From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   How Surrender of Self Brings Freedom of Heart  [I]   
      
   CHRIST.   
    My son, renounce self and you shall find me. (Matt. 16:24) Retain no   
   private choice or personal interest and you will always be the gainer.   
   As soon as you yield yourself unreservedly into My hands, I will grant   
   you even richer graces.   
      
   THE DISCIPLE.   
    How often shall I yield myself and in what way forsake myself, Lord?   
      
   CHRIST.   
   Always and at all times, in small things as well as in great. I make   
   no exceptions, for I desire to have you wholly divested of self:   
   otherwise, unless you are wholly stripped of self-will, how can you be   
   Mine, or I yours? The sooner you do this the better it will be with   
   you and the more completely and sincerely you do it, the better you   
   will please Me and the greater will be your gain.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 37   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   February 19th - St. Lucy Yi Zhenmei and Comp., Martyrs   
   1815 - 1862   
      
   Lucy Yi Zhenmei, a native of Mainyang in Sichuan, was born a Catholic   
   on December 9, 1815, and was the youngest member in her family. Even   
   as a child she was very pious, making a vow of chastity at the age of   
   12. She loved to read classics and at the age of 20, she fell gravely   
   ill, but quickly recovered with a remedy her brother prescribed.   
   Continuing her studies, she became more spiritually devout, spending   
   hours in daily prayer, much like a religious. Her mother taught her   
   how to spin, which also became part of her daily life. After her   
   father died, she lived with her brother and mother, using part of her   
   leisure time to teach the faith to children nearby. The parish priest,   
   who asked her to teach at the school in Mianyang, noticed her devotion   
   and reliable knowledge of her faith. After four years, her brother   
   went to Chongqing to practice medicine, and Lucy and her mother moved   
   with him. In Chongquing, the priest also asked her to help teach the   
   women in the parish. When she was offered money for her work, she   
   refused to take it and offered her work to God.   
      
   A few years later, her brother moved back to Guiyang, and soon after   
   her mother died. Full of enthusiasm for spreading the Gospel, she went   
   on doing missionary work. However, for her own safety she decided to   
   stay at the convent of lay virgins. Shortly after, her failing health   
   forced her to move back home again. In 1861, Bishop Hu asked her to   
   teach once more at the convent. In spite of opposition from relatives,   
   she returned to work there.   
      
   In 1862, she went with Fr. Wen Nair to open a mission in Jiashanlong,   
   but just then the administrator of Guizhou Province, Tian Xingshu,   
   began to stir up hatred against Christians, which the local magistrate   
   supported. As a result, Zhang Tienshen, Wu Shuesheng, Chen Xianheng   
   and Father Wen were all imprisoned and sentenced to death without a   
   formal trial. On February 18, the day of their execution, they met Yi   
   Zhenmei on the road. She was also jailed and put on trial that very   
   day and sentenced to death as she refused to renounce her faith. The   
   following day at noon, February 19, 1862, she was beheaded. Brave   
   believers took the bodies of all five martyrs to the Liuchonnguan   
   seminary grounds for burial.   
      
   Pope Pius X proclaimed all five of them "Blessed" on May 2nd, 1909 and   
   Pope John Paul II canonized them on October 1st, 2000.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Humility is the mother of many virtues.  From it spring obedience,   
   holy fear, reverence, patience, modesty, mildness, and peace; for,   
   whoever is humble easily obeys all, fears to offend any, maintains   
   peace with all, shows himself affable to all, is submissive to all,   
   does not offend or displease any, and does not feel the insults which   
   may ensue.   
   --St. Thomas of Villanova   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "Therefore remain in him now, children, so that when he appears we may   
   be fearless and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.  If you   
   know that he is upright you must recognize that everyone whose life is   
   upright is a child of his." [1 John 2:28-29]   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The Handmaid of the Lord   
      
   Lowliest of women, and most glorified:   
   In thy still beauty, sitting calm and lone:   
   A brightness round thee grew; and by thy side,   
   Kindling the air, a form ethereal shone,   
   Solemn, yet breathing gladness.   
   From her throne a queen had risen with more imperial eye;   
   A stately prophetess of victory   
   From her proud lyre had struck a tempest's tone.   
   For such high tidings as to thee were brought,   
   Chosen of Heaven, that hour: but thou, O thou,   
   E'en as a flower with gracious rains o'er fraught,   
   Thy Virgin head beneath its crown didst bow,   
   And take to thy meek breast the All-holy Word,   
   And own thyself the handmaid of the Lord.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)