From: hildegard8@excite.com   
      
   December 15th - St. Mary De Rosa   
      
   Today's saint was born Paolina Francesca Maria at Brescia, Italy on Nov. 6,   
   1813. She was the sixth of nine children of a wealthy noble landowner,   
   Clement   
   de Rosa and his wife Countess Camilla Albani. At the age of eleven her   
   mother   
   died and she was educated by the Visitandines. At the age of seventeen she   
   returned home to care for her father's household.   
      
   As was common in noble families, her father found a suitable husband for   
   her.   
   Paula, as she was called, had taken a vow of celibacy and with the help of   
   her   
   spiritual director, Msgr. Faustino Pinzoni, she convinced her father to   
   respect   
   her wishes. She remained at home and spent all her free time doing social   
   good   
   works. She established a women's guild at Capriano, arranging retreats and   
   special missions. She also ministered to the spiritual needs of young women   
   employed at her father's textile mill in Acquafredda.   
      
   During a cholera epidemic she and Gabriela Echenos-Bornati cared for the   
   sick   
   and made a deep impression on the people by their devotion, compassion and   
   gentleness. She also established a lodging home for poor and abandoned girls   
   and   
   a school for the deaf. Paula was soon joined by two other women in her   
   ministries and under the direction of Pinzoni the "Handmaids of Charity"   
   came   
   into being in the city of Brescia in 1840. The group of four soon grew into   
   a   
   flourishing community of thirty two.   
      
   As was so often the case, there was opposition to the community, but they   
   persevered and soon opened a house at Cremona. Their rule was approved by   
   the   
   bishop in 1843. Gabriela Bornati died in 1843 and Msgr. Pinzoni in 1848.   
   These   
   loses were a great suffering to Paula, but she continued on especially since   
   the   
   need was even greater with the outbreak of war in northern Italy.   
      
   Perhaps it was from Paula di Rosa that Florence Nightingale received her   
   inspiration to carry nursing right onto the battlefields. The Handmaids of   
   Charity were not wanted at the hospitals because doctors preferred secular   
   nurses so they ministered both physically and spiritually to the injured and   
   dying right on the battlefields of Northern Italy.   
      
   One tradition tells of a hospital about to be besieged when Paul and some of   
   her   
   sisters stood at the front door carrying a large crucifix and lighted   
   candles.   
   The soldiers halted and then shamefully sneaked away. The constitutions of   
   the   
   congregation were approved by Pope Pius IX in December 1850, but it wasn't   
   until   
   1852 that the civil authorities allowed the 26 sisters to make their vows.   
      
   Paula lived only a few more years and expansion took place at Brescia as   
   well as   
   convents opened in Spalata, Dalmatia and near Verona, Italy. She was taken   
   seriously ill at Mantua and shortly after returning to Brescia, died on   
   December   
   15, 1855. She was canonized in 1954.   
      
   Paula's life was one of openness to any and everyone in need. She would go   
   to   
   the aid of anyone at any hour whether it be caring for someone sick or   
   dying,   
   bringing peace in a quarrelsome home, or comforting someone in great   
   distress.   
   Whatever the need she felt she must bring God's love and healing which is   
   why we   
   honor her today.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Love Mary! She is loveable, faithful, constant. She will never let herself   
   be   
   outdone in love, but will ever remain supreme. If you are in danger, she   
   will   
   hasten to free you. If you are troubled, she will console you. If you are   
   sick,   
   she will bring you relief. If you are in need, she will help you. She does   
   not   
   look to see what kind of person you have been. She simply comes to a heart   
   that   
   wants to love her. She comes quickly and opens her merciful heart to you,   
   embraces you and consoles and serves you. She will even be at hand to   
   accompany   
   you on the trip to eternity.   
   -- Saint Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   All of you practice humility toward one another; for, God resists the proud,   
   but   
   gives grace to the humble. (I Pet 5:5)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   St. Alphonsus De Liguori to Jesus, to obtain His Holy Love   
      
   My crucified Love, my dear Jesus! I believe in Thee, and   
   confess Thee to be the true Son of God and my Saviour. I   
   adore Thee from the abyss of my own nothingness, and I   
   thank Thee for the death Thou didst suffer for me, that I might   
   obtain the life of divine grace. My beloved Redeemer, to Thee   
   I owe all my salvation. Through Thee I have hitherto escaped   
   hell; through Thee have I received the pardon of my sins. But   
   I am so ungrateful, that, instead of loving Thee, I have   
   repeated my offenses against Thee. I deserve to be   
   condemned, so as not to be able to love Thee any more: but   
   no, my Jesus, punish me in any other way, but not in this. If I   
   have not loved Thee in times past, I love Thee now; and I   
   desire nothing but to love Thee with all my heart. But without   
   Thy help I can do nothing. Since Thou dost command me to   
   love Thee, give me also the strength to fulfill this Thy sweet   
   and loving precept. Thou hast promised to grant all that we   
   ask of Thee: You shall ask whatever you will and it shall be   
   done unto you. Confiding, then, in this promise, my dear   
   Jesus, I ask, first of all, pardon of all my sins; and I repent,   
   above all things, because I have offended Thee, O Infinite   
   Goodness! I ask for holy perseverance in Thy grace till my   
   death. But, above all, I ask for the gift of Thy holy love. Ah,   
   my Jesus, my Hope, my Love, my All, inflame me with that   
   love which Thou didst come on earth to enkindle! "Tui amoris   
   me ignem accende." For this end, make me always live in   
   conformity with Thy holy will. Enlighten me, that I may   
   understand more and more how worthy Thou art of our love,   
   and that I may know the immense love Thou hast borne me,   
   especially in giving Thy life for me. Grant, then, that I may   
   love Thee with all my heart, and may love Thee always, and   
   never cease to beg of Thee the grace to love Thee in this life;   
   that, living always and dying in Thy love, I may come one day   
   to love Thee with all my strength in heaven, never to leave off   
   loving Thee for all eternity.   
      
   O Mother of beautiful love, my advocate and refuge, Mary,   
   who art of all creatures the most beautiful, the most loving,   
   and the most beloved of God, and whose only desire it is to   
   see him loved! ah, by the love thou bearest to Jesus Christ,   
   pray for me, and obtain for me the grace to love him always,   
   and with all my heart! This I ask and hope for from thee.   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)