Subj : April 7th - St. Albert, Recluse
To   : All
From : rich
Date : Sat Apr 06 2019 09:13:43

From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

April 7th - St. Albert, Recluse

HE was born at Espain, a village in the diocese of Tourney, in 1060.
From his infancy he so earnestly applied himself to prayer, that he
spent in that holy exercise the greater part of his time, being always
careful in it to shun, as much as possible, the eyes of men. The
earnestness with which he always attended all public devotions in his
parish church, and listened to the sermons of his curate, is not to be
expressed; much less the deep impressions which every instruction of
piety made upon his tender heart. He was discovered to watch a great
part of the night upon his knees, and when he was no longer able to
support himself upright, to pray prostrate on the ground. When he
could not pray in his chamber, without danger of being surprised by
others, he retired into the stable or sheep-cot for many hours
together. His commerce with God in his heart was uninterrupted while
he was abroad in the fields with the cattle. He was no less private in
his fasts; and at the time of meals he usually took an apple, or a
morsel of bread, that he might tell his parents or the servants that
he had eaten.

Happening one day to hear a poor man at his father's door sing a hy=
mn
on the virtues and death of St. Theobald, a hermit lately dead, he
found himself vehemently inflamed with a desire of imitating his
solitary penitential life; and without delay addressed himself to a
priest of the monastery of Crepin or Crespin, named John, who lived a
recluse in a separate cell, with the leave of his abbot. Being
admitted by him as a companion, he soon surpassed his master in the
exercise and spirit of virtue. Bread they seldom tasted; wild herbs
were their ordinary food; they never saw any fire, nor ate anything
that had been dressed by it. The church of Crepin, ever since its
foundation by St. Landelin, in the 7th century, had been served by
secular canons: in the eleventh it had passed into the hands of monks
of the Order of St. Benedict: and under the first abbot, Rainer, St.
Albert took the monastic habit. He still practised his former
austerities, slept on the ground, and in the night recited the whole
psalter privately before matins. He was chosen provost and cellerer;
but the exterior occupations of those offices did not interrupt his
tears, nor hinder the perpetual attention of his soul to God.

After 25 years spent in this community, with a fervour which was
always uniform and constant, he obtained leave of Lambert, the second
abbot, to return to an eremitical life, in 1115. He then built himself
a cell in the midst of a barren wilderness, contenting himself for his
food with bread and herbs, and after the first 3 years with herbs
alone. Many flocking to him for spiritual advice, Burchard, bishop of
Cambray, his diocesan, promoted him to the priesthood, and erected for
him a chapel in his cell, giving him power to hear confessions and
administer the holy Eucharist: which was confirmed to him by two
popes, Paschal II. and Innocent II. He said every day two masses, one
for the living, and a second for the dead. God crowned his long
penance with a happy death about the year 1140, the 80th of his age,
on the 7th of April; on which he is honoured in the Belgic and
Gallican Martyrologies.

See his life, by Robert the archdeacon, his intimate friend, in
Surius, Bollandus, &c.


Saint Quote:
The patient and humble endurance of the cross whatever nature it may
be is the highest work we have to do.
-- Saint Katherine Drexel


<><><><>
The Most Holy Winding-Sheet

Luke xxiii. 53: "And taking Him down, he wrapped Him in fine linen and
laid Him in a sepulchre."

The glories of that sacred winding-sheet
Let every tongue record;
Which from the cross received with honour meet
The body of the Lord.

Ah! who, beholding these sad images,
Can tears control?
Can check the throbs of swelling grief that rise
Up from his inmost soul?

O Dear Memorial! on which we see,
In bloody stains impressed,
The form sublime in awful majesty,
Of our Redeemer blest.

Jesu! my sin it was that laid Thee low,
And through Thy death I live;
That life, which to Thy torments sore I owe,
Henceforth to Thee I give.

How doth the grievous sight of Thee recall
Those dying throes to mind,
Which Christ, compassionating Adam's fall,
Endured for lost mankind.

Glory to Him who to redeem us bore
Such bitter dying pains;
Who with th' Eternal Father evermore,
And Holy Spirit reigns.

His wounded side, His hands and feet pierced through,
Mirrored in Thee appear;
His lacerated limbs, His gory brow
And thorn-entangled hair.
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)

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