From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   March 20th - Blessed Maurice Csaky, OP (PC)   
   (Also known as Blessed Maurice of Hungary)   
      
   Died 1336. Maurice, Prince of Hungary, was persecuted by his father-in-law   
   for   
   his desire to remain in the Dominican Order. He was born into the royal   
   house of   
   Hungary. There had been many heavenly signs before his birth that he was to   
   be   
   an unusual favorite of God, but for the first few years of his life he was   
   so   
   sickly that no one believed he would survive. By the time he was five, he   
   was a   
   delicate, dreamy child who played at saying Mass and leading family prayers.   
   The   
   little chapel in his father's castle was his favorite haunt, and he was   
   always   
   to be found there between sessions in the schoolroom.   
   When he was still quite small, an old Dominican came one day to visit his   
   parents, and took a great fancy to the handsome little boy. He told the   
   child   
   the story of Saint Alexis, which greatly impressed him. When Maurice knelt   
   to   
   ask the old priest's blessing, the Dominican said prophetically, "This child   
   will one day enter our holy Order and will be one of its joys."   
      
   In spite of the several indications that God had designs on Maurice,   
   circumstances conspired against him. His parents died when he was still   
   quite   
   young, leaving him immensely wealthy and solely in charge of his father's   
   estates. A brother, who had entered the Dominican novitiate, died very   
   young.   
   Relatives prevailed upon Maurice to marry. Against all his wishes, he did   
   so.   
      
   However, he and his young wife, the daughter of the Count of Palatine, made   
   a   
   vow of continence, and both resolved to became Dominicans as soon as it was   
   possible to dispose of the estates. When his wife fled to the Isle of   
   Margaret   
   in the Danube, and took the veil in Saint Margaret's convent, her father was   
   furious. He went in search of the young husband and found that he, too, had   
   gone   
   to the Dominicans. He settled the matter in the forthright fashion of the   
   times   
   by kidnapping Maurice and locking him in a tower. Here, like another Thomas   
   Aquinas, the young novice settled down to wait until someone tired of the   
   arrangement.   
      
   After three months of unfruitful punishment, Maurice was released as   
   incorrigible, and his relatives devoted their attention to getting hold of   
   his   
   estates instead. He went happily off to Bologna to complete his studies,   
   where   
   he remained for three years.   
      
   For 32 years, Maurice ignored the throne and the luxuries of the world to   
   live   
   in obscurity and poverty. The picture of him left us by the chroniclers is   
   an   
   engaging one: an earnest, pious priest who made no effort to capitalize on   
   his   
   birth or social graces; a zealous addict of poverty, who managed, by a   
   series of   
   sagacious trades, to have the oldest habit in the house and the dreariest   
   cell.   
   He is said to have said the whole Psalter daily, plus the Penitential   
   Psalms,   
   and the Litany of the Saints.   
      
   A number of curious stories are told about him. Once, when he was staying   
   with a   
   Benedictine friend, the friend noticed that he went in and out of locked   
   doors   
   with no trouble at all, and that the rooms lighted up by themselves when he   
   entered. Maurice is supposed to have had the gift of prophecy. A relative of   
   his   
   had cheated the sisters out of some property that Maurice had left them.   
   Maurice   
   told him that the goods would be taken away from him, and that another man,   
   more   
   generous, would give it back to the sisters. The man died shortly   
   thereafter,   
   and the prophecy was fulfilled.   
      
   After Maurice's death at least two miracles of healing were reported at his   
   grave: one was a cure from fever, another from blindness. Butler's Lives of   
   the   
   Saints lists him as "Blessed Maurice" and he is still venerated in Hungary,   
   although his cultus has never been formally approved (Attwater2,   
   Benedictines,   
   Dorcy).   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   "Every time that one sees himself urged on, with vehemence of affection, to   
   any   
   particular work, even though it be holy and important, he ought to put it   
   off to   
   another occasion, and not take it up again until his heart has recovered   
   perfect   
   tranquillity and indifference. This should be done to prevent self-love from   
   sullying the purity of our intention"   
    -St Vincent de Paul   
      
   St. Francis de Sales once stopped in the course of a journey to visit St.   
   Jane   
   Frances de Chantal, who had been eagerly expecting him, that she might   
   confer   
   with him about her own spiritual interests. She was the more desirous of   
   doing   
   this, because she had enjoyed no such opportunity for three years and a   
   half, on   
   account of the numerous occupations in which he was engaged. When they met,   
   the   
   holy prelate said: "We have a few hours free, Mother; which of us two shall   
   be   
   the first to speak?" "Myself" she answered, with some haste, "for certainly   
   my   
   soul greatly needs to pass under your eye." At this, the Saint, wishing to   
   correct the anxiety she showed about speaking to him, with serious but   
   gentle   
   gravity rejoined: "Do you then still nourish desires, Mother? Have you yet a   
   choice? I expected to find everything angelic. We will then put off speaking   
   of   
   you until we meet next, and for the present talk about the affairs of our   
   Congregation" The good and holy Mother, without a word of objection, laid   
   aside   
   all that related to herself, though she was holding in her hands a list of   
   things she had wished to speak of; and for four successive hours they   
   discussed   
   the interests of the Institute, and then parted.   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints".  March - Mortification)   
      
   Bible Quote   
   10. Jesus answered, and said to her: If thou didst know the gift of God, and   
   who   
   he is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou perhaps wouldst have asked   
   of   
   him, and he would have given thee living water. (John 4:10)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The second sorrowful mystery prayer of the Eucharistic   
   Rosary, to be offered before the Blessed Sacrament:   
      
   The Scourging of our Lord at the pillar, offered for penitence   
   and mortification:   
      
   O good Jesus! scourged and covered with wounds, the sins   
   committed by men against the  holy virtue of purity thus   
   torture Thy innocent flesh; and in  the Blessed Sacrament   
   impure hearts insult Thee by their sacrilegious  communions.   
      
   O Thou bloody Victim, scourged at the pillar, patient Victim   
   abused in the Sacrament, we adore Thee and we beg of Thee,   
   through the intercession of Thy holy Mother the grace of   
   mortifying our senses.   
      
   Imprimatur:  + John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York,   
   Sept 19, 1908.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)