CARDINAL ROBERT SARAH:

+
“This virus acted as a warning. In a matter of weeks, the great illusion of a material world that thought itself all-powerful seems to have collapsed. A few days ago, politicians were talking about growth, pensions, reducing unemployment. They were sure of themselves. And now a virus, a microscopic virus, has brought this world to its knees, a world that looks at itself, that pleases itself, drunk with self-satisfaction because it thought it was invulnerable. The current crisis is a parable. It has revealed how all we do and are invited to believe was inconsistent, fragile and empty. We were told: you can consume without limits! But the economy has collapsed and the stock markets are crashing. Bankruptcies are everywhere. We were promised to push the limits of human nature ever further by a triumphant science. We were told about artificial procreation, surrogate motherhood, transhumanism, enhanced humanity. We boasted of being a man of synthesis and a humanity that biotechnologies would make invincible and immortal. But here we are in a panic, confined by a virus about which we know almost nothing. Epidemic was an outdated, medieval word. It suddenly became our everyday life. I believe this epidemic has dispelled the smoke of illusion. The so-called all-powerful man appears in his raw reality. There he is naked. His weakness and vulnerability are glaring. Being confined to our homes will hopefully allow us to turn our attention back to the essentials, to rediscover the importance of our relationship with God, and thus the centrality of prayer in human existence. And, in the awareness of our fragility, to entrust ourselves to God and to his paternal mercy.”

————-

Thomas à Kempis:

On Avoiding Talkativeness

“We must watch and pray (Matt. 26:41) that our time may not be spent fruitlessly. When it is right and proper to speak, speak to edify (Eph. 4:29). Evil habits and neglect of spiritual progress are the main cause of our failure to guard the tongue (James 3:5). But devout conversation on spiritual matters greatly furthers our spiritual progress, especially with those who are heart and soul with us in the service of God (Acts 2:42).”

–Thomas à Kempis –Imitation of Christ, Chapter 10

———

St. Simplicius, Pope (died 483):

Formally celebrated on March 2nd. Saint Simplicius was the ornament of the Roman clergy under Popes Saint Leo and Saint Hilarius, and succeeded the latter as Supreme Pontiff in 468. He was raised up by God to comfort and support his Church amid the greatest tribulations, occasioned by the fall of Rome in the eighth year of his reign.

All the provinces of the Western Empire outside Italy had come into the hands of barbarians. The emperors for many years were rather shadows of power than sovereigns, and, in 476 Rome, capital of the Empire, disappeared when the son of the last one having the title of emperor was deposed. All Italy, through the oppression and the ravages of the barbarians and the assassination of three emperors, was left almost a desert without inhabitants; and the Roman armies consisted chiefly of barbarians hired under the name of auxiliaries.

The northern barbarians were demanding a third of the lands of Italy, and being refused, chose for their leader the intrepid Odoacer, an Arian like all the barbarian kings reigning in the provinces, and he was proclaimed king in Rome by his followers. He put to death the regent of the empire, named to govern during the minority of Augustulus, whom the senate had advanced to the imperial throne. He spared at least the life of the young sovereign, appointed him a salary of six thousand pounds of gold, and permitted him to live at liberty near Naples. This was indeed the end of the Western Empire.

Pope Simplicius was occupied with comforting and relieving the afflicted, as well as sowing the seeds of the Catholic faith among the barbarians. Like the experienced pilot he was, he guided the Church through the troubled waters of a stormy sea.

The East gave the zeal of Saint Simplicius no less employment and concern. Peter Cnapheus, a violent Eutychian heretic, was proclaimed by his followers Patriarch of Antioch, and the profligate Peter Mongus became Patriarch of Alexandria. The Patriarch of Constantinople, named Acacius, supported Mongus against the Pope and the Catholic Church. Acacius was a notorious hypocrite who often made religion serve his private interests. Saint Simplicius eventually discovered his

artifices, and redoubled his zeal to maintain the holy faith, which he saw betrayed on every side. The Emperor Zenon, listening to the Pope for a time, drove out several Eutychians from their sees; but the intrigues of the heretics continued to create serious difficulties for the Father of Christianity, since the patriarchal sees of Alexandria and Antioch were occupied by men of ruse, and there was not one Catholic king in the entire world.

Saint Simplicius, after dedicating four major churches of Rome and establishing many useful regulations for the Roman Church during his reign of nearly 16 years, went to receive the reward of his labors in 483. He was buried in Saint Peter’s on the 2nd of March.

Sources: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints, and other sources

————

Saint Quote:

O my Jesus, I, a poor, ignorant young man, have become a shepherd in Thy sheepfold. . . . Grant that not one of those confided to me be lost. . . . Teach me to live, and, if needs be, to die for my people that they all may be saved, that they all may love Thy dear Mother! . . Mary, thou who art ever victorious over heresies, pray for all who are walking in the paths of accursed error! . . . My Jesus, what shall, I, a poor creature, do to lead many souls–yea, all souls–to Thee?

–Saint John Nepomucene Neumann

—————

Bible Quote:

“Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps” (Prov. 4:25).+

And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace  [James 3:18]: The Venerable Bede in commenting on this passage urges Christians to sow the earth with the best seed to yield a fruitful harvest: “Everything we do in this life contains within it the seed of future regard.  Paul says the same thing when he writes: ‘Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.’ Therefore it is rightly said that the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.  For the fruit of righteousness is eternal life, which is the reward for good works, so that those who desire peace and implement it sow the earth with the best of seed there is, and by their daily actions gain an increase which entitles them to inherit the fruits of life in heaven.  The reprobates also reap what they sow, because they will also receive their just reward at the judgment.  But that reward will not be the fruits of eternal life, but corruption, because they will reap the eternal punishment due to the corruption in which they passed their lives on earth.”

–The Venerable Bede, quoting St. Paul from Gal. 6:7; Concerning the Epistle of St. James, chapter 3.