• April 1st - Bl. Ludovic Pavoni, Founder

    From rich@1:396/4 to All on Wed Mar 31 10:21:53 2021
    From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

    April 1st - Bl. Ludovic Pavoni, Founder
    Founder --Congregation of Mary Immaculate of Brescia

    Don Bosco of Turin, Italy, was well known for his work in educating
    poor boys. Less well known is Blessed Ludovic Pavoni, an Italian
    priest of the preceding generation. He showed much the same holy
    initiative as St. John Bosco in Brescia, a Lombard city of 40,000
    population.

    Ludovic was born into a Brescian family of property and distinction.
    His sister Paulina later said of him, =E2=80=9CLudovic was always a good religious youngster, while I was always the scamp.=E2=80=9D At an early age=
    we
    find him giving his shirt to a poor man and teaching catechism to his
    rural playmates. He had artistic talents that might have led him into
    painting or architecture had he chosen that route. Instead, he felt a
    call to the diocesan priesthood, to which he was ordained in 1807.

    During his early years as a priest, Ludovic showed a special interest
    in working with boys, both as instructor and recreational director. At
    34 he was named pastor of St. Barnabas Church in Brescia. His living
    quarters were in one small corner of a former Augustinian monastery.
    (The rest of the building was used by the army for storage.) He soon
    began to hope that he might secure possession of the whole monastery
    building and turn it into a home and school for destitute youngsters.

    For the time being, however, only a small part of the building was
    available to him. (He called it =E2=80=9Cthe rat hole.=E2=80=9D) With the p= ermission
    of his bishop he initiated his =E2=80=9Cinstitute=E2=80=9D in these restric= ted
    quarters, opening a small trade school in which printing was taught.

    The printing school got off to a good start. It took years, however,
    for him to get a government license for his press, and to obtain
    control of the whole building. The main reason for delay was that Austria-Hungary then governed Lombardy, and there was a long tradition
    in the Austrian Empire of bureaucratic meddling in any church-related
    affairs. Only in 1841 did the city council of Brescia finally hand
    over the entire monastery. Then Ludovic was able to set up in it a
    grammar school, a school of design, and a school of music. As his
    ability became better appreciated, he was given charge of a local
    school for boys with hearing problems. The city even asked him to
    manage the crowded Brescia orphanage =E2=80=94 the cholera epidemic of 1836
    had broken up many families.

    Although Canon Pavoni was by nature hot-tempered and impulsive, he
    achieved great self-control. This helped him to channel his great
    energy into so many undertakings. As an educator, he was both keen and well-balanced. His aim was to make his boys good by making them
    well-rounded. He could be strict when necessary, but in general his
    approach to them was gentle and loving. If the public spiritual
    reading he chose for them was sometimes on the heavy side, he did not
    forget that they were still youngsters. To see that they were
    well-fed, he personally supervised the kitchen, and even allowed them
    a =E2=80=9Cdiscreet measure of wine.=E2=80=9D He also insisted on punctuali=
    ty and good
    manners. One of the recreations he encouraged was play-acting. He
    found it invited them to be creative.

    By 1844 Blessed Ludovic saw the need of establishing a religious order
    to carry on his work after he was gone. Consequently, he founded the Congregation of Mary Immaculate. He made his own religious profession
    in this congregation in 1847, and assumed the role of superior
    general. Even now, the Austrian government's meddling delayed the
    launching of the new religious order. Kaiser Ferdinand I, the Austrian
    Emperor, did value his work enough to confer on him the knighthood of
    the Iron Crown. But Ludovic told his associates he would have been
    much happier if the Kaiser had sent him a sack of flour to feed his
    boys.

    In March 1849 political tensions came to the breaking point. Lombardy
    revolted against Austrian control, and Brescia became a theater of
    war. Pavoni fled with his young students to a rural refuge. He had to
    look back on the burning city and see his whole institute aflame. The
    shock was too much. He died on April 1, 1849, aged 69. Deeply mourned
    by his boys and by all who had known him, Ludovic Pavoni was beatified
    by Pope Pius XII in 1947. He had made an important contribution to
    modern Catholic methods of educating needy youth.
    =E2=80=93Father Robert

    Bible Quote:
    Golden apples in silver settings
    are words spoken at the proper time.=C2 [Prov 25:11]

    Saint Quote:
    Mary was raised to the dignity of Mother of God rather for sinners than for=
    the just,
    since Jesus Christ declares that he came to call not the just, but sinners. --St. Anselm


    <><><><>
    A Lenten Offering
    By St Th=C3=A9r=C3=A8se of the Child Jesus

    O my God!
    I offer Thee all my actions of this Lent
    for the intentions and for the glory
    of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
    I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart,
    my every thought,
    my simplest works,
    by uniting them to Its infinite merits
    and I wish to make reparation for my sins,
    by casting them into the furnace
    of Its Merciful Love.
    O my God!
    I ask of Thee for myself
    and for those whom I hold dear,
    the grace to fulfil perfectly Thy Holy Will,
    to accept for love of Thee,
    the joys and sorrows of this passing life,
    so that we may one day
    be united together in heaven,
    for all eternity.
    Amen
    --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
    * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)