From: hildegard8@excite.com   
      
   January 13th - St. Veronica of Binasco, OSA V (RM)   
      
   Born in Binasco (near Milan), Italy, c. 1445; died in Milan in 1497; cultus   
   confirmed in 1517. Veronica was the daughter of poor peasants, with whom she   
   worked in the fields. Hands occupied, united with nature, she raised her   
   heart   
   to God as she labored at reaping and hoeing.   
   Anxious because her illiteracy might prevent her from growing in holiness,   
   she   
   unsuccessfully tried to teach herself to read while the rest of her family   
   slept. Veronica began to experience constant ecstasies and successive   
   visions of   
   the life of Christ. The Blessed Virgin appeared to her and taught her that   
   all   
   she needed were three mystical letters. The first signified purity of   
   intention;   
   the second, abhorrence of complaining and criticism; the third, daily   
   meditation   
   upon the Passion.   
      
   Having learned her lesson well from the Virgin, each day she would arise and   
   dedicate the work of her hands to God. In concentrating upon perfecting her   
   own   
   offering, she had no time for judging others. She did, however, pray for   
   those   
   who manifestly erred. By meditating on the Passion, she forgot her own pains   
   and   
   sorrows in those of Our Lord and her frequent, silent tears in remembering   
   His   
   sufferings.   
      
   After three years of patient waiting, she was received as a lay- sister by   
   the   
   Augustinian nuns of Saint Martha's in Milan and spent her life in collecting   
   alms for the convent. Three years later she was afflicted with secret but   
   bodily   
   pains, yet never would consent to being relieved of her labors or to omit   
   her   
   prayers. She said, "I must work while I can, while I have time." She   
   perfected   
   the virtue of joyful obedience. She died on the day she had foretold, after   
   a   
   six-month illness, aged 52 (Benedictines).   
      
      
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   Today is also The Baptism of Our Lord   
      
   Usually celebrated the Sunday after Epiphany   
      
   In the life of Christ, His baptism in the Jordan is an event of the highest   
   importance, because it represents a significant phase in the work of   
   redemption.   
   We know that the liturgy of the ecclesiastical year commemorates all the   
   phases   
   of Christ's redemptive work; and recently, during the season of the   
   Nativity, we   
   have reflected on His coming into the world, poor and solitary in a grotto   
   at   
   Bethlehem, and on His circumcision. Now His baptism in the Jordan marks the   
   divinely inaugurated beginning of Our Lord's public life. Indeed, Saint   
   Peter   
   states that at His baptism, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Daniel, He was   
   anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Christ, the Messiah, which means the   
   Anointed   
   One: "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power,   
   and He   
   went about doing good and healing all who were in the power of the devil,   
   for   
   God was with Him." (Acts 10:38) An anointing has always been the symbolic,   
   visible representation of an intimately established union, a specific,   
   defined   
   alliance or covenant between God and one of His servants. God the Father   
   speaks   
   at this moment, to make clear who this Person is. The foretold Saviour is   
   His   
   Divine Son, begotten from all eternity: "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I   
   am   
   well pleased."   
      
   In the symbolism of His baptism, Christ, Himself immaculate, assumes the   
   sins of   
   the world, descends into the purifying waters, and raises mankind to divine   
   sonship. His baptism was vicarious in nature; He stands in the Jordan in our   
   stead. Consequently, this act must find its complement in our personal   
   redemption. Our lives are profoundly altered through Christ's redemptive   
   sacrifice, on at least three such occasions: our Baptism, our attendance at   
   Holy   
   Mass, and our death in Christ.   
      
   At our Baptism we were immersed with Jesus, with Him we died and were   
   buried.   
   Then we emerged, and for the first time heaven opened to us, as the Holy   
   Spirit   
   made His advent into our soul, and our Father in heaven looked down upon us,   
   now   
   "His sons, His children."   
      
   In each Holy Mass, Christ's baptismal offering is again operative. Through   
   the   
   Holy Sacrifice we are immersed in His sacrificial death; heaven then opens   
   and   
   the Holy Spirit descends through Holy Communion. Through the pledge of the   
   sacrificial Banquet the Father assures us of renewed and enriched sonship in   
   Christ.   
      
   The baptism of Christ is accomplished within us a third time at our death,   
   if we   
   are united with Him, for death is indeed a sort of baptism. Death is like   
   immersion into the dark depths, but when we receive the Last Sacraments, on   
   emerging, it is to a different life - it is our hope and our confidence, if   
   we   
   have been faithful to God's grace, that it will be the life of glory, the   
   beatific vision. Then we will see the Blessed Trinity, no longer through the   
   darkened sun-glass of faith, but in immediate vision, face to face.   
      
   To sum up, today's liturgy helps us to understand more clearly the basic   
   structure of spiritual life, the redemptive acts of Christ. Upon that   
   foundation   
   the edifice rises through the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, while   
   the   
   Lord's return, at our death, brings completion to the work.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   He enters by the door who enters by Christ, who imitates the suffering of   
   Christ, who is acquainted with the humility of Christ so as to feel and know   
   that, if God became man for us, men should not think themselves God, but   
   men. He   
   who, being man, wishes to appear God, does not imitate Him who, being God,   
   became man. Thou art not bid to think less of thyself than thou art, but to   
   know   
   what thou art.   
   -St. Augustine   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Go, and learn what this means: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." (St.   
   Matthew   
   9:13)   
      
      
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   Saint Anthony, Example of Humility   
      
   Dear St. Anthony, after all these years in the school of Christ,   
   I still haven't learned the lesson of true humility. My feelings   
   are easily ruffled. Quick to take offense, I am slow to forgive.   
   St. Anthony, Example of Humility, teach me the importance   
   and necessity of this Christian virtue. In the presence of   
   Jesus, who humbled Himself and whom the Father exalted,   
   remember also these special intentions of mine.   
    (Name them.)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)