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80.1
First Point
It
is said of Saint Nicholas that from his earliest years he led a very
mortified life. This virtue appeared when he was still fed at the breast,
for on Wednesdays and Fridays he took his nurse's milk only once a day.
Accustomed to fasting this way, he continued this holy practice all the
rest of his life, during which he had mortification very much at heart. He
often wore a hair shirt. God likewise gave him occasions to suffer and to
practice patience during the long period of banishment to which the
Emperor Diocletian condemned him. During this exile the saint considered
himself fortunate to be able in this way to give public testimony to his
faith.
An austere and penitential life is the safeguard of chastity and
disposes the soul for friendship with God. For it detaches it from the
body and material pleasures and enables it to devote itself to God and
receive his inspirations. It also frees it from all the obstacles which
might prevent it from possessing the spirit of God.
If your life is not as austere as that of this saint, you should at
least make it austere in another way appropriate to your state by
mortifying yourself every day in something during meals, either in regard
to the quantity, the quality, or the taste of your food, by eating with
great moderation, or by leaving the table without being entirely
satisfied, and granting your senses only what is absolutely necessary. Are
you faithful to these practices?
80.2
Second Point
This
saint loved prayer, and it was through his prayers that he calmed a
furious storm when he was on the sea to make a devotional visit to the
holy places of Jerusalem. In order to make prayer more easily and with
more devotion, he spent much time in churches and went there early in the
morning. It is said that this is what led to his being chosen as bishop in
a seemingly miraculous manner. It was also prayer that helped him a great
deal to govern his diocese, for in this way he became imbued with the
episcopal spirit and with the divine wisdom he needed to guide souls.
The obligation that you have to instruct children and bring them up
in the spirit of Christianity should make you very assiduous in prayer, in
order to obtain from God the graces you need to carry out your work well
and to draw upon yourselves the light you must have to know how to form
Jesus Christ in the hearts of the children who are entrusted to your
guidance[i],
and give them the spirit of God. Realize that to fill yourselves with God
as much as you should in the state in which Providence has placed you, you
are obliged to converse frequently with God.
80.3
Third Point
The
love Saint Nicholas had for the poor was surprising, for it led him to
explore all possible ways to provide for their needs. It was this love
which led him in person, but secretly during the night and on three
separate occasions, to bring what was needed to provide a dowry for three
young girls whose father was ready to have them become prostitutes because
he did not have the means to get them married. This same charity led the
saint to free a young man captured by the Saracens who was serving the
king at table and invoked the saint on his feast, begging him to grant him
this favor.
You are under the obligation to instruct the children of the poor.
You should, consequently, cultivate a very special tenderness for them and
procure their spiritual welfare as far as you will be able, considering
them as members of Jesus Christ[ii]
and his well-beloved. Faith, which should animate you, should make you
honor Jesus Christ in their persons,[iii]
and make you prefer them to the wealthiest children on earth because they
are the living images of Jesus Christ our divine Master. By the care you
have for them, show how truly dear they are to you, and ask Saint
Nicholas, their patron, to obtain for you from God some share in his love
for the poor, especially a great zeal to procure purity for them, a virtue
so difficult to preserve in an age as corrupt as ours.
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Saint Nicholas (4th
century), Bishop of Myra, Asia Minor, is known largely from legends and
popular devotion as the patron of sailors in the East, and of children in
the West. When the Saracens took possession of Myra, his relics were
brought to Bari in Italy, and he is often called Saint Nicholas of Bari.
The stories recounted by De La Salle in the third point of his meditation
are the probable origins of his becoming the patron of children. De La
Salle manifests this devotion in the Conduite des Ecoles by making
the feast of Saint Nicholas a special holiday for the students; in the Pratique
du Réglement journallier, he specifies that a Mass is to be offered
in the saint's honor (CL 24: 197; CL 25: 114; see also Letters,
49:10). The notion of Santa Claus was brought to America, and from there
to England, by the Dutch Protestants. The story in De La Salle's first
point, of Saint Nicholas as a baby, is taken from the Second Nocturn of
the former office in the Breviary.
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