From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   March 26th - Blessed Maddalena Caterina Morano (AC)   
      
   Born at Turin, Italy, 1847; died at Catania, Sicily, on March 26, 1908;   
   beatified November 5, 1994.   
      
   At the age of eight, Maddalena had to begin working to provide for her   
   family   
   after the death of her father and older sister. Nevertheless, she continued   
   her   
   studies to earn a teaching diploma. But her studies did not end with secular   
   subjects. Instead her exploration of Christian doctrine fanned the fire of   
   her   
   faith and instilled a desire for the religious life. Because family   
   obligations   
   barred immediate fulfillment of this desire, she taught at a school in rural   
   Montaldo while serving as a catechist at the local parish for 12 years. In   
   1878,   
   when she had accumulated enough savings to provide for her mother, Maddalena   
   joined the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, which had been founded six   
   years earlier by Saint John Bosco. In 1881, Don Bosco permitted her to be   
   sent   
   to Trecastagni (near Catania), Sicily, to head an institute for women, to   
   which   
   she gave a new orientation inspired by the principles of the Salesian   
   method.   
      
   Sicily became her second home, where she carried out a varied and fruitful   
   apostolate. She opened new houses, set up after-school activities and sewing   
   classes, trained teachers, etc. Her real love, though, was for catechism   
   class,   
   since she was convinced that the formation of Christian conscience was the   
   basis   
   of personal maturity and all social improvement. She coordinated   
   catechetical   
   instruction in 18 of Catania's churches and trained lay and religious   
   catechists   
   to bring the Christian message to needy boys and girls.   
      
   She spent 25 years in Sicily and served her community as local and   
   provincial   
   superior. She was an attentive mother and caring guide for many local   
   vocations,   
   faithfully living the charism of Mother Maria Mazzarello, co-foundress of   
   the   
   institute (EWTN).   
      
      
    Saint Quote:   
   God wanted to redeem men and open the way of salvation to those who seek   
   Him.   
   But men make themselves so unworthy of it that it is only just that God   
   should   
   refuse to some because of the hardness of heart what He gives to others from   
   a   
   compassion that they do not deserve. If He had wanted to overcome the   
   obstinacy   
   of the most hardened, He could have done so by revealing Himself to them so   
   obviously that they could not have doubted the truth of His Being - just as   
   He   
   will appear at the last day with such a clap of thunder and such an upheaval   
   of   
   nature that the dead will revive and the blindest will see. It is not in   
   this   
   way, however, that He willed to appear at His gentle coming: because so many   
   men   
   had made themselves unworthy of His mercy, He willed to leave them deprived   
   of   
   the good which they did not desire. And so it would not have been fair for   
   Him   
   to have appeared in an obviously divine manner, absolutely capable of   
   convincing   
   all men. But also it would not have been fair for Him to appear in a manner   
   so   
   hidden that even those who were sincerely seeking Him should not be able to   
   recognize Him... So He has tempered His knowledge, by giving marks of   
   Himself   
   which were visible to those who seek Him, and not to those who seek Him not.   
   -Blaise Pascal, Pensées   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Now those men, when they had seen what a miracle Jesus had done, said: This   
   is   
   of a truth the prophet, that is to come into the world.  (John 6:14)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   The third glorious mystery prayer of the Eucharistic Rosary,   
   to be offered before the Blessed Sacrament:   
      
   The Decent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, offered for   
   the gifts of the Holy Ghost, for love of God and zeal for the   
   salvation of souls:   
      
   O Jesus, scarcely hadst Thou entered into Thy glory at the   
   right hand of the Father, when Thou didst show Thy   
   munificence by sending forth the Holy Ghost with His many   
   and various gifts to Thy growing Church.  From the   
   Eucharist, as if from another heaven, wherein Thou hast set   
   up Thy throne of love, Thou dost impart to souls the spirit of   
   life and strength, and Thou dost enkindle in them the fire of   
   Thy divine charity.   
      
   O Jesus, King in heaven, King also in the Eucharist, we adore   
   Thee and we beg of Thee, through the intercession of Thy   
   holy Mother, fidelity to grace in order to reap all the fruits   
   produced in the souls of men by the gifts of the Holy Ghost.   
      
   Imprimatur:  + John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York,   
   Sept 19, 1908.   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer of Leon Dupont   
      
            O Adorable Face of my Jesus, so mercifully inclined toward us on   
   the   
   tree of the cross on the day of your passion offered for the salvation of   
   mankind; as then, even now, mercifully incline toward us poor sinners; cast   
   a   
   glance of compassion upon us and embrace us in your kiss of peace.   
            Ah! That I may expire from the ardent desire to behold the most   
   desirable of face of our Lord Jesus Christ.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)