OCTOBER 30, 2010
DAILY PRAYER WITH REGNUM CHRISTI
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FRIEND, GO UP HIGHER
October 30, 2010
Saturday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Father James Swanson, LC
Luke 14:1, 7-11
On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading
Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. He told
a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were
choosing the places of honor at the table. "When you are invited by
someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of
honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by
him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
'Give your place to this man,' and then you would proceed with
embarrassment to take the lowest place. Rather, when you are invited,
go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he
may say, 'My friend, move up to a higher position.' Then you will
enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. For everyone who
exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will
be exalted."
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe in you with a faith that
never seeks to test you. I trust in you, hoping to learn to accept
and follow your will, even when it does not make sense to the way
that I see things. May my love for you and those around me be similar
to the love you have shown to me.
Petition: Lord, please help me to replace my selfishness with love.
1. I Want to Hear All about Myself Sooner or later we all
experience the displeasure of having to be around someone who is
always promoting himself. Perhaps we do it ourselves, without
realizing how it disgusts the people around us. I remember working
with one such fellow myself. He was the nicest guy in the world
otherwise, but he consistently and continually talked about himself.
He was his own favorite subject. It was his only noticeable flaw, but
a fatal one. I'm sure he didn't realize it. Probably if you asked
him if he talked about himself more than other people talk about
themselves, he would have answered that he talked about himself about
the same amount as others do. He had plenty of other virtues, and
I'm sure if he had rid himself of his major flaw he would have been
one of the most well-liked people where I worked. But he was always
putting himself in first place, and in our hearts we were always
putting him in one of the last places.
2. Number One in your Heart On the other hand, you sometimes run
into people who don't wave their own flag. They seem to exist to
support and help others. Maybe you don't always notice when they are
around, but you notice the effects. Everyone is happier. There is
less stress. People seem less worried. These people grease the
wheels. If you need a hand, they'll give it to you and you don't
even need to ask. Their support and friendship are givens. You know
you can count on them. They are assets wherever they work because
they know how to make the people around them more effective.
Everybody likes them. They may not have the greatest personality or a
lot of social skills, but nobody cares because the goodness seems to
just ooze out of them. While they seem unassuming and unimportant,
everyone who is around them prizes them highly. Without even
realizing it, they are at the highest places in everyone's hearts.
3. Will I Develop my Ambition or my Love? Which kind of person am
I? Am I a shameless self-promoter, always focused on getting as much
for Number One as possible? This strategy might work well in a
company where people are faceless widgets instead of personalities,
where the bottom line is the bottom line, but it is never very
successful in real life relationships. Perhaps I do what I can to
help others whenever I can, to make others feel good. That is the way
to real fulfillment. After all, Jesus said that those who wanted to
be first must be the last of all and the servant of all. Have I been
foolish enough to think that Jesus was saying that the way to achieve
my ambitions is to serve? No way. Jesus isn't concerned with us
achieving ambitions, he is telling us how to be first in hearts. If
you want to be first in hearts, be a servant of all. If you have the
humility to serve others, you will attain to a high place in others'
hearts. When you take a low place, they will always raise you higher.
Conversation with Christ: Dear Jesus, I am always trying to serve
myself and my ambitions, and you want me to be concerned with serving
others. Help me to be more focused on what really matters - loving -
than on what the world prizes - empty, self-serving actions.
Resolution: Today, I will perform some act of service for another
person, preferably for someone close to me, preferably without their
notice. These are the acts that most deeply express love. Remember,
if you expect something in return, even just thanks, it isn't love,
it's business.
meditation.regnumchristi.org

Rodriguez was a Jesuit lay brother who entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 40. He was the son of a wool merchant who had been reduced to poverty when Alfonso was still young, leaving the business to Alfonso when he was only 23. At the age of 26 he married Mary Suarez, a woman of his own station, and at 31 found himself a widower with one surviving child, the other two having died previously. From that time he began a life of prayer and mortification, and separated from the world around him. On the death of his third child his thoughts turned to a life in some religious order.
Previous associations had brought him into contact with the first Jesuits who had come to Spain, Blessed Peter Faber among others, but it was apparently impossible to carry out his purpose of entering the Society as he was without education, having only had an incomplete year at a new college begun at Alcalá by Francis Villanueva. At the age of 39 he attempted to make up this deficiency by following the course at the College of Barcelona, but without success. His austerities had also undermined his health. After considerable delay he was finally admitted into the Society of Jesus as a lay brother on 31 January 1571.
Distinct novitiates had not as yet been established in Spain, and Alfonso began his term of probation at Valencia or Gandia -- this point is a subject of dispute—and after six months was sent to the recently-founded college at Majorca, where he remained in the humble position of porter for 46 years, exercising a marvelous influence on the sanctification not only of the members of the household, but upon a great number of people who came to the porter's lodge for advice and direction. Among the distinguished Jesuits who came under his influence was St. Peter Clavier, who lived with him for some time at Majorca, and who followed his advice in asking for the missions of South America.
The bodily mortifications which he imposed on himself were extreme, the scruples and mental agitation to which he was subject were of frequent occurrence, his obedience absolute, and his absorption in spiritual things, even when engaged on most distracting employments, continual. It has often been said that he was the author of the well-known "Little Office of the Immaculate Conception", and the claim is made by Alegambe, Southwell, and even by the Fathers de Backer in their Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus. Apart from the fact that the brother did not have the requisite education for such a task, Father Costurer says positively that the office he used was taken from an old copy printed out of Spain, and Father Colin asserts that it existed before the Saint's time. It may be admitted, however, that through him it was popularized.
Works
He left a considerable number of manuscripts after him, some of which have been published as Obras Espirituales del B. Alonso Rodriguez (Barcelona, 1885, 3 vols., octavo, complete edition, 8 vols. in quarto). They are sometimes only reminiscences of domestic exhortations, the texts are often repeated, the illustrations are from everyday life, and the treatment of one virtue occasionally entrenches upon another. They were not written with a view to publication, but put down by the Saint himself, or dictated to others, in obedience to a positive command of his superiors. He was declared venerable in 1626. In 1633, he was chosen by the Council General of Majorca as one of the special patrons of the city and island.
In 1760, Pope Clement XIII decreed that "the virtues of the Venerable Alonso were proved to be of a heroic degree"; but the expulsion of the Society from Spain in 1773, and its suppression, delayed his beatification until 1825. His canonization took place on September 6, 1887. His remains are enshrined at Majorca.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonsus_Rodriguez