Subj : December 3rd - Saint Frances Xavier To : All From : rich Date : Mon Dec 02 2019 09:02:39 From: rich December 3rd - Saint Frances Xavier (1506-1552) Today we celebrate the feast day of Saint Frances Xavier, Jesuit missionary, miracle-worker, and tireless proclaimer of the Word of God. Saint Frances traveled the world at a time when such things were significantly more difficult, always eager to take the Christian faith, and the salvation of Jesus Christ, to those who needed it. One of the seven original men who founded the Jesuits, the legacy of Saint Frances lives on today through the international mission work continued by the Society of Jesus. Frances was born into nobility, growing up in his family's castle i= n Navarre, Spain. He was fortunate to receive tutoring=E2=80=94a privilege of the noble class-- which prepared him to continue his education. At the age of 19, he undertook studies in Paris, at the College of Sainte-Barbe, living as roommates with Blessed Peter Faber. Frances' studies were progressing according to plan when everything changed dramatically. When he was just 23, he encountered Saint Ignatius of Loyola, an older student, who demonstrated a prayerful life to Frances. Not before long, Peter Faber had joined Ignatius in his wish to enter the priesthood. Frances, however, resisted, truly aspiring to worldly career. Earning his degree, Frances began teaching philosophy at the College of Dormans-Beauvais in Paris, but continued lived with Faber and Loyola. Eventually, the constant witness of Saint Ignatius softened Frances' heart, and he accepted his calling. Alon= g with four other friends, the seven young men pronounced vows of poverty, chastity, and mission work in 1534. Their goal, inspired by Ignatius, was to travel to the Holy Land to =E2=80=9Cconvert the infidels.= =E2=80=9D That same year, Saint Xavier began studying theology. Two years later, the group traveled to Venice, where they would board a ship to the Holy Land. It took several months to find passage, during which time they volunteered in hospitals. Frances further traveled to Rome, seeking papal permission for their mission, and requesting ordination of those among them not yet priests. Saint Frances, Saint Ignatius and four others were ordained by the papal delegate in his private chapel in 1537. They waited another year for a ship to the Holy Land, due to war, nothing was sailing. Instead, the group dispersed to colleges, preaching and teaching, and Saint Ignatius traveled to Rome and placed the group at the disposal of the pope. Saint Frances went to Rome in April 1538 and began preaching in the French church of St. Louis. There, he also helped form the new religious order, The Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits. Before long, he was asked to travel to India by Saint Ignatius. This was a bittersweet assignment: Sweet in that Frances would be bringing the Gospel of Christ to those who hadn't heard it; bitter in that he wo= uld likely never see his closest friend=E2=80=94Saint Ignatius=E2=80=94again. O= bediently, and excitedly, he went. This trip was the start of Saint Frances' missionary calling. He worked in Lisbon, Portugal, caring for prisoners, while waiting for the ship to take him to India. One year later, on his thirty-fifty birthday, he boarded a ship, with a letter of authority over all clergy in Goa in hand. Thirteen months later, he arrived in India. In the meantime, he had worked in Mozambique, where the crew had waited some time for =E2=80=9Cfavorable winds.=E2=80=9D Saint Frances embraced his new job with vigor, attempting to learn Tamil to speak with the locals, but generally relying on translators. He traveled throughout India and the Spice Islands, converting thousands, preaching, and baptizing upwards of 10,000. Saint Frances paid special attention to children, instructing them early in the ways of the faith, and modeling the perfection of Christian virtues. Wherever he went, he lived with the poorest people, sharing their food and rough accommodations. He spent countless hours ministering to the sick and the poor, particularly to lepers. Very often he had no time to sleep or even to say his breviary but, as we know from his letters, he was filled always with joy. --By Jacob Saint Quote: The dangers to which I am exposed, and the pains I take for the interests of God alone, are the inexhaustible springs of spiritual joys; insomuch that these islands, bare of all worldly necessaries, are the places in the world for a man to lose his sight with excess of weeping; but they are tears of joy. I remember not ever to have tasted such interior delights, and these consolations of the soul are so pure, so exquisite, and so constant, that they take from me all sense of my corporal sufferings. --St. Francis Xavier Bible Quote: And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen! Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen=C2 (Revelation 7:11,12 ) <><><><> St. Xavier's Prayer for Unbelievers: All: Eternal God, Creator of all things, remember that Thou alone didst create the souls of infidels, framing them to Thine own image and likeness; behold, O Lord! how, to Thy dishonor, Hell is daily replenished with them. Remember, O Lord! Thine only Son, Jesus Christ, Who suffered for them, most bountifully shedding His Precious Blood: suffer not, O Lord! Thy Son and our Lord to be any longer despised by infidels; but rather, being appeased by the entreaties and prayers of the elect, the Saints, and of the Church, the most blessed spouse of Thy Son, vouchsafe to be mindful of Thy mercy, and forgetting their idolatry and infidelity, cause them also to know Him Who Thou didst send, Jesus Christ Thy Son, our Lord, Who is our health, life, and resurrection, through Whom we are freed and saved, to Who be all glory forever. V: Pray for us, Saint Francis Xavier, R: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. V: O God, Who did deign, by the preaching and miracles of Saint Francis Xavier, to join unto Thy Church the nations of the Indies, grant, we beseech Thee, that we who reverence his glorious merits, may also imitate his example, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. R: Amen. --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .