From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Christ destroyed death to bring us life   
      
   "God's compassion for us is all the more wonderful because Christ   
   died, not for the righteous or the holy but for the wicked and the   
   sinful, and, though the divine nature could not be touched by the   
   sting of death, he took to himself, through his birth as one of us,   
   something he could offer on our behalf. The power of his death once   
   confronted our death. In the words of Hosea the prophet: Death, I   
   shall be your death; grave, I shall swallow you up. By dying he   
   submitted to the laws of the underworld; by rising again he destroyed   
   them. He did away with the everlasting character of death so as to   
   make death a thing of time, not of eternity. As all die in Adam, so   
   all will be brought to life in Christ."   
   --from a sermon by Leo the Great, 400-461 A.D.   
      
      
   ===========   
   March 28th - Bl. Joan de Maille   
   (1332-1414)   
      
   Joan Mary de Maille (or Maillac) was the daughter of a nobleman of the   
   province of Touraine, France. From very early childhood Joan showed   
   unusual piety. She is said to have saved from drowning, by her   
   prayers, a neighborhood boy, Robert de Sille, who fell into a pond   
   while they and other children were at play.   
      
   After his rescue, young Robert became very attached to Joan. When they   
   were old enough to marry, Joan’s grandfather arranged a match between   
   them. Joan Marie really wanted to enter a convent, but obedience to   
   parents in such matters was required in those days.   
      
   Fortunately, Robert was as devout as his wife, and they agreed to live   
   together after the wedding as brother and sister. Now he succeeded as   
   baron, and he and his wife saw to it that in their castle Christian   
   ideals were upheld. They adopted three orphans; they attended to the   
   needs of the local poor; and they forbade gambling and improper   
   language among their householders.   
      
   These were the days in which the English were trying to win control of   
   France. Baron Robert naturally took the side of the French king, but   
   he was wounded at the battle of Poitiers and left for dead. Later, the   
   British troops captured his castle and took him prisoner. They   
   demanded the huge sum of 3,000 florins as ransom. Baroness Joan sold   
   her jewels and horses to pay it, but she still had to borrow to make   
   up the full amount demanded. Eventually, it is said, Our Lady herself   
   released the baron, appearing to him in a dream and breaking his   
   bonds.   
      
   The devout couple simply redoubled their charities once they were   
   reunited, focusing especially on the ransoming of other prisoners.   
      
   Unfortunately, Robert died in 1362. His widow now had not only her   
   personal grief to bear, but also the unkindness of her husband’s   
   family. Blaming her for having induced him to give too much to   
   charity, they deprived her of her widow’s inheritance and drove her   
   out of her home. She first turned for shelter to an old servant; but   
   the servant, knowing that her former mistress was now impoverished,   
   treated her harshly. Later she went to live with her mother. The   
   mother, however, tried to get her to remarry, for Joan was still young   
   and attractive.   
      
   The widow finally escaped this annoyance by moving to the city of   
   Tours and settling in a little house near the shrine of St. Martin.   
   Here she engaged in prayer, attendance at church services, and the   
   care of the poor and ailing.   
      
   Even now her trials were many. Once while she was praying in church a   
   madwoman threw a stone at her, which injured her back severely.   
   Although the injury was declared incurable and the scar never left   
   her, she was healed by a miracle, and eventually able to resume her   
   devotional life.   
      
   Joan now became a Franciscan tertiary, and thereafter wore the habit   
   of the Franciscan order. After a serious illness, in the spirit of   
   Franciscan poverty, she decided to give all the property that had been   
   returned to her or might become hers to the Carthusian monks of Liget.   
   Her relatives were furious at her action and when she returned to   
   Tours without a cent, nobody would give her shelter. She had to beg   
   food from door to door, and to sleep in abandoned buildings. She was   
   finally admitted among the servants in the local hospital, but even   
   then her holiness made them jealous, and they plagued her until she   
   was thrown out.   
      
   Eventually Joan Mary found a refuge, and recommenced her good works.   
   While some still considered her insane, or a witch, the wiser folk of   
   Tours recognized her sanctity. Miracles of healing were attributed to   
   her. Prophetic insight was also hers, often to her own embarrassment.   
   Some revelations of future events were so important that she felt   
   duty-bound to communicate them to the king of France.   
      
   In her later years particularly, Joan increased her attention to those   
   in prison, whether as captive of war or even jailed. On one occasion   
   she succeeded in persuading the king to free all the prisoners in   
   Tours. Her solicitude for the imprisoned doubtless sprang from the   
   remembrance of the bitter captivity, years before, of her own dear   
   husband. But concern for the jailed was also, of course, one of the   
   corporal works of mercy listed by Jesus as meritorious of heaven: “I   
   was ill and you comforted me, in prison and you came to visit me.”   
   (Matt. 25:36). Marginalized herself, she became patron of the   
   marginalized.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   We must say many prayers for the souls of the faithful departed, for   
   one must be so pure to enter heaven.   
   --Saint John Vianney   
      
   Reflection:   
    Yes, we have the span of our lifetimes to accept or reject Jesus as   
   our Savior. When our "time" is past if we have not accepted His gift   
   of salvation, there will be only judgment!   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Mary receives both a crown of joy and a cross of sorrow   
      
   Simeon blessed Mary and Joseph and he prophesied to Mary about the   
   destiny of this child and the suffering she would undergo for his   
   sake. There is a certain paradox for those blessed by the Lord.  Mary   
   was given the blessedness of being the mother of the Son of God. That   
   blessedness also would become a sword which pierced her heart as her   
   Son died upon the cross. She received both a crown of joy and a cross   
   of sorrow. But her joy was not diminished by her sorrow because it was   
   fueled by her faith, hope, and trust in God and his promises. Jesus   
   promised his disciples that "no one will take your joy from you" (John   
   16:22). The Lord gives us a supernatural joy which enables us to bear   
   any sorrow or pain and which neither life nor death can take way.  Do   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)