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132.1
First Point
Saint Norbert was brought up from his youth at the emperor's court.
However, he was specially favored by grace and felt himself touched by an
extraordinary movement of the spirit of God. Leaving the court, he
withdrew entirely from the world in order to enter the ecclesiastical
state. There he devoted himself to preaching, even more by his example
than by his words. Because of this his preaching was very effective and
won many persons to God.
Since you are obliged by your state to instruct children, you must
be powerfully motivated by the Christian spirit in order to procure this
spirit for them. Your conduct must be very edifying so that you are able
to be a model for those whom you are charged to teach. They should be able
to learn from your recllection the self-control they themselves should
practice. They should see in your wisdom how they should behave. Your
piety should be a guide for them to follow in church and during prayers.
132.2
Second Point
The Spirit of God which inspired this saint led him to give up the
income he was receiving from his ecclesiastical position, to sell his
inheritance, and give the proceeds to the poor. He also led an extremely
austere life.. With a few companions whom he had chosen, he went about
preaching from town to town and from village to village, as the 72
disciples of Jesus Christ had done.[i]
They all, like him, lived lives of great austerity and bodily
mortification; they went about barefoot, ate but once a day, and observed
perpetual abstinence. The sum of their exercises were to obey, to devote
themselves to prayer, to mortify themselves, and to preach the holy
Gospel. Thus it was that Saint Norbert formed his order and that it had a
great number of religious who did very great good in the Church.
You have a purpose that strongly resembles what this saint had in
mind in founding his order, which was to teach the truths of the Gospel to
the poor. So, make use of the same means he used to succeed in this task,
namely, prayer and mortification.
132.3
Third Point
The
extraordinary fasting and the eminent virtues of Saint Norbert led to his
being chosen Bishop in spite of his reluctance. In this position he could
not tolerate vice, and he denounced it boldly in all those who were
scandalously abandoning themselves to its practice. On this account some
persons were offended and looked for a chance to kill him.
How true it is that the impious and the dissolute cannot tolerate
anyone who opposes their disorderly lives.
Saint Norbert escaped this danger, then fought a heretic who denied
the reality of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, and
destroyed his error. Is not this the function of a Bishop, to oppose vice
and to maintain the faith in its vigor and strength?
This is also what you cannot dispense yourself from doing, if you
wish to fulfill well your ministry, to prevent your students from
abandoning themselves to vice and to dissolute conduct, and impress firmly
and solidly on their minds the truths of our faith, which are the
foundations of our religion.
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