From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   February 10th - Blessed Aloysius Stepinac, Cardinal M (AC)   
    (also known as Louis or Alojzije of Zagreb)   
      
   Born at Brezaric near Krasic, Croatia, on May 8, 1898; died at Krasic, on   
   February 10, 1960; beatified on October 3, 1998, by Pope John Paul II at the   
   Marian shrine of Marija Bistrica.   
      
   Aloysius Stepinac, the eighth of 12 children of a peasant family, was always   
   the   
   special object of his mother's prayers that he might be ordained. In 1916,   
   he   
   was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian army and fought on the Italian   
   front   
   until he was taken prisoner. Upon his return to civilian life in 1919,   
   Stepinac   
   entered the University of Zagreb to study agriculture, but soon recognized   
   his   
   call to the priesthood. In 1924, he was sent to Rome for his seminary   
   studies   
   leading to his ordination on October 26, 1930.   
      
   He returned to Zagreb in July 1931 with doctorates in theology and   
   philosophy.   
   Soon afterwards, Stepinac was chosen to become secretary to Archbishop Antun   
   Bauer. On June 24, 1934, he was nominated as coadjutor to the Archbishop of   
   Zagreb. After this nomination, Stepinac stated: "I love my Croatian people   
   and   
   for their benefit I am ready to give everything, as well as I am ready to   
   give   
   everything for the Catholic Church." After Bauer's death on December 7,   
   1937,   
   Stepinac became the Archbishop of Zagreb. He took as his motto, "In You, O   
   Lord,   
   I take refuge!" (Psalm 31:1), which was the inspiration for his service to   
   the   
   Church.   
      
   During the Second World War, Stepinac never turned his back on the refugees,   
   or   
   the prosecuted. His door was always open not only for Croatians, but also   
   Jews,   
   Serbs, and Slovenes that needed his help. Stepinac always stood for   
   political   
   freedom and fundamental rights, and he always advocated the rights of the   
   Croatian people. Stepinac wanted Croatia to be a country of God.   
      
   At the end of the war, Stepinac was found guilty of collaborating with the   
   Nazis   
   at a mock trial. He was convicted and sentenced sixteen years' hard labour   
   on   
   October 11, 1946. At his trial when his life was on the line, Stepinac asked   
   his   
   communist prosecutors: ". . . every nation has the right to independence,   
   then   
   why should it be denied to the Croatians?" He spent five years in the prison   
   of   
   Lepoglava, 1,864 days in hard labor, and, in 1951, Tito's government   
   released   
   him and confined him to the village of Krasic.   
      
   Even though he was forbidden by the government to resume his duties,   
   Stepinac   
   was created cardinal by Pope Pius XII on January 12, 1953. He died under   
   house   
   arrest from the many illnesses he contracted while in prison and was buried   
   three days later behind the main altar in the cathedral in Zagreb. One story   
   reported that poison was found in his bones   
      
   In 1985, his trial prosecutor Jakov Blazevic publicly admitted that Stepinac   
   was   
   framed; he was prosecuted because of the regime's hatred of religion and   
   Stepinac's loyalty to the Holy See.   
      
   Without a doubt, Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac is one of the greatest Croatian   
   patriots of the 20th century. He spent his entire life serving God and the   
   Croatian people, demonstrating the importance of faith, charity and virtue   
   (Savor).   
      
      
   Saint Quotes:   
   "Persons who keep themselves low in their own estimation and love to be   
   considered of little account and despised by others please God in the   
   highest   
   degree; and, therefore, He willingly lowers Himself to them, pours upon them   
   the   
   treasures of His graces, reveals to them His secrets, invites and draws them   
   sweetly to Himself. Thus, the more one lowers and abuses himself before men,   
   the   
   more he rises and becomes great in the sight of God, and the more clearly he   
   will, one day, behold the Divine Essence"   
   -St. Thomas a Kempis   
      
         St. Gertrude, one day hearing the little bell ring for Communion and   
   not   
   feeling as well prepared as she desired, said to the Lord: "I see that Thou   
   art   
   even now coming to me; but why hast Thou not first adorned my heart with   
   some   
   ornaments of devotion, with which I might be more suitably prepared to come   
   and   
   meet Thee?" But the Lord answered: "Know that sometimes I am more pleased   
   with   
   the virtue of humility than with exterior devotion"   
      
        A Religious, not being able to understand a passage of Holy Scripture,   
   fasted for seven weeks, and not understanding it then resolved to go to   
   another   
   monk and inquire about it. But scarcely had he gone out of his cell when   
   there   
   appeared to him an angel sent expressly from God, who said to him: "Thy fast   
   has   
   not rendered thee pleasing to God, but rather this humiliation of thine";   
   and   
   then he solved for him the doubt.   
      
        After Tais was converted, she held herself always so low in her own   
   eyes,   
   on account of her past evil life, that she did not dare to utter the holy   
   name   
   of God even in invoking Him, but only said, "My Creator, have mercy on me!"   
   And   
   by this humility, she arrived at such a sublime degree of perfection that   
   when   
   Paul the Simple saw a most beautiful place in Paradise, which he supposed to   
   be   
   intended for St. Anthony, he was informed that it would be occupied by Tais   
   within a fortnight.   
      
        St. Bonaventure said: "I know a thing to do which will please the Lord.   
   I   
   will consider myself as refuse, I will become intolerable to myself. And   
   when I   
   find myself shamed, degraded, trampled upon and loaded with insults by   
   others, I   
   will rejoice and exult, because of myself I cannot abuse or detest myself as   
   much as I ought. I will call in help from all creatures, desiring to be   
   confounded and punished by them all, because I have despised their Creator.   
   This   
   shall be my dearest treasure-to solicit insults and slights upon myself, to   
   love   
   above all others those who will help me in this, and to abhor all the   
   consolation and honors of the present life. If I do this, I believe it   
   certain   
   that the treasury of Divine Mercy will open above me, miserable and unworthy   
   as   
   I am'   
      
        St. Francis of Assisi considered himself not only a mere nothing, the   
   greatest sinner in the world, and deserving of Hell, but unworthy even that   
   God   
   should give him a thought. One day while he was speaking in this manner to   
   one   
   of his companions, the latter saw, in spirit, that there was prepared for   
   him in   
   Heaven a seat among the Seraphim.   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". February - Humility)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   A prayer to Mary, Holy Mother of God:   
      
   O Virgin, spotless, undefiled, unstained, all-chaste and pure   
   Lady, spouse of the Holy Ghost, who by the glorious birth-   
   giving hast united God the Word with Man and linked our fallen   
   nature with Heavenly Things; who art the hope of the hopeless,   
   the helper of the oppressed, the ready protection of those who   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)