• June 6th - St. Norbert, Bishop and Confessor

    From rich@1:396/4 to All on Fri Jun 5 09:06:30 2020
    From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

    June 6th - St. Norbert, Bishop and Confessor

    GOD awakens the saints to the reality of His presence in a variety of
    ways, some of them quite dramatic: thunder and lightning was the way
    for St. Norbert. =C2 A relative of the German emperor, Henry V, Norbert
    was born about 1080 at Xanten, on the Rhine, and spent the first
    thirty years of his life in attendance at the royal court, where he
    was a great favorite. =C2 It was a pleasant, amusing, and purposeless existence, although he had already been ordained a subdeacon.

    =C2 In 1111 he accompanied the emperor to Rome, and although his
    conscience was awakened when he saw Henry extorting from the
    imprisoned pope rights that belonged to the Holy See, it was only
    little by little that he left the court life and broke with the
    excommunicated emperor. =C2 The decisive moment came for the young man as
    he was riding a horse through the German countryside one day; when a
    violent storm occurred, punctuated by thunder and lightning, the horse
    bolted, throwing Norbert to the ground. =C2 The fall nearly killed him
    like Paul on the road to Damascus. Norbert emerged from the experience
    a different man. =C2 His brush with death had revealed to him, in one
    sickening flash, the enormous emptiness of his life, and he resolved
    to make amends to God.

    =C2 He returned to Xanten, found a little hermitage, and gave himself up
    to prayer and mortification. =C2 He left his solitude only to seek the
    advice and direction of Conrad of Ratisbon, the celebrated abbot of
    Siegburg. =C2 Conrad advised study for the priesthood, and in 1115
    Norbert was ordained at Cologne. =C2 He returned again to Xanten to start
    his priestly career. =C2 In his youth, Norbert's family had secured an appointment for him as a canon at the collegiate church in Xanten;
    such positions were largely honorary, although usually given to
    priests, and people were accustomed to seeing the canons leading very
    worldly lives. =C2 Remembering his own faults in this regard, Norbert
    began preaching to the canons on the need for more spirituality in
    their lives; his listeners, who had no taste for such medicine,
    laughed in his face and in 1118 denounced Norbert to the Council of
    Fritzlar as an unorthodox, meddling troublemaker.

    =C2 The council condemned him only for preaching without proper
    authorization, but Norbert was stunned by the cruelty of his fellow
    clerics. =C2 Giving away the remains of his family fortune, he set out
    for Languedoc in France, where Pope Gelasius II was temporarily
    residing. =C2 It was winter, and Norbert walked barefoot the entire way.
    When he was admitted to the pope, he begged pardon for a sinful life
    and requested that a suitable penance be given him. =C2 The pope saw the caliber of the man before him and rewarded the saint's act of humility
    by giving him permission to preach at will throughout Europe.

    =C2 Thus vindicated, Norbert began a busy preaching career that took him throughout the French and Belgian dioceses. =C2 In 1119, the bishop of
    Laon persuaded Norbert to go there, where the canons were no better
    than they had been at Xanten. =C2 As before, the saint had little success
    with the worldly clerics; as an alternative line of action, however,
    the bishop suggested that Norbert found his own community of canons
    and gave him land for this purpose in the desolate valley of
    Premontre', near the city of Laon. =C2 There, on Christmas day, 1121, a
    new type of religious order was born: the Order of Canons Regular of Premontre'. =C2 The order was an austere one, based on the Rule of St. Augustine, and Norbert had the satisfaction of seeing it attract
    canons from all over Europe, even many of those who had earlier
    rejected his attempts at reform. =C2 A branch for lay people was
    established at the request of Theobald, count of Champagne; Norbert
    gave him a small scapular he could wear under his clothes and a simple
    rule that could be followed in secular life. =C2 This "third order," or
    secular tertianship, is regarded as the first to be attached to any
    religious order. =C2 After making other foundations (one was in Antwerp,
    where Norbert gained fame by putting to rout a celebrated heretic),
    the saint went to Rome in 1125 to have Pope Honorius II give formal
    approval to the Premonstratensians.

    =C2 There were no longer any doubts about the worth of this holy man.
    When he appeared in Germany on a visit in 1126 he was prevailed upon
    by the hierarchy there to accept the consecration as archbishop of
    Magdeburg. =C2 Leaving his order under the direction of a capable
    disciple, Hugh of Fosses, Norbert took up residence in Magdeburg,
    where he once more became a stumbling-block to Christians who had
    forgotten the meaning of their faith. =C2 Unchaste priests, laymen who plundered the Church of its property, these and others were soon
    influenced by Norbert's authority. =C2 Despite opposition (a mob once
    attacked him in his own cathedral), the archbishop carried out his
    reforms and eventually had an improved diocese.

    =C2 The last achievement in Norbert's full life was to join with St.
    Bernard and the emperor Lothair to uphold Pope Innocent II in his
    struggle against the antipope Anacletus II. =C2 That fight took Norbert
    to Rome again, in 1133, although the outcome was successful, the
    effort proved too much for Norbert's health. =C2 He became ill on his
    return to Magdeburg and, shortly after his arrival there, died on June
    6, 1134.


    Saint Quote:
    Blessed is the mind which, during prayer, is insensible to all things.
    --St. Nilus of Sinai

    Out of sight, out of mind

    =C2 =C2 Christ is gone away; he is not seen; we never saw him, we only=
    read
    and hear of him. It is an old saying, "Out of sight, out of mind." Be
    sure, so it will be, so it must be with us, as regards our blessed
    Savior, unless we make continual efforts all through the day to think
    of him, his love, his precepts, his gifts, and his promises. We must
    recall to mind what we read in the gospels and in holy books about
    him; we must bring before us what we have heard in church; we must
    pray God to enable us to do so, to bless the doing so, and to make us
    do so in a simple-minded, sincere, and reverential spirit. In a word,
    we must meditate, for all this is meditation; and this even the most
    unlearned person can do, and will do, if he has a will to do it.
    =C2 --John Henry Newman

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