From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Of the Different Motions of Nature and Grace  [VIII]   
      
   Nature is quick to complain of want and hardship; but Grace bears   
   poverty with courage. Nature, struggling and striving on her own   
   behalf, turns everything to her own interest: but Grace refers all   
   things to God, from whom they come. She attributes no good to herself;   
   she is not arrogant and presumptuous. She does not argue and exalt her   
   own opinions before others, but submits all her powers of mind and   
   perception to the eternal wisdom and judgement of God. Nature is   
   curious to know secrets and to hear news; she loves to be seen in   
   public, and to enjoy sensations. She desires recognition, and to do   
   such things as win praise and admiration. But Grace does not care for   
   news or novelties, because all these things spring from the age-old   
   corruption of man, for there is nothing new or lasting in this world.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 54   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   March 20th - Blessed Maurice Csaky, OP (PC)   
   (Also known as Blessed Maurice of Hungary)   
      
   Died 1336. Maurice, Prince of Hungary, was persecuted by his   
   father-in-law for his desire to remain in the Dominican Order. He was   
   born into the royal house of Hungary. There had been many heavenly   
   signs before his birth that he was to be an unusual favorite of God,   
   but for the first few years of his life he was so sickly that no one   
   believed he would survive. By the time he was five, he was a delicate,   
   dreamy child who played at saying Mass and leading family prayers. The   
   little chapel in his father's castle was his favorite haunt, and he   
   was always to be found there between sessions in the schoolroom.   
   When he was still quite small, an old Dominican came one day to visit   
   his parents, and took a great fancy to the handsome little boy. He   
   told the child the story of Saint Alexis, which greatly impressed him.   
   When Maurice knelt to ask the old priest's blessing, the Dominican   
   said prophetically, "This child will one day enter our holy Order and   
   will be one of its joys."   
      
   In spite of the several indications that God had designs on Maurice,   
   circumstances conspired against him. His parents died when he was   
   still quite young, leaving him immensely wealthy and solely in charge   
   of his father's estates. A brother, who had entered the Dominican   
   novitiate, died very young. Relatives prevailed upon Maurice to marry.   
   Against all his wishes, he did so.   
      
   However, he and his young wife, the daughter of the Count of Palatine,   
   made a vow of continence, and both resolved to became Dominicans as   
   soon as it was possible to dispose of the estates. When his wife fled   
   to the Isle of Margaret in the Danube, and took the veil in Saint   
   Margaret's convent, her father was furious. He went in search of the   
   young husband and found that he, too, had gone to the Dominicans. He   
   settled the matter in the forthright fashion of the times by   
   kidnapping Maurice and locking him in a tower. Here, like another   
   Thomas Aquinas, the young novice settled down to wait until someone   
   tired of the arrangement.   
      
   After 3 months of unfruitful punishment, Maurice was released as   
   incorrigible, and his relatives devoted their attention to getting   
   hold of his estates instead. He went happily off to Bologna to   
   complete his studies, where he remained for 3 years.   
      
   For 32 years, Maurice ignored the throne and the luxuries of the world   
   to live in obscurity and poverty. The picture of him left us by the   
   chroniclers is an engaging one: an earnest, pious priest who made no   
   effort to capitalize on his birth or social graces; a zealous addict   
   of poverty, who managed, by a series of sagacious trades, to have the   
   oldest habit in the house and the dreariest cell. He is said to have   
   said the whole Psalter daily, plus the Penitential Psalms, and the   
   Litany of the Saints.   
      
   A number of curious stories are told about him. Once, when he was   
   staying with a Benedictine friend, the friend noticed that he went in   
   and out of locked doors with no trouble at all, and that the rooms   
   lighted up by themselves when he entered. Maurice is supposed to have   
   had the gift of prophecy. A relative of his had cheated the sisters   
   out of some property that Maurice had left them. Maurice told him that   
   the goods would be taken away from him, and that another man, more   
   generous, would give it back to the sisters. The man died shortly   
   thereafter, and the prophecy was fulfilled.   
      
   After Maurice's death at least two miracles of healing were reported   
   at his grave: one was a cure from fever, another from blindness.   
   Butler's Lives of the Saints lists him as "Blessed Maurice" and he is   
   still venerated in Hungary, although his cultus has never been   
   formally approved (Attwater2, Benedictines, Dorcy).   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
      "If you make a vow to God, discharge it without delay, for God has   
   no love for fools, Discharge your vow.  Better a vow unmade than made   
   and not discharged.  Do not allow your mouth to make a sinner of you,   
   and do not say to the messenger that it was a mistake.  Why give God   
   occasion to be angry with you and ruin all the work that you have   
   done?" Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth) 5:3-5   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Even the death on the Cross was sublime: for it was the culminating   
   and necessary point in that scheme of Love in which death was to be   
   followed by blessed resurrection for the whole "lump" of humanity: and   
   the Cross itself has a mystic meaning.   
   --Saint Gregory of Nyssa   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   It is in the soul that the battle rages   
      
      The field of battle between God and Satan is the human soul. It is   
   in the soul that the battle rages every moment of life. The soul must   
   give free access to the Lord so that it may be fortified by Him in   
   every respect and with all kinds of weapons; that His light may   
   enlighten it to combat the darkness of error; that it may be clothed   
   with Jesus Christ. To be clothed with Jesus Christ it is necessary to   
   die to oneself. That which comes from Satan begins with calmness and   
   ends in storm, indifference, and apathy. In the spiritual life he who   
   does not advance goes backward.   
      It happens as with a boat which always must go ahead. If it stands   
   still the wind blows it back. Fix the time, the length of your   
   meditation, and do not rise from your place until you have finished   
   even at the cost of being crucified.   
   -- Saint Pio of Pietrelcina   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)