St. Eligius, Bishop and Confessor A.D. 659.
by VP
Posted on Monday December 01, 2025 at 04:00AM in Saints
"He was brought up to a working trade: but being mindful that he was to work for heaven, as well as for bread, his great care was to join the exercises of religious duties to his trade, as of prayer, fasting, watching, and alms-deeds; and as often as circumstances would permit, he had some good book open before him. Learn to sanctify your labours by his example. If you are of the number of those who work for a livelihood, endeavour to be faithful in what you have undertaken. And this, not only in regard of your neighbour, by carefully avoiding what is fraudulent, or may be to his prejudice, through your neglect; but likewise to God and your own soul, by a watchful care against all the suggestions of a covetous, worldly, or solicitous temper; that so you neither rob him of his honour, nor deprive yourself of what is necessary for your salvation. What will your gain profit you, if you lose your soul?
If your employment be in works of charity, or in such business as your state requires, lose not the advantage of what you do, but daily offer to God your labours. Mix them with thoughts of heaven, that your industry may be serviceable for the next life, as well as this.
The piety of St. Eligius became so remarkable, that he was called forth to the ecclesiastical state, and consecrated bishop; and having fulfilled all the duties of his charge
with wonderful zeal, made a happy end in the year 659.
Pray for all bishops in God's Church, that they may follow so great an example. It being the first day of the month, forget not to begin it so, that if it should be your last, it may be to you the beginning of a happy eternity." The Catholic Year; Or Daily Lessons on the Feasts of the Church by Rev. Fr. John Gother
Prayer for the Bishops:
O Jesus, Prince of Pastors, Shepherd and
Bishop of our souls, give our bishops ................ all those
virtues, which they need for their sanctification! May they watch over
themselves and the entire flock, with which the Holy Spirit has
entrusted them! Fill their hearts with Thine own Spirit! Give them
faith, charity, wisdom and strength! Send them faithful co-laborers in
the great work of saving and guiding souls! Make them shepherds after
Thine own heart, living only for their holy office, fearing nobody but
Thee, and hoping for nothing but Thee, in order that when Thou shalt
come, to judge shepherds and flocks, they may obtain the unfading reward
of eternal life! Amen
Imprimatur: Most Rev. Vincent S. Waters, D.D. Raleigh, N.C. March 25, 1956
St. Charles de Foucault, Hermit and explorer
by VP
Posted on Monday December 01, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
"I was one of the faithful of Father de Foucauld. used to say Mass when it suited us. If you asked him to say it at four o'clock in the morning or at noon he would always say yes. And what a Mass! If you were never at his Mass you don't know what Mass is. When he said the Domine non sum dignus it was in such a tone that you wanted to weep with him." Charles De Foucault, Hermit and Explorer, by Herve Bazin p161
"(...) Mother Elizabeth began to exhort him to take Holy Orders. She showed him that he would do much more good by becoming a missionary; but he changed the conversation, and went back to the hermitage. As she was a woman of very strong will and accustomed to guide souls that do not give in to every argument, but only to one, she returned to the subject, and observed to Brother Charles that, if he became a priest, there would daily be one more Mass in the world, and an infinite number of graces for men; that it was then in his power to pour down a fresh blessing on the earth, or to keep it in heaven. If he had received gifts, which he had increased by study and a long spiritual work, was it to make use of them for himself alone? Brother Charles, whom the thought of honouring still more the Blessed Sacrament had moved to the depths of his soul, reflected on the words which had been said to him, and then replied: "To be a priest is to put myself forward, and I am made for the hidden life."
(...)
"I had at first thought of setting up a hermit chaplain there, in a poor room, and to settle down near him, to serve him as servant and sacristan. But I find that I cannot on any account impose these charges on my family. Another means must therefore be found. I see only one: it is to be myself the poor chaplain of this poor sanctuary."
Brother Charles, continuing his meditation upon this subject, asks himself whether he will thus fill his vocation better, which is "to imitate, in the most possible and perfect way, our Lord Jesus in His hidden life." And he replies affirmatively, comparing what he does in Nazareth with what he would do on the Mount of the Beatitudes.
"Faith in the word of God and of His Church can be practised equally well everywhere, but there, on the Mount of the Beatitudes, in destitution, isolation, in the midst of very malevolent Arabs, I shall, so as not to lose courage, need a firm and constant faith in these words: Seek ye the kingdom of God, and all things shall be added unto you.... Here, on the contrary, I lack nothing, and am safe. It is there then that my faith will be best exercised.
"There I shall be able to do infinitely more for my neighbour by the sole offering up of the holy sacrifice, by setting up a tabernacle which will invisibly sanctify the environs by the simple presence of the Holy Sacrament, as our Saviour in His mother's womb sanctified the house of John, or else by pilgrimages, or by hospitality, alms, and the charity I shall strive to give to all.
Here, my condition is lower in itself; there, it will be, in my eyes, of an infinite height, for nothing in the world seems to me greater than a priest. But where is there a closer imitation of our Lord? The priest more perfectly imitates our Lord, the Most High Priest, who offers Himself up daily. I must put humility where our Lord put it, ... I must practise it in the priesthood as He did.
"Here I have more distractions through my surroundings. There I can be much more before the Holy Sacrament, for I shall be able to keep at His feet part of the night.
Although here the abjection of my state be, at first sight, greater, there I shall be subject to ever so many more humiliations. Here, in my own eyes, I am above my rank; there, an ignorant and incapable priest, I shall be far beneath my office in my own opinion. Appearing in a strange habit, asking to live a special life, to set up a tabernacle in a holy place, the authenticity of which is disputable (though I have no doubt about it), from the first I shall be the butt of all sorts of mockeries, rebuffs, and contradictions. Alone in a desert, with an indispensable native Christian, in the midst of a wild and hostile population, courage will find much more field for its exercise."
He ends his "election" by giving a definition of himself. Who is it, he asks, who thus weighs the pros and cons? "A sinner, an unworthy, poor, ignorant fellow, yet a soul of good-will, desiring all that God desires, and that alone." Charles De Foucault, Hermit and Explorer, by Herve Bazin p132
