From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   November 28th - Saint Catherine Labouré, Virgin, Visionary   
      
   (1806-1876)   
      
   Saint Catherine Zoé Labouré was born in a small village of France in 1806,   
   the daughter of a well-to-do farmer who had at one time wanted to become a   
   priest, and his very Christian wife. Catherine, the ninth of the eleven   
   living children, lost her mother when she was only nine years old and had to   
   abandon school to go to live with an aunt, accompanied by her younger   
   sister. Two years later she was recalled to take charge of the household,   
   because the older children had all left, one to become a Sister of Saint   
   Vincent de Paul, the others to marry or seek a living elsewhere.   
      
   She made a vow of virginity when still very young, desiring to imitate the   
   Holy Virgin, to whom she had confided herself when her mother died. She   
   longed to see Her, and she prayed, in her simplicity, for that grace. She   
   spent as many hours as possible in the Chapel of the Virgin in the village   
   church, without, however, neglecting the work of the household. She talked   
   to Our Lady as to a veritable mother, and indeed the Mother of Christ and   
   ours would prove Herself to be such. Catherine wished to become a nun,   
   without having opted for any particular community; but one day she saw a   
   venerable priest in a dream, saying Mass in her little village church. He   
   turned to her afterwards and made a sign for her to come forward, but in her   
   dream she retreated, walking backwards, unable to take her gaze from his   
   face. He said to her: "Now you flee me, but later you will be happy to come   
   to me; God has plans for you." The dream was realized and, as a postulant in   
   the Community of Saint Vincent de Paul, she assisted at the translation of   
   his relics to a nearby church of Paris. She had indeed recognized his   
   picture one day in one of the convents of the Sisters of Charity, and   
   obtained her father's consent to enter that Congregation when her younger   
   sister was old enough to replace her at home.   
      
   Catherine's interior life was alimented by the visions she frequently had of   
   Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, where once she saw Him as Christ the King.   
   And the designs of God for this humble novice began to be fulfilled, after   
   Our Lady appeared to her in July of 1830, and confided to her the mission of   
   having a Medal struck according to the living picture she saw one night,   
   when a little Angel led her to the convent Chapel, and there she knelt at   
   the Virgin's feet to hear the words which would be the motivating force of   
   her forty-six years of religious life.   
      
   Once more - insofar as we know - she would see the Blessed Mother, on   
   November 27th of the same year, when one afternoon while at prayer with her   
   Sisters, she beheld Her to one side of the chapel, Her feet poised on a   
   globe, on which was prostrate a greenish serpent; the hands of the Virgin   
   were holding a golden globe at the level of the heart, "as though offering   
   it to God," said Catherine later, in an attitude of supplication, Her eyes   
   sometimes raised to heaven, sometimes looking down at the earth, and Her   
   lips murmuring a prayer "for the entire world." The face of the Virgin was   
   of incomparable, indescribable beauty, with a pleading expression which   
   plunged the Sister into ravishment, while she listened to Her prayers. The   
   Immaculate Virgin, after having offered to God Her Compassion with the   
   suffering Christ, prayed for all men and for each one in particular; she   
   prayed for this poor world, that God might take pity on its ignorance, its   
   weakness and faults, and that by pardoning He would hold back the arm of   
   Divine Justice, raised to strike. She prayed the Lord to give peace to the   
   universe.   
      
   For many years Catherine kept her secrets from all save her confessor,   
   Father Aladel, priest of the Mission of Saint Vincent, who, wanting to be   
   able to continue with his penitent, saw to it that she was not sent far from   
   Paris, after he had fulfilled the first mission of having the Medal struck.   
   He died, however, before having the statue made according to this second   
   vision, as Our Lady desired. Catherine suffered much from her inability to   
   accomplish the second part of her mission. When she finally confided this   
   second desire of Our Lady to her Sister Superior, a statue of Our Lady,   
   Queen of the World and Mediatrix of all Graces, was made for two Chapels of   
   the nuns.   
      
   Saint Catherine died in 1876, after spending her life in the domestic and   
   agricultural duties associated with the kitchen and garden, and in general   
   caring for the elderly of the Hospice of Enghien at Reuilly, only about   
   three miles southeast of Paris. Among her writings recounting the   
   apparitions, we read: "Oh, how beautiful it will be to hear it said: Mary is   
   Queen of the universe. That will be a time of peace, joy and happiness which   
   will be long... She will be borne like a banner and will make a tour of the   
   world." The Virgin foretold that this time would come only after "the entire   
   world will be in sadness... Afterwards, peace."   
      
   Sources: La Sainte du silence et la Vierge au globe, by G. Gaetano di Sales   
   (Centre Marial Canadien: Nicolet, 1951); Vie de Catherine Labouré, by Rev.   
   R. Laurentin (Desclée de Brouwer: Paris, 1980).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   How can a man say he believes in Christ if he doesn't do what Christ   
   commanded   
   him to do?   
   -St. Cyprian of Carthage   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   If anyone does not restrain his tongue, that man's religion is vain.  (James   
   1:26)   
      
      
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   PRAYER.   
      
   My beloved Patroness, St. Anne, the Apostle has warned me that the world is   
   but a stage on which every one appears for a moment to play a more or less   
   brilliant part, and then vanishes for ever; and he thence concludes that   
   those who use this world should be as if they used it not. What folly then   
   to attach oneself to things which are not only transitory, but which, by   
   their seductions, can imperil our real interests, those which will not pass   
   away! But I stand in need of grace to enable me to resist the pernicious   
   influence of the maxims, customs and examples of this perverse world! It is   
   by thy intercession and that of thy blessed spouse St. Joachim that I hope   
   to obtain this grace. Do thou and he vouchsafe to watch over me for the   
   glory of JESUS and Mary.   
      
   Good St. Anne, pray for me, that I may obtain the grace of triumphing over   
   human respect.   
      
   PRACTICE.   
      
   Using the above consideration, examine your conscience on your relationship   
   with God and the world.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)