From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Imitating Christ and Despising All Vanities on Earth  {3}   
      
   What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking   
    humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that   
    makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to   
    God. I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it. For   
    what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the   
    principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the   
    love of God? Vanity of vanities and all is vanity, except to love God   
    and serve Him alone.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 1 Ch. 1   
      
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   July 26th - St. Bartholomea Capitanio   
      
   Born in Lovere (near Brescia), Lombardy, Italy, 1807; died July 26,   
   1833; canonized in 1950; feast day was July 27. Bartholomea Capitanio,   
   together with Saint Vincentia Gerosa, founded the Institute of the   
   Sisters of Charity (Suore della carità) of Lovere, their native town.   
   Bartholomea was the daughter of a rough corn-farmer, who was an   
   alcoholic, and a virtuous mother who, together with the sisters of her   
   convent school, taught the young girl to strive for Christian   
   perfection.   
      
   Her parents forbade her to become a nun, so she took a vow of   
   perpetual chastity and decided to devote herself to teaching. For that   
   reason, she earned a diploma to teach elementary school. In this way   
   she consecrated her life to the apostolate of the young, and organized   
   a sodality of Saint Aloysius (Lovere is near his birthplace), which   
   spread to other districts.   
      
   Despite her extreme youth, she was the prime force behind the creation   
   of the Sisters of Charity during her lifetime. She saw the need to   
   perpetuate the good that was being done through the sodality by   
   creating a religious institute. She joined forces with (Catherine)   
   Vincentia Gerosa, who was also moved by the state of ignorance and   
   neglect in which so many people lived.   
      
   Although the two women were very different, they melded their talents   
   well. Vincentia was already 40 when she got to know Bartholomea, and   
   the latter was only 26 when she died. Catherine's main interest was in   
   nursing the sick poor for whom she had already founded a hospital,   
   taking on the heaviest burdens herself; while Bartholomea's interest   
   was education. Nevertheless, it was a partnership of persons of   
   remarkable determination and selflessness.   
      
   Their congregation was designed to teach the young and nurse the sick.   
   Its rule is based on the principles of Saint Vincent de Paul. With the   
   help of their bishop, who encouraged them from the beginning, the   
   institute was approved by the pope in 1840, and their foundation,   
   which has spread widely, now has 500 to 600 communities.   
      
   Bartholomea also achieved fame as a writer on spiritual subjects. She   
   never spared herself, even when dying of consumption. Her endless   
   correspondence and outside activities left her no time for leisure.   
   Four months before her death, she finally obeyed her doctor's order to   
   stop writing letters, but she was already too ill to be saved   
   (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Walsh).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   It is here, my daughters, that love is to be found--not hidden away in   
   corners but in the midst of occasions of sin. And believe me, although   
   we may more often fail and commit small lapses, our gain will be   
   incomparably the greater.   
   --St. Teresa of Avila   
      
   Bible Quote   
   If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of   
   charity, if any society of the spirit, if any bowels of commiseration:   
   2. Fulfil ye my joy, that you may be of one mind, having the same   
   charity, being of one accord, agreeing in sentiment. 3. Let nothing be   
   done through contention, neither by vain glory: but in humility, let   
   each esteem others better than themselves: 4. Each one not considering   
   the things that are his own, but those that are other men's. 5. For   
   let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:   
   (Philippians 2:1-5) DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   An act of love, to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament   
    (with Psalm passages):   
      
   Good Jesus, I love Thee.  I love Thee with my whole heart   
   and above all things.  Thou knowest that I love Thee, but I   
   wish to love Thee daily more and more, and to do what is   
   most pleasing to Thee.   
      
   "My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God...For   
   the sparrow hath found herself a house and the turtle a nest   
   for herself...Thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my   
   God," there Thou dost bid me peace in Thy Body and Blood.   
      
   "What have I in heaven?  And besides Thee what do I desire   
   upon earth? Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that   
   is my portion forever..."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)