From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   November 13th - St. Stanislaus Kostka, Jesuit, Patron of Youth   
      
   (1550-1568)   
      
   Saint Stanislaus Kostka was born in Poland in 1550, of a noble Polish   
   family. At   
   the age of fourteen he was sent with his older brother Paul to study at the   
   Jesuit College in Vienna. Twice a day he would pray at length in the chapel   
   and   
   he never failed to recite a crown of the Rosary. He avoided the company of   
   students too free in their speech and behavior, and often fasted and   
   inflicted   
   on himself a rude discipline. His love for God did not cease to augment with   
   these practices, and he decided to make a vow to enter the Company of Jesus.   
   He   
   told his confessor of it only six months later, as he wanted it to remain   
   unknown until he would be in a position to carry it out.   
      
   He fell ill, and the demon appeared in his room under the form of a black   
   dog   
   which lunged at his throat. The young Saint drove him away with the sign of   
   the   
   Cross; but his illness was growing worse. He was lodged in the residence of   
   a   
   Protestant who would not permit the Blessed Sacrament to be brought to him.   
   Saint Stanislaus remembered having read that those who invoked Saint Barbara   
   never died without the Sacraments, and he begged that she would assist him   
   in   
   his danger and not permit that he die without the Viaticum. His prayer was   
   answered; one night, when his life was despaired of, he saw this beautiful   
   virgin-martyr, accompanied by two Angels, enter his room with the Blessed   
   Sacrament. He was greatly consoled by this favor and another which   
   immediately   
   followed it; the Blessed Virgin also appeared and assured him that God   
   wanted   
   him to enter the Jesuit Society. Soon he felt better and was restored to   
   complete health.   
      
   He was still too young to enter the Order in Vienna without his parents'   
   permission; he therefore determined to go to another province where it might   
   be   
   possible. Stanislaus had always been gentle and cheerful, and his sanctity   
   was   
   felt as a reproach by his brother Paul, who had been surveying him   
   constantly   
   and often spoke rudely to him, even going so far as to strike him.   
   Stanislaus   
   nonetheless succeeded in evading him when he left for Augsbourg, dressed as   
   a   
   beggar, to go to Father Peter Canisius, Provincial of Upper Germany, with   
   letters of recommendation he had received from a Father of the Company. His   
   brother, when he realized he had left, pursued him, but even though   
   Stanislaus   
   was on foot, passed him by without recognizing him. A little farther on,   
   Paul's   
   horses refused to advance and he was obliged to return to Vienna.   
      
   Saint Peter sent Stanislaus to Rome, a very long distance in those days,   
   over a   
   rugged and dangerous road, where rocks, mountains and rivers made the   
   journey   
   very difficult. Saint Francis of Borgia received him in Rome as a treasure   
   sent   
   by God, and he was clothed in the Jesuit habit in October 1567. His father   
   was   
   very irritated, but the son answered his letters with modesty and firmness,   
   and   
   continued to apply himself to every practice that might lead him closer to   
   God   
   and religious perfection. In ten months it is said that he advanced more   
   than   
   many do over a period of fifty or sixty years. During those ten short months   
   he   
   always had Our Lady in his mind, in his heart and on his lips. A custom was   
   introduced for the novices during his sojourn in Rome; they would turn   
   toward   
   Her church of Saint Mary Major and ask, kneeling, for Her benediction; this   
   practice has been conserved in the Roman novitiate ever since that time.   
      
   The fervent novice ardently desired to be in heaven on the feast of Her   
   Assumption; he fell ill of a fever on the 9th of August, and it was revealed   
   to   
   him that his desire would be fulfilled. In effect, his holy soul departed to   
   rejoin His Heavenly Mother, when She came to claim him at a little after 3   
   o'clock on the morning of the 15th of August 1568. He was eighteen years   
   old. We   
   often see him with the Infant Jesus in his arms, because when Our Lady came   
   to   
   cure him in Vienna with Her Divine Treasure in Her arms, She had placed the   
   Infant Saviour on his bed. Many illnesses were cured at his tomb, and his   
   body   
   was found incorrupt three years after his death. He was soon considered as a   
   Saint in Italy and Poland; in 1604 he was declared Blessed and was canonized   
   in   
   1726. Paul Kostka wept for long years over his mistreatment of his younger   
   brother, and was about to enter the Society of Jesus himself in 1607, when   
   he   
   died suddenly on November 13th, anniversary of the discovery of the   
   incorrupt   
   remains of Saint Stanislaus.   
      
   Reflection: Saint Stanislaus teaches us in every trial of life, and above   
   all at   
   the hour of death, to have recourse to Our Lady and our patron Saint, and to   
   trust without fear in their aid.   
      
   Sources: Petite vie illustrée de Saint Stanislas Kostka (Éditions F.   
   Paillart:   
   Abbéville, 1925); Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul   
   Guérin   
   (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 13.   
      
      
   Saint Quote :   
   Our Redeemer, ever present in the most Blessed Sacrament, extends His hand   
   to   
   everyone. He opens His heart and says, 'Come to Me, all of You.'"   
   -Saint Raphael Kalinowski   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to   
   escape   
   all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of   
   man.   
   (Luke 21:36)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   THIRTY-ONE DAYS OF PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SOULS   
   FROM THE PURGATORIAN MANUAL   
    (Imprimatur 1946)   
      
      
   Third Day   
      
   DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY   
      
        The destiny awaiting us at death is not the same for all men: "He will   
   render to every man according to his works." (Matt. xvi. 27.) Heaven, Hell,   
   and   
   Purgatory are the three places into which the souls of the departed are   
   received. Heaven is the happy destination of perfectly pure and holy souls   
   only;   
   Hell the final doom of the reprobate; Purgatory, temporarily for the just,   
   who   
   are not as yet entirely purified. There God completes the punishment due to   
   their faults, which were not sufficiently atoned for on earth; there He   
   submits   
   these holy souls to the last purgation, to cleanse them from the least   
   stain,   
   and, by fire, to bring them to that degree of perfected purity, which is   
   necessary for them before being admitted to eternal bliss.   
      
   Hence there are two classes of souls in Purgatory:   
      
     1. Those who depart this life, stained by venial sins and imperfections.   
      
     2. Those who have repented sincerely 'of their mortal sins and confessed   
   them,   
   if possible, without having done sufficient penance for them. Judging from   
   our   
   lives, experience teaches us that most men deserve Purgatory for both   
   causes.   
      
   Prayer: Graciously hear, O God, the fervent prayers we offer Thee for the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)