From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Question Your Heart   
      
   "My brothers and sisters, question your heart, and if you cannot find   
   love of neighbor there set your mind at ease. Such love cannot exist   
   without the Spirit of God.   
      
   Paul the Apostle bears witness to this: "The love of God has been   
   poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to   
   us."   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon on 1 John 6, 10   
      
   Prayer: Lord, whatever you give me is too little for me. Be yourself   
   my inheritance! I love you without reserve: with all my heart, soul,   
   and mind. Of what value is anything you give me that is not yourself!   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 334, 3a   
      
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   March 10th - Saint Marie-Eugénie de Jésus   
      
   St Marie Eugenie was a remarkable woman. From its foundation in 1839,   
   she led the Assumption for fifty five years. Her story is that of a   
   woman who, springing from an irreligious background, came to   
   understand that each one of us is called by God to a unique way of   
   service, and that hers was to inspire countless others to strive for   
   the building of the Kingdom of God through education. Her life is   
   marked by her three great loves – for Jesus Christ, for Mary the   
   Mother of Jesus and our mother and for the Church.   
      
   St Marie EuginieA first call   
   Anne Eugenie Milleret, later to become Sr. Marie Eugenie of Jesus   
   foundress of the Religious of the Assumption, was born in Metz in   
   northern France in 1817. Her family was privileged, wealthy,   
   politically involved, and irreligious. She was baptised, however, and   
   her first communion at the age of twelve was an extraordinary   
   spiritual experience.   
      
   As she returned from the altar rails, worried that she would not find   
   her mother in the crowd, she heard a voice within her saying: you will   
   lose your mother, but I shall be for you more than a mother. A day   
   will come when you will leave everything you love in order to glorify   
   me and serve this Church that you do not know.   
      
   And that was how it was. When she was 13 a reversal in family fortunes   
   saw her father’s bankruptcy, the separation of her parents and the   
   departure of Anne Eugenie to Paris with her mother. Two years later   
   her mother died of cholera after only a few hours of illness and at   
   the age of 15 Anne Eugenie was alone. She was boarded out with   
   different families and although outwardly she was happy enough,   
   inwardly she was miserable.   
      
   "Each one of us has a mission on earth.”   
      
   Then God intervened. It was the custom to attend special sermons   
   during Lent and she chose to go to the cathedral of Notre Dame, where   
   the young and already famous Lacordaire was preaching. He spoke to her   
   heart. She realised that she must give her life to God. As she said   
   later, my vocation dates from Notre Dame. What was she to do? She   
   wrote to Lacordaire: Each one of us has a mission on earth. But what   
   was hers? He advised patience, reading and prayer. It was only the   
   next year that chance – or the hand of God – brought her into contact   
   with Fr. Combalot. And the rest, as they say, is history.   
      
   Two great friendships   
   She was helped by two great friendships. The first was with one of the   
   very first sisters, Kate O’Neill, who as Sr. Therese Emmanuel,   
   co-foundress of the Congregation, was her constant help and support.   
      
   The second was a priest, Emmanuel d’Alzon, just a few years older than   
   her. Marie Eugenie had been introduced to him by Combalot before the   
   Congregation started. So when the relationship with Combalot became   
   very difficult, she was able to turn to him for help. To the extent of   
   the possible – he lived 500 miles away – he agreed to help and support   
   her and thus began a friendship and partnership that was to last until   
   his death nearly 40 years later.   
      
   In the beginning it was he who supported her, but as time went on she   
   would be just as likely to be giving him advice. She encouraged him to   
   found a Congregation of men: the Augustinians of the Assumption. But   
   above all they helped each other to become holy. As he said of her:   
   “If I have given anything, I have also received a great deal”. And   
   when he died in 1880 she wrote to her sisters: “What I shall see   
   eternally in Father d’Alzon is his love for Jesus Christ, his devotion   
   to the Church, his zeal for souls.”   
      
   “I am looking at my Lord. It is in looking at Him that we learn how to   
   love.”   
      
   Marie Eugenie led the Assumption for fifty-five years. Her life was   
   full. Her first priority was for her sisters: their happiness, their   
   formation, their work. She was concerned for their health – more than   
   two hundred sisters were to die before she did, often young and of   
   tuberculosis.   
      
   She was constantly travelling from community to community,   
   encouraging, consoling and challenging. As the Congregation became   
   known, she was invited to start more and more communities. She saw her   
   work as being always in and for the Church, and her loyalty to it was   
   absolute.   
      
   The last few years of her life were spent in increasing retirement.   
   Gradually her health failed. Her legs refused to carry her and her   
   speech also slowed, so that at the end she could only occasionally say   
   a few words. Those around her were struck by her gentleness and   
   patience. One day she managed to say: I am looking at my Lord. It is   
   in looking at Him that we learn how to love. She died, surrounded by   
   her sisters, on the 10th March 1898.   
      
   St Marie Eugenie was canonised by Pope Benedict XVI on 3rd June 2007.   
      
   Download “A Saint for Today: a life of St Marie Eugenie”   
      
   Bible Quote:   
      "Listen, my dear brothers: it was those who were poor according to   
   the world that God chose, to be rich in faith and to be the heirs to   
   the kingdom which he promised to those who love him. You, on the other   
   hand, have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who lord it over   
   you: Are not they the ones who drag you into court, who insult the   
   honorable name which has been pronounced over you? Well, the right   
   thing to do is to keep the supreme Law of Scripture: you will love   
   your neighbor as yourself; but as soon as you make class distinctions,   
   you are committing sin and under condemnation for breaking the Law."   
   [James 2:5-9:]   
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Prayer ought to be humble, fervent, resigned, persevering, and   
   accompanied with great reverence. One should consider that he stands   
   in the presence of a God, and speaks with a Lord before whom the   
   angels tremble from awe and fear.   
   --Saint Mary Magdalen de Pazzi   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Grant Me Grace,   
   O Merciful God   
   Prayer of St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)