From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Preaching is sharing   
      
   Many people seek to discover God's mercy and faithfulness from the   
   sacred books, and yet, when their learning is done, they live for   
   their own sakes and not for God's. They are intent on their own   
   interests, not those of Jesus Christ. They preach mercy and   
   faithfulness without practicing them. Their preaching proves that they   
   know their subject, for they would not preach without knowledge. But   
   it is a different matter in the case of someone who loves God and   
   Christ. When such a person preaches God's mercy and faithfulness, he   
   seeks to make them known for God's sake, not his own. This means that   
   he is not out to gain temporal benefits from his preaching; his desire   
   is to help Christ's members, that is, those who believe in him, by   
   faithfully sharing with them the knowledge he himself possesses, so   
   that the living may no longer live for themselves, but for him who   
   died for all.   
   —Augustine   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   August 30th – Blessed Bronislava of Poland   
   (Also known as Bronislava Odrowaz, Bronislava of Cracow, Bronislawa….)   
      
   Poland first became acquainted with Christianity in the 10th century.   
   The Church was organized there only in the year 1000, when an   
   archdiocese was established in Gnesen, with suffragan dioceses in   
   Kolberg, Breslau and Cracow.   
      
   Even in the 13th century, however, the vast territories surrounding   
   what became Poland were inhabited by pagans; hence, the Christian   
   Poles were called to be a missionary people, preaching and   
   consolidating the Christian faith. Cracow, where Pope John Paul II was   
   later Archbishop, became noted for three holy leaders: St. Hyacinth,   
   patron of Poland (died AD 1257); Bl. Ceslaus of Silesia (1184?-1242);   
   and Bl. Bronislawa (1203-1259). Not only were all three close   
   associates; they all seem to have belonged to the same noble family of   
   the Odrowaz.   
      
   Hyacinth and Ceslaus, both already prominent priests, accompanied   
   their uncle Ivo Odrowaz to Rome around 1217 when he went there to be   
   consecrated bishop of Cracow. While in Rome, the two young Poles met   
   St. Dominic, founder of the Dominican Friars, and witnessed a miracle   
   in which he raised a young man from the dead. Deeply impressed, they   
   joined the Dominicans forthwith and returned to Poland as pioneering   
   members of Dominic’s Order of Preachers. Hyacinth founded Dominican   
   houses at Cracow and other places, and was an active missionary in the   
   countries to the south and east of Cracow, gaining a reputation as a   
   miracle-worker. Father Ceslaus founded Dominican convents at Prague   
   and Breslau, serving as a missionary in the more western Slavic   
   territories. He was also the spiritual director of St. Jadwiga   
   (Hedwig), whom both Poles and Germans hold in high esteem.   
      
   Bronislawa had meanwhile been setting an example of quiet leadership   
   in the contemplative religious life.   
      
   The daughter of Count Stanislaus and Countess Anna of   
   Prandata-Odrowaz, she had entered the convent of Norbertine nuns near   
   Cracow at sixteen. Although the details of her convent life are   
   practically unknown, she is said to have developed into a very holy   
   cloistered nun. Eventually she asked permission to become a hermitess   
   on the convent property; at first, it was for limited periods, but   
   eventually on a permanent basis. One of the stories that does come   
   down to us is that when St. Hyacinth died in 1257, Bronislawa, in a   
   vision, saw Our Lady welcoming this holy relative into heaven.   
      
   Bronislawa died and was entombed two years later in her convent   
   church, revered from the start as a saint. The church was destroyed   
   centuries later during the Swedish invasion of Poland, and her relics   
   were lost. When they were rediscovered in the 17th century, all Poland   
   rejoiced, and Bronislawa’s body was carried triumphantly from diocese   
   to diocese for public veneration. Her former convent was rebuilt and   
   became a national prayer center. Popular Cracovian custom has long   
   since referred to the convent site as Mount Saint Bronislawa.   
   Actually, she was never beatified (probably for want of dependable   
   information on her life); but in 1839 Pope Gregory XVI approved her   
   cult by “equivalent beatification.”   
      
   Blessed Bronislawa had long been invoked for the protection of good   
   reputation and for a happy death. She had also assisted the Poles   
   against various epidemics. After World War II, when Poland fell into   
   Communist hands, Cardinal Augustyn Hlond, the Primate of Poland, urged   
   the Polish people to beg her help against the still graver plagues of   
   atheism and immorality. That favor was granted in our day. Apparently,   
   the three Odrowazes who had bolstered the Polish faith seven centuries   
   before were still watching over their native land.   
      
   Many Polish parents have named their children after this trio. If the   
   Christian names Hyacinth, Ceslaus, and Bronislawa, fall strangely on   
   the Anglo-Saxon ear, they do grateful honor to three heroes of old   
   Polonia.   
   –Father Robert   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   In accordance with divine providence, the devil was not sent at once   
   to the Gehenna assigned to him, but his sentence was postponed in   
   order to let him test and try men's free will. In this way, he   
   unintentionally fosters greater maturity and righteousness in the   
   saints by promoting their patient endurance, and so is the cause of   
   their greater glory; and, at the same time, through his malevolence   
   and his scheming against the saints he justifies more fully his own   
   punishment. In this way, too, sin becomes more utterly sinful, as St.   
   Paul puts it. (Rom. 7:13)   
   --St. Symeon Metaphrastis   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Now there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit. And there   
   are diversities of ministries. but the same Lord. And there are   
   diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in all.   
   (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)  DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Short Prayers   
      
   O saving Victim, opening wide   
   The gate of heaven to man below,   
   Our foes press on from every side;   
   Thine aid supply, Thy strength bestow.   
      
   To Thy great Name be endless praise,   
   Immortal Godhead, one in three;   
   Oh, grant us endless length of days   
   In our true native land with Thee.   
   Amen.   
      
   Blessed is He Who cometh in the Name of the Lord:   
    Hosanna in the highest.   
      
   Jesu, bread of life, protect us;   
   Shepherd king, do not reject us;   
   In Thy happy fold collect us,   
   And partakers of the bliss elect us,   
   Which shall never see an end.   
      
   Thou, the wisest and the mightiest,   
   Who us here with food delightest,   
   Seat us at Thy banquet brightest   
   With the blessed Thou invitest   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)