CAPG's Blog: St. Romuald, ABBOT AND CONFESSOR, A.D. 1027.

St. Romuald, ABBOT AND CONFESSOR, A.D. 1027.

by VP

Posted on Wednesday February 07, 2024 at 12:00AM in Saints

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Alessandro Magnasco: Three Camaldolese Monks in Ecstatic Prayer

"A SERVANT of God, who after some few years spent in the common disorders of the world, at the age of twenty being touched with the sense of his offences, entered into a religious house, with a design of employing forty days in bewailing his past sins, and suing for mercy. But these forty days he lengthened into three years of extraordinary penance and sanctity. Learn hence not to despair either of yourself or others; for years of sin may be succeeded by a life of virtue. The grace of God is sufficient. Endeavour sincerely to obtain this for yourself; and cease not to importune heaven in behalf of those who seem even past recovery. But then learn what kind of repentance is the proper remedy for habitual sin. It is easy for a Christian in this case to conceive a sensible dislike of his evil ways. He as easily acknowledges his guilt, and resolves upon amendment. But how easily too does he fall back again for want of taking a due method for the cure of those passions, which being strongly rooted in him, are the cause of his relapses and cannot be overcome in a moment?

St. Romuald, looking upon himself as unworthy of the many conveniences which he found in the monastery, resolved upon a life of yet greater austerity, and therefore retired into a desert; where in rigorous fasting on bread and water, almost perpetual silence and prayer, he lived to the age of upwards of seventy years, being there the founder of the hermits of Camaldoli, though not without great difficulties and opposition. He died in his monastery, in the year 1027. Pray for this spirit of penance; and though you are not commanded to follow his example, yet consider whether it be not a just reproach to your niceness and self-love; who, though under the same obligation of punishing your sins, industriously avoid every thing that mortifies, and are so far from condemning yourself to voluntary chastisements, that by dispensations or contrivance, you elude all the pious designs of the Church, even in those mortifications, which she prescribes for your cure. Consider this seriously, and pray for grace to amend." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother.

"A young nobleman addicted to impurity, being exasperated at the saint's severe remonstrances, had the impudence to accuse him of a scandalous crime. The monks, by a surprising levity, believed the calumny, enjoined him a most severe penance, forbid him to say Mass, and excommunicated him. He bore all with patience and in silence, as if really he had been guilty, and refrained from going to the altar for six months. In the seventh month he was admonished by God to obey no longer so unjust and irregular a sentence pronounced without any authority and without grounds. He accordingly said Mass again, and with such raptures of devotion, as obliged him to continue long absorbed in ecstasy." (...)

"He never would admit of the least thing to give a savor to the herbs or meal- gruel on which he supported himself. If any thing was brought him better dressed, he, for the greater self-denial, applied it to his nostrils, and said: "O gluttony, gluttony, thou shalt never taste this; perpetual war is declared against thee."

If we not called to practice the extraordinary austerities of many saints, we cannot but confess that we lie under an indispensable necessity of leading mortified lives, both in order to fulfill our obligation of doing penance, and to subdue our passions and keep our senses and interior faculties under due command.

The appetites of the body are only to be reduced by universal temperance, and assiduous mortification and watchfulness over all the senses.

The interior powers of the soul must be restrained, as the imagination, memory, and understanding: their proneness to distraction, and the itching curiosity of the mind, must be curbed, and their repugnance to attend to spiritual things corrected by habits of recollection, holy meditation, and prayer.

Above all, the will must be rendered supple and pliant by frequent self-denial, which must reach and keep in subjection all its most trifling sallies and inclinations. If any of these, how insignificant soever they may seem, are not restrained and vanquished, they will prove sufficient often to disturb the quiet of the mind, and betray one into considerable inconveniencies, faults, and follies. Great weaknesses are sometimes fed by temptations which seem almost of too little moment to deserve notice. And though these infirmities should not arise to any great height, they always fetter the soul, and are an absolute impediment to her progress toward perfection." Source: The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volumes 1-3 By Alban Butler

Prayer for the Abused and Unjustly Accused

O Holy Family of Nazareth, community of love of Jesus, They cried out, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "I find no guilt in Him. Take Him yourselves and crucify Him." (John 19)

Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, falsely and maliciously accused by the mob, have mercy on us. Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, handed over to death by cowardly authority, have mercy on us. Jesus Christ, Sun of Justice, vindicated by your Resurrection, grant us justice.

Father of Truth, send the light of your Holy Spirit into the darkness of every false accusation and unjust condemnation. Give strength to the innocent to stand firmly in truth, as you gave to Jesus, in the face of torture and death. Give courage to church and civil authorities to grant justice and due process to the innocent, in the face of the mob. Father of Mercy, deliver your innocent ones from evil; grant them speedy justice and vindication, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Victim and Savior.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on all innocent victims: the abused and the falsely accused.

Follow with Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be

Source: CAPG

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