and Holy Mother, the hierarchical Church.”
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!)
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