From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Obedience and Discipline:  (II)   
      
   Everyone gladly does whatever he most likes, and likes best those who   
   think as he does; but if God is to dwell among us we must sometimes   
   yield our own opinion for the sake of peace. Who is so wise that he   
   knows all things? So do not place too much reliance on the rightness   
   of your own view but be ready to consider the views of others. If your   
   opinion is sound, and you forego it for the love of God and follow   
   that of another, you will win great merit. I have often heard that is   
   safer to accept advice than to give it. It may even come about that   
   each of two opinions is good; but to refuse to come to an agreement   
   with others when reason or occasion demand it is a sign of pride and   
   obstinacy.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 9   
      
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   May 5th - St. Jutta, Widow   
   d. 1260   
      
   AMONGST the numerous women who were inspired by the example of St.   
   Elizabeth of Hungary, one of the most remarkable was St. Jutta, or   
   Judith, patroness of Prussia.   
      
   Like her great exemplar she was a native of Thuringia, having been   
   born at Sangerhausen, to the south-west of Eisleben. Married at the   
   age of fifteen to a man of noble rank, she proved an admirable wife,   
   besides being a great benefactress to the poor.   
      
   Once, in a vision, our Lord had said to her, “Follow me”; and she   
   strove not only to obey Him herself, but to lead her household to do   
   the same. In the early days of her married life, her husband had   
   remonstrated with her for the simplicity of her dress, but she   
   gradually won him over to her own point of view. He was actually on a   
   pilgrimage to the Holy Land when he died--to the great grief of his   
   widow, who was left to bring up her children alone.   
      
   As they grew up, one after another entered religious orders, and Jutta   
   was left free to follow the call which she had long cherished in her   
   heart. She gave everything she possessed to the poor, and then, clad   
   in a miserable dress, she begged bread for herself and the poor from   
   those who had been her dependents. Though some scoffed, others treated   
   her with reverence, knowing what she had given up, and she resolved to   
   go forth among strangers in order that she might be despised by all.   
   As she wandered on, walking barefoot in summer and winter, she   
   relieved on the road many tramps by dressing their wounds and feeding   
   them with food supplied to her in charity. At last she made her way   
   into Prussia, the land of the Teutonic Knights, whose grand-master,   
   Hanno of Sangerhausen, was a relation of her own. There she settled as   
   a solitary in a ruinous building on the shore of a sheet of water   
   called the Bielcza, half a mile or so from Kulmsee.   
      
   St. Jutta received wonderful graces, for besides being favoured with   
   many visions and revelations, she was given an infused understanding   
   of the Holy Scriptures. She once said that three things could bring   
   one very near to God--painful illness, exile from home in a remote   
   corner of a foreign land, and poverty voluntarily assumed for God’s   
   sake. The inhabitants of the neighbouring villages who passed her   
   dwelling declared that they had often seen her raised from the ground,   
   as if upheld by angels. On Sundays she attended the church at Kulmsee,   
   and she had as her directors at first a Franciscan, John Lobedau, and   
   afterwards a Dominican, Henry Heidenreich. For four years she remained   
   in her solitude, praying fervently for the conversion of the heathen   
   and the perseverance of the newly baptized. Then she was seized by a   
   fever which proved fatal. Many miracles were recorded as having taken   
   place at her grave, and she has been associated in the veneration of   
   the Prussian Catholics with Bl. John Lobedau and with another female   
   recluse, Bl. Dorothy of Marienwerder.   
      
   The very full account of this recluse printed in the Acta Sanctorum is   
   a translation of a Polish life by Father Szembek. This claims to have   
   been based upon a mass of materials collected for the process of   
   canonization, but the originals unfortunately could not be traced by   
   the Bollandists at the date at which they wrote. See also the   
   Mittheilungen des Vereins f. Gesch., etc., v. Sangerhausen, vol. i   
   (1881), pp. 82 seq.; P. Funk, in Festschrift für W. Goetz (1927), pp.   
   81-44; and a sketch by H. Westpfahl, Jutta von Sangerhausen (1938).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Our Savior says, if you have not received the graces that you desire,   
   do not complain to me, but blame yourself, because you have neglected   
   to seek them from me.   
   -- St. Alphonsus Liguori   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   The just shall stand with great constancy against those that have   
   afflicted them, and taken away their labors. These seeing it, shall be   
   troubled with terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the suddenness of   
   their unexpected salvation, saying within themselves, repenting, and   
   groaning for anguish of spirit. These are they whom we had some time   
   in derision, and for a parable of reproach. We fools esteemed their   
   life madness, and their end without honor. Behold how they are   
   numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints   
    (Wisdom 5:1-5)   
      
   <><><><>   
   Hymn:   
   Aeterna Christi munera   
      
   The eternal gifts of Christ the King,   
   The Apostles' glory, let us sing;   
   And all with hearts of gladness raise   
   Due hymns of thankful love and praise.   
      
   For they the Church's princes are,   
   Triumphant leaders in the war,   
   The heavenly King's own warrior band,   
   True lights to lighten every land.   
      
   Theirs was the steadfast faith of Saints,   
   The hope that never yields nor faints,   
   The love of Christ in perfect flow,   
   That lay the prince of this world low.   
      
   In them the Father's glory shone,   
   In them the Spirit's will was done,   
   The Son Himself exults in them;   
   Joy fills the new Jerusalem.   
      
   Praise to the Father, with the Son,   
   And Holy spirit, Three in One;   
   As ever was in ages past,   
   And so shall be while ages last.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)