From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Resisting Temptations:  (I)   
      
   So long as we live in this world, we cannot remain without trial and   
   temptation: as Job says, `Man's life on earth is a warfare (Job 7:1).   
   We must therefore be on guard against temptations, and watchful in   
   prayer (I Pet. 4:7), that the Devil find no means of deceiving us; for   
   he never rests, but prowls around seeking whom he may devour (I Pet.   
   5:8). No one is so perfect and holy that he is never tempted, and we   
   can never be secure from temptation.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 13   
      
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   July 17th - The French Nuns, Carmelites of Compiegne   
   (1794 A.D.)   
      
   Perhaps the most widely acclaimed of contemporary operas is Francis   
   Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites. Opera buffs, in their love of   
   music, have accepted many a libretto full of marital infidelity and   
   melodrama. Why should they now applaud this story of 16 nuns who died   
   during the French Revolution in defense of religious chastity and   
   obedience? I think it is because like all martyrs, the 16 were willing   
   to die for truth – an act of courage that even the most worldly of us   
   can still find thrilling.   
      
   The subjects of this opera were members of the strict Carmelite   
   monastery at Compiegne, some 70 miles north of Paris: ten professed   
   choir-nuns; one novice; three lay sisters and two “extern sisters”.   
   During the “Reign of Terror” they rejected the political oath required   
   by the French Revolutionary government, because they sensed its   
   anti-Catholic implications. But it really didn’t matter whether they   
   rejected the oath or not. The government, under Maximilien de   
   Robespierre, aimed at deChristianizing France, and nuns were too vivid   
   reminders of Christianity to be tolerated anyhow.   
      
   Arrested and carted off to Paris, they were arraigned before a panel   
   of three judges without being allowed an attorney to speak on their   
   behalf.   
      
   The key charge brought by Judge Fouquier Tinville was that they were   
   religious “fanatics”. Sister Marie Henriette Pelras asked him what he   
   meant by “fanatic”. “I mean by it,” he replied, “your attachment to   
   childish beliefs and your silly religious practices.” The Sister   
   turned to her companions: “You see, we are condemned for clinging to   
   our holy religion. We have the happiness to die for God.”   
      
   The narrative that composer Poulenc used is a partly fictionalized   
   account, but the essence of the drama is historical.   
      
   On July 17, 1794, they were beheaded one by one by the guillotine on   
   the Place de la Nation in Paris. Old and young, they marched to death   
   singing the Miserere, the Salve Regina and the Veni Creator Spiritus.   
   As they died, the singing diminished and finally ceased.   
      
   That day the usually bloodthirsty crowd stood silent in the face of   
   incredible bravery. The 16 were beatified in 1906.   
      
   Another group of 32 nuns were executed during the same month at Orange   
   in southern France. Sixteen Ursulines, 13 Sacramentines, two   
   Bernardines and one Benedictine had been jailed together.   
      
   In jail they kept up a religious schedule as well as possible. Those   
   who remained, prayed each day for the dying and sang the Te Deum as   
   each was called out for execution. Throughout, they continued   
   lighthearted. When Sr. Pelagia Bes was summoned, she shared a box of   
   sweets with the others. “For my wedding”, she explained. Sr.   
   Theoctiste wrote a song welcoming the guillotine. Sr. Martha Cluse, a   
   pretty young woman, was offered release by one of the executioners if   
   she would marry him. She gracefully declined. The sisters amazed even   
   the coarse guards: “These dames die laughing!”   
      
   Spectators at their deaths found themselves in agreement that   
   “religion alone could inspire so much courage and assurance.”   
      
   One of the Carmelites had prayed that her death might be an offering   
   for an end of this bloody Reign of Terror that had sent hundreds to   
   death. Actually, the tide turned that same July, and Robespierre and   
   22 accomplices were repudiated and beheaded by the very instrument of   
   death to which they had condemned so many victims. The tribunal at   
   Orange was discredited. Fortunately, the public prosecutor and two of   
   the judges there were reconciled to the Church before their own   
   executions.   
      
   The prayers and self-sacrifices of the nuns doubtless had a part in   
   ending this mad, cruel episode and in saving the soul of at least some   
   of its perpetrators. For the sisters had died, as Christ their model   
   died, forgiving their enemies.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
    “Let us rejoice, my dear Mother and Sisters, in the joy of the Lord,   
   that we shall die for our holy religion, our faith, our confidence in   
   the Holy Roman Catholic Church.”   
   --Sister Henrietta O.C.D. (one of the 16 Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne)   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Light dawns[a] for the righteous,   
       and joy for the upright in heart.   
   12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,   
       and give thanks to his holy name!  (Psalms 97:11-12)  RSVCE   
      
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   Prayer for Selflessness   
      
   O Dearly beloved Word of God, teach me to be generous, to serve Thee   
   as Thou dost deserve, to give without counting the cost, to fight   
   without fretting at my wounds, to labor without seeking rest, to spend   
   myself without looking for any reward other than that of knowing that   
   I do Thy holy will. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)