From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Whole nations seized upon the apostles' teaching   
      
    Supposing two men come to a city without food, money, or a change of   
   clothes. Who do you think would welcome them, where would they find an   
   open door? Who would want to know them? What sort of lodging would   
   they find and where would they start to look for it? One must surely   
   marvel at the power of one who could send his disciples out in such a   
   way, and at the faith of those whom he sent.   
      Why be so amazed that the apostles were believed, or that they   
   themselves could believe, and that they returned home safely after   
   being welcomed everywhere? But these are truly great marvels and we   
   should not fail to realize this. Unknown strangers, poorly dressed and   
   without contacts, traveled all over the world proclaiming someone who   
   had been crucified, and offering a life of fasting in place of   
   drunkenness, and irksome self-restraint in place of sensuality. It can   
   hardly have been easy for those addicted to such vices to receive   
   these exhortations to renounce them and live upright lives. And yet   
   whole peoples seized upon this teaching, whole nations embraced it.   
   --Eusebius of Emesa   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   August 24th – St. Emily de Vialar   
   Also known as   
       • Anne Marguerite Adelaide Emily de Vialar   
       • Emilie de Vialar   
       • Emilie de Vialard   
      
   (1797-1856)   
   St. Emily de Vialar founded an international religious order that even   
   today numbers over a thousand members. That task involved an   
   extraordinary number of setbacks, but she achieved her aim with vigor   
   and clarity of spirit.   
      
   Born at Gaillac in southern France and baptized Anne Marguerite   
   Adelaide Emilie, the future foundress was the daughter of a nobleman,   
   Baron Augustin de Vialar; the granddaughter, on her mother   
   Antoinette’s side, of Baron de Portal, the prominent physician of   
   Kings Louis XVIII and Charles X. The parents sent their daughter to   
   Paris for schooling.   
      
   When Emily was 15, however, her mother died. The widowed father   
   brought his daughter home to Gaillac to keep him company. She did her   
   best to serve his wishes, but Baron de Vialar proved to be a   
   self-centered curmudgeon. Particularly after she had rejected his   
   plans to marry her off, he became very mean to her. He allowed her no   
   say in the household, and on one occasion even threw a decanter at   
   her. Furthermore, the teenager had no suitable priest to guide her.   
   “God became my director,” she said in later life. She took a private   
   vow of chastity, and intensified her prayer life. On one occasion she   
   had a vision of our Lord pointing to the wounds of His passion. This   
   experience moved her deeply and had a lasting effect on her life.   
      
   Fortunately, when Emily was 21, she finally found an understanding   
   spiritual director in the Abbe Mercier, a young priest assigned to   
   Gaillac He was able to steer her spiritual life along consistent   
   lines. Meanwhile she devoted her time to taking care of the local poor   
   and of neglected children. She welcomed these needy to the terrace of   
   her home. This hospitality caused her father to explode once more. He   
   didn’t want charity cases cluttering his terrace! But the people of   
   Gaillac, at least, valued the efforts of his daughter.   
      
   Finally, in 1832, when she was 35, a providential event occurred that   
   invited Emilie to stride forth on her real career. Her grandfather de   
   Portal died, leaving her a considerable fortune.   
      
   Under the wise supervision of Abbe Mercier, Mlle. de Vialar now bought   
   a large house of her own at Gaillac. On Christmas 1832, with the   
   permission of the archbishop of Albi, she and three other young women   
   laid the foundations of a new religious community to be called the   
   Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition. (The “apparition” was God’s   
   revelation to Joseph that Mary had conceived Jesus, the Son of God.)   
   The sisters’ apostolate was to be the care of those in need and the   
   education of children. What was unusual about their aim was that from   
   the start they intended to focus on foreign missions. In fact, when   
   Emily established their second house in 1834, it was in Algiers, North   
   Africa, where the French were busy colonizing. At Algiers the sisters   
   quickly won high praise for their work during a cholera epidemic. From   
   her Algerian center Mother Emily then founded additional convents in   
   Tunisia and Malta; and from Malta the sisters spread into the Balkans   
   and the Near East. Indeed, theirs was the first group of nuns in   
   modern times to undertake a mission to the Holy Land. During her   
   lifetime the foundress also sent nuns as far afield as Burma and   
   Australia.   
      
   All this was accomplished in the face of great odds. St. Emily was   
   “imperilled,” like St. Paul, “in the city, in the desert, at sea, by   
   false brothers.” For one thing, she suffered a chronic physical   
   ailment. Then she also had to bear widespread criticisms from many   
   sources. When she sailed for Malta, her ship, like St. Paul’s, was   
   wrecked on its shore.   
      
   Though backed by Rome, she lost her battle against the domineering   
   tactics of the bishop of Algiers, who even excommunicated the sisters   
   and ousted them from his diocese, to their great financial loss. But   
   being a woman of wit and balance, St. Emily made light of her   
   troubles. “I have plenty of trials,” she wrote, “but God is always   
   there to support me.”   
      
   Pope Pius XII canonized this valiant woman in 1951.   
      
   –Father Robert F. McNamara   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   I am a Christian. It seemed a while ago as if God rejected me as a   
   stone unfit to enter His building, but He has the goodness to take me   
   now to be placed in it; I am ready to suffer all things for His name,   
   that I may have a part in His kingdom with His Saints.   
   --St. Serenus   
      
   Bible Quote   
   This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved   
   you. Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life   
   for his friends. You are my friends, if you do the things that I   
   command you.  (John 15:12-14)   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   From The Glories Of Mary, by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori:   
      
   Most Holy, Immaculate Virgin and my Mother Mary! To thee who art the   
   Mother of my Lord, the Queen of the world, the Advocate, the Hope, and   
   the Refuge of sinners, I have recourse today, I who am the most   
   miserable of all.   
      
   I render thee my most humble homage, O great Queen, and I thank thee   
   for all the graces thou hast conferred on me until now, especially for   
   having delivered me from Hell, which I have so often deserved.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)