Posted on 04/02/2018 4:44:20 AM PDT by CMRosary
THE FOUNDER OF A RELIGIOUS ORDER, whose distinguishing characteristics were humility and penance, comes before us today: it is Francis of Paula. Let us study his virtues and beg his intercession. His whole life was one of great innocence; and yet we find him embracing, from his earliest youth, mortifications which nowadays would not be expected from the very worst sinners. How was it that he could do so much? and we, who have so often sinned, do so little? The claims of Divine Justice are as strong now as ever they were; for God never changes, nor can the offense we have committed against him by our sins be pardoned, unless we make atonement. The Saints punished themselves with lifelong and austere penances for the slightest sins; and the Church can scarcely induce us to observe the law of Lent, though it is now reduced to the lowest degree of severity.
What is the cause of this want of the spirit of expiation and penance? It is that our Faith is weak, and our Love of God is cold, because our thoughts and affections are so set upon this present life that we seldom if ever consider things in the light of Eternity. How many of us are like the King of France, who having obtained permission from the Pope that St. Francis of Paula should come and live near him, threw himself at the Saint’s feet, and besought him to obtain of God that he, the King, might have a long life! Louis the 11th had led a most wicked life; but his anxiety was not to do penance for his sins, but to obtain, by the Saint’s prayers, a prolongation of a career, which had been little better than storing up wrath for the day of wrath. We too love this present life; we love it to excess. The laws of Fasting and Abstinence are broken, not because the obeying them would endanger life, or even seriously injure health—for where either of these is to be feared, the Church does not enforce her Lenten penances: but people dispense themselves from Fasting and Abstinence, because the spirit of immortification renders every privation intolerable, and every interruption of an easy comfortable life insupportable. They have strength enough for any fatigue that business or pleasure call for; but the moment there is question of observing those laws which the Church has instituted for the interest of body as well as of the soul, all seems impossible; the conscience gets accustomed to these annual transgressions, and ends by persuading the sinner that he may be saved without doing penance.
St. Francis of Paula was of a very different way of thinking and acting. The Church gives us the following abridged account of his life.
Apostle of penance! thy life was always that of a Saint, and we are sinners: yet do we presume, during these days, to beg thy powerful intercession, in order to obtain of God, that this holy Season may not pass without having produced within us a true spirit of penance, which may give us a reasonable hope of receiving his pardon. We admire the wondrous works which filled thy life—a life that resembled, in duration, that of the Patriarchs, and prolonged the privilege the world enjoyed of having such a Saint to teach and edify it. Now that thou art enjoying in heaven the fruits of thy labors on earth, think upon us, and hearken to the prayers addressed to thee by the Faithful. Get us the spirit of compunction, which will add earnestness to our works of penance. Bless and preserve the Order thou hast founded. Thy holy relics have been destroyed by the fury of heretics; avenge the injury thus offered to thy name, by praying for the conversion of heretics and sinners, and drawing down upon the world those heavenly graces which will revive among us the fervor of the Ages of Faith.
|
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.