From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   - 1 Samuel 16:7 (b) -   
      
       "The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the   
   outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."   
   ______________________________________________________________   
      
   Appearance doesn't reveal what people are really like or what their true   
   value is. Fortunately, God judges by faith and character, not appearances.   
   And because only God can see on the inside, only he can accurately judge   
   people. Most people spend hours each week maintaining their outward   
   appearance; we should do even more to develop our inner character. While   
   everyone can see your face, only you and God know what your heart really   
   looks like. What steps are you taking to improve your heart attitude?   
      
      
   <><><><><>   
   April 30th - St. Mary of the Incarnation, Visionary, Ursuline nun   
   1599-1672)   
      
   Marie Guyart Martin, fourth child in a family of seven children, was born in   
   Tours, France. When very young, she had a dream that moved her profoundly.   
   "I was about seven years old," she wrote. "In my sleep one night, it seemed   
   to me that I was in a schoolyard... Suddenly the skies opened, and Our Lord   
   emerged, advancing toward me! When Jesus neared me, I stretched out my arms   
   to embrace Him. Jesus embraced me affectionately and asked me: 'Do you want   
   to belong to Me?' I answered, 'Yes.' " She was unceasingly to repeat that   
   "yes," the key to her entire life, amid joys and afflictions.   
      
   When Mary was eighteen, her parents believed she was ready to get married.   
   She obeyed and married Claude Martin, a master silk worker. In 1619 she gave   
   birth to a son, who was one day to become Dom Claude Martin. Six months   
   later, the Lord marked her with the seal of His predilection: she was   
   visited by the cross of widowhood, with all its trials. Mary of the   
   Incarnation felt strongly attracted to the religious life, but she realized   
   that God's hour had not yet struck.   
      
   Several very difficult years ensued. Having found employment in her sister's   
   house, she became the slave of the servants of the household. In this harsh   
   situation, our Saint practiced the virtues of humility, charity, patience   
   and total self-forgetfulness to the point of heroism. She remained   
   constantly in the holy presence of God, even amid the most absorbing   
   occupations.   
      
   At the age of twenty-one, though still in the lay state, she made the vows   
   of poverty, chastity and obedience. In 1625, God gratified her with a vision   
   of the Holy Trinity.   
      
   When Madame Martin was thirty-one, the call of God to leave everything   
   echoed imperiously in her soul. On January 25, 1631, she bid farewell to her   
   elderly father, and overcoming the pangs of her maternal heart, she   
   entrusted her eleven-year-old son to her sister's care. This absolute   
   detachment, which makes her a model for parents, was one of the most heroic   
   and sublime acts in the life of Saint Mary of the Incarnation. The   
   courageous mother told her child, "God wills it, my son. If we love Him, we   
   should will it, too. It is up to Him to command, and up to us to obey." With   
   a broken heart, she was finally able to enter the Ursuline Novitiate in   
   Tours.   
      
   Eight years later, when she had reached the age of forty, Mary of the   
   Incarnation embarked at Dieppe with some companions on a ship headed for   
   Canada. She is among the very first nuns to have come to America. At the   
   time, such a missionary adventure was regarded as an innovation. There was   
   no room for anything less than heroism for these pioneers of the Church of   
   New France, who united the cloistered life to the missionary life. Mary of   
   the Incarnation wrote, "Here we encounter a kind of necessity to become   
   saints. We must either die or fully consent to it."   
      
   She studied the extremely difficult Indian languages and wrote an   
   Algonquin-French dictionary, as well as an Iroquois dictionary and   
   catechism. Her work of predilection consisted in teaching little Indian   
   girls, whom she called "the delight of my heart" and "the most beautiful   
   jewels in my crown."   
      
   Sickness, humiliation and persecution arising from respectable persons,   
   endless interior sufferings and crosses of all sorts abound in the life of   
   our Saint. They bear a striking testimony to the spirit of holiness that   
   reigned in her soul, which was totally surrendered to the love of God. The   
   highest summits of contemplation to which the Holy Spirit drew her did not   
   prevent Mary of the Incarnation from being an extraordinary woman of action,   
   gifted with incomparable common sense.   
      
   She gave up her beautiful soul to God at the age of 72. As a result of the   
   successive vocations to which God called her, this admirable soul remains a   
   model for spouses, parents, lay apostles and religious alike. Mary of the   
   Incarnation has very rightly been named "the Teresa of New France." She is   
   ranked among the greatest glories of Canada and regarded as the true Mother   
   of the country.   
      
   Sources: O.D.M. article; bi-monthly magazine Univers, July-August 1980, No.   
   4, p. 6.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   You, O eternal Trinity, are a deep sea, into which the more I enter the more   
   I find, and the more I find the more I seek. The soul cannot be satiated in   
   your abyss, for she continually hungers after you, the eternal Trinity,   
   desiring to see you with the light of your light. As the hart desires the   
   springs of living water, so my soul desires to leave the prison of this dark   
   body and see you in truth.   
   -Catherine of Siena   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Unless you do penance, you will all perish. (Luke 13:3)   
      
      
   <<>><<>>   
   Meditation by Saint Claudse de la Colombiere   
   The Master: Meek and Humble of Heart   
      
   "Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of Heart," [St. Matthew 11:29] said   
   Jesus in the Gospel. It is therefore by contemplating Him that we can learn   
   true humility.   
      
   It is a great illusion to want all you hear about and all you see in books,   
   as well as to burden yourself with so many devotional practices. Read very   
   few books and make a great study of Jesus Christ crucified. [L. 100]   
      
   The humble soul is never satisfied with itself; it always seeks to do more   
   for God.   
      
   I do not think there are any souls in the world with whom God is less happy   
   than those who think they have reasons to be content with themselves. As   
   soon as someone has begun to know how lovable God is, he must be very   
   insensitive to prevent himself from loving Him very much. And when we love   
   Him well, we never think we have done enough for Him. [L. 102]   
      
   The person who is humble of heart does not dwell on his neighbor's faults.   
      
   O my God, what a sad occupation it is to amuse ourselves examining the life   
   of others! It would be better to be blind and simple-minded than to use your   
   mind to consider and judge the actions of your neighbor. One whose heart is   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)