From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   September 19th - St. Émilie de Rodat   
      
   Marie Guillemette Émilie de Rodat was born September 6, 1787 at Druelle, Rodez,   
   France. She was the daughter of a well-to-do family and at the age of 18   
   months,   
   she was taken to live with her maternal grandmother Madame de Pomayrols, at   
   Château Ginals. During her time there, the French Revolution broke out, but the   
   Château, which was in a very remote area, did not suffer seriously.   
      
   Émilie grew up a pious young woman, but not without the usual difficulties. She   
   tended to be a bit willful and an occasional childhood temper tantrum was not   
   unheard of. A story is told of a young cousin trying to kiss her and she   
   promptly slapped his face. As she grew into her teens, her devotion cooled and   
   she became immersed in social activities. She would recite her prayers as   
   quickly as possible. She also sought to change confessors because she felt that   
   her's was just too strict.   
      
   After the Revolution, Madame de Pomayrols retired to Villefranche and Émilie   
   returned to Ginals. She found her life more austere and monotonous and   
   experienced a profound spiritual awakening. In 1804 she moved back to   
   Villefranche and worked with the sisters at Maison Saint-Cyr where she had gone   
   to school. She subsequently entered three different religious communities, but   
   didn't find her vocation until she and some companions opened a school for the   
   poor children of Villefranche in 1815.   
      
   Abbé Marty, the spiritual director of Maison Saint-Cyr, encouraged and helped   
   Émilie. He wrote a rule modeled on that of St. Augustine and helped her to   
   expand the focus of this new community, known as the Sisters of the Holy Family   
   of Villefranche. The sisters made their first perpetual professions in 1820 and   
   were formally approved by the bishop of Rodez in 1832.   
      
   Against insurmountable odds Émilie made foundations wherever help was sought.   
   She had great faith in God's providential care and money and materials seemed   
   to   
   miraculously appear when needed. She suffered from spiritual dryness   
   occasionally, but her faith in God helped her to remain cheerful and optimistic   
   no matter what difficulty presented itself. Even in the face of ridicule and   
   criticism, she maintained a gentle and compassionate spirit. The community   
   flourished rapidly and by 1852 there were 32 convents which ran schools, as   
   well   
   as 5 contemplative communities. The sisters also set up orphanages and did   
   extensive work with the poor.   
      
   Afflicted with cancer she died at the age of 65 on September 19, 1852. She was   
   canonized in 1950. Émilie is a great example to us of perseverance and trust in   
   God. She experienced and sometimes gave in to the same temptations we all do as   
   we grow up. Her adult life was filled with uncertainties, disappointments,   
   rejections and seeming inadequacies. But, Émilie continued to trust in God's   
   love and care for her and she was able to be His instrument of blessing to so   
   many of His people.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "Of how much greater faith and salutary fear are they who . . .   
   confess their sins to the priests of God in a straightforward manner   
   and in sorrow, making an open declaration of conscience. . . . I   
   beseech you, brethren, let everyone who has sinned confess his sin   
   while he is still in this world, while his confession is still   
   admissible, while the satisfaction and remission made through the   
   priests are still pleasing before the Lord" (ibid., 28).   
   -St Cyprian of Carthage.   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Thus saith the Lord: Stand ye on the ways, and see.  And ask for the old paths,   
   which is the good way, and walk ye in it, and you shall find refreshment for   
   your souls.  Jeremias 6:16   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   An Act of Contrition   
      
   Almighty and most merciful God, Thou hast long borne with me in my sins, and   
   Thou hast long and often invited and pressed me to return to Thee once more.   
   Behold, therefore, such is now my sincere desire. I now earnestly wish to quit   
   the husks of swine and to return home to the house of my Father, in the full   
   hope of obtaining pardon from Thy mercy. I desire to come now before Thee, my   
   God, with a contrite heart and to make at Thy feet a sincere acknowledgment of   
   all my sins and offenses. Wherefore, prostrating myself humbly before Thee, I   
   here confess the greatness of my ingratitude to Thee and the multitude of my   
   crimes, and I earnestly implore Thy pardon. I am indeed the prodigal child who   
   has long gone astray from Thee, squandering away my substance and seeking, but   
   seeking in vain, to satisfy my appetite with empty satisfactions. Being now,   
   however, made aware of my own misery and weary of my evil ways, I anxiously   
   wish   
   to return again to Thee. I confess myself unworthy to be called Thy child, and   
   what I now crave of Thy mercy is Thy forgiveness. I am afraid even to lift up   
   my   
   eyes toward Thee, and much less to ask a place, although it were the lowest in   
   Thy family. I feel myself loaded and oppressed with the weight of my disorders,   
   which I now detest from the bottom of my heart. Do Thou then, O Father of   
   Mercies, have pity and compassion on me. Look not upon my sins, but upon the   
   sufferings and the merits of my Redeemer. Look upon Him and upon all that He   
   has   
   done and endured for my salvation. Oh mercy, mercy, by those tears which He   
   shed   
   for me in Gethsemane and by that Blood which He spilled for me upon the Cross,   
   I   
   here lay down all my sins to be washed away by this sacred stream! Yes, my God,   
   I am sincerely sorry for all my past negligences and offenses. I wish that,   
   like   
   the Magdalen, I could wash the feet of my Saviour with penitential tears. I   
   wish   
   I could wash away my sins, although it were even with the tears of blood. In   
   Thy   
   mercy, however, forgive me. Cleanse my soul from all its stains, and let   
   nothing   
   henceforth---no temptation nor fraud of the enemy---so far prevail over me as   
   to   
   be able ever to separate me from Thy love, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)