From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Obedience after the Example of Christ (I)   
      
   CHRIST:   
    My son, whoever strives to withdraw from obedience, withdraws from   
   grace. And he, who seeks personal privileges, loses those that are   
   common to all. When a man is unwilling to submit freely and willingly   
   to his superior, it is a sign that his lower nature is not yet under   
   his control, but frequently rebels and complains. Therefore learn to   
   obey your superior promptly if you wish to subdue your lower nature,   
   for the Enemy without is sooner overcome if our inner fortress remains   
   intact. There is no enemy more wicked or troublesome to the soul than   
   yourself, when you are not in harmony with the Spirit, and you must   
   have a very real scorn for self, if you are to prevail against flesh   
   and Blood.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 3, Ch. 13   
      
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   July 23rd - St. Bridget of Sweden   
      
   St. Bridget (1303-1373) was a noble of royal blood from Sweden. In   
   obedience to her father, she married Prince Ulfo of Nercia in 1316.   
   She was the mother of eight children, including St. Catherine of   
   Sweden. After Ulfo’s death in 1344, she dedicated her life to   
   religion. In 1345 she founded the Order of the Most Holy Savior (the   
   Bridgettines) at Vadstena.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   I remember only one episode from the life of St. Bridget. Therefore,   
   since we don’t have a biographical selection properly speaking, I will   
   comment on it.   
      
   She was a person with a very bad temperament with a propensity to   
   irritation and explosions. She married a bad-tempered man who was also   
   difficult to deal with. In her relations with her husband, she had to   
   learn to dominate herself. After a great deal of effort, she reached   
   that point. Then she made pilgrimages, sanctified herself, had   
   meetings with Popes to report the visions she had received from Our   
   Lord and Our Lady. She also became a nun and founded a religious   
   congregation.   
      
   Because St. Bridget had learned to control her impulsive temperament,   
   she thought she had entirely dominated it. But toward the end of her   
   life, that strong passion in her temperament returned completely, just   
   as it was when she was very young. This was a great trial for her,   
   because she thought that the great fight she had made throughout her   
   life had been lost for some infidelity to God, and that she would have   
   to restart from the beginning again.   
      
   So with this sense that everything before had been in vain, she   
   restarted the fight, tamed her temperament once again, and died at   
   peace with God.   
      
   Her biographers tell us that this trial was not a punishment for any   
   spiritual failing, but rather a design of Divine Providence to make   
   her even more perfect. So, God let her think that the great spiritual   
   progress she had achieved was futile in order to test her love for   
   Him, to see if she would become impatient and revolt or humbly   
   recommence her efforts from the very beginning in obedience to His   
   will.   
      
   This trial was an invitation for her, without her knowledge, to reach   
   the apex of her spiritual life. We should realize this and be prepared   
   should something similar happen in our lives.   
      
   Divine Providence very often asks us -– either in our spiritual lives   
   or in our works of apostolate -– to face analogous situations that   
   seem to make no sense to us. We have to walk toward walls without   
   doors; we have to dive into oceans without bottoms. But when we walk   
   with the spirit of true obedience to the will of God, at the last   
   moment the doors appear and we can touch the bottom of the ocean with   
   our feet, so that we can continue with the work we are called to do.   
      
   Our Lady does this with souls that she is preparing for the highest   
   ends. She asks the person to walk through what makes no sense as a   
   proof of love for her. How is this a demonstration of love? It is   
   blind faith in what Divine Providence has asked from one. After   
   passing through that trial, Our Lady and Our Lord give great graces to   
   that person.   
      
   Sara, the wife of Abraham, was unable to have children.   
   Notwithstanding, Abraham trusted God’s promise that a great people   
   would come from him. Finally, in their old age a son was born - Isaac,   
   the son of the promise. Then, God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. It   
   made no sense. But Abraham prepared to carry out the will of God. You   
   know the rest. God did not want the immolation of Isaac; what He   
   wanted was to test Abraham’s love for Him. In the Old and New   
   Covenants we find many other men of God who faced similar spiritual   
   trials, even though they were men specially chosen by God.   
      
   Since our vocation is a great vocation to fight against the   
   Revolution, especially the Revolution inside the Church, we should be   
   prepared to face great tribulations in this specific point. All the   
   efforts we made throughout our lives may at one point seem useless and   
   futile. Our Lord and Our Lady -- who called us to carry out this   
   vocation -- will be preparing us for greater things. We should not be   
   surprised if this will happen.   
      
   Let us ask St. Bridget, who suffered this trial at the end of her   
   life, to prepare us to accept such tests without revolt, protest or   
   complaint. And may Our Lady find us worthy to receive similar   
   tribulations.   
      
   http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j187sd_BridgetSweden_7-23.shtml   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   This world and the world to come are two enemies. We cannot therefore   
   be friends to both; but we must decide which we will forsake and which   
   we will enjoy.   
   --Pope St. Clement I   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many   
   things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and   
   scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again."  [Mark 8:31   
   ] DRB   
      
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   Prayer for St. Padre Pio:   
      
   O Jesus, full of grace and charity, victim for sinners, so impelled by love   
   for us that Thou didst will to die on the cross, I humbly beseech Thee to   
   glorify in heaven and on earth the servant of God, St. Padre Pio di   
   Pietrelcina, who generously participated in Thy sufferings, who loved Thee   
   so much, and laboured so faithfully for the glory of Thy heavenly Father   
   and for the good of souls.   
      
   With confidence I beseech Thee to grant me, through his intercession, the   
   grace of ...... which I ardently desire.   
      
   Glory be... (Thrice)    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)