From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   God's union with the beloved   
      
      Anyone who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. As God's   
   kindness is beyond all telling, as his love for our race defies human   
   utterance and is commensurate with the divine goodness alone, so it   
   follows that his union with his beloved ones is closer than any other   
   conceivable union and admits of no comparison. Scripture of necessity   
   has recourse to many models in order to describe that intimacy, for   
   one alone is insufficient.  Sometimes it takes a dweller and his house   
   as an example, sometimes a vine and its branch,  sometimes marriage,   
   sometimes members and head; but none of these is adequate to express   
   it or bring us to the complete truth. Friendship and love tend   
   necessarily to unite, but what human friendship can compare with the   
   love of God? The models which seem best fitted to connote intimacy and   
   oneness are marriage and the harmonious subordination of the members   
   of a body to its head.   
   —Nicolas Cabasilas   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   JUN 15 – ST GERMAINE COUSIN OF PIBRAC, FRANCE   
   (1579-1601), PATRONESS OF THE DISABLED & ABUSED   
      
   Daughter of Laurent Cousin, a farm worker, and Marie Laroche, who died   
   while Germaine was an infant. A sickly child, Germaine suffered from   
   scrofula, which is tuberculosis of the skin.  She was afflicted with   
   unsightly inflammation of the lymph nodes in her neck usually   
   contracted from unpasteurized milk from infected cows, and her right   
   hand was deformed.   
      
   Ignored by her father and abused by her step-family, she was often   
   forced to sleep in the stable or in a cupboard under the stairs, was   
   fed on scraps, beaten or scalded with hot water for misdeeds, real or   
   imagined.   
      
   At age nine Germaine was put to work as a shepherdess, where she spent   
   much time praying, sometimes using a rosary she made from a knotted   
   string. She refused to miss Mass, and if she heard the bell announcing   
   services, she set her crook and her distaff in the ground, declared   
   her flock to be under the care of her guardian angel , and went to   
   church; her sheep were unharmed during her absences. It is reported   
   that once she crossed the raging Courbet River by walking over the   
   waters so she could get to church.   
      
   Germaine was so poor it is hard to imagine she would be able to help   
   others, but she was always ready to try, especially children whom she   
   gathered in the fields to teach a simple catechism and share the   
   little food she had. The locals laughed at her religious devotion, and   
   called her ‘the little bigot’.   
      
   Once in winter, her stepmother, Hortense, accused her of stealing   
   bread by hiding it in her apron, and threatened to beat her with a   
   stick. Germaine opened her apron, and summer flowers tumbled out. Her   
   parents and neighbors were awed by the obvious miracle, and began to   
   treat her as a holy person. Her parents invited her to rejoin the   
   household, but Germaine chose to live as she had.   
      
   In 1601 she was found dead on her straw pallet under the stairs, and   
   she was buried in the Church of Pibrac opposite the pulpit. When   
   accidentally exhumed in 1644 during a renovation, her body was found   
   incorrupt. In 1793 the casket was desecrated by an anti-Catholic   
   tinsmith named Toulza, who with three accomplices took out the remains   
   and buried them in the sacristy, throwing quick-lime and water on   
   them. After the French Revolution, her body was found to be still   
   intact save where the quick-lime had done its work.   
      
   Documents attest to more than 400 miracles or extraordinary graces   
   received through the intervention of Saint Germain. They include cures   
   of every kind (of blindness, both congenital and resulting from   
   disease, of hip and of spinal disease), and the multiplication of food   
   for the distressed community of the Good Shepherd at Bourges, France   
   in 1845.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   “Dear God, please don’t let me be too hungry or too thirsty. Help me   
   to please my mother. And help me to please You.” – prayer of Saint   
   Germaine   
      
      
   O Saint Germaine, look down from Heaven and intercede for the many   
   abused children in our world. Help them to sanctify these sufferings.   
   Strengthen children who suffer the effects of living in broken   
   families. Protect those children who have been abandoned by their   
   parents and live in the streets. Beg God’s mercy on the parents and   
   adults who abuse children.  Intercede for handicapped children and   
   their parents.   
      
   Saint Germaine, you who suffered neglect and abuse so patiently, pray   
   for us. Amen.   
      
   By Matthew   
   https://soul-candy.info/category/june/page/4/   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Every time we come into the presence of the Eucharist we may say: This   
   precious Testament cost Jesus Christ His life. For the Eucharist is a   
   testament, a legacy which becomes valid only at the death of the   
   testator. Our Lord thereby shows us His boundless love, for He Himself   
   said there is no greater proof of love than to lay down one's life for   
   one's friends.   
   --Saint Peter Julian Eymard   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying   
   always for you. Hearing your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which   
   you have towards all the saints.  For the hope that is laid up for you   
   in heaven, which you have heard in the word of the truth of the   
   gospel,  Which is come unto you, as also it is in the whole world and   
   bringeth forth fruit and groweth, even as it doth in you, since the   
   day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth.  [Colossians 1:3a-6]   
   DRB   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer:   
      
   Saint Germaine, watch over those children who suffer   
   abuse as you did. Help us to give them the love and   
   protection you only got from God. Give us the courage to   
   speak out against abuse when we know of it. Help us to   
   forgive those who abuse the way you did, without sacrificing   
   the lives of the children who need help.   
   Amen   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)