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Saint Jerome. misalvador777.tripod.com/catholictreasurechest SEPTEMBER 30, 2011 - ST. JEROME (340-420) Today’s saint was commissioned by the Pope to translate the Bible into Latin, the language of the …More
Saint Jerome.

misalvador777.tripod.com/catholictreasurechest

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011 - ST. JEROME (340-420)

Today’s saint was commissioned by the Pope to translate the Bible into Latin, the language of the people. He spent most of his life doing so, as well as writing commentaries to help people understand the Bible. Let us respond to the Holy Father’s desires with the same faithfulness that St. Jerome had. We pray for Pope Benedict’s September intentions one last time as we reflect on part of a sermon on Psalm 42 that St. Jerome addressed to newly baptized Christians.
“As the deer longs for running water, so my soul longs for you, my God.” Just as the deer longs for running water, so do our newly baptized members, our young deer, so speak, also yearn for God. By leaving Egypt and the world, they have put Pharoah and his entire army to death in the waters of baptism. After slaying the devil, their hearts long for the springs of running water in the Church. These springs are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jeremiah testifies that the Father is like a fountain when he says: “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, to dig for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” In another passage we read about the Son: “They have forsaken the fountain of wisdom.” And again, John says of the Holy Spirit: “Whoever drinks the water I will give him, that water shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life.” The evangelist explains that the Savior said this of the Holy Spirit. The testimony of these texts establishes beyond doubt that the three fountains of the Church constitute the mystery of the Trinity.

These are the waters that the heart of the believer longs for, these are the waters that the heart of the newly baptized yearns for when he says: “My heart thirsts for God, the living fountain.” … This is the way you should speak, you newly baptized, for you have now put on Christ. Under our guidance, by the word of God you have been lifted out of the dangerous waters of this world like so many little fish. In us the nature of things has been changed. Fish taken out of the sea die; but the apostles have fished for us and have taken us out of the sea of this world so we could be brought from death to life. As long as we were in the world, our eyes looked down into the abyss and we lived in filth. After we were rescued from the waves, we began to look upon the sun and look up at the true light. Confused in the presence of so much joy, we say: “Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, in the presence of my savior and my God.”
www.apostleshipofprayer.org

"St. Jerome at Study" Most of the saints are remembered for some outstanding virtue or devotion which they practiced, but Jerome is remembered too frequently for his bad temper! It is true that he could use a vitriolic pen, but his love for God and his Son Jesus Christ was extraordinarily intense; anyone who taught error was an enemy of God and truth, and St. Jerome went after him or her with his mighty and sometimes sarcastic pen. He was, above all, a Scripture scholar, translating most of the Old Testament from the Hebrew and writing commentaries which are still a great source of inspiration. He was an avid student, a thorough scholar, a prodigious letter-writer and a consultant to monk, bishop and pope. St. Augustine said of him, "What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has ever known." He traveled widely, and died in Bethlehem in the year 420."
Knights4Christ
✍️ Letter 22 to To Eustochium ((ROME, 384)
www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001022.htm
"How often, when I was living in the desert, in the vast solitude which gives to hermits a savage dwelling-place, parched by a burning sun, how often did I fancy myself among the pleasures of Rome! I used to sit alone because I was filled with bitterness. Sackcloth disfigured my unshapely limbs and my skin from long …More
✍️ Letter 22 to To Eustochium ((ROME, 384)
www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001022.htm

"How often, when I was living in the desert, in the vast solitude which gives to hermits a savage dwelling-place, parched by a burning sun, how often did I fancy myself among the pleasures of Rome! I used to sit alone because I was filled with bitterness. Sackcloth disfigured my unshapely limbs and my skin from long neglect had become as black as an Ethiopian's. Tears and groans were every day my portion; and if drowsiness chanced to overcome my struggles against it, my bare bones, which hardly held together, clashed against the ground. Of my food and drink I say nothing: for, even in sickness, the solitaries have nothing but cold water, and to eat one's food cooked is looked upon as self-indulgence. Now, although in my fear of hell I had consigned myself to this prison, where I had no companions but scorpions and wild beasts, I often found myself amid bevies of girls. My face was pale and my frame chilled with fasting; yet my mind was burning with desire, and the fires of lust kept bubbling up before me when my flesh was as good as dead. Helpless, I cast myself at the feet of Jesus, I watered them with my tears, I wiped them with my hair: and then I subdued my rebellious body with weeks of abstinence. I do not blush to avow my abject misery; rather I lament that I am not now what once I was. I remember how I often cried aloud all night till the break of day and ceased not from beating my breast till tranquillity returned at the chiding of the Lord. I used to dread my very cell as though it knew my thoughts; and, stern and angry with myself, I used to make my way alone into the desert. Wherever I saw hollow valleys, craggy mountains, steep cliffs, there I made my oratory, there the house of correction for my unhappy flesh. There, also— the Lord Himself is my witness— when I had shed copious tears and had strained my eyes towards heaven, I sometimes felt myself among angelic hosts, and for joy and gladness sang: because of the savour of your good ointments we will run after you. Song of Songs 1:3-4
8. Now, if such are the temptations of men who, since their bodies are emaciated with fasting, have only evil thoughts to fear, how must it fare with a girl whose surroundings are those of luxury and ease? Surely, to use the apostle's words, She is dead while she lives. 1 Timothy 5:6 Therefore, if experience gives me a right to advise, or clothes my words with credit, I would begin by urging you and warning you as Christ's spouse to avoid wine as you would avoid poison. For wine is the first weapon used by demons against the young. Greed does not shake, nor pride puff up, nor ambition infatuate so much as this. Other vices we easily escape, but this enemy is shut up within us, and wherever we go we carry him with us. Wine and youth between them kindle the fire of sensual pleasure. Why do we throw oil on the flame— why do we add fresh fuel to a miserable body which is already ablaze. Paul, it is true, says to Timothy drink no longer water, but use a little wine for your stomach's sake, and for your frequent infirmities. 1 Timothy 5:23 But notice the reasons for which the permission is given, to cure an aching stomach and a frequent infirmity. And lest we should indulge ourselves too much on the score of our ailments, he commands that but little shall be taken; advising rather as a physician than as an apostle (though, indeed, an apostle is a spiritual physician). He evidently feared that Timothy might succumb to weakness, and might prove unequal to the constant moving to and fro involved in preaching the Gospel. Besides, he remembered that he had spoken of wine wherein is excess, Ephesians 5:18 and had said, it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine. Romans 14:21 Noah drank wine and became intoxicated; but living as he did in the rude age after the flood, when the vine was first planted, perhaps he did not know its power of inebriation. And to let you see the hidden meaning of Scripture in all its fullness (for the word of God is a pearl and may be pierced on every side) after his drunkenness came the uncovering of his body; self-indulgence culminated in lust. Genesis 9:20-21 First the belly is crammed; then the other members are roused. Similarly, at a later period, The people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. Exodus 32:6 Lot also, God's friend, whom He saved upon the mountain, who was the only one found righteous out of so many thousands, was intoxicated by his daughters. And, although they may have acted as they did more from a desire of offspring than from love of sinful pleasure— for the human race seemed in danger of extinction— yet they were well aware that the righteous man would not abet their design unless intoxicated. In fact he did not know what he was doing, and his sin was not wilful. Still his error was a grave one, for it made him the father of Moab and Ammon, Genesis 19:30-38 Israel's enemies, of whom it is said: Even to the fourteenth generation they shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever. (...)