From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Avoiding Distractions   
      
   CHRIST   
    My son, you must needs be ignorant of many things: so consider   
   yourself as dead and crucified to the whole world. (Col.3:3; Gal.6:14)   
   THE DISCIPLE. Lord, to what a pass have we come? We grieve over a   
   worldly loss; we labor and hustle to gain some small profit,   
   forgetting the harm to our souls and seldom recalling it. We attend to   
   matters of little or no value and neglect those of the greatest   
   importance. For when a man devotes all his energies to material   
   affairs, he rapidly becomes immersed in them, unless he quickly   
   recovers his senses.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3 Ch 44   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   26 May – Saint Mariana de Jesus de Paredes OFS   
      
    “The Lily of Quito,”Third Order Franciscan, Hermit, Penitent, Mystic,   
   Ecstatic, miracle-worker and she was endowed with the charism of   
   prophecy – born as María Ana de Jesús de Paredes y Flores on 31   
   October 1618 at Quito, Ecuador and died on 26 May 1645 at Quito,   
   Ecuador, aged 26. St Mariana is first Canonised Saint of Ecuador and   
   she has been declared a National Heroine. Patronages – Ecuador,   
   Americas, bodily ills, loss of parents, people rejected by religious   
   orders, sick people, sickness. Her Incorrupt body is enshrined in the   
   Cathedral of La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús.   
      
   Mariana de Jesus de Paredes was born in the city of Quito, in the New   
   Kingdom of Granada (modern-day Ecuador).  She was born of aristocratic   
   parents on both sides of her family, her father was Don Girolamo   
   Flores Zenel de Paredes, a nobleman of Toledo, Spain and her mother   
   was Doña Mariana Cranobles de Xaramilo, a descendant of one of the   
   best Spanish families. Mariana was the youngest of eight children and   
   it is claimed her birth was accompanied by most unusual phenomena in   
   the heavens, clearly connected with the child and juridically attested   
   at the time of the process of her Beatification.   
      
   She was orphaned at a very young age and, thereafter, she was raised   
   by her older sister, Jerónima de Paredes and the latter’s husband,   
   Cosme de Caso.  Mariana was drawn to a spiritual life, her sister and   
   brother-in-law allowed her to live in seclusion in their house, living   
   “the life of an uncloistered beata,” similar to Rose of Lima to whom   
   she is often compared. She was refused entry into a convent, despite   
   supplication by her brother-in-law and surrogate father, Cosme de   
   Caso. She subjected herself to bodily mortification, with the aid of   
   her Indian servant. She did not live in total seclusion but rather   
   focused her spiritual life on the nearby Jesuit church, where she   
   participated in a number of apostolates.   
      
   Her spiritual life was closely connected to the Jesuits and her   
   religious name “de Jesús” was no doubt intentional. Following her   
   death in 1645, her funeral and burial were in the Jesuit church. The   
   funeral sermon that the priest Fr Alonso de Rojas preached emphasised   
   her bodily mortification and renunciation of the flesh and put her   
   forward as a model for females in Quito to emulate. “Learn girls of   
   Quito, from your fellow countrywoman, [to prefer] holiness over   
   beauty, virtues over ostentation.” The sermon became a key document   
   in the long process to establish her saintliness, Beatification (1853)   
   and final Canonisation (1950).   
      
   The Franciscans claimed de Paredes as a holy person. She did wear the   
   Franciscan scapular and sash but her 17th-century Jesuit hagiographer,   
   Jacinto Morán de Butrón, confirmed that the Jesuits nurtured her   
   spiritual life. Soon after Mariana’s 1645 death, the Franciscan   
   province of Peru, based in Lima, included a biography of Mariana in   
   the history of the province citing the Jesuit funeral sermon as a   
   source. She received the habit of the Third Order from the Franciscans   
   in her native town of Quito. According to her Jesuit hagiographer,   
   Mariana did not go to the Franciscan church to receive the garments   
   but sent someone else.   
      
   It is reported that the fast which she kept was so strict that she   
   took scarcely an ounce of dry bread every eight or ten days. The food   
   which miraculously sustained her life, as in the case of Catherine of   
   Siena and Rose of Lima, was, according to the sworn testimony of many   
   witnesses, the Eucharist alone, which she received every morning in   
   Holy Communion.   
      
   Mariana possessed an ecstatic gift of prayer and is said to have been   
   able to predict the future, see distant events as if they were passing   
   before her, read the secrets of hearts, cure diseases by a mere sign   
   of the Cross or by sprinkling the sufferer with holy water and at   
   least once restored a dead person to life. During the 1645 earthquakes   
   and subsequent epidemics in Quito, she publicly offered herself as a   
   victim for the city and died shortly thereafter.   
      
   It is also reported that, on the day she died, her sanctity was   
   revealed in a wonderful manner – immediately after her death, a pure   
   white lily sprang up from her blood, blossomed and bloomed, a miracle   
   which has given her the title of “The Lily of Quito.” The Republic of   
   Ecuador has declared her a national heroine.   
      
   St Mariana was Beatified on 10 November 1853, Rome by Pope Pius IX and   
   was Canonised on 9 July 1950 Rome, by Pope Pius XII.   
      
   St Mariana’s incorrupt body is exposed and venerated at her shrine at   
   the Cathedral of La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, known   
   colloquially as La Compañía, is a Jesuit Cathedral in Quito, Ecuador.   
      
   https://anastpaul.com/2020/05/26/   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The devil does not bring sinners to hell with their eyes open: he   
   first blinds them with the malice of their own sins. Before we fall   
   into sin, the enemy labours to blind us, that we may not see the evil   
   we do and the ruin we bring upon ourselves by offending God. After we   
   commit sin, he seeks to make us dumb, that, through shame, we may   
   conceal our guilt in confession.   
   --St. Alphonsus Liguori   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "Let us keep firm in the hope we profess, because the one who made the   
   promise is trustworthy.  Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a   
   response in love and good works." [Hebrews 10:23-24]   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A Prayer for Zeal   
   by St. Augustine   
      
   O Lord, our God, we believe in Thee, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. As   
   far as I have been able, as much as Thou hast given me the power to do   
   so, I have sought for Thee. I have desired to see that in which I   
   believe; much have I striven and labored.   
      
   Lord, my God, my only hope, let me never tire of seeking Thee, but   
   make me seek Thy face with constant ardor. Give me the strength to   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)