-- Hebrews 4:12-13 --

-- Hebrews 4:12-13 --

  For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any
two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit,
of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and
intents of the heart. And there is no creature that is not manifest in
his sight: but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of
him with whom we have to do.  [Hebrews 4:12-13] DRB
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
The Word of God is not simply a collection of words from God, a vehicle for
communicating ideas; it is living, life-changing and dynamic as it works in
us. With the incisiveness of a surgeon's knife, God's Word reveals who we
are and what we are not. It penetrates the core of our moral and spiritual
life. It discerns what is in us, both good and evil. The demands of God's
Word require decisions. We must not only listen to the Word, we must also
let it shape our lives.

<<>><<>><<>>
January 16th - Bl. Honoratus, OFMCap
(1829-1916)

Bl. Honoratus was born at Biala Podlaska, Poland, and baptized
Florence Wenceslaus John Kozminski. His parents were in comfortable
circumstances, and during his early years were a strong religious and
cultural influence on him.

Attracted to the career of an architect, which was his father=E2=80=99s
calling, young Kozminski in 1844 entered the School of Fine Arts in
Warsaw, his father=E2=80=99s Alma Mater. However, after the father=E2=80=99=
s death a
year later, Wenceslaus fell victim to antireligious currents at the
school, and not only ceased to practice Catholicism but became its
declared enemy, trying to convert his Catholic companions to his
altered religious views.

In 1846, he was accused of having taken part in a conspiracy against
the Russians. The accusation was false, but the Russians, who then
ruled Poland, clapped him into a frightful jail, and seemed ready to
condemn him to death for treason.

Prison became the battlefield of his soul. On the one hand, he caught
a serious disease, probably typhus; on the other, he suffered a
grievous spiritual temptation to abandon all religion. However, on the
feast of the Assumption, 1846, Kozminski suddenly recovered his
religious faith. When released from jail a year later, he made a
public confession of his apostasy. His conversion he attributed to the
grace obtained for him by Our Lady and to the faithful prayers of his
mother.

Nor did his change of heart cease with recovery of faith. In December
1848 Wenceslaus joined the Capuchin Franciscans, taking the religious
name Honoratus. Ordained a priest four years later, he began pastoral
work in and around Warsaw as a confessor, preacher and prison
chaplain. He also helped Maria Angela Truszkowska to found the
Congregation of the Felician Sisters; and to increase the piety of the
faithful he founded a number of =E2=80=9CCircles of the Living Rosary=E2=80=
=9D.

But the spies of imperial Russia were still on the alert. After
Poland=E2=80=99s unsuccessful revolt for independence in 1863, Russia
suppressed the Capuchin house in Warsaw. Honoratus and his fellow
friars had to move to Zakroczym. There they lived under constant
surveillance by the secret police, forbidden to leave the monastery or
move elsewhere. Kozminski meanwhile kept busy at his religious duties.
Each week he spent hours in the confessional and in spiritual
direction. He focused particularly on young people who, like himself,
had strayed from the church.

In making these contacts with people who sought his advice, he found
that many were considering emigrating to some place where they could
enter the religious life, which the Russians were trying to discourage
in Poland. Friar Honoratus thought that such aspirants might be
satisfied if there were available some type of religious association
that might satisfy them and at the same time permit them to stay at
home. What he did was to set up a new type of congregation based on
the Third Order of St. Francis. Like tertiaries, the members could
take simple vows and live in community without being required to
identify themselves outwardly as members of a religious order.

The plan worked, and he set up, in all, 26 of these congregations.
Members continued at their daily occupations while engaged in a secret
apostolate to fellow workers. Certain of the centers had more specific
apostolates. Some specialized in preaching, others in various social
projects. In other words, the Congregations were an early form of our
present-day secular religious institutes.

Eventually Honoratus wanted to put the organization under the control
of the bishops. At first, the hierarchy feared what Russia would do if
they became involved in this new form of religious life. However, when
the Russian overlords became a bit more tolerant in 1905, the
episcopate accepted jurisdiction over the Congregations, and with the
approval of Rome, began to change their mode of operation. Father
Honoratus, although deeply disappointed by the alterations, accepted
the deal. Thenceforth he had no further connection with the novel type
of religious institute that he had invented.

Friar Honoratus continued his own work as a confessor and spiritual
director to the end of his life; still working under oppressive
political conditions. He also served as commissary general of the
Capuchins in Poland and published a number of religious writings.

Stricken by a painful illness, Honoratus of Biala Podlaska died on
December 16, 1916. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1988 as a man
who had fought his way back from infidelity to a triumphant faith.


Bible Quote:
"My brethren, if any of you err from the truth, and one convert him:
He must know that he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the
error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a
multitude of sins"  (James 5:19-20)

Saint Quote:
Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to
abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His
grace to mold them accordingly.
-- Saint Ignatius of Loyola


<><><><>
A Prayer for the Dying and a Special Soul

O MOST MERCIFUL JESUS, lover of souls,
I beseech Thee, by the agony of Thy most Sacred Heart,
and by the sorrows of Thine Immaculate Mother,
wash clean in Thy Blood the sinners of the whole world
who are to die this day.

Remember most especially the soul I spiritually adopt
with the intention of entrusting him or her to Thy Shepherd's care:
I beseech Thee for the grace to move this sinner, who is in
danger of going to Hell, to repent. I ask this because of my
trust in Thy great mercy.

If it should please Thy Majesty to send me a suffering this day
in exchange for the grace I ask for this soul, then, it, too,
shall please me very much, and I thank Thee, Most Sweet Jesus,
Shepherd and Lover of Souls; I thank Thee for this opportunity
to give mercy in thanksgiving for all the mercies
Thou hast shown me. Amen.

Heart of Jesus, once in agony, have mercy on the dying.=20