From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Emerging faith seeks maturity   
      
      "In saying, 'When the Son of Man shall come, shall he find faith   
   upon the earth?' our Lord spoke of that faith which is fully matured,   
   which is so seldom found on earth. The church's faith is full, for who   
   would come here if there were no fullness of faith? And whose faith   
   when fully matured would not move mountains (Matthew 17:20; 21:22)?   
   Look at the apostles themselves, who would not have left all they had,   
   trodden under foot this world's hope, and followed the Lord, if they   
   had not had proportionally great faith. And yet if they had already   
   experienced a completely matured faith, they would have not said to   
   the Lord, 'Increase our faith' (Luke 17:5). Rather we find here an   
   emerging faith, which is not yet full faith, in that father who when   
   he had presented to the Lord his son to be cured of an evil spirit and   
   was asked whether he believed, answered, 'Lord, I believe, help me in   
   my unbelief' (Mark 9:24). 'Lord,' says he, 'I believe.' 'I believe':   
   therefore there was faith; but 'help me in my unbelief': therefore   
   there was not full faith (Hebrews 10:22)."   
   --St. Augustine--(excerpt from  SERMONS ON NEW TESTAMENT LESSONS 65)   
   <<>><<>><<>>   
      
   August 25th - Bl. María Del Tránsito De Jesús Sacramentado   
      
   1821 - 1885   
   María del Transito Eugenia de los Dolores Cabanillaswas born on the   
   15th August 1821 on the estate of Santa Leocadia, now Carlos Paz   
   (Cordoba, Argentina). Her father, Felipe Cabanillas Toranzo, was a   
   descendent of a family from Valencia (Spain) that had emigrated during   
   the second half of the XVII Century and succeeded in amassing a   
   certain economic fortune in his new environment, but he especially   
   stood out because of his deep Christian faith.   
      
   In 1816, Felipe Cabanillas was united in marriage to the young   
   Francisca Antonia Luján Sánchez, with whom he had eleven children.   
   Three died prematurely, four got married and the others were   
   consecrated to God: one as a secular priest and three as religious   
   women in different Institutes, thus continuing a long and glorious   
   family tradition.   
      
   The Servant of God was the third child bom to the family. Baptised by   
   Fr. Mariano Aguilar on the January 1822 in the chapel of San Roque,   
   she was given the names of Transito, that is, María del Transito or   
   María Assuncíón, and of Eugenia de los Dolores. Because of the   
   distance from the diocesan centre, she received the sacrament of   
   Confirmation a little late, on the 4th April 1836.   
      
   Following her early family education, María del Transito was sent to   
   Cordoba, a city of noble cultural traditions with its famous   
   university of the XVII Century, founded by the Franciscan Bishop   
   Femando Trejo y Sanabria, and the colleges of Santa Catalina (1613)   
   and of Santa Teresa (1628). From 1840 on, while still following her   
   studies, she took care of her younger brother, who was preparing for   
   the priesthood in the seminary of Our Lady of Loreto in the city of   
   Cordoba.   
      
   In 1850, after the death of Felipe Cabanillas, the whole family moved   
   definitively to Cordoba, as a result of which the Venerable María del   
   Transito set up home in a small house near the church of San Roque   
   with her mother, her brother, who was ordained priest in 1853, her   
   sisters and her five orphan cousins. María del Transito was   
   distinguished for her piety, especially towards the Eucharist. She   
   carried on intense activity as a catechist and did many works of   
   charity, frequently visiting the poor and sick in the company of her   
   cousin Rosario.   
      
   After the death of her mother (13th April 1858) and directed by Father   
   Buenaventura Rizo Patrón, Franciscan, who would be ordained Bishop of   
   Salta in 1862, the Servant of God entered the Franciscan Third Order   
   and intensified her life of prayer and penance. But she wished to   
   consecrate herself wholly to God. Therefore, in 1859, on the occasion   
   of her profession in the TOF, she made a vow of perpetual virginity   
   and began to think of the foundation of an Institute for the Christian   
   instruction of poor and Abandoned children   
      
   In 1871, she came into contact with Mrs. Isidora Ponce de León, who   
   was lively interested in the erection of a monastery of Carmelites in   
   Buenos Aires. The next year, María del Transito followed her to Buenos   
   Aires and entered the monastery on the19th March 1873, the day it was   
   inaugurated. However, her ascetical commitment proved greater than her   
   physical strength. She fell ill and, for health reasons, she had to   
   leave the cloister in April 1874. In September of the same year,   
   believing herself sufficiently recovered, she entered the convent of   
   the Sisters of the Visitation in Montevideo, but, a few months later,   
   fell ill there also.   
      
   The Servant of God accepted all with admirable resignation, abandoning   
   herself into the hands of Divine Providence with greater confidence   
   each time. At the same time, her idea of an educational and   
   assistential foundation at the service of children began to emerge   
   once more. Various Franciscans encouraged her in this and Fr. Agustin   
   Garzón offered her a house and his collaboration and put her in   
   contact with Br.Ciríaco Porreca, OFM, of Rio Cuarto.   
      
   On the 8th December 1878, having obtained ecclesiastical approval for   
   her project of foundation and of the constitutions and following   
   spiritual exercises preached by Br. Porreca, María del Transito   
   Cabanillas, in company with her two companions, Teresa Fronteras and   
   Brigida Moyano, set the Congregation of the Franciscan Terciary   
   Missionaries of Argentina in motion. At the petition of the Foundress,   
   Br. Cirlaco Porreca, OFM, was appointed director of the Institute. On   
   the 2nd February 1879 María del Transito Cabanillas and her first two   
   companions made their religious profession and on the 27th of the same   
   month and year they wrote to Br. Bernardino de Portogruaro, Minister   
   General of the Order of Friars Minor, asking for the Institute to be   
   joined to the Franciscan Order. Br. Bernardino de Portogruaro   
   responded affirmatively on the 28th January 1880.   
      
   The new Congregation had an immediate flourishing of vocations, so   
   much so that already during the life of the Foundress, the colleges of   
   St. Margarite of Cortona in San Vicente, of El Carmen in Rio Cuarto   
   and of the Immaculate Conception in Villa Nueva were inaugurated.   
      
   The Servant of God guided the flourishing Institute with admirable   
   wisdom, but her physical powers gradually ceded to the daily efforts   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)